What is the Room of Your Own?

I think it would be great to have an adoption room.  There are varying degrees of contact now with firstfamilies when it comes to domestic adoption.  How do families handle the contact or lack there of?  Does there decision( about open or closed adoption) bother them in any way? 

I also think a room about cancer patients and surviors would be interesting.  What battles do they face?  What gives them strength, hope, and courgage to fight their illness?  How does their illness impact theire everyday life as well as those around them.

Stephanie

[posted this in the wrong place before...sorry]

Bloghers in Recovery ( http://www.blogher.com/node/860#comment-100250 )

I'd like to propose a section for women
in recovery... Sometimes events like BlogHer are challenging for people
who are recovering from alcohol or drug addiction.. this section would
provide a safe space to discuss:

* the challenges and rewards of sober/recovery blogging

* issues of anonymity

* how to build a stronger recovery community amongs bloggers

Thanks for the opportunity to suggest this.

Rachael

www.redsy.com ( http://www.redsy.com )

Red is good

I'd like to propose a section for women in recovery... Sometimes events like BlogHer are challenging for people who are recovering from alcohol or drug addiction.. this section would provide a safe space to discuss:

* the challenges and rewards of sober/recovery blogging

* issues of anonymity

* how to build a stronger recovery community amongs bloggers

Thanks for the opportunity to suggest this.

Rachael

www.redsy.com ( http://www.redsy.com )

Red is good

Just want to make sure your suggestion gets a fair hearing. To get that you need to submit it via the Room of Your Own submission process. Learn more about that process here ( http://www.blogher.com/eager-talk-about-something-... )

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

Hi. I speak nationally about how to package your online presence to attract media - it has to do with branding, image, cred, of course, and 'hookiness' - and my clients get cold calls from CNN, People, PBS, 60 Minutes, Time, People, major publishers, etc. One of my clients was Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation who is now a top 4000 blogger - so yeah, bloggers, nat media may be dying but it's still a viable way to get yourself noticed. Because along with them also come the cadre of big bloggers who love your stuff (maybe they actually come first ;-))

In my talk 'CNN Called; How to Package Your Online Biz to Attract National Media" I'd speak about branding, creating hookiness, how to sell 'soft fuzzy stuff' like coaching/self help/consulting/info, and the importance of how the thing looks, signature visuals. etc.

You can see what I'm all about at www.getknownnowblog.com ( http://www.getknownnowblog.com ) ... most of my clients are blogging up a storm these days - video on their results is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAgrpf360rE

 Thanks for listening - give a vote if this speaks to you.  

Hey everyone:

We've updated our process for suggesting Room of Your Own sessions for 2009. Check out the post here ( http://www.blogher.com/eager-talk-about-something-... ).

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

I would suggest Religion Blogging. I am a Unitarian Universalist blogger. I blog personally in that sphere.  I talk about issues in relation to myself from that perspective. There are well connected communities of religious bloggers throughout the web & it is a passion - one that I don't think has been covered.

The nice part of being a UU blogger is that we have the tools to connect easily to one another. I can talk about that as well to help other religious bloggers connect with like minds.

There are Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Mormon, Buddhist, etc. bloggers out there who are writing about their lives from that personal experience. The exciting part about this is that if you are searching spiritually there are many resources for seekers - it is a great time to be reaching out to new religious communities - by connecting directly with members of that particular branch. 

I have been a UU for 39 years - I know of which I speak and I have spoken about connecting to religious communities in other venues. - I think there is value in faith and spirituality blogger and a room of their own would be wonderful.

I'd love to do a session on failure recovery; either personal or environmental.

How do you start over again when you've apparently lost everything? What are some techniques for gathering up the threads of your life and weaving them into a tapestry of greatness?

DeBorah Beatty

DEBORAHBEATTY.COM

Opportunity's Knocking Open the Door!

I help solopreneurs Visualize, Optimize and Materialize their Dreams by putting systems in place to handle repetitive tasks and break overwhelming tasks into bite-sized pieces, creating a framework for success and a strategy for living a created life.

I'm uncomfortable that both of my blogs are a subsection of Mommy and Family. The catblogosphere is bigger and more beautiful than just the family. AND, I compete in an Olympic sport (no it's not under sports) that both men and women compete in -- equally. Riders tend to be older than other athletes and so are the horses. Horses are not pets, they are livestock and in my case, dancing partners. Let's get an animal category at Blogher out of a discussion on animals and livestock blogs. 

