Last year, I was one of 30 liberal bloggers and activists who were lucky enough to receive a scholarship to cover my ticket to the convention and four nights at the Hilton. The readers of my site pitched in to help with my train fare and spending money, and it all came together perfectly. I had a great experience. I came away thinking that everyone who is serious about the information revolution that is playing out right now needs to attend at least once.
I am one of a handful of bloggers with my traffic to actually derive more than satisfaction from my efforts. Between ads, subscribers and support from readers, I manage to make the site pay for itself and turn a slight profit. Don’t get me wrong - if minimum wage laws applied, I would be in serious trouble with the feds for underpaying myself, but I am still one of a very few who sees the equation balance in their favor, and I am grateful for my readers and the fact that some of those readers are major, A-List bloggers who link me regularly. Here I would be a total ingrate if I did not say a huge public thank you to Steve Benen and the Washington Monthly and Mike Finnegan and the rest of the gang at Crooks & Liars, but I have to give a special thanks to Kevin Drum at Mother Jones. Literally all of my successes in this field have happened because Kevin linked me first, and he has been one of the most generous supporters of my efforts in every way possible, and I will never be anything but grateful and appreciative of his support. And his habit of paying for lunch, but that’s another story...
Netroots Nation has something for everyone, and as I said at the outset, every blogger and blog reader ought to do it at least once, for a whole array of reasons. For me, it was affirming to kick off the final leg of the campaign surrounded by likeminded people who were just as pissed off and determined as I was, and who didn’t pretend to be all offended and go in search of a fainting couch every time I said ‘fuck’ - it was the most people I have ever seen in one place who get that it is perfectly acceptable to use profanity when describing an obscenity.
The main thing I brought home was a strengthened sense of being ‘on the right track’ with what I was trying to do. I came home and, using the contacts I made in Austin, stepped up my game a little bit. I updated and upgraded and moved my site from Blogger to a hosted domain and a format that allows readers to contribute diaries of their own. That small change has led to vigorous growth of the community that reads and contributes to my site.
On the train ride home last year, I started plotting and scheming to make it happen again this year without a scholarship, and between a friend I can stay with and a year of planning ahead, I am going to be able to make it work.
But last year, I would not have been able to attend without the scholarship program.
After the Democrats took control of both chambers of the congress in the 2006 midterm elections, I had high hopes. But a year after they took over, still nothing had changed, and I decided to protest with my purse.
Two years before Jonah Goldberg started whining that ‘he didn’t want to pay for it’ and Dr. Mrs. Putz started harping about ‘Going Galt’ I actually did something like that. At the end of 2007, I deliberately lowered my income for 2008 to below the taxable level because the war in Iraq, a war I had opposed from the get-go, was not only not ending, but had, in fact, escalated, and I didn’t want to pay for it. Because of that decision, I would not have had the disposable income to attend. And if I had not attended, I would not have made the positive changes I have made that have allowed my site to flourish and thrive.
If you can support the scholarship program in any way, financially or otherwise, please do so. It is an important program and it serves a vital role in this new, emerging information medium that we are a part of.