RootsCamp: Imagine All the Blogs...Living In Harmony

My favorite, albeit most frustrating, discussion came when all of the bloggers assembled for a roundtable regarding fundraising, coordination, and other concerns. In attendance were Jeff Coreyell, George, Jill, Eric, Pho (I think, sorry Pho, I can’t remember for sure) and a few readers (who may wish to remain anonymous). It’s important for me to state right outta the gate that my opinion on these matters is not necessarily reflective of other Ohio bloggers’ opinions. To give perspective where my views come from, it’s important to know that I blogged from October 2005 to February 1, 2006 at the now defunct LivefromDayton, afterwards worked on a congressional campaign from February through August, and then resumed periodically blogging at Plunderbund and BSB until I took over the show here in Decemeber.

Content is what drives site traffic; Russell’s ability to churn out a high level of biting and intelligent content is what made BSB the premiere Ohio political blog during the 2006 campaign. He didn’t post just one well researched article a day, he’d get six, eight, ten posts up throughout a 24 hour period - some in depth, some brief - which resulted in thousands of readers compulsively hitting the “refresh” button throughout the day (I’ve been telling staff, he needs to be prepared for the carpal tunnel suits). Hell, I’ve heard stories of both staffers and politicians that would leave BSB on their desktops from the point they got in the office till the minute they went home, incessantly waiting for more news. The point here is that it takes a lot of work to get that level of content online – especially when you enter a slow news period (like an off year election – say 2007). And as we’ve seen with the case at hand, having just one person churn out content at ludicrously high levels results in burnout…bloggers have jobs, families, and personal lives of their own that all suffer at the pursuit of content. Often talent leaves the blogosphere either for paying jobs in the same line (case in point see Vessels, Russell, me, or Pho. Heck, why play in the amateurs when the Yankees are offering $30 mil) or because they just get so frazzled (also known as the Baker example). Attrition in the Ohio blogosphere is particularly high.

Our discussion on Saturday centered around maintaining a vibrant blogosphere with some form of institutional memory. Inevitably, many Ohio bloggers believe that to sustain the Ohio blogosphere we need to cultivate some type of structured funding. If not to allow bloggers to subsist off of their blogging, funding is essential simply to help bloggers recoup costs. For example, George has created one of the coolest projects in the national blogosphere, period – Meet the bloggers. However, the sheer cost of programs like this are impediments to success (MTB costs involve nearly $100 per transcript per session, equipment that runs high, travel throughout the state, and hosting…among other things. I’m sure George would love to talk about all of this if anyone were interested. It’s an issue that’s forced him into searching for funding earlier than most other Ohio bloggers. Forgive me if I’ve misstated anything here George).

A blogger from Minnesota discussed with us the funding system that progressives have implemented elsewhere, such as the Minnesota Monitor, a site very similar to As Ohio Goes or Buckeye State Blog. He mentioned that independent interests in the past have funded stipends for several bloggers (rather high stipends at that – the number thrown out $4500 for around 6 months) to meet content deadlines for a communal site. In my opinion, the Ohio Democratic blogosphere needs funding not to sustain it’s current bloggers, but rather to recruit new posters so that the ‘sphere isn’t stretched as thin as it is now with outrageous content demands. I’d guess that we have a little over 10-20 Dem bloggers at this venture churning out semi-regular content. If that number were doubled, imagine what we could accomplish. Pairing bloggers to State Representatives and Senators; having blogs watch county parties and sound the alarm for local level structural reforms, and creating a true policy focus with specialists legitimately focussing on what’s coming out of the Governor, SoS, AG, Treasurer, or Auditor. However, right now there’s such a scramble to cover the basics and generate content that there isn’t enough man (or woman) power throughout the sphere to really even attempt to dig into what we could.

In my opinion (which once again, is not reflective of the rest of the ‘sphere) the cheapest and most effective way to recruit bloggers, generate coverage, and improve quality is through vigorously recruiting younger talent to the ‘sphere. I believe the most cost-efficient way to do all of this is through low monetary stipeds geared to college students through a centralized source that could create basic standards and requirements to qualify for a stipend. For example, imagine if the sphere had as little as $5,000 for one year to recruit talent. If one group were running all of this you could have a central coordinator who could get together with all of these kids at the beginning of the year, set them up with shared webspace, help them create and personalize a wordpress account, and train them with lexis, FEC, property taxes, and Gongwer research skills (heck, most schools provide free access to these resources to students - a centralized source might not even need to pay for that). College students would compete (hell, I would’ve died for an opportunity like this when I was in school) to get a legitimate job paying as little as $300 or $400 a semester covering Ohio politics that provides them with contacts and the opportunity for political involvement after graduation, all you’d have to do is tell them stories of Baker on the 2nd, the Foley/Earl Martin state house races, or the opportunity to obtain press credentials at the Governor’s Inaugural. With $5k you could hire 8 or 9 bloggers for the duration of a year, requiring them to post 4-5 times a day. Spread the students throughout Ohio (University of Cincinnati, Miami, Ohio University, The Ohio State University, Bowling Green, Case Western, Cleveland State) and you could ensure first hand coverage at events throughout the state. This could relieve pressure on more established bloggers to generate high levels of content; Ohio could have more long-term, investigative high quality projects in place. Also, after the stipends run out at the conclusion of the year you’re bound to have hooked 1 or 2 of those students on blogging, and you’d see an expansion of the Ohio ‘sphere. Ultimately, we’re talking about grooming legions of sharp, critical thinking, progressive voices to take on the Ohio and national Republican status quo at relatively low costs.

Also, I’d like to see funding for the Ohio sphere for shared resources. Personally, I have access to a lot of high end sources such as Gongwer (runs close to $3,000 a year), the National Journal (runs close to $600 a year), LexisNexis (costs THOUSANDS), and other special databases…but not all bloggers are as lucky. In an ideal world, the Ohio blogosphere could fund itself to the level where all progressive bloggers have access to the resources that will enable them to do high-level qualitative reporting.

Like I said, these are just my thoughts, and lot of other ideas were thrown out Saturday. Unfortunately we didn’t get to a position where a clear plan of action materialized, but if anything, I think all of us recognized that some type of funding is important for the ‘sphere. That said, I don’t think anything will come of it without Ohio bloggers working together for the goal with a structured plan of attack. Eric Vessels suggested a “blog camp” later in the year that would give us the opportunity to continue our discussions, and possibly train new talent. I for one sincerely hope that Eric and others will work to carry this out. And if they do follow through on it, they can mark me down to help.