NEW YORK -- Is blogging a new evil plaguing the Internet? Not so, according to a panel of experts here at the Mediabistro Circus conference on digital media, but you may want to call it something else.

Anil Dash, vice president and chief evangelist of blogging software company Six Apart, suggested not calling the sites "a blog" or a "platform" for your company but more a tool for conversation. "When you think blog, think handcuffs," he said.

Noah Schachtman, contributing editor for Wired's Danger Room blog, described his progression from blogging in the basement of his grandmother's home to covering national security issues and interviewing notable public figures such as General David H. Petraeus.

Schachtman blogged on his own in the beginning, but when his fellow blogger was kicked out of Iraq by the U.S. Army, Schachtman decided it was time to have a big media company support his blogging.

The Danger Room blog now has 1.5 million page views, he said.

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