I just found out that I will be one of the Official MLA Bloggers for 2008. Conference blogging offers people an online method for staying informed about events at the MLA Conference. I think it is helpful to attendees and non-attendees.

Over the years it has been kind of neat to see how conference blogging has evolved for me. In 2005, unable to attend the conference, I sought out volunteers willing to write and submit posts about the conference. Genevieve Gore answered the call and submitted a nice brief report about her MLA experience. I decided, along with the help of some great volunteers, to continue the conference blogging experiment in 2006 and 2007 with my unofficial MLA conference blog posts. 2007 also marked the first year that MLA decided to get into conference blogging as well.

This year MLA will have 15 Official Conference Bloggers whose posts will be fed to and displayed on the Official MLA Conference Wiki. Conference goers and non-conference attendees will be able to read multiple blog reports from multiple people through one subscription feed. It is one stop shopping to staying informed online.

Conference blogging has come a long way in a fairly short time. There have been a few bumps along the way, but each year I and other bloggers make adjustments to smooth out those bumps. I am looking forward to being an Official MLA Blogger this year and I hope many readers will find the posts to be enjoyable and informative. Stay tuned.