Netroots Coalition meeting: Larry Thorson & Rick Spisak

The first two presentations in the Netroots Coalition meeting at the Florida Democratic Party convention were about some of the nuts and bolts of blogging and activism.

Larry Thorson of Miami-Dade Dems kicked things off with "How To Be A Reporter." Larry, who was an AP reporter for 25 years before launching his blog, covered a number of differences between blogs and traditional news reporting. He emphasized that bloggers can fill the void in an environment where traditional media reporters are being laid off or otherwise leaving the scene. But anyone can do it and anyone can have a voice in the age of the Internet.

Rick Spisak, of Avery Voice, continued the theme by explaining how utterly easy it is to post video and be a web producer. He showed a cute, brief, "silent" video emphasizing his point:

The point of both presentations, really, was to "de-mystify" blogging and Internet media and encourage people to be involved.