Bloggers Set Up Shop In Half-Million-Dollar Tent

Amenities Of 8,000-Square-Foot Temporary Office Illustrate Blogosphere's Rampant Rise Since 2004

by Kevin Friedl

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008


Treated by the traditional press as a novelty during the 2004 conventions, bloggers are big-time now -- and they've got the digs to prove it.

The Big Tent, a two-story, 8,000-square-foot temporary structure located in Denver's LoDo neighborhood, opened its doors Sunday amid a crush of reporters, organizers, volunteers, and, of course, bloggers. The Tent is the home away from home for hundreds of new media types covering the convention.

Organized by the political blog Daily Kos and local nonprofit groups, the tent was originally envisioned as a small space for bloggers to relax in Denver in the comfort of free wireless and fellow travelers.

It has since grown to include more than 40 sponsors, including Google, which is running a "Google Retreat" that dispenses fruit smoothies and free massages, and the news-aggregating website Digg, which is sponsoring a lineup of speakers rivaling any venue in town outside of the Pepsi Center. Scheduled speakers range from Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and oilman T. Boone Pickens. On Monday actress Darryl Hannah made a surprise appearance to watch a panel discussion on the environment.

The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, one of the Denver nonprofits leading the effort, puts the total cost for the Big Tent at nearly $600,000.

The rise of the blogosphere is impressive on its own, but the Tent's existence is remarkable in a more literal way, too: Last-minute permit problems and a race to finish construction threatened to derail, or at least delay, the project. With less than 48 hours to go before the first guests began arriving, construction workers were still swarming the site, and sawdust lay piled on the carpet.

Not that the inauspicious debut stopped the Tent's boosters from setting their sights high. "We wanted to make sure that we take advantage of all being together to try to elevate the conversation" in Denver, said Bobby Clark, deputy director of ProgressNowAction, another Tent organizer.

The task of the netroots, added progressive activist David Sirota, is to make sure that "there's an accountability system, that there's a pressure system on the Democratic Party to adhere to its promises."

But that outsider rhetoric obscures the fact that -- with hundreds of bloggers typing away from the floor of the convention hall and from a half-million-dollar-plus temporary office -- it's harder now to draw the line between insiders and outsiders than it was in 2004.

"It does make you wonder. This blog culture that grew up outside of the traditional media, are we starting to step up to the stage and be with them as equals?" said Georgia Logothetis, a blogger with Daily Kos.

The Democratic Party has given its unofficial blessing to the Big Tent. "The DNCC has been working with us 'as closely as we'll allow' -- those are their words," said Jennifer Bruenjes, another blogger with Daily Kos.

According to Clark, "I don't really see us as outsiders. I see us as people who are taking advantage of online media to make our voices heard."

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