I intended to write one post about the WisPolitics Blog Summit 2007, but when my post began to approach 1400 words I decided to break it up into parts. Here is the first part dealing with the lack of Wisconsin wide diversity and the abundance of "corpobloggers" on the panels. Tomorrow morning I will post my concerns with the discussion on "the digital divide."

Last year I had plans the day of the Wisconsin Blog Summit, and with a decent representation of Madison bloggers attending it didn't seem like my presence was a necessity (Rep. Marc Pocan and Ann Althouse were both on panels and the guys from Letters In Bottles were in the audience). This year I felt more of an obligation to go as the Madison blogosphere representation on panels was pretty much "zero" and a quick email drop to multiple local bloggers found that most of them didn't know about it or were unable to go. Actually, the representation from pretty much every other community outside of Milwaukee County was scant. Ed Garvey was there, but he doesn't really count because I don't consider him a true blogger (I was also late and missed all but the last five minutes of his panel). Madison attorney Jennifer L. Peterson spoke about blogging as it is approached by law - she was incredibly informative and provided an excellent document on recent cases concerning blogging - but again, not a blogger.

The bloggers on panels? Mostly corpobloggers:
Three from OnMilwaukee.com (Including the publisher. In their defense, the bloggers from OnMilwaukee.com don't fit into the same hole us the other four below. In OnMilwaukee's case it was more of an issue of three individuals from one media outlet and two from that outlet on one panel)
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel journalist (Tim Cuprisin) who blogs and a Milwaukee State Journal columnist (Eugene Kane) who blogs.
Two 620-WTMJ talk how hosts who blog (to her credit, Jessica McBride was a journalist, then blogger, then talk show host with a blog. The other was Charlie Sykes).

There was some independent blogging representation in the panels as Owen Robinson from Boots and Sabers and Jay Bullock from Folkbum were allowed to conduct the closing "Future of Blogging" panel. It was when they took the stage that I realized for some odd reason corporate bloggers and traditional bloggers were not allowed to mix in the panels.

I was actually very impressed with the interaction from the audience of roughly 50 bloggers from both the corporate end and non-corporate end (sitting to my left was a blogger for Milwaukee's FOX News 6. I just looked at their site and FOX 47, here in Madison, could learn a great deal from what is going on at their sister station). The discussion was lively, questions were pertinent and often focused on what the rise of corpoblogging means for blogging, and everyone was very respectful toward one another.

That said, it would be nice to see some representation from other areas. For example, in Wausau there is a very successful collaborative blog similar to what we do here at Dane101 called, simply called WausauBlog. For obvious reasons I'm very interested in collaborations when it comes to blogging and they do it well. It would have also been nice to have a participant in Madison's School Information System blog taking part on a panel. SIS has truly revolutionized communication when it comes to school boards and has resulted in a number of similar blogs being born in town. Of course, Madison.com's Post would have been a great participant concerning their unique project which involves occasionally paying bloggers not directly affiliated with their web product, but whose content they may run in the paper edition. It would have also been nice to have some rural Wisconsin bloggers on board - especially on the panel concerning "Are all voices being heard in the blogosphere?"

If WisPolitics plans to continue this summit each year (and I hope they do or even consider doing it twice a year around the state), I hope they will reach out to Madison and other areas in Wisconsin for panelists and truly make it a Wisconsin Blog Summit. I also hope they will take a hard look at the corporate versus independent panel balance in the future. A blogger who does it for a paycheck or as an extension of the job they are paid to do is different then a blogger who started doing it because they have an itch to scratch.