Brooklyn Blogfest Rocks

Much will be written over the next day or two about the Brooklyn Blogfest, which took place last night at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, and attracted 100 people. (100 was the capacity limit of the building). It was organized by Louise Crawford of OTBKB (above) who opened the festivities that she had planned the First Annual Blogfest as a sort of "joke" and chose the name because it "sounded grand, overblown and kind of ridiculous." (Thanks, Louise, for again pulling this together!!!) The time between the idea and the first and second blogging events, she said, have shown both the breadth of blogging in Brooklyn and the depth of the "shared passion for Brooklyn."

Speakers at the event included Steve Berlin Johnson of outside.in, Lumi Michelle Rolly of No Land Grab, Jonathan Butler of Brownstoner, Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report and Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times.

Mr. Johnson noted "the rise of local place bloggers providing information about the zone of information that I care the most about." He said he believes that bloggers "are the future" and that Brooklyn itself is on the cutting edge of the trend nationally.

Ms. Rolley assailed the mainstream press for its "undercoverage" of critical Brooklyn issues such as Atlantic Yards. "Without the Brooklyn blogosphere, Brooklynites would have no freaking idea" of the details of such a major develoment."

Mr. Butler of Brownstoner said that blogging had created "a transparency to the process" and added "the power and impact and resonance of community."

As if to prove that even the most serious of Brooklyn bloggers have an exceptional sense of humor, Atlantic Yards Report's Mr. Oder--who is renowned for his in-depth and authoritative coverage of Atlantic Yards--was given a super hero cape as an "Uber Blogger" and wore the red cape while making his remarks. He discussed "the journalism of verification" and noted that AYR is "a piece of journalism" and that many blogs adhering to serious journalistic standards can be found around Brooklyn.

GL also made remarks about the impact that Brooklyn blogging has had and the fact that bloggers now form the foundation of the information food chain and are helping shape the public discourse in key ways. We noted our believe that mainstream media had abrogated its responsibility to cover critical Brooklyn issues and that blogs were filling a critical void. "It's all about shining a light on things," we said. "The days when you can demolish a building, for instance, and no one would notice are over. Today, within 45 minutes of the first brick being removed, one of us will have a photo online and within two hours we all will."

We want to thank everyone that introduced themselves and said kind things about GL. It gives us the motivation to work even harder. It was wonderful meeting the bloggers behind such blogs as Kinetic Carnival and Clinton Hill Blog and Runs Brooklyn and Test of Will whose work we respect and we know we missed talking with a bunch of others.

Make sure to read Louise Crawford's rundown of the event at OTBKB as well as Sewell Chan's excellent rundown of the event at the Empire Zone, the New York Times blog.

In a word, the Brooklyn Blogfest was fun.


Steve Berlin Johnson, outside.in


Jonathan Butler, Brownstoner