Yes, this is for real. No, I am not kidding. Yes, these are your tax dollars at work. Yes, this is the State Department's idea of public diplomacy. No, you cannot go and heckle the speaker.

Dear Journalists:

The Washington Foreign Press Center is pleased to announce a special workshop on "Figuring Out Blogs: The Best Blogs FOR and BY Journalists and How You Can Join the Blogging Revolution as a Reader and/or Creator of Blogs," to take place on Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. The workshop is the second in a series of programs the Foreign Press Center is planning on "Information Technology and Journalism."

The workshop will be taught by Sreenath "Sree" Sreenivasa, Professor of New Media Journalism at Columbia University and a tech reporter for WABC-TV. His work explaining technology to lay readers has appeared in the "New York Times," "Business Week," "Rolling Stone," and "Popular Science." Professor Sreenivasa taught the first workshop offered by the FPC on "Smarter Surfing: Better Use of Your Web Time."

Why attend the workshop:
There is much confusion about blogs, bloggers and blogging. Is this the end of journalism as we know it? Or is it just another small step in the evolution of media? Are any worth following? You will get answers to these and other questions at this workshop.
You will learn about:
- Blog basics
- What's to love and what's to hate about blogs
- The best blogs FOR journalists
- The best blogs BY journalists
- Blogs that are changing America and the world
- Blogs that are over-hyped and a waste of time
- How to read blogs without drowning in too much info
- How to create a blog and raise your Google rankings
- Why journalists should be blogging
- Why journalists should NOT be blogging