There are a few shiny things here in Vegas that have bloggers' attention. No question about it. There are shows and clothes, lookers and hookers, drinks and winks. But it could be a shiny blue bird, and the light of mobile phones that has many bloggers' attention this year, even if they are in Vegas instead of wherever they may call home. Blog World Expo, a conference dedicated to blogging, about blogging, featuring bloggers and discussing all things blogging, should see a whole lot of blogging. Right? But there's a high possibility that many will forgo full-size blogging, in exchange for everyone's favorite microblogging application, favoring hashtags over Technorati tags.
Chris Pirillo, lifecasting maven and tech geek to the masses, asked what many of us have been observing ourselves, this evening, when he said, "How many bloggers does it take to blog about Blog World Expo? None. They're all tweeting about it, instead." Now I will give bloggers the benefit of the doubt a bit for tonight only, given the show hasn't really kicked off. But as I noted at South By Southwest in the Spring, and at Blog World Expo last fall, there has come a tendency for those attending events to "live tweet" the event, 140 characters at a time, and not do the wrap-up report of what sessions they attended, ideas they encountered and people they met. And I wish this were not the case.
I don't want to be putting down any quasi-moral ultimatums about how the event is about the sessions and not about the parties, even if that's how I feel most days. I don't think it's my place to tell people to stop having so much fun and focus. But I do hope that those of us who have the privilege of calling ourselves bloggers actually blog.
Over the next few days, I will be seeing many of my peers and respected tech leaders talking shop and I look forward to learning a lot. I will be blogging as much as I can where it makes sense, following the model I discussed in March of this year, when I showed how to blog live events and publish with lightning speed. While at South by Southwest this March, I was aggressive enough to add 14 separate posts in the four day period. I can't promise the same amount this week, but I will do my best to bring the event to you.
With great tools like Lazyfeed available to help you follow blogs on specific topics, it is now easier than ever to see your posts on the week's event. As much fun as it will be to check in on Foursquare at whatever pub you are drinking at, or to quote tech luminaries with the #bwe09 hashtag all over Twitter, I am hoping I will see some great posts - lots of them - from all the bloggers who are here. I did say It's Twitter's World... but there is a big role for blogs in an age of microblogging, and I want to see all of us try to do both.