The Internet is Kind of Rad

I'm sure your reader is full of BlogHer updates. It sounds like a huge, fun, and educational conference. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go this year (but I'm excited about going to Bloggy Boot Camp in October and Mom 2.0 in April). Truthfully, I was a little bitter when everybody started tweeting about the fun they were having. But, then Backpacking Dad started tweeting about HomeHer10 and y'all, it was fun! It started as nothing more than a pretend/unconference for those of us stuck at home. Basically tweets about attending sessions on cleaning, dinner, and bath time instead of blog marketing and blog techniques, you know, real topics. Mochadad also started a fake conference for the male bloggers, BlogHim, which was an equally imaginary tongue in cheek "unconference." HomeHer was a Twitter joke, until sponsors came, and then there were tshirts and prizes, and all sorts of fun. It is amazing what the power of social media can accomplish. Just last week a powerful demonstration of social media came in the form of the Tweetathon Unmarketing held for Catherine's nephew Tanner. It was amazing to watch as thousands of people donated a little, a lot, a dollar until the total reached $25,000. I donated, and hope you did too. What really impressed me me was how quickly the Internet spread the word and raised over $25,000 for Tanner. I also watched on Twitter as Catherine tweeted about her journey (and Tanner and his mom) from Canada to New York. I'm sure there will be tons of places to get the actual events, but let's just say that the travel from Canada to NYC was all kinds of NOT Good that resulted in a broken wheelchair. I think Air Canada certainly learned the power of social media this weekend and fortunately made the trip back home to Canada amazing for Tanner and his family.

Some people don't understand the power of blogs, or why people are on Twitter. It's the connections. The stories, and Tanner's story is an excellent example of the power of the blogging and social media community. How awesome are these connections we make. How amazingly powerful this community can be. Just rad.