That's an Excellent Question

This Saturday I will be participating in InterPlay St. Louis, an interactive social media festival being held in University City. I am on two panels, both of which I'm very passionate about. (Note the "I'm Speaking" InterPlay button on your right, or your left, if you're standing on your head).

First, "Bloggers' Rights: Protecting Your Intellecutal Property." This panel will discuss the basics of trademark, copyright, and how to protect your work from misuse and theft. As I have worked with IP for oh, 15 or so years, I think I'm pretty well-versed on this topic. I'm very adamant about protection and enforcement of IP rights. I know of too many incidents where bloggers' work was blatantly used without permission of the owner. Whether you blog for fun or for profit, your work is YOURS - protect it.

Second, Cyberbullying. I am so looking forward to the Q&A in this panel. Missouri has passed the first law against cyberbullying, but is it enough, or is it a law that violates the First Amendment? What is cyberbullying? How do you protect your children in an age where most kids communicate electronically? How can adults protect themselves from cyberstalking?

If you're interested in attending these panels, or any of the other panels, covering photography, social media, political/activist blogging, podcasting, CSS, and lots of other information, click here for more info. As we are hosting our conference in connection with PLAY:STL 2008, there will be live music during and after the conference.

Make a point to stop by the Blogger's Guild tent, located by the Screenz tent, and sign up to be a member.

If you aren't able to attend, leave me some questions in the comments, and I'll do my best to get them presented to the panel. I'll also be posting a wrap-up of the sessions on here next week.

You can also Twitter your comments, by marking them #interplay, and they'll show up on the ToastedRav site here.

We'd also like to thank our rockin' sponsors.

Hope to see you there!