Joining the conspiracy

I went to the really excellent Liberal Conspiracy caucus tonight on the liberal left and blogging. Two very interesting sessions and a great turnout - including from the Greens who formed a hard core block at the front, because we're swots. This wont be an extensive report as I've been stuck on a damn train for God knows how long and want to go to bed - but a few thoughts before I turn in.

There was a deal of discussion about what kind of contribution the liberal left can make to political life in this country. One organiser of Labour Home (Mark?) described it as a kind of virtual town hall, filling in part of the gap left by the absence of actual town hall meetings. It was also clear this was a useful mechanism for allowing the Labour grassroots to have their say in a more direct way, and to that end they've deliberately tried to avoid editorialising.

One no2id activist described their online work as "driving a network of grassroots action" and he, along with others, saw blogging and online campaigns as very much something that assists real world campaigning rather than simply being a thing in and for itself.

There was also some discussion of the *fact* that Labour's going to lose the next general election - would this lead to a flowering of the left blogosphere and the complete disorientation of the right? Blogging to some extent thrives on dissent so leading right wing bloggers may have to make decisions come the election of the new Tory government in 2010 about how supportive, and therefore dull and pointless, they wish to be.

It's a curious point - but to be honest I think what happens to the blogosphere in these circumstances may well be the least of our worries - I digress. It was clear that blogging, when connected to real life campaigning well, could be a new tool for attracting new activists and developing an online community around the issues.

One speaker made the point that on a demo it's perfectly possible for people who hate each other to come together for a common purpose in a united fashion, but with blogging this seems to happen far less. The left blogosphere for instance is made up of largely hostile blogs who have no history of any online cooperation on the issues. I shouldn't exaggerate this point, of course, but its something that's worth grappling with I think - how do "rival" blogs work together over issues that they agree on.

There were lots of f-worders there tonight, which is among my favourite blogs, as well as another personal favourite from the cruella blog. The second session was specifically on feminism in the blogosphere. The panel was generally good, although there was one woman there who seemed to want to make personal attacks on people rather than make substantive points - but in some ways she demonstrated in person what a lot of the blogosphere can be like - personally vile - and she was a good reminder of how sensible everyone else was being.

The discussion was interesting on this and there were a number of concrete suggestions on how to bolster feminist bloggers. As you probably know I'm a great fan of a lot of the feminist blog-o-sphere, but there was a time when I didn't think it even existed. It was only via Natalie Bennett and the Carnival of Feminists that I discovered that not only was there a huge range of feminist bloggers, there were incredibly diverse, talented and interesting too.

I suspect the reason I did not come across them earlier was because there seems to be a lack of interaction between the spheres, as it were. One woman suggested that this might be because the rest of the left essentially ignores gender issues, so why would she read them? I thought that was an interesting comment and difficult to deny - but I did wonder whether this meant she only read posts that were specifically "about gender" which seems a very narrow reading habit if so, and certainly would not reflect the postings of most feminist bloggers let alone those outside of that circle.

For me I suspect it reflects a wider problem in the blogosphere which because it's so big people tend to cling to their favourites, their comfort zone, and rarely venture abroad - unless they are serial trolls. I'd like to see that trend among left leaning bloggers broken down somewhat and this mini-conference was a great start to doing just that - getting lefties recognising each other and willing to unite on the issues of note.

Well done Sunny for organising it!

Other reactions from; Tory Troll, Sunny (with pics), Charlie Beckett, Griffindor, Jim Killock, Darrell, Dave Cole 1, Dave Cole 2, the aforementioned Cruella, Ali Gledhill, Sunny again - this time on CiF, Stuart Jeffrey, Penny Red, Feminist Philosophers, Leon, Robert Sharp, Random Variable (let me know if I've missed your report off and I'll add it)