That was one of the questions offered this morning during the opening session of the 2007 edition of the South Sound Technology Conference at UW-T. The panel discussion, which I moderated, featured Kathy Gill from UW-Seattle, Matt Rosenberg from the Cascadia Prospectus, and David Zeeck, the TNT's executive editor.

Matt offered a three-point plan:

1. Link to lots of good information (which you find through RSS and Google News searches)
2. Have an opinion
3. Write well

Kathy offered a different three-point plan:

1. Voice
2. Voice
3. Voice

Dave passed the buck to me since I'm responsible for launching and, to a lesser degree, coaching the TNT bloggers. I wish I could spend more time helping our bloggers, but most of them are doing pretty darn well on their own. The advice I offered stems from my experience with them and their blogs, since it's not this blog that is driving 25% of our site's page views (as the TNT blogs are).

1. Be knowledgeable
2. Be authentic
3. Be compelling

The last point spurred Kathy to offer a quick way to generate buzz: mention Ron Paul.

After the session, Matt and I were talking and agreed we missed the bonus point: have fun.

That is the focus of a panel discussion I'm putting together as part the 2007 South Sound Technology Conference. So if you're interested in that topic - or the concept of blogging in general - save the date and join us.

DATE: Thursday, Nov. 29
TIME: 9:00am to 1:00pm (8:30am registration)
PLACE: Carwein Auditorium of the Keystone Building on the University of Tacoma campus,

The focus of the conference, which is being spearheaded by Andrew Fry, is to discuss how blogging is changing the way we communicate, socialize and take action.

Let me know if you have suggestions for topics that should explored or questions to ask the panelists during my session.

I was one of four panelists this morning at a meeting of the South Sound chapter of PRSA and thoroughly enjoyed the exchange of information from the panelists and those in attendance. The meeting had a topic, but not an agenda, so it was able to flow freely and explore specific issues. It was a good format.

In advance, I was sent a series of questions to ponder in advance. Since I sketched out some quick thoughts on them, I figured I might as well post them in my blog since we didn't have time to get to all the questions at the meeting.

=> Read more!

Not surprisingly, our readers flocked to coverage of the Atlas explosion in October. Four of the top 12 stories focused on the incident and fallout.

Surprisingly, however, is our second most popular story last month: a Soundlife feature about  pumpkin patterns and templates. It was the month of Halloween, after all.

1 Explosions rock Tacoma's Nalley Valley  (Staff)
2 Pumpkin patters - Top templates contest  (Staff)
3 She thought she knew Vera. It wasn't Vera. (Robinson)
4 Atlas video shows deadly sequence (Demsky)
5 Everything shook, then went black  (Staff)
6 Hasselback nearly hit by falling TV camera (Hughes, Beene, Divish)  
7 In foundry's charred belly investigators look for clues (Demsky)  
8 Jail guard sex case takes on add turn (Robinson)
9 For $1,499 Franchione too can have a clue (McGrath)
10 After the bye Hawks get receiver boost (Beene)
11 Fix it Holmgren, this one's on you (Boling)
12 Neighbors point fingers at club (Fontaine)

An Auburn High cheerleader was in the wrong place at the wrong time last Friday night. Or was she?

Cali Kaltschmidt was accidentally trampled by her own football team. But the corresponding video footage has made her semi-famous. (And, thankfully, she didn't get hurt in the incident.) According to this P-I story, she appeared on "Good Morning America" yesterday after "narrowing down a list of national media entities knocking down her door."

Goes to show you how different that "15 minutes of fame" can be in the digital age. In years past, the footage would have appeared on local TV, then maybe a national show, but then alive only in the memories of those who actually saw it. Now, thanks to the web, the video on YouTube can be viewed over, and over, and over, and ...

As of this morning, it's been viewed 1,134,695 times and has over 2,000 comments. Here it is: