BlogMob: Smaller Indiana Members Use Blogging Stunt To Attract Attention

Bloggers took to the streets in downtown Indianapolis today for BlogMob—a publicity stunt designed to promote blogging and the upcoming BlogIn event (April 26, 2008). The bloggers were part of Smaller Indiana, a social network designed to help make “people and ideas more findable”. In just a few months, the network has attracted more than 1800 members.

The BlogMob event attracted a variety of bloggers to the city center, known to locals as Monument Circle, despite the chilly early Spring weather. Participants managed to overcome both natural obstacles (the glare of the sun on laptop screens) and man-made challenges (the wireless signal was weak and dropped often) and cranked out blog posts, sent updates to Twitter, and uploaded photos to photo-sharing service Flickr.

Several interesting discussions took place among Smaller Indiana members as local news reporters snapped shots of the bloggers. Several media outlets were present and interviewed local bloggers.

BlogIn is an unconference— an event where, according to Wikipedia, “the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event.registration is now open.” Smaller Indiana organizers say they created the BlogIn for anyone interested in learning more about blogs, bloggers and blogging.

Attending BlogIn is very affordable—perhaps too much so—as tickets are only $10 for the full day event. If you’re one of those folks who says, “They’re only charging $10. How good can a $10 event be?,” don’t let the low price affect your decision. We’re encouraging local folks to attend the event as it should serve as an excellent networking and learning opportunity. And, at $10, how can you go wrong?