I came to Davos this year hoping to talk about entrepreneurship in Africa and media attention. I’ve ended up talking about blogging more or less constantly.
In the panel on media bias, the moderator flagged me as a blogger. That’s all it took. Since then, I’ve been stopped in the halls by folks who want to know if I’m “that geek guy who blogs”. I’ve given a couple of impromptu workshops in couches outside the sessions and hope that some of my NGO friends will have blogs up before I see them next year.
It’s not clear to me why Davos folks are so interested in the blog phenomenon. It’s not like there’s a big blogger presence here – Joi is blogging, as is Loic, and Joi points, this morning, to Billmon, a working journalist blogging after hours. Compared to the tech conferences I blog, there’s no one reporting here.
But clearly something about blogging captures people’s attention. I’m wondering if it’s a reflection of a Davos attitude towards media. Media are pretty clearly treated like second-class citizens here. Working journalists have brown badges, which prevent them from getting into most sessions and some areas. My guess is that most of the folks here are so important, they’re well beyond courting media and expect, instead to be courted.
So perhaps Davos folks are interested in blogging because they’re willing to overturn the media establishment. Or maybe it just looks like those of us sitting in corners, pounding on laptops, are having a lot of fun…