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A gathering of Christians working to advance the Kingdom through blogging + internet technologies.
I’m headed back to Vegas!
I’m returning to the God Blog Convention, sponsored by Biola University in La Mirada, California. This year’s convention will be held at the Blog World and New Media Expo on September 20 and 21. (Last year’s GodBlogCon was in Vegas, too.)
Why a Christian blogging convention in Vegas? Blog Expo founder Rick Calvert wanted to organize a sort of blogging tradeshow where all kinds of bloggers (faith, tech, business, etc.) could gather and network. He asked the GodBlogCon organizers if they’d consider holding their annual gathering at the Expo, and they were happy to do so.
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9:35 a.m. PT: Social media’s useful after all. I just found out on Twitter that David Perlmutter, author of a new book called Blogwars: The New Political Battleground, recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Perlmutter interviewed me for the book a few years ago, but I didn’t think I’d make the cut. Lo, and behold, I did! On page 19, he calls me an attorney (which I’m not), wrote that my blog was “well cited by many leading conservative blogs” (which it was), and that I “attacked” him in a post (which I didn’t).
Perlmutter’s referring to a post I wrote called Peasants Don’t Blog, where I commented on an article he wrote about blog hype. Why do some people consider critiques an attack? Geez. It’s good copy, though.
Although Perlmutter misspelled my first name in the index, I’m pleased overall that he found my blog worthy of mention. On page 20 he quoted at length from a post called The Immorality of Race Preferences.
Publicist, if you want to send me a review copy, here’s my snail mail info. I’ll review the book on the blog, but I can’t (or shouldn’t) review it for a news site or print publication. Because I appear in it, there’d be a conflict of interest, or something like that.
I’m still experiencing the residual effects of a once-popular political blog. Nice memories for the most part. But I’d like to see myself quoted in books and articles about digital tech, music (Christian and non-Christian), the changing music industry (a good start), pop culture, fan culture (a new fascination), etc. And one day soon, I hope to see my own book for sale on Amazon.
Back to work!
Addendum: Music to work by (turn it up!):
“With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.” – Charles Churchill
Notes on Envy
I allow myself a couple of minutes to wallow in bitter blogger envy every time I read about some blogger’s success, like landing a fat book deal.
And then I pick myself up off the symbolic floor and get down to the business of updating clients’ blogs and my own blog and pitching article ideas to editors.
And then I remember that someone else’s success, whether I think he/she deserves it, does not prevent me from succeeding. There are at least two people in book publishing interested in receiving a book proposal from me about me. What’s stopping me from sending it isn’t other bloggers or anyone else. It’s my own self-doubt. I just don’t think my life or my past success as a political and faith blogger is all that interesting to fill, let alone sell, a book.
A $300,000 Parody
If you haven’t heard of the blog Stuff White People Like, you must have been offline for the past month. Bloggers and journalist types have been buzzing about it for weeks.
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I found a link to an old story in the New York Times magazine called “Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog.” It was published last year, but in web time, that’s old.
The gist of the well-written and appealing story is this: new and/or struggling musicians can make a decent living without record labels and big marketing machines if they harness the power of the web by starting blogs, running discussion boards, and interacting with fans, who want to feel connected.
Musicmakers and Blogupdaters
Heavily featured in the piece is a musician named Jonathan Coulton, who quit the 9 to 5 to write and perform music. He posts a new tune on his blog every week. Coulton’s earning a decent income selling his music online, and he’s managed to build quite a fan community.
One fan creates illustrations (for free) for each of his songs. Other fans make videos for his songs and post them on YouTube, which promotes his music and creates even more fans. Yet another fan built a web site to archive fan-made videos.
Coulton makes (and saves) money when traveling by doing what I call “target touring.” He polls readers to find where they live and schedules a concert if there are more than 100 fans in a given area. That way, he knows a show will sell well, and he endears himself to fans even more by hitting smaller towns where other acts rarely tread.
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Update (12:27 p.m.): Speaking of Islamofascism, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, first female PM of a Muslim country, has been assassinated. Read more at Hot Air and Michelle Malkin’s.
Later…On a lighter note, my review of Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll has been posted.
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Jeff Jarvis, blogger, journalist, and media critic I credit for my appearances on MSNBC a couple years ago, points to an article about an American author sued in an English court for libeling a Saudi.
Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote in Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It accused a rich Saudi named Khalid Salim A. Bin Mahfouz of funding Islamofascist groups like al-Qaida.
