We haven't had a chance to talk much about the upcoming Blog World Expo -- we've been too busy working on the interactive show guide. For now I'll just mention the hotel deadline: Monday, Aug. 18.

We didn't have any trouble getting a room after the deadline last year, though that was in November....

Here's a quick outline:

Sep 19, 2008

• Executive & Entrepreneur Conference
• Partner Programs
• Citizen Journalism Workshop

Sep 20, 2008

• Blogworld Conference & Exhibits
• Partner Programs

Sep 21, 2008

• Blogworld Conference & Exhibits
• Partner Programs

Here is number 7 in our series on women in blogging, covering travel, hobbies, crafts and do-it-yourself.

Recreation & Sports 14 contributors to 4 blogs
Hobbies, Crafts & DIY
	732			Yarn Harlot		Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Travel
	1,554			Gadling		Catherine Bodry	Contributor
						Anna Brones	Contributor
						Abha Malpani	Contributor
						Kelsey Mulyk	Contributor
						Jamie Rhein	Contributor
						Iva Skoch	Contributor
	2,619			Gridskipper		Katherine Boyle	Senior Vice President
						Rebecca Armendariz	Executive Director
						Stacy Dorgan Bentz	Editor
						Katherine Spiers	Editor
						Alisa Gould-Simon
DIY
	14,589			MAKE: Blog		Shawn Connally	Managing Editor
						Natalie Zee Drieu	Senior Editor
		Legend
		Blogcosm profile of this blog
		Link directly to the blog

Blogging is important because it gives individuals a voice. Today's Boston Globe has an inspiring example.

Kenny Cieplik, now 33, has been in a wheelchar since suffering a brain aneurism at age 11. This March, he and some friends created a blog: The Traveling Wheelchair.

Cieplik visits all types of establishments - banks, beaches, post offices, libraries, restaurants, and parks - and rates them on wheelchair accessibility, using a scale of zero to five stars. ... The result: an emerging map-by-blog that paints a picture of the region's accessibility - from a wheelchair user's perspective.

His approach is pragmatic:

Every review on TheTravelingWheelchair.com contains recommendations on how the place can improve its rating. For example, based on the recent trip to Old Tyme Photo, Cieplik suggested the shop install small threshold ramps, which can be purchased for under $100.

I hope he inspires lots of imitators! (If anyone knows of similar blogs in other locales, please let us know.)

Read the whole article for details:

Last week, The New York Times covered suburban blogs:

a few have built serious local journalism operations, while others have developed a following on certain topics and bask in the muted limelight of Internet fame. ....  For readers, the blogs are providing news in ways unseen in traditional local news media.

Read the article for their stories; here are some numbers:

Baristanet:

• gets 18,000 readers on peak days
• generates more than $10,000 in monthly profits

New Haven Independent:

• receives $185,000 in grants, corporate sponsorships and private donations

From the Associated Press and USA Today:

12-year-old Tavi Gevinson ... [is] part of a young generation of fashion bloggers who display pictures of their outfits for all to see. ... To some wary adults, she's in a world where she doesn't belong.

Some links:

• Her blog: Style Rookie
• July 22 post on NY Mag's "the Cut" blog: Meet Tavi, the 12-Year-Old Fashion Blogger
• July 25 followup (not mentioned in the article): Tween Blogger Tavi Makes It Big With Fashion Editors

One other young blogger was mentioned:

• Brooke Kao of The Fashion Void That is DC

Read the whole thing for several views ... wary or otherwise.

I meant to cover this article last week, but it got lost in the shuffle. The subtitle says it all:

They have descriptions; we have data:

Number 6 in our series, these women blog about music, movies, TV, online video, humor -- and of course celebrity gossip.

