The Norman Transcript

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August 23, 2008

State bloggers covering convention

By M. Scott Carter

Tim Reese may be an attorney.

And may be a community activist.

But next week he's a blogger.

And he's covering the Democratic National Convention.

Named the "official Oklahoma blog" (geek speak for "Web log") for the Democrats' 2008 convention, Reese's -- and partner Calvin Rees -- DemoOkie Web site will be providing first-hand accounts of the convention's entire seven day run.

The pair's Web site was chosen from "about a half dozen" state Web sites that applied to the Democratic National Committee for the title.

"We went through the mystery machine and out came our name," Reese said.

Reese said each state will have one blogger who will be embedded and sit with that state's delegation on the convention floor.

"We'll attend all the events, all the meetings. We're going to try and focus on the non-traditional news. More on the stuff you don't see. For example, we're going to interview some of the younger delegates on how they got there. Ask them how they were able to come, things like that."

Additionally, DemoOkie's volunteer staff will be packing digital cameras and voice recorders to provide images and podcasts of the event.

"We're going to do video interviews and share those with Oklahoma on YouTube," he said.

Their coverage doesn't come cheap.

While they don't have to worry about making print or broadcast deadlines, Reese and company do have to cover all their own expenses.

"We're paying for it ourselves," he said. "But we knew that was going to happen when we put our name in."

With their laptops, digital cameras, credentials and high-speed typing ability, Reese said DemoOkie volunteers will be in Denver's Pepsi Center on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, providing live, from-the-floor coverage.

However, because Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech has been moved to Denver's Mile High Stadium, Thursday's coverage will "prove a little more difficult" for the group.

"On Thursday, we'll be trying to post as much as possible, then fly out Friday afternoon."

Almost 10 years old, the DemoOkie Web site is considered one of the Oklahoma cyber community's main watering holes for Democratic political activists.

"We've been around for a long time," Reese said. "And next week, I think we're going to get a lot of traffic. Sure, people are going to watch the mainstream press and they're going to read the newspapers. But we want to provide something more like a two-way dialogue. I think it's changing where we get our information from, people get the chance to analyze information and share their thoughts with hundreds of others, and they get the chance to know what the delegates are thinking."

The DemoOkie blog can be found at: www.demookie.com. During the convention, the site can be found at www.denverokie.com.

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