Historic Blogging While Brown Conference Highlights Increasing Role Technology is Playing With African Americans

This Is So Much Bigger Than We Realize

By Valencia Roner

While you may not immediately take note of the hundreds of bloggers gathering in Atlanta this weekend, a closer inspection should peak your interest.

That’s because the 1st Annual “Blogging While Brown” conference July 25-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center will launch what many believe is yet another milestone in blacks both in the United States and abroad collectively flexing their “online” muscle.

How much of this is due to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s phenomenal success mobilizing donors and volunteers with just a click of a mouse remains to be seen. But in a USA Today article discussing the recent Radio One study about African Americans, the so-called digital divide that previously was leaving behind minorities and others without Internet access has narrowed greatly. About 68% of blacks spend time online, the survey found, compared with 70% of all Americans, according to other surveys.

Gina McCauley, founder of What About Our Daughters was instrumental in organizing the historic international event and is ecstatic about the unprecedented gathering of individuals already perched atop prime cyber real estate.

"The Internet is a Wild Wild West and we don't have to go through the NAACP," says McCauley, a 30-something personal injury attorney hailing from Austin, Texas. Along with other bloggers who regularly post commentary or video about politics, alternative lifestyles, entertainment, sports and culture, McCauley is among a small cadre of blacks who have mastered the intricate dance of pursuing social change through advertiser supported social networking.

With an intensity that caught Essence Magazine’s eye and resulted in McCauley being named one of the publication’s Top 25 Black Women of 2007, Gina has become the “go to sister” on issues “sisters” want to dissect and take on.

And she’s not alone. Arlene Fenton of Black Women Vote has also emerged as someone to watch who will be at the “Blogging While Brown” conference. A regular guest on NPR’s News & Notes with Farai Chideya, Fenton has even branched into producing and hosting her own Internet radio show, “The Queen’s Council.”

Kevin Ross is traveling from Los Angeles to speak on one of the panels entitled “Can
New Media Work with the Old Guard and Old Media?” Establishing his company 3BAAS Media Group after he and his business associates started blogging at 3 Brothers And A Sister, the former judge and terrestrial radio host turned strategic marketing CEO understands that networking is a prime motivation for many attending. But for Ross, it’s also about finally meeting individuals with whom he has corresponded, or whose blogs he enjoys reading.



“I really like Electronic Village, Dallas South and even the gossip site Necole Bitchie,” said Ross. “These folks are intelligent, highly sophisticated entrepreneurs who are blazing a trail for other blacks who still have no idea as to the opportunities available on the Web.”

While Ross is planning to give a full debriefing of the conference on his popular Blogtalkradio program after it’s over, Shwana Ruth-Bridges, a talented corporate attorney blogger who goes by Attorneymom, will be broadcasting live.

And one of the highlights of this 3-day landmark event will be the technology keynote by Angela Conyers-Benton and Markus Robinson of Black Web 2.0 Their “Ultimate Blog Experience” workshop will help minority blog publishers enhance the functionality and appearance of their blog, implement traffic building strategies, utilize widgets to their advantage, and develop engaging content.

In the comment section of the conference’s blog, one attendee with the initials WD put it this way, “Looking forward to this event! Finally hooking up with tech/blog crazed brown people, lol. Let’s have fun and serious discussions and leave the ‘egos’ home--You know what I'm saying…”

If we don’t, it probably won’t be long before we’re all reading about or watching it at WD’s blog.

It’s name?

Black Internet Television!

Valencia Roner serves as Vice President of Operations for 3BAAS Media Group, LLC. She writes for the blogs Diary of a Content Black Woman, Three Brothers and a Sister, and No Cream, No Sugar. Valencia also hosts the Content Black Woman Show on BlogTalkRadio and will serve as a moderator for one of the Blogging While Brown panels.

Kennedy Assassination 40 Years Later: Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!

While I was only just shy of 2 years old at the time, Bobby Kennedy embodied the qualities I often write about: courage, peace, faith, forgiveness and happiness. Today marks the 40th anniversary of his shocking assassination and I want to reflect on what it all means.