Entertainment 92 contributors to 20 blogs
Celebrity Gossip
	33			TMZ.com		Gillian Sheldon	Supervising Producer
	57			Jezebel		Tracie Egan	Editor
						Moe Tkacik	Editor
						Anna Holmes	Managing Editor
						Jennifer Gerson	Associate Editor
						Jessica Grose	Associate Editor
						Maria-Mercedes Lara	Editorial Assistant
						Dodai Stewart	Senior Editor
	458			Defamer		Molly Friedman	Associate Editor
						Molly McAleer	Videographer
	614			POPSUGAR		Lisa Sugar	Editor in Chief
						Molly Goodson	Contributor
	716			Best Week Ever		Michelle Collins	Senior Editor
	1,022			Go Fug Yourself		Heather Cocks
						Jessica Morgan
	1,252			Pop Crunch		Darla K.	Editor
						Sherry O.	Editor
						Castina W.	Senior Editor
	1,467			Celebrity Baby Blog		Danielle Friedland	Founder and Publisher
						Sarah at CBB	Editor
						Angela at CBB	Editor
						Bronwyn at CBB	former Editor
						Teba at CBB	Contributor
						Stephanie at CBB	Contributor
						Nancy at CBB	Contributor
						Missy at CBB	Contributor
						Jen at CBB	Contributor
						Anya at CBB	Contributor
						Carlie at CBB	Contributor
						Jamey at CBB	Contributor
						Ciaran at CBB	Contributor
						Shannon at CBB	Contributor
						Reva at CBB	Contributor
						Kiersten at CBB	former Contributor
						Alyk at CBB	former Contributor
						Twyla at CBB	former Contributor
						Gina at CBB	former Contributor
						Char at CBB	former Contributor
						Kirrily at CBB	former Contributor
						Kaisa at CBB	former Contributor
						Julie at CBB	Photographer
						Jennifer Parris	Photographer
	2,511			Cele|bitchy		Cara Harrington	Writer
						White Trash Mom	Writer
						Chic Mommy	Writer
						Tina	Writer
						Celebitchy	Contributor
						Helen	Contributor
						Jaybird	Contributor
						MSat	Contributor
	2,641			ecorazzi.com		Rebecca Carter	Co-Founder
						Nina Braten	Contributing Editor
						Paige Davis	Contributing Editor
						Sally Glover	Contributing Editor
						Megan Hilfer	Contributing Editor
						Lynn Lopez	Contributing Editor
						Stefani Newman	Contributing Editor
						Christine Petrozzo	Contributing Editor
						Jen Sall	Contributing Editor
						Kelli Shields	Contributing Editor
						Gina Stowe	Contributing Editor
						Summer Bowen	Reporter
						Anna Griffin	Reporter
						Valerie Lapinski	Reporter
						Mollie Magill	Reporter
						Sarah Shewey	Reporter
						Margaret Teich	Reporter
						Melissa Rosenberg	Photographer
						Melanie Jones	MySpace Manager
	4,319			BuzzSugar		Buzz Sugar
Humor
	1,929			Cute Overload		Meg Frost
Movies
	241			Cinematical		Jessica Barnes
						Monika Bartyzel
						Jette Kernion
						Elisabeth Rappe
						Kim Voynar
TV
	480			TV Squad		Isabelle Carreau	Contributor
						Jen Creer	Contributor
						Brigitte Dale	Contributor
	5,515			WHEDONesque		Caroline van Oosten de Boer
Entertainment
	3,018			CONCRETELOOP.COM		Angel Laws	Founder and Editor
Science Fiction
	50			io9		Annalee Newitz	Editor
						Meredith Woerner	Associate Editor
						Charlie Jane Anders	News Editor
						Lisa Katayama	Contributor
						Lynn Peril	Contributor
						Ann VanderMeer	Contributor
Online Video
	747			NewTeeVee		Liz Gannes	Editor
						Carolyn Pritchard	Managing Editor
Music
	1,431			Idolator		Jess Harvell	Editor at Large
						Maura Johnston	Editor
	1,459			Listening Post		Angela Watercutter	Contributor
		Legend
		Blogcosm profile of this blog
		Link directly to the blog

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times covered a study that appeared in a recent medical journal.

The study looked at 271 blogs written by physicians or nurses (in 2006).

Some highlights:

• 42% of the blogs included descriptions of interactions with patients
• 17% included sufficient information for patients to identify their doctors or themselves
• 3 blogs showed recognizable photographic images of patients
• 11.4% of healthcare blogs had postings promoting healthcare products, but few mentioned the author's conflict of interest
• roughly 65% of the blogs are written anonymously

Also worth noting: according to study author Lagu, "bloggers' intentions are mostly good, but it's not clear all are doing enough to protect patients' privacy and to avoid undermining patients' trust in physicians."

We tracked down the study (not linked by the Times):

The Times article also describes a medical blogging phenomenon referred to as Grand Rounds, "a weekly compilation of the Internet's best medical postings." They are "a free-wheeling collection of rants, shop talk, case studies and learned commentary."

Here's the link (which the Times omitted): Grand Rounds.

Also not mentioned in the article: there are similar weekly "best of" blog roundups for many different topics. These are often referred to as blog carnivals.

Several bloggers were mentioned in the LA Times; here's our usual summary table:

						Legend
								Link directly to the blog
??								We haven't had a chance to review

The Times article:

Number 5 in our series: here are the female tech bloggers. (As always: feedback welcome.)

