DNCC Blogger Details Still a Puzzle

A daily American Samoa seat raffle in the Blogger Lounge. The Big Tent. The Mile High Stadium events. The inadequacy of three thousand data lines -- just some of the many mysteries unfolding in Denver.
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It's like an LSAT question: if bloggers W, X, Y and Z from publications A, B, C, D, and E apply for passes 1, 2, and 3, the bloggers to receive the three passes must have Technorati stats equal to the circumference of the sun divided by pi times .003 (or some other formula nobody knows) and only those bloggers with more than 120 political posts on their blogs combined with TwitterIDs that match handles shorter than their domain names and Facebook friends above the square root of the size of the stadium, then they can attend the Democratic National Convention (except it's the Democratic National Committee Convention, abbreviated as DNCC) part of the general blogger pool or state blogger corps, trading arena passes for floor passes along the way.

For months, bloggers have been sweating over access and the marathon seems to only be half over. Credentials have been decided upon, but for all of the people who will be attending as media, the number of passes allotted won't cover half of them. Over 15,000 members of the media are expected, from 46 countries. Now with the announcement that the final night will take place at the Invesco Field at Mile High stadium, the rest of the bloggers want to know how they can get in, and as MOMocrats Founder & Managing Editor, Glennia Campbell tweeted during the Denver convention walk-through, "Answer to most questions by DNCC 'I don't know'."

With 3,000 data lines to wire the convention hall alone and floor seating available to bloggers for only a small amount of time per day, Internet access still concerns convention participants. The Bloggers' Lounge will be a locker room. Add to that the move of Thursday night's events to the stadium and related security concerns, some bloggers are saying it will be easier to cover the event from the outside. According to Campbell, however, the facilitator from the bloggers' session at the walk-through noted one wild card blogger opportunity: "American Samoa is not sending a blog to sit with their delegation, so every morning, they will hold a drawing in the Bloggers Lounge for anyone who would like to sit with the Samoan delegation that day."

Meanwhile, outside the police line, a two-story Big Tent, hosted by Daily Kos, Progress Now, and The Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado, will provide a place for bloggers to go to write, eat, drink and network on- and offline. Sponsored by Digg, Google, New Belgium Brewing (Fat Tire Ale), and The Wright Group, aka the tent builders, the event will be a 9,000 square foot respite for bloggers throughout the convention. Big Tent seems to have put a lot of time and effort into developing an equitable process for all of the applicants, finalized Sunday. Bobby Clark from Big Tent could understandably not be reached for comment, but the email communications to all applicants have been thorough and considerate throughout the process.

Another option for those wanting to stay in the loop include the YouTube 2008 Conventions channel (for both Democrats and Republicans). For some, the new iPhone update arrived just in time to publish via iPhone on the new TypePad app, regardless of location. With mobile blogging applications expanding weekly, bloggers may find themselves utilizing those tools the most during the DNCC. The best idea is probably just to grab a mobile broadband modem, assuming cell phones can get a signal inside.

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