CJ’s panel started about 5 minutes ago, but the wireless connection here is slowing down real bad. I’ll be saving the posts a little less so I can try to keep up.

1109: Ward Carrol has started the panel and introducing the topics.

1114: More pokes at Matt’s rock star status. He hates it when we do this. Ward also asked if our milblogs are still important to the public. I’ll hold my opinion for the end because I’m sure CJ will voice it for me.

1116: CJ is about to introduce himself and give a little bio. We all know how CJ got this site started, I’ll skip that for now. I will mention CJ still deal with his demons that got this site started.

1117: Greyhawk is giving his intro, giving props to Smash, one of our first milbloggers. Greyhawk says there is discouragement in Iraq and Afghanistan concerning milblogger. He is going to talk more about that later.

1121: The net connection is really suffering right now. Not too happy about that, but I’m trying to keep up. The next panelist is speaking, but I didn’t catch his name. He works on the Obama campaign so this will be interesting.

1123: Matt is giving his intro, he doesn’t really need one. He is telling us about how he started his blog. He asks how doe we take it to the next level? I hope he’ll go into depth with that more later.

1125: Well, Matt dived into what he is doing early. He is sending folks over to the war zone, Blackfive TV, bring more people on board. He says he is turning into the MSM and it scares the crap out of him.

1126: First question, what is the definition of relevance?

1127: Matt is going to answer first. Well, maybe not. The Obama guy’s name is Phil, by the way. Phil said we have to work to keep this story on the minds of Americans.

1128: Ward asked if the Obama campaign is going to get the milblogosphere to convince others that Obama would make a good commander in chief.

1129: CJ throws his opinion in. He writes only because it is relevant to him. He doesn’t care if there are readers or not. He wasn’t able to blog for part of last year and it drove him crazy.

1137: The tape ran out on the video camera, so I missed a bit of Matt speaking while I opened a new pack and loaded back up. Not sure how much video we missed there.

1138: A guy just walked up next to me taking pictures while wearing a McCain Palin button. Not sure if he is campaign staff, but interesting.

1138: There was a question if we can take milblogs and turn them into a way to help service members. CJ answers he became a 1stSgt for that reason. He mentions he gets emails from soldiers thanking him for posting things to help troops.

1140: John Donovan’s blog got him on his representative’s advisory council. I’d say we are very relevant.

1142: Same guy asking first question asks how we can combine all sources of help for returning soldiers.

1143: Phil says it’d be really hard for DoD to do that since the different branches operate differently in different areas. Ward continues saying local communities should combine all those resources.

1144: Holly of Soldier’s Angels mentions that relevance depends on the intended audience and the unintended audience. CJ says our unintended is full of a bunch of crazies. He isn’t lying. Trust me.

1145: Matt goes on to say that General staffers, White House staffers, etc are uninteded. Matt says his mom when she called and said, “I’ve found your blog.” He had to change his voice a bit.

1146: Phil continues to say the media is also unintended. Ward also talks about the media calling him up.

1148: Greyhawk is talking about how he started a bit more. He says he started with no real audience in mind. People who start blogs are people who like to write and want to communicate. I have to agree, that is how I got my start with political blogging back in 2004.

1150: Greyhawk says when he writes about a fallen American one of the first comments is usually from the family. He mentioned one lady who contacted him when he first wrote about her husband and has maintained correspondence ever since.

1151: Military One Source is here! Yay! I love those guys and gals. Their rep says they are a good source of information in a centralized place and are official.

1156: More camera problems. The battery this time. Well, I don’t know how many of the sessions I’m going to record live. We will have man on the street interviews, though! CJ is good at that stuff.

1157: Greyhawk is talking about emails he gets ranging from PTSD to new recruits.

1158: Phil is talking about when he was overseas and he didn’t want his family to know about the contact he was taking while here. He bridges it to self editing so that loved ones do not worry too much.

1202: Now we’ve moved on to talking about the problem with disconnect between the senior most leadership to the commanders on the ground in regards to blogging. This is one my heart really attaches to as I’ve had some problems with my immediate command being worried about my blogging. I still tip toe on that issue so I’m not going to get into that here.

1206: Out of time on this panel. More later!