Computers & Internet 69 contributors to 46 blogs
Search
	65			Search Engine Land		Vanessa Fox	Editor
						Rebecca Kelley	Editor
						Christine Churchill	Contributor
	1,218			Search Engine Watch Blog		Rebecca Lieb	Vice President and Editor-in-Chief
						Nathania Johnson	Correspondent
						Debby Richman	Correspondent
						Amanda Watlington	Correspondent
Google
	2,212			The Official Google Reader Blog		Jenna Bilotta	Contributor
						Susan Shepard	Contributor
	10,900			Vanessa Fox. Nude.		Vanessa Fox
Tech News
	508			Epicenter		Betsy Schiffman
	1,434			BoomTown		Kara Swisher
	1,868			Tech Digest		Katherine Hannaford	former Editor
	1,892			I4U		Jody Baram	Journalist
	3,202			last100.com		Guinevere Orvis	Contributor
	4,626			Geek Culture		Nitrozac
	6,247			Podcasting News		Elisabeth McLaury Lewin	Publisher
Web Design
	91			Signal vs. Noise		Sarah Hatter	Contributor
	1,928			Veerle's blog 2.0		Veerle Pieters
	9,985			Emily Chang		Emily Chang
	26,979			Essential Keystrokes		Charlene Polanosky
Web Commentary
	2,658			Charlene Li's Blog		Charlene Li
	15,507			Daily Bits		Skellie	Writer
	21,736			Susan Mernit's Blog		Susan Mernit
WordPress
	1,146			Lorelle on WordPress		Lorelle VanFossen
Web News
	2			TechCrunch		Heather Harde	CEO
	12			Mashable		Kristen Nicole	Lead Writer
						Tamar Weinberg
	12			Read/Write Web		Corvida	Writer
						Sarah Perez	Writer
	45			GigaOM		Katie Fehrenbacher	Editor
						Liz Gannes	Editor
						Carleen Hawn	Editor
						Judi Sohn	Editor
						Carolyn Pritchard	Managing Editor
						Stacey Higginbotham	Writer
						Georgia Flight	Contributor
						Karina Longworth	Contributor
						Jane Pinckard	Contributor
	241			O'Reilly Radar		Sarah Milstein	former Editor
	252			Download Squad		Lisa Hoover
						Christina Warren
	10,411			eHub		Emily Chang
Social Networking
	3,223			Apophenia		danah boyd
	4,101			techipedia		Tamar Weinberg
	5,205			Beth's Blog		Beth Kanter
	9,846			everydotconnects		Connie Reece
	37,578			Contentious Weblog		Amy Gahran
	38,767			BloggerSocial		Christina Kerley
Blogging
	133			BlogHer		Jory Des Jardins	Co-Founder
						Elisa Camahort Page	Co-Founder
						Lisa Stone	Co-Founder
						Gina Garrubbo	Executive Vice President
	947			The Blog Herald		Randa Clay	Contributor
						Lorelle VanFossen	Contributor
	3,352			Skelliewag.org		Skellie
	4,264			Blogging Tips		Yuwanda Black
						Amanda Fazani
						Kristen Larson
	6,135			NorthxEast		Skellie	Guest Blogger
	6,395			Profy		Cyndy Aleo-Carreira
	7,106			Weblogs, Inc.		Barb Dybwad	Senior Programming Manager
	15,509			Blogging Basics 101		Melanie Nelson
	18,227			Dipping into the Blogpond		Meg Tsiamis
	21,958			Blogging Sueblimely		Sueblimely
	22,431			Six Apart		Mena Trott	Co-Founder and President
	23,203			BlogWrite For CEOs		Debbie Weil
Web Development
	1,309			microformats		Frances Berriman	Contributor
	8,209			OStatic		Lisa Hoover

		Legend
		Blogcosm profile of this blog
		Link directly to the blog

Erick Schonfeld has the story both at TechCrunch and syndicated on WashingtonPost.com.

Some details:

• Sony Pictures Television will handle distribution and ad sales.
• Rocketboom gets "a seven-figure guarantee plus share of the revenues."
• Rocketboom will be distributed on Sony's Crackle video site plus the PS3, PSP, and Bravia I-Link TV.

And a key quote:

Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron says he went with Sony because of Sony's distribution strengths and the deal allows him to maintain control of the business. (Whereas selling the business to another media buyer, such as WallStrip did to CBS a year ago for $5 million, would have required him to give up his baby).