We had a stalwart group of bloggers and people interested in blogging who showed up for the Wed. meeting. You can see who was there and also discover what Chicago Bloggers snack on by going to flickr and typing in the tag "chicagobloggers" which should take to a set of photos from our recent meeting.

Wanting to join us at our next meetup? You can sign up so you get notices at Chicago Bloggers Meetup.

You don't have to have a blog to join up. We discuss blogs, blogging, tools, new cool apps, and issues like what risks bloggers take, depending on their job, possible ways to make money from blogging, and all sorts of issues.
Highlights of the last meeting were the tips on audio blogging from Sy B. and a tour of tools from frapr to del.icio.us to fickr.

Wednesday is a meetup for Chicago Bloggers at 33 E. Congress, Room 219, at 7 p.m. You can find out more by going to Meet-up. I am the "Queen B" in this case the organizer and I am going to bring some food and drink. Ideally, some attendees will kick-in to help defray the refreshment costs.

And searching for other things, I came across metroblogs about Chicago. I guess I will try and invite some of them....

If you can herd cats, you can organize bloggers, right?

Actually, this is a first attempt to gather Chicago area bloggers to meet and talk about our interests as bloggers. There are at least 125 folks waiting for someone to organize a weblogger group in Chicago, so I reserved a room at Columbia, and here is a call for any interested parties to show up and see where we go from there.

On either coast and even in the hinterlands, blogger organizations exist and provide social and professional kinds of help to bloggers. Chicago is writer's town, but so far, has had no "blogger central." I am looking for other people to help me organize a loosely coupled collective and web portal to connect Chicago Bloggers to other media, to training and workshops, and to other people.

If you are a blogger, please consider coming out for this meeting. If you are not a blogger yourself, can you print/post this poster and get it out where bloggers might see it?

There is no fee to attend the meetings, but as I am going to provide some refreshments, I will accept $2.00 donations from those who care to help out.

MSM types, students, literati, digerati, podcasters, novices, vloggers -- anyone who is interested in blogging and is located around Chicago is invited.

Here are the details and a link to RSVP if you decide to check it out:

Chicago Bloggers Group
Open to any interested bloggers (or potential bloggers)
Initial meeting
12/21/05
7-8 p.m
33 E. Congress 2nd floor Room 219
(Journalism Dept. Columbia College Chicago)

Details and RSVP at:
http://blog.meetup.com/351/boards/view/viewthread?thread=1584572

The Holiday Book Bash sponsored by the Chicago Headline Club benefits the CHC Foundation which underwrites journalism education efforts in high schools and colleges in the Chicago area. Join me there on Novemeber 17th and mingle with some of Chicago's finest authors and journalists. See you there or be square.

Oh, my students benefit because they can apply for stipends to underwrite their unpaid journalism internships. That is a GREAT thing.

A business man who connects with Internet.