This session is designed for individuals or businesses who are new to blogging or just getting started with various aspects of new media. Basic terminology will be defined and commonly used practices will be demystified. Attendees who have never used new media before will leave the session with a basic understanding of the industry, while more advanced users will gain a better understanding of different forms of new media applications.

In today's busy blogosphere, it's not enough to have a blog. Using images, video, radio, podcasts and more can take a blog to a completely different level. In this session you'll learn why bells and whistles are important and how easy it is to implement new media into your blog.

In this ever-diversifying and increasingly multicultural online world, how are diverse cultures and ethnic groups using the web? How can bloggers, online communities, gamers, webmasters attract more diverse readerships and user bases? This panel has experts to address these concerns and open your eyes on how to communicate better with everyone. Race, gender, nationality, cultural differences and global thinking will all be explored.

You just wrote the greatest blog post you’ve ever written. You researched the subject, spoke with sources, conducted interviews and completed a well thought out, well written article. You hit the post button and your baby is up. Here comes the praise! The first comment you receive? “You’re stupid, you’re ugly and you’re writing sucks.” Whether you call them trolls, haters or griefers, they’re out there, waiting to ruin your day, harm your community and taint your world.

Or maybe the first comment was something like, “Hey, nice article, check out mine!” Just like there are people who’d like to harm you, there are also people who’d like to cheaply benefit from your work and your audience. Spammers can do their own sort of damage.

But, neither of these two groups need harm you, if you know how to deal with them. This panel will give you the knowledge you need to tackle it.

Open Source has played a critical role in shaping the media landscape in the world around us for the last decade by democratizing the world of publishing. This session will introduce attendees to the fundamentals of open source, but more specifically to open source publishing, syndication and distribution. It will introduce you to the software that powers the web sites of the world's leading media brands, and show how you easily can harness their power as well. This session will also look ahead to the future of open source and open source blogging, seek to better understand the social and technical obstacles that face the world of new media, and characterize the leaders and companies that will keynoting at BlowWorld two to three years from now.

This session will serve as an introduction to the world of open source and open source blogging.