Just back from the Blogs United conference . . .

. . . that featured a substantive discussion about the role of blogs and the traditional media's online news gathering operations in the coverage of politics and current events.

In a role reversal of sorts, bloggers from across the ideological spectrum quizzed a panel of state government reporters who also blog: Anita Kumar of The Washington Post, Kimball Payne of the Daily Press, Ryan Nobles of NBC12 in Richmond and this Virginian-Pilot scribe.

Among the bloggers lobbing questions during a lively, engaging back-and-forth at Christopher Newport University were J.R. Hoeft and Brian Kirwin from Bearing Drift, Vivian Paige, Shaun Kenney, Lauren Victoria Burke at Crew of 42 and Article XI's Eileen Levandoski.

The incomplete list above is just a sampling of those at Saturday's summit -- and others not there -- who populate Virginia's vast blogosphere.

And on the subject of online offerings, here's a link to Old Dominion Watchdog, which billed itself as an online investigative outfit keeping an eye on state government, and a project of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, in a press release this week.

-- Julian Walker

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