Australian Bloggers Conference report

bloggers_conference.jpg

Blogging is now a key component of creative innovation, and in September 2007 project team member Peter Black (himself a prolific blogger who has attracted considerable national and international attention) organised the first major Australian blogging conference, to investigate the legal and other issues bloggers need to address. The day-long event attracted approximately 100 people from across Australia, and thanks to sponsorship from Microsoft, Get Up and Kwoff, it was free for everyone who attended. Notable participants included then-Senator Andrew Bartlett, Professor John Quiggin, and prominent blogger Duncan Riley.

The event set out to be unconventional, with a focus on open discussion forums rather than closed panels or presentations. Bloggers were encouraged to make real-time contributions to the conference blog throughout the day, as well as reporting live events using other Web 2.0 applications such as Twitter. Topics discussed over the course of the day included political blogging, business blogging, citizen journalism, legal issues for bloggers and the future of blogging.