By The Way...

We're closing in on the one year anniversary of the AOL Journals, which were beta-tested in July and and formally debuted in August of last year, and Viviansullinwank is already wanting to prepare some sort of commemorative exercise. She's got a lot of good ideas, as do the AOL-J folks who have responded to her call in her comment thread; one of the things she hints at is an AOL-J physical get-together, but she suggests (I suspect correctly) that something like that would take more planning than the time left until the first anniversary would allow.

Interestingly, however, did you know that JournalCon -- a small and chummy convention of people who write Journals and blogs -- is already scheduled for the weekend of August 20-22 (which is coincidentally the anniversary of my first entries in By The Way)? This year's edition will be in Washington DC. I went to the very first one in Pittsburgh in 2000, and also the 2002 edition in San Francisco; both were a lot of fun. I've been asked to speak at this year's convention, on writing journals and writing professionally, and I'll probably accept the invitation.

My point is, if AOL-J folks are interested in a get-together without too much planning on their part, this would be an ideal place for you to do it, since it's already a convention of Journalers and is about journaling. Also, you'll get to meet me, which I understand could be an incentive against going. But even so. In any event, check out the JournalCon site and see if it's of interest to you. It'd be cool to have a contingent of AOL Journalers there.

Now, about our own AOL-J anniversary thing. If AOL Journals people want to do something to commemmorate the anniversary of AOL-J, my thought would be that we do something that's both fun and makes an impact: A charitable event, in other words. Out in the blogoverse, there's been something called the "Blogathon," in which people write entries every half-hour for 24 hours and are sponsored by friends, relatives or random strangers for their troubles, and that money is donated to charity. As it happens, the official Blogathon is taking a break this year, but that's no reason why we couldn't do something similar.

So here's what I suggest: To celebrate one year of AOL Journals, from noon on August 14 (a Saturday) through noon on August 15 (Sunday, naturally), we hold the AOL-J Charity Blogfest. Every half hour I'll post a writing topic; every half hour you can write an entry based on that topic (or another of your own choosing). Everybody who participates gets people to sponsor their no-sleep blogfest, and at the end all that money gets contributed to charity. I'll talk to AOL to see if we can get publicity for it, and who knows? Maybe we'll have some fun and do some good.

What do you think? Do me a favor and link to this entry on your Journals, and also drop me some comments to let me know if y'all are interested in trying this out. A lot of positive responses will help me sell this idea.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #23 Comment from floralilia 
  6/29/04 1:36 PM | Permalink

  contributions needed at Succulent Wisdom - juicyness from j-land
  
  a journal dedicated to our collective wisdom, wit and whimsy....
  
  please email me with the quote and the link to entry/author.
  
  http://journals.aol.com/floralilia/SucculentWisdom-juicynessfromj-l/
  
  thanks all!
  
• #22 Comment from tjexpressions 
  6/25/04 1:33 PM | Permalink

  
  A virtual Celebration in the making for the First Year Journlas to come together! I have enclosed this link which bares the Link (gotta luv that one) to a great organizer........floats, food,costumes...you name it and everyone is virtually invited. Pass it on!
  
  http://journals.aol.com/tjexpressions/DailyRoundTrips/entries/693
• #21 Comment from dockart 
  6/24/04 10:32 PM | Permalink

  Count me in too! I like the charity idea and the get-together idea.
  Donna:)
• #20 Comment from derossetfamily 
  6/24/04 10:14 PM | Permalink

  Count me in on the blogathon! I think its a great idea, as long as I've got plenty of caffeine :D
  ~Mary
• #19 Comment from slowmotionlife 
  6/24/04 9:47 PM | Permalink

  Alright, Johnny Boy.. I'm totally in on the blogathon idea.  I don't know exactly how the charitable end would work, but I'd be interested in giving it a try, helping out, doing my part, etc. and so forth, blah, blah, blah.  I'm your girl!  :D
  
  JournalCon sounds fun, actually.  I'm thinking August is too hot to go ANYWHERE, but if I knew a few other AOL-J folks were gonna show up, I might be enticed to hop on a plane and check it out.  Otherwise, I'm hoping we can get something together for the fall or the spring - earlier than next summer.  I'm really dying to meet some of the great friends I've made here in AOL-J.  Could be fun.  :)