Bloggers are beginning to meet more often in the DC Metro area. In person. Over drinks. And if you were looking for a reason to start a blog, this is a good one.
I keep track of blogs in the DC area on dcblogs.com I categorize local bloggers and highlight interesting posts from local blogs. There are efforts in a number of cities and states to list and index blogs but my focus is to offer more than that — I want to help build a local blog community.
By highlighting local blogs, I want to encourage readers to explore other blogs and broaden DC blog readership. But this community building is taking an interesting direction.
There’s a marked increase of informal gatherings by bloggers. The blog authors that organize them often extend open invites to the DC blogging community. We also have a local Weblogger group that is also seeing an increase in attendance.
This is more than just people getting together for drinks: it’s networking. Bloggers are making new friends and building supportive social networks that may also lead to dates and job leads.
Encourage development of your local blog community by reading local blogs, leaving comments, and organizing or attending gatherings of bloggers.
I’ve learned a lot about the city and met new people because of blogging. Blogging returns far more than I could have ever imagined.
Article comments
1 - Bob A. Booey
Everyone should buy that Putnam book. He's probably America's most respected political scientist.
That is all.
2 - Scott Butki
KOB, email me about when your next meeting is. If it's on a weekend I can make it.
I heard the Putnam book was good as an article but more fluffy when extended to a
whole book.
3 - Bob A. Booey
Nah, it has almost a hundred pages of footnotes and appendices with data, graphs and charts to document the arguments made. The topic matter is more political sociology than his comparative politics studies of say, democracy in Italy, but I don't know if that makes the book any "fluffier." The research is good and serious, as one would expect of Putnam.
That is good.