Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Another fun and interesting gathering of a few Saskatchewan bloggers took place at Jerry’s Food Emporium in Saskatoon on Saturday afternoon. The event was well attended, and a blog-curious David Karwacki brought the ‘traditional media’ in tow as he campaigns in this province’s election. Not all of the media were too interested in the primary draw of the event, which were the bloggers, but at least one print-reporter spent a great deal of time interviewing Kate who writes Small Dead Animals. CTV had decent coverage of our event, and Global TV gave us a quick and detail-lacking nod.

I was impressed at the variety of people in attendance. A myth that is in popular culture is that bloggers are teen aged kids in their parents’ basement, and the group of adults that showed up shatters that stereotype. Activists, technology specialists, sports fans, artists, students, and politicians were some of the demographics represented. Kids have blogs, but they tend to build networks that leave the blogosphere adults use most, in their periphery. Kate pointed out in a discussion, the average age of people reading and writing blogs tends to be mid 40s.

The people who made it to the event included:
Saskboy & Ashley
Kate
Lance
Dan
Ryan
Huffb1
Twyla
David
Tanya
Ish
Wayne

SaskBlogs Aggregator

As Tanya pointed out in conversation, the restaurant was a little loud and not perfectly conducive to group discussion. I think I prefer the outdoor BBQ setting for gatherings of bloggers, but there’s certainly a place for indoor events too. Maybe someone can suggest an ideal venue for next time, where we can talk at length without raising our voices. If it’s outdoors, then the people uncomfortable with the possible appearance of TV cameras can more easily duck away :-)

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Bonus: On the TV coverage, David Karwacki mentioned Calgary Grit’s interviewing him, and the importance of blogs in politics these days.

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Some people hadn’t heard of my Pet Foil Hat Technology, or they didn’t know that bags of Sask dirt could be sold on eBay. And I wanted to talk to Tanya a bit more about eBay, but it’s best done while online anyway. I’ve logged probably well over 300 hours on the marketplace website since 2002, and nearly all of it has been while sitting in front of a computer, so it just didn’t feel right to talk about it too much at a dinner table :-) Here’s an example of where to get eBay help. Don’t waste time with Live Help unless a pro at the Forums directs you to there.

Leader-Post used my term “wrap-up”, but didn’t attribute it to me (the organizer) by giving a link to saskblogs.ca or Lance’s Aggregator at saskblogs.catprint.ca . Oh well.

Karwacki on the blog
Jill Smith, Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, October 15, 2007

SASKATOON — Newbie blogger and Liberal Leader David Karwacki met with a group of Saskatchewan bloggers Saturday in Saskatoon — opening himself up as a topic for all kinds of online debate.

“It might be free, but it might not all be good,” said Karwacki, knowing many of the 10 bloggers he met with would likely hit their computers later to comment on the experience.

Blogger Kate McMillan of smalldeadanimals.com said she’s unconcerned with Karwacki’s political agenda.
Saskatchewan Liberal Leader David Karwacki in Saskatoon to meet with local bloggers at Jerry’s Food Emporium.
[photo of the back of my head and David]
Greg Pender, StarPhoenix

“I know what he’s doing — he’s campaigning,” she said.

Karwacki said he welcomes open public debate, adding many of the bloggers he met with support other parties. He says politics has been stuck on one track in Saskatchewan, and he’s open for criticism.

The Liberal campaign is noted for embracing Internet technology this election. It has online ads, a section on its Web site devoted to voter feedback and an “Ask David” video blog portion where Karwacki responds via video to questions posted online.

“Our Web site is the only one that embraces interactivity,” said Wayne Chu, new media director for the Liberal campaign. He said other party sites are “slick and nicely put together” but they only provide one-way communication.

Chu said Americans are ahead of Canada in terms of using blogging and Internet technology for political means.

“Canada always seems to be one election behind in terms of technology,” said Chu. “It’s refreshing to be on a campaign that understands this technology and embraces it.”

But McMillan said politicians need to be “awfully careful” when entering the blogosphere. She said regular blog readers can spot insincerity.

“It’s hard to be yourself and not open yourself up to criticism or ridicule,” she said.

McMillan said she doesn’t pay much attention to politicians’ blogs because they tend to be toned down.

In addition to the Liberal website, Karwacki submits his blog to thestarphoenix.com and saskatoonhomepage.ca.

Karwacki joined the bloggers for their annual SaskBlogs Saskatoon wrap-up after launching his accountability ad campaign in North Battleford Saturday morning.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007

The entire story is reprinted here so that I have a digital copy many years from now.