Ehrenfeld sought protection under New York state law and asked that the judgment against her be rendered unenforceable, but the courts contend Bin Mahfouz is not subject to New York jurisdiction. It’s a procedural matter, but substantive to Ehrenfeld all the same.
Jeff is concerned, perhaps rightly so, that such a judgment chills free speech and postulates that such actions could extend to speech that merely criticizes Islamofascists. It’s not so far-farfetched, once you consider that Islam is incompatible with the West, given its propensity toward free expression, which includes the right to offend. But are we talking about libel, censorship, or both? Ehrenfeld accused the man of funding terrorism. What “free speech” right does she have to do that?
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***Live-blogging at Boundless Line and below***
***For earlier live-blogging, see Part II***
This photo was taken yesterday by Jim of Gateway Pundit. More photos here. Pictured: Matt Sheffield of NewsBusters.org, me, and Soren Dayton of RedState.org.
10:05 a.m. PT: It’s Day Two of the Blog World Expo/GodBlogCon Convention. Biola University professor Paul Spears will discuss “Trafficking in Substance: A Blogging Dilemma: The Case for Blog Euthanasia.” Christians interested in God blogging need to be representatives of a “bigger thing.” What does it mean to have “substance” on your blog?
Paul says Christians have a responsibility to enable our audience to come to an understanding of larger things. It takes work, but there’s no other way around it. This assumes you want your blog to be significant, to come from a place of substance and help other Christians in their walk toward Christ. Paul showed a series of famous paintings. These artists created the kind of beauty that lasts. Lofty idea for mere bloggers, but we should strive to create something meaningful that endures.
What’s the story we’re telling? For me, I want to share the story of how Christ affects lives, my own and other people’s. There’s more than enough blogging out there about the latest trends and hottest politic topics. What we need is transcendence.
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***Live-blogging at Boundless Line and below***
***For earlier live-blogging, see Part I***
1:20 p.m. PT: Ran into Matt Sheffield, blogging pal since the early days, and Henry Copeland of BlogAds, who remembered attending my faith blogging session at BlogNashville back in 2005. Met Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim. I did some consulting work through one of his former companies.
Rhett Smith is up. He’s discussing social media sites like Facebook and how Christians can use the “new media ministries” in youth ministry. Rhett does youth ministry and was reluctant to create a page on MySpace. His online forum was getting little traffic, so he decided to try MySpace. He started getting visitors to his site. He also joined Facebook, a site that I have yet to get into.
Rhett said he had to go where the teens are. Put yourself in the shoes of high school kids, he said, or young adults. They’ve always had the online world, with social networking sites. For an oldster like me, even though I’m a blog consultant, I have no use for MySpace or Facebook. Yet. If you do youth ministry, of course, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with those sites.
[UK update side note: I mentioned my desire to go to the UK to a couple of people this morning and got two more leads on places to stay. Cheaply. One sounds really cool - Related to C.S. Lewis. I'll keep you posted.]
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***Live-blogging at Boundless Line and below***
5:17 a.m. PT: Hi, my name is La Shawn, and I’m a coffeeholic. And I like to get up at 4 a.m.
I’m in Vegas, blogging before dawn. Lots of bloggers to try to meet today. Over the next two days, bloggers from many parts of the blogosphere – including Christian, political, business, tech, culture, sports, military, legal, and the “podosphere” – are here, talking about how to make money from blogs, win friends, and influence people. Bloggers will discuss how to use the new medium for God’s glory and connect the body of Christ in the digital age. Bloggers will show others how to use the “long tail” to their advantage. Business owners will learn how to hire bloggers. And on and on.
I probably won’t have time to meet all the bloggers on my list. Eric Olsen, a guy who created a little site called Blog Critics (and published a concert review I wrote) a few years ago and built it into an influential (press credentials), money-making venture, is near the top. I have a long list of business and tech bloggers I want to meet, many of whom don’t know me, I’m sure. Reading their blogs helped me shape my consulting business, and I continue to learn from them every day.
I’ll be on an NPR show called “The State of Nevada” this morning, along with fellow Godbloggers Joe Carter and Professor John Mark Reynolds, to talk about Blog World Expo (read convention updates here). The segment will air on KNPR between 9-10 a.m. PT.
I might be able to update this post today with photos and what’s happening at the convention. There seems to be an issue with the wireless.
9:37 a.m. PT: There’s something comforting about being around other Christians, even strangers. 
I was impressed that NPR’s producers dug deep into my blog to quote from Margaret Sanger of the Blogosphere:
“Even in cases of rape and incest, I do not believe the unborn baby should be killed. Is that clear enough? I’ll make it clearer. Even if a man rapes his 13-year-old daughter and impregnates her, the baby should live.”
