THE GREENING OF BLOGGERS CONTINUES.

Here's a nifty AP dispatch (via the Buffalo News): "Bloggers Consider Forming Labor Union." Now, was that inevitable, or what? Pretty soon, if not already, blogging will be considered a mainstream activity. There are already blogger conventions. Last week there was the KOMO-TV-LockerGnome meetup in Seattle, one of the tech hotbeds, hailed by many flattered folks as a true breakthrough in the acceptance of bloggers by the current Mainstream Media.

No doubt there'll soon be a guild, or a union--there'll be a wide range of entities to join, large and small. Some will seek, like the reported effort under way, to just get group health insurance.

And then there's the talk of raising standards. This makes me smile. All human pursuits spawn efforts to create elites. The anarchic among us -- I must be one of them, because I almost didn't use the word "us" for fear of appearing to join something -- are already bristling against organization of any kind. And no, I'm not joining the anarchists association, either.

Remember me? I'm the dude who said he wouldn't go to the KOMO event because I wanted to remain unaffiliated and unschmoozed, to preserve my fragile claim to impartiality. I hear I missed a fun time, and, I'm sure, some yummy hors d'oeuvres. And the thing was well-attended. I'm fine with that. Only a little wistful at missing connecting with a lot of nice people.

I'm happy to trade links with you to broaden the audience for blogs--I suspect bloggers mostly are ending up writing to the blogger audience, thinking wrongly that they're speaking to all the world of civilians.

I don't want to join trade organizations or unions, brotherhoods, or PACs, or whatever you end up calling them. My experience is that such orgs standardize practices in fields where being different is the right path.

THANKS, CHRIS PIRILLO. I GUESS.

Now, I'm not trying to be snarky. That said, my post on the KOMO Seattle blogger meetup drew a comment from Chris Pirillo, the apparent promoter of the event, and the popular Seattle blogger conference, Gnomedex. Chris said of my carping over KOMO's PR schmoozing of bloggers:

You shouldn't stop complaining... in fact, I'd say you should be complaining even louder now. :) Unfortunately, that's the only way companies listen (in reaction to PAIN points).

I'm trying to understand what he meant. I think he's encouraging me. Always dangerous. Anyway, thanks, Chris. You seem to get that I'm not attacking you for promoting. I'm exposing the normal, legal, process of schmoozing communications people to obtain positive coverage. KOMO-TV has a perfect right to do this, and since most bloggers are not journalists, or not professional, or both, there's nothing in their upbringing to preclude their swooning over any attention from anybody important. I come from a conventional old-time broadcaster background, so I'm not available for schmoozing. That's all.

And for this, Mr. Pirillo has earned a genuine dehype link (see sidebar).

SORRY, KOMO, THIS BLOGGER DOESN'T WANT TO BE YOUR BUDDY.

I just got an "Evite". Quote:

"KOMO-TV and its owner, Fisher Communications, has graciously agreed to serve as host for a blogger meet-up at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday August 2nd. [...] KOMO-TV is interested in getting to know bloggers in the [Seattle] area, and what better way to do that than helping facilitate this meet-up? Fisher Communications recognizes the significance of the personal media revolution, and they want to listen and pay attention to what you're saying. I think this is a good way to start."

The "I" above is Chris Pirillo, blogger, geek, Internet entrepreneur, etc. -- you can read his complete list of self-appellations on his blog. He's also founder-operator-promoter of Gnomedex, an annual schmoozefest, ahem...conference for the bloggerati, also held in Seattle. In fact this year's event, the seventh, begins just a week after the above party, which will be held at KOMO-TV's shiny headquarters near Seattle Center.

I think I read on Pirillo's site that Gnomedex 2007 is already oversubscribed, though his post seems to imply that he could be talked into opening up an overflow room and graciously accepting more registration fees.

But getting back to the invitation. I'm flattered that I made a list of Seattle area bloggers, but not starry-eyed enough to accept the invitation to come and be cooed over by the TV people, no matter how sincere they may seem about recognizing my significance. See, I have been, and plan to continue, commenting upon and sometimes criticizing KOMO-TV, and many other media organizations. So, I prefer not to drink their booze and eat their hors d'oeuvres, thanks all the same. I guess I can't help thinking I'd have a harder time blogging about them afterward, and that they--KOMO-TV and Mr. Pirillo, the self-styled self-promoter--would like that very much.

Bloggers have not build reputations for journalistic anything in the first years of the phenomenon, and, as a matter of fact, I think I want to stand over here, away from blogger trade conventions and PR stroking parties and remain free to comment on my blogger brethren, too.

So, enjoy the pop and pupus at Fisher Plaza, boys and girls. Just remember, you don't get to be universally believed if you drink the KoolAid.

P.S.: I'll use the Pirillo-prescribed tag for this post, hoping some of my fellow bloggers drop in, read it, come to their senses, and buy their own drinks.