Celebrity (Politician) Sightings in Boston

The vice presidential candidate at a North Carolina delegates breakfast. “We always say this is the most important election in our lifetime,” Edwards said. “In this case, it happens to be true.”



Virginia Gov. Mark Warner after the Democratic Leadership Council event. "It is remarkable in my mind, that in the last three and a half years we have gone from a $236 billion surplus to the largest national deficit in our nation’s history," he said. "Can anyone imagine if that were the record of a Democratic president?"

Blogging an NJ Blog Promoting Web Story About Blogging

Here, National Journal's blog promotes my story about the mini-flap over blogging at the Democratic National Convention.

July 29, 2004
Bloggers' Very Own Media Flap
Posted by The Editors 10:04 AM

It didn't take long for the credentialed convention bloggers to have their own mini-media dustup. Today's Technology Daily reports on blogger Matt Stoller's severed relationship with the DNCC in the wake of his Barak Obama posting.

Louis Libin, Much-Quoted Frequency Cop

Two stories today on how frequencies are coordinated at the Democratic National Convention: Mine, about Louis Libin, The 'Frequency Cop' Is on Patrol. And also The New York Times has a slightly broader piece, Wiring the Convention Version 2004, which extensively features Libin.

Democratic Blogger Canned Over Criticism

I had gotten two calls on my story, Democratic Blogger Canned Over Criticism, before I had ever seen the online posting. Touched a nerve there.

Too Busy to Blog

The last 48 hours have been non-stop reporting, writing, observing, interviewing, and partying -- and not enough eating and sleeping -- that I haven't had time to blog until now. The once chance I had was sitting in the press stands yesterday during the speeches of Sen. Edward Kennedy and former Gov. Howard Dean. And at that time, the convention center's WiFi system was on the fritz.

My big story for the day is about the lobbying and partying rivalry between Nextel and Verizon.

BOSTON -- One of the highest-stakes lobbying games in Washington pits Nextel Communications against Verizon Communications in a battle over which firm should get a multibillion-dollar parcel of cellular frequencies, and the companies have taken that battle to the Democratic National Convention here. 

...

Nextel, the sixth-place cellular carrier, appears to be winning. On Tuesday, the company reaped a bonanza of goodwill from legislators, and from police and fire officials, with the inauguration of an annual award for contributions to public-safety communications.

WiFi for Bloggers, Not for Delegates

Yes, WiFi will be available to bloggers -- but will it be available to delegate-bloggers? My story from today's Technology Daily lays out the details:

BOSTON -- Democratic National Convention delegates with laptop computers who are seeking to tap into the high-speed wireless Internet may not be able to get online, Democratic National Committee officials said. Wi-Fi wireless access is available in certain areas of the convention hall but cannot be guaranteed.

"The wireless network will be available from the seventh-floor blogger area but will not be available throughout the FleetCenter," Mike Lidell, director of online communications for the DNC, said of the online diarists who will be writing Web logs, or blogs.

Also, a fully explanation of what Howard Dean said at the blogger breakfast is available from this story in Technology Daily.

Howard Dean's Blogger Surprise

Blogging seems the most appropriate way with which to comment on Howard Dean’s surprise appearance at a Monday morning breakfast of … bloggers. The former Vermont governor, who received two standing ovations from at least two dozen DNC-credentialed blogggers, took partial credit for igniting the current attention to political blogs with his campaign’s Dean for America Web site. All campaigns – John Kerry’s, George Bush’s – have launched blogs of their own. But “what blogs are doing is not just communicating, it is about creating a community; that is the one thing we did in the Dean campaign that has not been copied by any of the other campaigns.” He also said that the talk-back nature of the medium would, over the next 25 years, threaten threat to the mainstream media. Who? “The Rupert Murdochs, CNNs, NBCs and the New York Timeses of the world. Because they are out of business.”

Howard Dean striding to the podium.



Bloggers with a front-row seat.

Bloggermania!

The Wall Street Journal collects summaries who the bloggers are. And the New York Times finds bloggers now official members of press corps.

Official and Unofficial DNC Bloggers

Accredited bloggers:

• Command-post.org
• Scripting News
• Boston.com
• Political Wire
• NYU's Jay Rosen
• Daily Kos
• Jerome Armstrong
• Article Online
• Greaterdemocracy.org
• TalkLeft
• Matt Welch
• Reason
• Opinions You Should Have
• The American Street
• Oxblog
• Centerfield
• Matthew Gross
• BurntOrangeReport
• Jessamyn West
• Electablog
• Pacificviews
• King County Democrats
• Pandagon
• DowBrigade News
• WestportNow.com
• Afro-Netizen
• American Amnesia
• Liberal Oasis
• OurCampaigns.com
• Reinvented.net
• NotGenuises.com
• BlogforAmerica.com
• LarsonReport.com
• Blogging of  the President
• Hotflashesfromthecampaigntrail.blogspot.com
• Blogforvictory.com
• Nateknowsnada.org
• thepowerofmany.com
• logicalrealism.org

Unoffical Bloggers
 
• TEL ME TECH
• blogswarm.blogdrive.com
• brain-stream.com

Delegate Bloggers

California
David Ettinger/Deborah Sutherland (for Ventura County Democrats)

Colorado
Dan Slater (one of four on DNCC site)

Georgia
Kabir Sehgal (for Georgia Democrats)
Andre Walker

Kansas
State Sen. Donald Betts
Cathleen and Christopher Gordon
Barbara Meyers

Massachusetts
John Walsh and Chad Radock (for the Boston Globe)

Nebraska
Delegation blog (one of four on DNCC site)

New Mexico
Joshua Davis

New York
David Camacho (for Gotham Gazette)
Carl McCall (for Gotham Gazette)
Brice Peyre (for Gotham Gazette)
Mike (TOPDOG04)

North Carolina
John Burns

Oregon
Tom Burka (also has credentials to blog)
Jenny Greenleaf/BeckyG (Greenleaf also one of four on DNCC site)

Texas
Karl-Thomas Musselman
Christina Ocasio
Patti Fink
Cate Read
Delegation blog (one of four on DNCC site)

Virginia
Delegation blog

Washington
Sameer Canal
Geni Hawkins
John Howes
Greg Rodriguez (for King County Democrats)

Abroad
Terri MacMillan (Democrats Abroad Japan)
Lauren Shannon (Democrats Abroad Japan)

(Tip of the hat to K. Daniel Glover)

Re-engineering the Democrats?

Matt Bai's got the story about the "Phoenix Project," an effort led by Democrats to re-engineer the party through a collection of online advocacy organization, think tanks, media, and other Internet-enabled groups. He makes the excellent point that the groups who benefit the most from campaign finance reform are the so-called 527 organizations that are effectively party freelancers.

Here's the nut of the story.

While the Democratic Leadership Council attacked Dean for his angry brand of populism, [New Democrat Network leader Simon] Rosenberg looked for a way to tap into the genuine passion among Democrats for a more creative, more defiant kind of politics.

According to Bai, the project enables Web-savvy Silicon Valley types, who have traditionally been boosters of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, to make peace with the Dean-aics.

Pictures from Boston DNC

The Fleet Center all decorated for the convention that begins on Monday.



Everyone entering the security perimeter needs to go through airport-style searches.

Live from Boston!

Bloggers are the big here in Boston, and I've decided to try my own hand at it. I arrived yesterday to cover the Democratic National Convention for National Journal's Technology Daily, which is also available for free during the coming week. In addition to publishing links to my Technology Articles at my home page, www.drewclark.com, I'll be posting comments here frequently on how the technology, media, and telecommunications industries are being impacted by all the politicking.