Rhizome.LA - LIVE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE! Feb 15 7:30p

RHIZOME.LA - LIVE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE!

Event Date: February 15, 2003 Time: 7:30pm

Panelists: Mark Frauenfelder, Heather Havrilesky, Evan Williams, Susannah Breslin, Doc Searls, Tony Pierce
Panel Moderator: Xeni Jardin
Event Location: Electronic Orphanage, 975 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles
map: http://www.electronicorphanage.com/map/index.htm
Details: http://rhizome.org/la/blogosphere.php


January 29, 2003 - Los Angeles - Rhizome.LA today announced the speakers and agenda for "Live from the Blogosphere!" on February 15, 2003, in which renowned bloggers and technologists will explore the online phenomenon of weblogs and their impact on American popular culture.

Co-producers Susannah Breslin, Xeni Jardin, and Beverly Tang–in conjunction with Rhizome.LA, the Electronic Orphanage gallery, and the Southern California Wireless Users Group–present this evening of panel discussions and a live "town hall" meeting on the past, present, and future of blogging.

Recently, blogs have been written about in The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post, featured in PBS television specials, deconstructed at conferences held at Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley–and new blogs continue to spring into existence every day. So, what’s all the fuss about? Why is the Blogosphere expanding so quickly? How will blogs change the ways in which we relate to each other on and offline? And, what’s a blog anyway?

"Blog" is short for "weblog," a frequently updated website run by an individual or a collective that features web links and personal commentary listed in reverse chronological order. After September 11th, the profiles of politically minded "warbloggers" rose to new heights; more recently, bloggers focused on the Trent Lott story before the mainstream media did. Today, the popularity of blogs is skyrocketing. But as bloggers gain in greater visibility, will the Blogosphere crack under the hype?

"Live from the Blogosphere!" brings together six innovators in blogging: Mark Frauenfelder, Heather Havrilesky, Evan Williams, Susannah Breslin, Doc Searls, and Tony Pierce. The panel will discuss the birth of blogging, the emergent tension between blogs and traditional journalism, innovations in blogging such as video-blogging, audio-blogging, and mobile-blogging, the shifting roles of race and gender in the Blogosphere, the state of the blog economy, and the way blogs may be reshaping contemporary media.

In addition, and in keeping with the immediacy and interactivity of blogging, members of the event audience are encouraged to blog live and direct from the Electronic Orphanage using an ad-hoc community WiFi network built exclusively for this event by the Southern California Wireless Users Group.

About the Panelists

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of bOingbOing, a "nerd lifestyle magazine" that started out life as a print magazine 1988 and has become one of the Web’s most popular blogs. He was the founding editor-in-chief of Wired Online and for several years wrote a monthly technology column for Playboy Magazine, entitled "Living Online." In addition to co-editing The Happy Mutant Handbook, his latest book is The Mad Professor, a book about bizarre science experiments. Currently, he lives and works in Los Angeles.

http://www.boingboing.net

Heather Havrilesky is the author of The Rabbit Blog. Her freelance writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Spin, Salon, and on National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered." From 1996 to 2001, she was the co-creator of "Filler," a popular weekly cartoon which ran on Suck. She lives in Los Angeles and is writing a novel.

http://www.tinylittlepenis.com

Evan Williams is President and CEO of Pyra Labs, the creators and operators of Blogger, one of the most popular blogging software providers today with over one million users as of January 2003. Often referred to as "The Blogfather," Williams lives in San Francisco where he runs his own blog, Evhead.

http://www.evhead.com

Susannah Breslin runs The Reverse Cowgirl’s Blog, a weblog in which "a writer attempts to justify the enormity of her porn collection." As a freelance journalist, she has written for Salon, Details, and Nerve, and she has appeared on "Politically Incorrect," CNN, and NPR. Currently, her blog is being turned into a TV pilot for MTV Networks.

http://blogs.salon.com/0001437

Doc Searls is the Senior Editor of Linux Journal, one of the world’s leading technology monthlies, the co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual, and the author of The Doc Searls Weblog. J.D. Lasica, of The Online Journalism Review, calls Searls "one of the deep thinkers in the blog movement." Searls’s blog, based out of Santa Barbara, draws in excess of 60,000 readers a month.

http://doc.weblogs.com

Tony Pierce lives in Hollywood where he writes Busblog. A graduate of the College of Creative Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he has published his blog writings in the form of a book, Blook. He has also created a series of online photo essays including: "Final Word on CamGirls" and "What It Means to Be Black."

http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/bloggy.htm

About the Hosts

Xeni Jardin manages conferences and executive summits exploring technology, media, finance, and culture, as well as writing for a variety of print and online publications. As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared in publications including Wired Magazine, Wired News, The LA Weekly, and Silicon Alley Reporter Magazine. Prior to launching her consultancy practice, she was Vice President of Rising Tide Studios, the publishing company behind Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter magazines, and oversaw the company’s annual technology conference series featuring speakers such as Thomas Dolby, Darren Aronofsky, and Esther Dyson.

http://www.xeni.net

Beverly Tang produces the Rhizome.LA salon events series recently featured in The LA Weekly's "Next Best Thing of LA" issue, highlighting those who use technology artistically. She is a designer of information and a sculptor of light. Her work has shown at the Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts, FLUX Gallery and SomArts in San Francisco. Her background is in studio photography and film, and she holds a degree in visual arts from the University of California at San Diego.

http://www.sublimina.com

Rhizome.org is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1996 to provide an online platform for the global new media art community. Rhizome.org’s programs and services support the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of contemporary art that uses new technologies in significant ways. Their core activities include commissions, email discussions and publications, the website Rhizome.org, and various events. The Rhizome.org community itself is geographically dispersed, and includes artists, curators, writers, designers, programmers, students, educators and new media professionals.

http://www.rhizome.org

Electronic Orphanage is an international club for people who produce art and theories related to the world of the computer screen. Its headquarters are based out of a storefront in Los Angeles that artist Miltos Manetas opened in February of 2001 to showcase work created by guest artists. The rest of time the space is a studio where artists-the Orphans–work on neen and telic art. New EO’s are planned for Shanghai, China, and Goa, India.

http://www.electronicorphanage.com

Southern California Wireless Users Group is a Los Angeles-based resource for wireless professionals, hobbyists, and businesses looking for information on wireless.

http://www.socalwug.org