About a year ago, someone tabbed me with the moniker of "The Blogfather" of the Iowa Blogging Mafia.  As a well-trained Sicilian, I denied knowledge of any "mafia," but did mention we have a family of (all) sorts, something we call the Iowa Blogga Nostra.

And my, has the family grown. The Des Moines Business Record recently featured our family in their weekly issue.

As Amanda Ripp (the journalist who wrote the piece above) and I sat and watched, I compared the gathering as an offline example of the blogosphere.  As folks gather at Panera to connect, from an outsider view - it looks and sounds like noise. However, as we look at each individual conversation, we find signal.  Some have meaning to us, some don’t — but they each have meaning to someone.

I’ve been fortunate to have some influence in the blogging direction of many of these folks. Here’s a partial list of Iowa Business Bloggers:

Adam Carroll
Andy Drish
Art Dinkin, CFP, CLU, ChFC
Association of Business & Industry
Babich, Goldman, Cashatt & Renzo
Barry Pace
BeatCanvas
Blue Frog Arts
Brett Trout
Bridges Financial
Broom Wizards
C Wenger Group
Carpe Factum
Claire Celsi
Cloud Nine Diamonds
Compass Financial Services
Conference Calls Unlimited
ConverStations
Dave Dreeszen
Des Moines Families
Dickson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen
DMWebLife
Do You Q?
Dr U Fantasy Football
DSM Buzz
Dwebware
Employer Ease
Eric Peterson
Focal Point Multimedia
Gift Idea Help
Home Know-it-All
Insight Advertising & Marketing
Iowa Bed & Breakfast Association
Iowa Biz
J. Erik Potter
Jann Freed
Josh More
Kyle’s Cove
Lava Row
Maiers Educational Services
McKee, Vorhees & Sease
McLellan Marketing Group
National Pork Board
NCMIC Insurance
ProAmericaStore
Purple Wren
Radio Iowa
REL Productions
Rental Metrics
Rita Perea Consulting
Roth & Company
RSM McGladrey
Ruby’s Pub
Runners’ Lounge
Rush Nigut
Ryan Rossinick
Simplifive
Snap! Creative Works
Soapourri Natural Bath and Body
Studio 24 Design
Swing Station
The Members Group
The Mitchell Group
The Simple Dollar
Transition Capital Management
Troy Rutter
US Rodeo Supply
Victoria Herring
Wade Den Hartog
Wealth With Mortgage
When Words Matter
White Rabbit Group

Of course, we aren’t the only such family. Chris Brown, Ron McDaniel, Stephen Hopson and others have led the way in Akron, OH. I know such groups also exist in Austin, Northern Virginia, The Bay Area, Boston and others.

How does your blogging community gather offline?  Maybe a Blogger Social?