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Last week I posted a notice about a State Department-sponsored workshop on blogging.

Yesterday the following notice was sent to the same mailing list, in advance of the event (which was held today).

THIS SESSION IS OFF-THE-RECORD; IT IS DESIGNED TO BE AN INFORMATIVE WORKSHOP FOR JOURNALISTS AND NOT AS A SUBJECT FOR REPORTING.

I am not making up the ALL CAPS thing. That is exactly how it appeared in the notice.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

First Rule of Blogging Workshop: Do Not Blog About Blogging Workshop

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

Confused About Blogs? The State Department Is Here To Help

Memetics gets some play in a commentary for the LA Times.

"Meme" is a term denoting an idea with a life of its own, proliferating the way genes do as they are passed from generation to generation. The perfect conduit of memes is the blogosphere, where there is the will and the means to allow dissent — and other forms of free expression — to reverberate.

Fighting for Freedom of the Keyboard

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