Bricklin on Technology

6.6. Bloggers at the 2004 DNC in Boston

In late July 2004, the Democratic National Convention was held in Boston, Massachusetts. I live in Newton, Massachusetts, just a few miles away. In the blogging world this convention was a special moment and a big deal. A set of bloggers were issued official credentials to cover the event. They were given space to sit in the convention hall and given special briefings. The traditional press was very curious about this new player, and the interplay between press and bloggers was interesting to watch.

I didn't apply for credentials, but I did talk to some who were going and followed what they wrote carefully. I blogged about it, giving a view from outside: a view of the city and the bloggers writing about the convention rather than being inside the convention itself.

As I write this four years later, things have changed quite a bit. Not only are bloggers major players in the world of politics, it is even the case that major politicians now go to the blogger's conventions in addition to vice versa. Major professional journalists now also (or only) blog, such as professor, New York Times–columnist, economist, and Nobel Prize–winner Paul Krugman who writes for a blog hosted by the New York Times itself.

This series of blog posts and essays is an interesting snapshot at a critical time during the development of a means of Internet-enabled distributed communication of which that controversial New York Times piece asked in 2002, "Is the Weblog, ...