Over the past few months, I have written a number of times about the True Voice projects (here, here, and here, for example).

We have had a really strong response to the 20 Questions project that forms a key element of True Voice. We have had around 200 responses to the questions from people like Robert Scoble, Ed Brill, Doc Searls, and dozens of others, and we will be assimilating the comments, and synthesizing it over the next two weeks.

Our intention with True Voice has been to get out on the road, meet with people who are struggling with these sorts of questions around the business of blogging, and to use the planned seminars as a means to interact with aspiring bloggers, either as individuals, or representatives of organizations or companies.

Last week, after wrestling with a number of opportunities for collaborating with other organizations, I decided to revamp the structure of the True Voice tour. Rather than running our own seminars in various cities, we are working with other organizations to embed the True Voice tour into other blog conferences. I am happy to say that we will be collaborating with Avondale, the folks organizing the Blog Business Summit, 24-25 Jan 2005 in Seattle.

• We will be holding a True Voice webcast there, most likely at 12pm PT 24 Jan 2005. I will be inviting a few of the prominent bloggers speaking at the conference to address the theme of the conference: the business of blogging. Information on how to register for the webcast will be posted here at at Corante Events later this week.
  
• A second True Voice event has been threaded into the conference: a session called "True Voice: The Art and Science of Blog Writing" scheduled for 4:30 pm PT 24 Jan 2005.
  
• Corante readers will be getting a serious discount on attending the conference: $395 instead of the full $795. Please email me at stowe@corante.com if you are interested in that discount.

I am in discussions with several other conference organizers regarding subsequent True Voice events in February, March, and beyond. It is my hope to visit cities all over North America, Europe, and perhaps later 2005 even Asia. The format will be a combination of webcast and workshop, exploring and refining the themes of the 20 Questions project.

We are committed to the virtual workshop approach that I outlined a few weeks ago, here:

One of the key elements of True Voice is an on-going six week virtual workshop, after each seminar, where the True Voice team will work with seminar attendees on their blogging plans and content. We will be providing a free blog account for those without (courtesy of Silkroad) for three months following the seminar. But perhaps most interesting: we will review the results of all seminar attendees' workshop participation -- whether corporate, group, or individual -- and at the end of six weeks we are planning to select one of the attendees for some higher level of support:

1. If we select a worthy corporate attendee, we will provide a no-charge day of advisory services to help them create an action plan for rolling forward with what has thus far been prototyped in the six weeks of virtual workshop.
   
2. If we select a non-commercial group or organization, we will work with them as the producer of their blog: we will host it, perhaps help them find sponsors, and promote it through the Corante blog network.
   
3. Lastly, if we select an individual blogger, we will offer the opportunity to become a Corante Contributor, either in a wholly new blog (such as our new city blog series), or as a contributor to an existing Corante blog.

So you have more options to get involved with True Voice and the 20 Questions project. We will be touring major cities, collaborating with the convenors of conferences like Blog Business Summit, running web casts, interviews, and embedded workshop sessions. Please stay tuned for more options and announcements.