Had some fun participating in yesterday's Blogjam at Pajamas Media. Heck, I even learned a few things. However, I do have a couple suggestions for the future.
ˇI don't know how PM usually decides on who to invite as panelists, but a mass email promising slots to "the first four people" to reply was probably a mistake.
ˇMake sure in advance that at least one panelist holds the opposing view.
ˇKeep the topics fresh. The panel I was on debated "Whose internet is it anyway?" for the third day in a row, and so it took a lot of prep work before I was sure I'd have something even slightly original to say.
There were some positive things I should also mention.
ˇOur (not-so) anonymous moderator proved quite skilled at provoking new lines of discussion. Whoever he or she was (cough, cough), make sure they keep coming back.
ˇThere were no technical glitches. That might not sound like much, but it's an accomplishment for such a young site.
ˇThe introductory conference call was a great idea. Maybe next time schedule it 15 minutes in advance, to give panelists more of a chance to get comfortable with one another.
All in all, I think Blogjams are a fine idea, and pretty well executed. If the powers-that-be at PM take my suggestions, I think they could be even better.
You know, I actually think these Blogjams are a bit underwhelming, especially since I'm not exactly sure what they heck they want to accomplish that a well-written post with hyperlinks to elsewhere doesn't already do. Plus, comments.
They might be useful as a form of interview method, with several bloggers posting questions to someone and having that person post their answers, but that begs the question of who is Pajamas Media going to interview? I.e., what the heck are you and I involved in?
Sure, I'm a tiny, insignificant cog in the PM dealie, but, theoretically, this being the web 'n all, I could rise to dominate the entire stay-at-home-dad blog market and garner, like, 29 hits a day and rank as a microbe on the TTLB ecosystem.
But so far as I can tell, just a few weeks into this venture, the PM honchos are doing nothing to promote the lower-tiered bloggers they've got linked in their more-than-uselss alphabetical blogroll and haven't proposed a direction for the company. to travel in.
After all, as of this instant, the best it can be is a news-analysis aggregator of some sort, with interesting and entertaining posts from the non-poli-sci-blogosphere padding out the content.
If it's looking for original reportage on anything, it needs to figure out what it wants to cover, and which of us it wants to pay to cover it. But, first it has to figure out what the heck it is and how I factor into it.
