WHEN Pam Spaulding heard from two contributors to her blog, Pam\u2019s House Blend, that they couldn\u2019t afford to attend the Democratic National Convention, she knew that historic times called for creative measures.<\/p>\n
Getting convention credentials for her blog, a news site for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, was the easy part. As air fare, lodging and incidentals began piling up, paying for the trip to Denver became the bigger obstacle.<\/p>\n
For Ms. Spaulding, 45, who works full time as an IT manager at Duke University Press in Durham, N.C., blogging is her passion, an unpaid hobby she pursues at nights and on weekends. So she called on her 5,500 daily readers to help raise funds: \u201cSend the Blend to Denver\u201d\u009d reads the ChipIn widget on her blog\u2019s home page that tracks donations from readers; so far they have pledged more than $5,000 to transport Ms. Spaulding and three other bloggers to the convention.<\/p>\n
Beginning Monday, hundreds of bloggers will descend on Denver to see Barack Obama accept his party\u2019s nomination. Next week, hundreds more will travel to St. Paul to witness John McCain\u2019s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. But now these online partisans, many of whom are self-financed, must contend with all the logistical and financial hurdles just to get there \u201d\u201d not to mention the party politics happening behind the scenes.<\/p>\n