How to fill the twenty-four hours is a problem all participants confront -- and which several have decided to solve creatively. Connor, who is raising money for short-term aid organization Modest Needs, plans to offer a links-and-commentary tour of unusual online museums. Cosby has enlisted a friend's band to perform a set via Web cam, to which he'll be posting live links.
Some participants plan to venture away from their living rooms. With the help of a camera and wirelessly equipped laptop, one blogger is planning a tour of strife zones, including a hospital emergency ward, a needle exchange, a soup kitchen, and a memorial ceremony for a peace activist killed in the Middle East. Another blogger plans to Web cast from a graveyard, with streaming video and a visit from local paranormal investigators. A "viewer's guide" posted on Blogathon's Web site, Blogathon.org, includes a rundown on planned activities.
Running Blogathon is ballooning into a full-year planning project, Connor says, with much of the work going into community-building features. Chat rooms have always been a part of Blogathon, but this year, monitoring teams have been recruited, to surf the participating blogs and offer Blogathon readers running commentary on interesting developments. Next year, she hopes to have a map online, illustrating the locations of participants around the world.
In addition to Blogathon site visitors, most bloggers will also have their own dedicated followings cheering them on. Houston blogger Laurence Simon has around 1,500 visitors a day to his blog, Amish Tech Support, and will be participating this year for the second time. He's partnered with two other bloggers to collect pledges for Magen David Adom, an organization providing emergency health and disaster recovery services in Israel. Last year, the team raised $3,500; this year, they're aiming for $60,000, enough to buy Magen David Adom a new ambulance.
He's intense about the cause but light-hearted about his chosen fundraising mechanism. Last year, he occupied himself uploading video clips illustrating how to bake a loaf of bread. This year, he'll be firing up his breadmaker to create garlic parmesan pretzels.
He'll also be breaking out the timer he used last year as a reminder to post every 30 minutes -- and to wake himself up, occasionally. Other Blogathon participants will be relying on the age-old crutch of college students facing all-nighters: caffeine.
"I have an antique 1950s percolator. I intend to keep it running the whole time," says Cosby. "Hell, I may even interview it."
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