TBD and the American University School of Communication will offer a series of workshops for community bloggers starting this Saturday.

As we mentioned our plans to provide training to members of the TBD Community Network, we always received an enthusiastic response. Many of the bloggers are experienced journalists who are teaching themselves to blog. Others are experienced bloggers without training or experience in journalism. And pretty much everyone in digital communication is always eager to learn more, however much we already know.

The workshops are part of an AU partnership with TBD, announced Tuesday evening.

We will present six workshop at AU's Wechsler Theater, all but one of them on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon.

Craig Silverman, editor of RegretTheError.com and author of Regret the Error, has volunteered to lead a workshop on accuracy and verification on Thursday, Oct. 28, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Silverman is managing editor of PBS Media Shift and Idea Lab, digital journalism director of OpenFile.ca and a columnist for Columbia Journalism Review. TBD and AU appreciate his generosity in leading this workshop.

Two AU faculty members, two TBD staffers and a recent AU graduate student will also lead workshops for the community bloggers:

David Johnson, an AU assistant professor and The Hill is Home blogger, will lead the first workshop this Saturday, Sept. 25, on "defining your blogging voice."

On Saturday, Oct. 2, Mandy Jenkins, TBD's social media producer, will lead a workshop on engaging the community using social media.

Ashley Messenger, an AU adjunct professor and in-house counsel for NPR, will present a Saturday, Oct. 9, workshop on legal and ethical issues for bloggers.

Mitch Schuler, TBD research director, will lead a workshop on search-engine optimization on Saturday, Oct. 23.

The final workshop will be Nov. 6, with Lauren Orsini, who recently completed a master's degree at AU, teaching WordPress tricks and tips.

While we have organized this series of workshops for the TBD Community Network, the Wechsler Theater has plenty of seating, and we invite other bloggers to attend as well at no charge (though you might hear a network recruiting pitch if you blog about local news and issues).

If you plan to attend this Saturday's workshop, please email Steve Buttry. Also let me know if you have specific questions you would like us to address in a workshop. For instance, does a particular legal issue confuse you, or do you have something specific you would like to do in WordPress?