Change Here, Too

To say that Republicans and Conservatives are fumbling practically everything probably isn't an exaggeration.

Months ago, I attended a conference put on by Americans for Prosperity.  It was to counter the NetRoots conference that was taking place across town, and was supposed to stoke us up and help us become more savvy about using the internet to get our message out.  There were social networking workshops, blogging basics, blogging advanced workshops, etc. 

I gave it a C+.  The organizers really seemed to miss the point about a lot of this stuff.  And recruiting a bunch of twenty-somethings to teach a bunch of middle-aged folks about blogging?  Please.

The conference did spur me to action, though.  These were some of the results:

• I joined facebook.  I am Jonah Goldberg's friend.  He's one of 10 of mine.  I'm one of like, 6,000 of his, but that's ok.  I was his 43rd friend.
• I met some other bloggers.  One of the ones I didn't meet called a meeting of all other Austin bloggers that was passed to me by someone who was invited.  I went.  I gave out my email and my url.  All attendees were invited by the host and the author of another blog to contribute to their blogs, which was great because both are big and relatively dynamic.  Since then, I've had friendly contact with blog #2 (UrbanGrounds) but none at all with The Travis Monitor, whose principle author extended the invitation to contribute.  I've emailed, I've submitted, and no answer.
• Also, as a matter of simple organization, every person at that meeting (that was supposed to be a recurring event, but has never repeated), should have listed everyone else on their blog roll.  Some did, a bunch didn't.  I did as many as I could find, but I admit, in the past, I've been less than dilligent on that score.

So, as of today, you'll start seeing some changes at this blog.  I will have other authors and more links and I will be gracious in extending a hand.  That's one thing that the Liberals do very well and Conservatives do very, very poorly: help the little guy on the internet.

Comments

[defender]

Do you have any tips on joining Facebook? How much information is too much? What is a good balance between being open with identifying info vs. concern about security and potential mis-use of info?

[bbmoe]

The way young people use it, it seems very risky. Too many of them collect "friends" like beanie babies. But no one can see your info unless they are your "friend." and no one can see your notes, links, etc. unless they are your "friend."

One problem: if you comment on other people's facebook pages, you don't know who they have as friends. If you don't want everyone knowing you associations or opinions, keep off other people's pages. Unless they are super screened, like mine. As I say in my profile under "Politics": if you have to ask, you aren't my friend. For most mature people, this isn't really a problem.

[Eliza]

I really wish you would have just asked me if you needed any help at all with getting in touch with bloggers etc. I have a whole excel sheet of conservative bloggers in Texas and some of their contact information.

Feel free to contact me if you are interesting in this information.

Also, AFP is in the midst of organizing a RightOnline Texas. What other bloggers have done on their own is great; but please don't blame any faults on AFP because it isn't something we've directly coordinated.

If you would like to be involved in the direction that is taken with organizational process. Please feel free to contact me. I would love to hear your suggestions.