Here's the press release. It's formal and brief, I didn't include the usual quotes because I wanted to post comments here on the BloggerCon weblog; and here's Matt's post on the Dean For America weblog.

At Berkman and on Scripting News, we've been exploring the relationship between presidential politics and weblogs, and have wanted to find a way to bring the 2004 campaign into BloggerCon in a meaningful way. As the campaign developed, it became clear that the candidates were using weblogs to organize communities, and to coordinate campaign events, and to draw new support for their campaigns. We visited most of the campaigns and watched the weblogs with interest. David Weinberger, a member of the BloggerCon local host committee, and a Dean supporter, introduced Matt Gross; we had several phone talks about how to discuss campaign weblogs at our conference, and yesterday Matt and I agreed to a format.

1. On Day 1, we will have a panel, moderated by Christopher Lydon, of the chief bloggers for each of the major presidential campaigns. To qualify, a campaign must have an active weblog, and must be one of the nine current Democratic campaigns (or Clinton or Clark if they should enter) or the Bush campaign, if they have an active weblog on October 1.

2. We have contacted: Dean, Edwards, Graham, Kerry. The Dean campaign was the first to respond and the first to accept.

3. The panel will focus on how weblogs can help get us a better election in 2004. As with everything at BloggerCon, the focus is on users -- in this case the users are the electorate of the United States.

4. We will still have four panels on Day 1. The technology discussion will move to Day 2. It will be led by Susan Mernit.

5. Since Chris Lydon is moderating this panel, we will find a new moderator for the Cluetrain 2003/Second Superpower panel.

This is a very exciting development for BloggerCon. I look forward to an excellent discussion, where we share a lot, learn a lot, and have a better election in 2004 as a result.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 9/9/03; 1:25:11 PM - --

# Posted by Wendy Koslow on 9/9/03; 11:37:20 AM - --

Chris Lydon has been interviewing many of the leading lights in the weblog world in MP3 format, producing an audio document that provides an unparalled view of this moment in time in the development of blogs.

As I listen to the recordings I wish that every person coming to BloggerCon had listened to the audio, so that we all have this common beginning point. If you write a weblog, suggest to your readers that they download and listen to the full set to get the benefit of the snapshot. They won't be disappointed if they care about your work, they'll learn so much more. And please give it a try yourself.

We're thinking of providing the full set on an audio CD. Do you think that would be a good idea? I guess what I'm thing to say is that this is great stuff, it'll open your eyes, make you laugh, make you cry, make you jump for joy that there are cool people who understand the value of free speech on the Internet, and exercise it with so much interest, so much beauty.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 9/9/03; 10:06:16 AM - --