Topics included:

*The upcoming, 2007 Yearly Kos convention (August 2-5 in Chicago)
*How well are blogs reaching the mainstream
*The collision of the blogosphere with traditional media

Here are my notes from the show, which you can listen to right here.

Matt Bai:  First member of "corporate media" on Heading Left's Blog Talk Radio show.   One of first mainstream reporters to take the blogosphere seriously.   Not a technological early adaptor, not much of a blog reader.  Believes anything that engages ordinary people, voters, more in the process is a good thing.   So few people actually vote, get involved; this is a prime cause of what's wrong in the political system.   What captivated me about the blogs - incredible conduit for people to get involved in the process.

Gina Cooper:  It was difficult at first to get political figures and corporate media to take YearlyKos seriously.  Didn't have a lot of resources.  Very fast evolution, didn't start with much to begin with.  Matt Bai was the first to contact Gina.  Bai gave her advice.

McJoan:  How blogs and corporate media interact?  I think we're having an impact.  For instance, prosecutor purge story, didn't raise eyebrows in traditional media for a while.  Major props to Josh Marshall.  Bubbled up to national traditional media.   What is general public hearing nationally?   Missing 18 days in e-mails released by Justice Department...I love these fun little connections to Watergate.

Matt Bai: How does the media react to bloggers driving these stories, on their turf?  Prosecutor story was a terrific use of blogs, where things are heading, most promising practical public service aspect of what blogs have created - ability to connect dots that reporters don't always have.  Technology has made it easier to look at what's happening in a bunch of difference local places, figure out connections.   Better interaction between media and bloggers than the "parasitic" model - taking what MSM does, rant about it.  This is the blogs having a positive impact.

Does MSM see blogs as a threat, adversarial?  Bai is going back to YearlyKos this year.  A little too much animosity in both directions - blogs and MSM.  One of the frustrations with the blogs is that there is a sense that there's sort of a self-inflated idea of how much influence, how central the blogs can be.  Necessary to building a community.  When you spend a lot of time on the blogs, it skews your perspective, you start to think that everything is blog related.  Lots of conspiracy theories.  Very myopic view of the world, frustrating to people in the media, not everything is a conspiracy theory, not everything is done out of corporate or ideological motives.  Need to have people talk to each other.  Blogs and media meet each other, become less mystified to each other.

People want to make sure they're heard by the blogs, they want to engage.  Bloggers having lunch with Bill Clinton.   At least mitigate what is said about them, if not influence them.  Need to hire bloggers, talk with bloggers, have lines of communication open.

Gina:  Knew that there would be a good opportunity to promote the blogosphere with the media.  Get some higher profile speakers, the media would be there to cover it.  Blogosphere growing in influence.  If you're covering politics, you have to cover us as well.  Matt published a story in the NY Times magazine about Yearly Kos...phones started ringing off the hook.  It was overwhelming, also incredibly fun.  Show that there are human beings in the blogosphere.  Rhetoric can be pretty tough at times.  People who are just incredibly passionate about politics and are frustrated.  We were able to show that we're people who take action.

McJoan: The democratic (small "d") nature of blogs is the most exciting thing for me.  Local aspect of things.  Meeting place for people active politically locally.  Idaho, Nebraska, Miss, Alabama, etc.  Helps really build community to find the narrative thread for the entire country in how various stories are playing out locally.  I do feel that I am fully a member of the community, I just happen to post on the left side of the page rather than the right side of the page primarily.   How Markos picks his front pagers every year is through a nominating process.  No bribes yet.   Joan is now a "fellow" of Daily Kos...now her full-time job.

Matt:  Coming out with a book.  The Argument:  Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.  August 28 is the publication date.  It's about two years, election 2004 to election 2006, emergence of a new progressive movement in country.  I do talk about Yearly Kos...about donors, activists, what's happening inside the party.   I see a genuine progressive movement.  There are swaths of people in different points in life using different entry points.  Combine netroots, donors and activists - whole new movement, changing direction and course of the party.  Traditionally, movements have very strong substantive arguments about course of the country.  People in the progressive movement casting about beyond tactics - real question, real search about what the future of a vastly changed country going to be.   Issue of looking harder at what the country actually needs.

Gina:  This year's YearlyKos, got big names coming.  Matt and Joan will be moderators for Presidential leadership forum.   Do something a little bit different than in Presidential debates. Try to have a conversation.  Need to talk more about big ideas, Progressive vision for the future of America.  Hopefully we can achieve that.   Last year, 1,200 people (1,000 regular attendees).   This year, maybe 1,500 regular attendees.  August 2-5 in Chicago.  Working with local People for the American Way, want to learn more about Chicago politics.  I hope there are chocolate fountains this year.  I appreciated that Mark Warner threw a great event for bloggers.  It was really unfair, the attacks on Mark Warner.  He's one of the easiest people to work with.  I like chocolate.   Looking for candidates to be authentic.  Personal relationships.  People meeting people for the first time.  Candidates can genuinely interact with people.  Very receptive audience.  What the blogosphere does best - personal relationships, cooperation, we're all on the same level.  Tremendous opportunity.  If you want to make inroads with the netroots, you ought to be there.  "Netroots community convention."   The netroots is eventually going to be everybody.  Internet, blogosphere are fabulous tools for understanding the world around you.  People with ideas, people willing to work together, get those people together and wonderful things happen.

McJoan:  Just because they're on the internet doesn't make them any less valuable.  Blowback from YearlyKos convention?  The first thing you have to have if you're going to be a prominent blogger is a thick skin because you're going to be a target.  Blowback from ad by Chevron.  Criticism will happen.  Much of it not particularly reality based.

Gina: The best ideas are going to be powerful, which means that there will be people who disagree with them powerful.  Not being very courageous if you're doing things that everyone agrees with.  If you're not drumming up any controversy, if everything's just a Kumbaya moment - nothing really happening; important to challenge assumptions.  Look at the world the way it is.  The MSM is part of that.  Peter Daou - "triangle" - blogs, MSM, politicians.  Need them to come together to push your message forward.  Bring all three sides of triangle together.  Maybe some controversy.  If you want to win, get your ideas out there, you do what it takes.

Matt:  Pitfalls for YearlyKos?  I don't think of it as pitfalls.  Blogosphere is changing and growing.  More like obstacles than pitfalls.  Nothing's going to derail it.  It's getting more diverse.  Getting harder to say "the blogs think this, the blogs think that."  High speed more prevalent, more people connecting to blogs.   Room to think about a governing agenda that's different, room to disagree, room to connect with people in the media who don't always say what the bloggers want you to say, does it always have to about purity?  Question about how broad a movement can be, how much internal dissent/discussion there can be.  People who don't share the orthodoxy.  Discussion that every group has to have.

McJoan:  Ability to agree to disagree on front page of Dkos.  Those kinds of disagreements have to keep happening.

Dave: What the blogosphere is?  Personalities, a tool for people to put ideas out there, virtual thinktank.  Ideas refined, discussed, ultimately towards some sort of consensus in a rapid timeframe.

Gina: Are blogs reaching a plateau?   People on other side of the gate.  How do you reach these people?   Technology barrier.  Not just about Crashing the Gate, it's also about reaching over to people on other side.