Professional photographer and blogger Rick Lee takes a photo of Charleston Area Bloggers as they convene for a quick meeting on Tuesday. The bloggers, including (clockwise from far left) Todd Beane, Bill Gardner, Jason Keeling, Bob Coffield, Sarah Cooper and Emily Bennington, are coordinating posts on their respective blogs to celebrate West Virginia Day.
Keeling launched his site on West Virginia Day in 2007. With the site's first anniversary on Friday, he wanted to unite area bloggers for a common cause.
The group, dubbed Charleston Area Bloggers, have been meeting informally for a couple of years with the help of photographer and blogger Rick Lee, Keeling said.
Friday's post will help keep the community's momentum building, he said.
Each blogger will prepare a post defining their vision for a new stereotype of West Virginia. The posts will be published on this evening or early morning Friday.
Keeling will create a central listing of posts on A Better West Virginia.
Some have already posted, like Sarah Cooper of the Putnam County Scoop. Most of her readers, she said, are from out of state and she is the only West Virginian they know.
"I've already taken care of the stereotypes for them," she said during a meeting at Capitol Roasters with five of her blogging brethren.
Health care lawyer and Health Care Law blog writer Bob Coffield said he was already "fascinated by the feedback" on Cooper's blog.
He hopes his post on Friday will bring "positive attention and shed a new light on West Virginia."
Bill Gardner, an IT manger for a Charleston law firm, started blogging in 1998. Now, he runs his own blog, http://oncee.blogspot.com and maintains a collection Web site for West Virginia blogs called 304Blogs.com.
He blogs mostly about West Virginia. Like Keeling, Friday's assignment is just an extension of what he's already doing, he said.
Todd Beane is a marketing specialist with West Virginia State University's Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute. When the institute launched its new Web site in February 2008, blogging became part of the package.
Through his post on Friday, Beane wants to show others West Virginia is a state that is moving forward, he said.
"We are on the forefront. We are forward-thinking. We are diverse," he said.
Emily Bennington, the marketing director of Maple Creative, posts about three times a week on her employer's Marketing Genius blog.
About a dozen West Virginia-based bloggers will challenge West Virginia's stereotypes in posts to their online homes all on West Virginia Day.
The collective posting idea is the brainchild of Jason Keeling, a public relations consultant and writer on www.ABetterWestVirginia.com.
"The power of this new media is that it allows for regular people to create a gateway to the nation and world as West Virginians," Keeling said.
Keeling launched his site on West Virginia Day in 2007. With the site's first anniversary on Friday, he wanted to unite area bloggers for a common cause.
The group, dubbed Charleston Area Bloggers, have been meeting informally for a couple of years with the help of photographer and blogger Rick Lee, Keeling said.
Friday's post will help keep the community's momentum building, he said.
Each blogger will prepare a post defining their vision for a new stereotype of West Virginia. The posts will be published on this evening or early morning Friday.
Keeling will create a central listing of posts on A Better West Virginia.
Some have already posted, like Sarah Cooper of the Putnam County Scoop. Most of her readers, she said, are from out of state and she is the only West Virginian they know.
"I've already taken care of the stereotypes for them," she said during a meeting at Capitol Roasters with five of her blogging brethren.
Health care lawyer and Health Care Law blog writer Bob Coffield said he was already "fascinated by the feedback" on Cooper's blog.
He hopes his post on Friday will bring "positive attention and shed a new light on West Virginia."
Bill Gardner, an IT manger for a Charleston law firm, started blogging in 1998. Now, he runs his own blog, http://oncee.blogspot.com and maintains a collection Web site for West Virginia blogs called 304Blogs.com.
He blogs mostly about West Virginia. Like Keeling, Friday's assignment is just an extension of what he's already doing, he said.
Todd Beane is a marketing specialist with West Virginia State University's Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute. When the institute launched its new Web site in February 2008, blogging became part of the package.
Through his post on Friday, Beane wants to show others West Virginia is a state that is moving forward, he said.
"We are on the forefront. We are forward-thinking. We are diverse," he said.
Emily Bennington, the marketing director of Maple Creative, posts about three times a week on her employer's Marketing Genius blog.
"It sharpens how I think on my profession," she said. "In posts, you better get it right and do your homework. That extends to doing your homework for the clients."
People are noticing. Marketing Genius was named last week to Advertising Age's list of top advertising and media blogs.
Over at photographer Rick Lee's blog, it's all about images. He launched the blog in 2005.
"[The negative stereotyping of West Virginia] is becoming less and less over time," he said. Still, it does exist, he said.
"Don't you think that the bloggers around here can change that?" Bennington asked.
The bloggers around the table agreed.
That is exactly what Keeling is hoping for on Friday.
"We need to reinforce a pride in being in West Virginia, but at the same time, there is the greater challenge of constructively addressing our [stereotype]," Keeling said. "We want the power of the people on the Web to help create a new archetype of how people view West Virginia."
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Posted By: mjhlaw(7:43pm 06-22-2008)
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Read a most interesting article today about how, during the condemnation of thousands of acres of private land in the Appalachians in the 20's and 30's to establish Shenandoah National Park, the Federal Government undertook to depict "mountain people" as uneducated and poor, and better off being relocated for their own good than occupying the land they called home. I can't help but think this unfair stereotype has persisted to this day.
Posted By: Assistant Village Idiot(7:28pm 06-22-2008)
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Coming from NH, known as Cow Hampshire to our neighbors from MA despite our consistent top-few in the nation SAT's and graduation rates, I hear ya, brother. But don't get annoyed, just keep being better.
Posted By: SpencerTobin(11:29am 06-20-2008)
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I was born in West Virginia and I have comeback atl east once a year to see my family. The thing that I have noticed is that many people understand the beauty of the land in West Virginia, but they do not see the real beauty of West Virginia...The People!
I am a very proud West Virginian who would rather live here than anywhere else in the world. I'm literaly 5 minutes away from Ohio and 20 minutes away from Pennsylvania. This is one of the most beautiful states in the union and the people here care about this state, the United States, and other people. Not every state can say that. We are moving forward in many ways and hopefully will maintain our integrity while doing so. I personally don't appreciate politicians or comedians who make these type of comments about our state or any other for that matter. I can't understand why a person running to become our president would slam any of the 50 states. I didn't vote for Barak Obama in the primary, but it wasn't because of his race. I just believed that Hillary Clinton could better serve us. There were still unanswered questions I had about Obama that were never answered. John McClain is probably a good man, but he should really think before he speaks. I won't be voting for him.
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