His untimely death took place in my hometown of Los Angeles at the famous Ambassador Hotel just minutes away that since has been torn down. I'm particularly touched today as a result of an interview I saw this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe with author Thurston Clarke of the latest in a number of books about Kennedy entitled, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days that Inspired America.

Clarke spoke about Kennedy's unique ability to touch people from all different backgrounds and bring people together. He also touched on Kennedy's struggle to overcome the impact of the assassination of his brother President John F. Kennedy and how on the night of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. he found himself having to break the news of King's death to a crowd of predominantly Black people in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In breaking that news, it was the first time Bobby Kennedy spoke publicly about the assassination of his brother almost 5 years earlier.

Continue with BOBBY KENNEDY & THE COURAGE OF VULNERABILITY

Valencia Roner, Our Sister Here at 3BAAS, Is Featured In Washington Post Article About Blog Talk Radio

"The Content Black Woman Show" Garners More Attention

A year and a half after New Jersey businessman Alan Levy launched the venture, BlogTalkRadio is averaging 2.4 million listeners each month for programs that range from politics to the paranormal, along with sports, finance, food, religion and romance. Even the Pentagon recently started two shows on the network, not to mention our own Valencia Roner and Kevin Ross.

The question is whether this is a flash in the pan that appeals mainly to geeks and those with a need to talk to someone -- anyone -- or whether, like blogs, online radio could explode in popularity.

With BlogTalkRadio, the Commentary Universe Expands

The press wasn't paying much attention to John McCain last fall when he called Ed Morrissey from the campaign trail and spent 38 minutes fielding questions.

"You sound pretty chipper for a dead guy," the radio host told McCain, whose presidential campaign had been all but buried by mainstream journalists. The Arizona senator joked that his wife had performed "mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

The radio show McCain was calling isn't heard on the air, and averages perhaps 1,000 listeners. Morrissey's program is one of 3,400 carried on the Internet through an outfit called BlogTalkRadio, which has quietly emerged as a populist force in cyberspace.

"I wouldn't say I'm a national name, but it's a great way to connect with blog readers," says Morrissey, a conservative who has interviewed other GOP candidates. "There's an immediacy to it, a connection greater than when you're just putting words up on a Web site."

Most shows are hosted from home by bloggers who need no special equipment and pay no fee. The only requirement is that they put a link to the program on their Web site. On BlogTalkRadio's site, visitors can search for programs by name or category.

The process is nearly idiot-proof. The host logs on to a Web page with a password, types in when he wants the show to air, and then -- using a garden-variety phone -- calls a special number. The computer screen lists the phone numbers of guests or listeners calling in, and the host can put as many as six on the air at once by clicking a mouse. Listeners can download a podcast version later.

"It's a great tool," says James Boyce, who blogs at the Huffington Post and recently took a break from his online show to work for Bill Richardson's presidential campaign. "There's no barrier to entry. You set up your own show with simple-to-use technology." Boyce helped BlogTalkRadio launch a liberal channel but says conservative shows have become more popular: "The left is kind of behind a little bit right now."

Valencia Roner, a Los Angeles freelancer who writes a blog (Diary of A Content Black Woman) on the views of black women, was wary when she started a weekly show in January. "I was a little intimidated because I didn't want to get on and sound crazy," she says. But after being a guest on other blog radio shows, she decided to give it a shot. Her program is now drawing about 20,000 listeners each week.

Recently, Roner's show was #1 of all the shows on Blog Talk Radio. This week she is at the number 7 slot, and number 2 on the Current Events list. The Kevin Ross show is now number 6 on BlogTalkRadio's most popular, and number 1 for current events. Both shows are produced by 3BAAS Media Group, the creators of this blog, with Ross serving as Roner's on-air sidekick.

"There are a lot of beautiful, well-read, articulate African American women who are not angry, and I want to be their face," the former corporate marketer says. "Why should political pundits, who are mostly white men, talk about the black community's perspective? You're not black; how do you know?" Roner, who attributes her early popularity to her enthusiastic backing of Barack Obama's candidacy, has had nibbles from local and satellite radio stations.

Some better-known people are also gravitating toward the outlet; former CNN correspondent Bob Franken recently started a show.

By Washington Post Staff Writer Howard Kurtz