I repeated what I wrote and what I believe. Even so-called pro-life people draw the line at rape and incest. Not me, for the reasons I stated in the post.
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Lawyer and blogger Debbie Schlussel says that potential jurors for an upcoming terrorism trial were asked whether they read her blog! When I first saw that, I had to read it again. And again. Can you believe it?
The Department of Justice (DOJ), prosecuting a former DOJ lawyer, apparently believes that people who read Debbie’s blog won’t make fair and impartial jurors.
OK, so Debbie’s blog is blatantly and gloriously biased — pro-America, anti-Islamic terrorism, highly critical of DOJ and “ICE Princess” Julie L. Myers. Why not ask potential jurors if they read left-leaning publications like the New York Times? Or Mother Jones magazine? Or The Nation? Why doesn’t DOJ ask potential jurors whether they read certain liberal and/or anti-America blogs? Why single out Debbie Schlussel? I haven’t seen the questionnaire, but I’d bet that no such blog appears on it.
I’m having a hard time grasping the concept.
(Pictured: generic jury questionnaire)
Special thanks to L.L. Barkat for including me in “A New Kind of Body: How the blogosphere is transforming the way Christians connect,” for Today’s Christian. An excerpt:
“La Shawn…is unapologetically conservative in her views, is pointedly political, posting about many controversial topics and purposely taking a ‘devil’s advocate’ approach. She does this because she sees value in promoting conversation around difficult topics…La Shawn Barber initially used blogging partly to get feedback on columns she was preparing for print. Just as she was wondering if the blog was ‘a waste of time,’ it became a vehicle to a whole new career. She quit her day job and is now a full-time blogger, speaker, and blog consultant.”
Obviously, the interview was conducted before I closed commenting.
Thanks again, L.L.!
I’m a bad blogger. I forgot to plug the 2007 God Blog Convention — “Helping Christians engage new media” — and I’m a speaker!
Yeah, what Joe Carter said.
The previous two GodBlogCon’s were held at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where professor and blogger John Mark Reynolds teaches. This year, it’s in Vegas (woo hoo!) at the Blog World & New Media Expo on November 8 and 9.
Register here.
This is the third year in a row I’ve been invited to speak at GodBlogCon. Gathering with Christian bloggers (especially ones whose doctrinal beliefs are the same as mine, but others, too) is a joy. If you have the means and the time, come out to Vegas and hang with us. There will be lots of non-GodBlogCon stuff going on, too.
Check out the GodBlogCon archives.
No Exceptions
You could call my views on child killing radical.
Even in cases of rape and incest, I do not believe the unborn baby should be killed. Is that clear enough? I’ll make it clearer. Even if a man rapes his 13-year-old daughter and impregnates her, the baby should live. He should not be “terminated” because of how and under whatever circumstances he was conceived. I see no justification, no matter how tragic the events, for killing the innocent, unborn baby.
It’s all black and white for me, no shades of gray. If you call yourself pro-life but make an exception in cases of rape and incest, you’re not pro-life. Dig?
I can see the e-mail now: “A child giving birth to her father’s child? You’re sick!”
Yes, I am sick. Sick of child killing, the self-centeredness, the disposable mentality, the lack of faith…
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by La Shawn on August 10, 2007
in Bloggers
Touchy topic, the crackdown on military blogging.
My view on this is somewhat controversial, too. There was a similar crackdown on milblogging in the U.S. If the Department of Defense believes milblogging is a security risk, it should restrict blogging. If blogging and social media sites are clogging up the works, then such activity should be reduced or eliminated on military computers.
I talked about the crackdown on TV back in May.
Addendum: Jim Cannon at Thinking Right writes:
“You might remember a couple of months ago Blackfive put on an email campaign requesting emails of support for Marine RCT 6 (Regimental Combat Team 6). They managed to get over 20,000 emails. I was so impressed with Blackfive’s efforts…I’ve been in contact with the PAO at 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division and they said they could definitely use the letters.”
Find out more about the letter writing campaign at Jim’s blog.
Check out the new Web 2.0 Blogs4God, which host Dean describes as a “Christian version” of the popular Digg.com.
Sort of Related Update (2:35 p.m.): Georgia Christian Laura Mallory, wanna-be Harry Potter book banner, is foiled again. For the time being, the HP books will remain on government school library shelves in Gwinnett County.
Also see Laura Mallory and the Misguided Crusade.
Thirty-five years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized 