(Initially published at http://www.greaterdemocracy.org/archives/000161.html)

After my experience blogging the Democratic National Convention, I have been spending time thinking about what I want to do during the Republican National Convention. I have been offered credentials by the Republican Party, and I sort of doubt that I will. I have asked around to see if I can find some other way to get credentials through working with a more traditional medium, but nothing has materialized.

However, as I discovered last time, much of the story takes place outside the convention hall, and I suspect this will be even more of the case with the Republican convention. Today I received an email from the New Democratic Majority about a Progressive Tourism Bureau that will be set up at a performance space called The Tank.

The Progressive Tourism Bureau is “an exciting collaborative project during the Republican Convention in New York of [many organizations] … to give protestors a direct route into the massive grassroots effort underway to win this election and to build an enduring progressive coalition at the local and national levels.”

It seems like The Progressive Tourism Bureau is an optimum place to blog from. I sent off an email to them about the opportunity. A bit later, I received an email from Matt Stoller who helped organize bloggers in Boston. He said that The Tank is looking to be an informal blogger HQ. I’ve sent off an email to the people organizing this, and I hope to cover the convention from The Tank.

If readers have thoughts about what they would like to see covered from New York during the convention, please let me know.

On an international level, the British press is reporting that “the UK's Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat conferences all said they would consider applications from bloggers, but have had no enquiries.”

If anyone can find funds for me to go cover these conferences, I would love to go.