Cato
http://www.creaturesoftheearth.com

http://www.teddyatcenterline.com

HI there:

What I need you to do to get these ideas on the schedule is:

Review this post ( http://www.blogher.com/announcing-years-birds-feat... ) to understand the process, then commit to lead a session yourself by:

1. Reviewing the agenda ( http://www.blogher.com/blogher_conference/conf/2/a... )

2. Sending me an email ( elisa@blogher.com ) with:
a. Your top 3 preferred time slots for your session
b. Your name for your session

There are still slots open, so I say: "Go for it!"

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

I would love to have a room to discuss how social media is helping BlogHers to connect with other bloggers from tech, marketing, publishing, etc. in order to network.  I'm specifically interested in interactive social sites like Twitter and Friendfeed, etc.

Thanks! ~Viv 

www.coolmomsrule.blogspot.com ( http://www.coolmomsrule.blogspot.com )

How about a fun b.s. session/brainstorming session on speculation about the emergent virtual world?   Web 3.0 to the Nth.  What will the metaverse look like in ten years.   20 years?  What will blogs morph into?  Will we have avatars speak our blogs or will we use images or ourselves, some combination of both?  Will this mean something like limitless channels on a combined TV Internet 4th Wall?   Where should we aim?  Where are current trajectories headed?   What is the cutting edge down the path likely to be given best guesses?    

Nancy 

aka Artpax aka Ana Herzog 

Build Peace ( http://buildpeace.blogspot.com )
Virtuality ( http://www.virtualknowledgegroup.com )
My Life As An Avatar ( http://www.blogher.com/http/secondana.blogspot.com )

( http://buildpeace.blogspot.com )

Hi Kathy:

We have had a topic suggested that might encompass all of that: how to create your own safe space online. nothing's really been decided for summer programming yet, but that is one proposed topic that resonates with a lot of BlogHers.

Thanks,

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

I love the Room of Your Own idea but I don't know that I have the time to put together any presentations for them. That said I do have three topics that are of interest to me. Are these being covered in the primary conference or is someone interested in taking them on in Room of Your Own?

They are...

1. Cyberstalking
2. Protecting your identity
3. Dealing with HATERS in your comments box

KathyHowe
Kazoofus ( http://kazoofus.com )

The Blogosphere is one of the places where having a disability is not immediately apparent. Where descrimination may exist at first sight, blogging is a free space that is unbiased. There are so many great blogs out there by disabled persons and parents of disabled kids that shed light on what it really means to live with a disability and what it doesn't. I would love a room of your own discussing disability and how blogging allows people, who have been denied access to more traditional venues, to get heard.
Kathryn
Link Text ( http://www.ryntales.blogspot.com )

Not all those who wander are lost. J.R.R.Tolkien

I think you might be pleased with a couple of the sessions on the schedule. Not to be all cryptic or anything, but...I'm being cryptic :)

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Elisa,

We have been talking about the fact that arts and craft blogging is different in some ways from other blogs. And I think I'd like to reserve for discussing it. How to write about art and craft, how to show it. tools to use. I'm not sure exactly what.

Could we please have a room?

Debra
A Stitch In Time ( http://astitchintime.blogspot.com )
Simple Still Life ( http://simplestilllife.blogspot.com )

Thanks Danielle:

We will have at least one BlogHer sessions around these topics, and perhaps a Room of Your Own that tackles it from another angle. It's definitely on the agenda one way or the other.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

I would love to see a room focusing on some of our earlier conversations regarding race, ethnicity, culture and blogging. There are so many directions it can go, and as you know we all had a lot to say ! Further input would be invaluable.

Surly and Passionate
Knotty Yarn ( http://www.knottyyarn.com )

Hey there was a thread on the mailing list a while back about Opensource software and feminism and I just grazed this post by Sour Duck http://209.59.186.51/~blogher/?q=node/863

and i think it would be great to do a ROYO about the implications/cross-overs between OS Application and philosophies etc..for feminists projects and feminist projects

Another example would be this whole portal being run on Civicspace and the attendant pleasures and frustrations for community building in that.

I realize as a discussion it is going to be most interesting to the techie/academic/industry wimmins, but if we get a nice cozy room it could be very rewarding

lemme know if it's something that I could get the ball rolling on - I would definitely ask someone else to help moderate.

And yes I think I am taking on too much - ; )

Miriam Verburg
The Flink ( http://www.flinknet.com/theflink )
"like harnessing a unicorn to harvest potatoes"