Berlin - More than 1,000 technology-obsessed bloggers gathered Wednesday for a twittering conference in Berlin - and promptly lost what they needed most of all: their internet connections.

The annual event, re:publica, brings together Germans who share their innermost thoughts via blogs, or online diaries. Many employ Twitter, an internet service allowing them to type out minute-by- minute announcements of what they are thinking and doing.

"Wi-Fi will be available soon," announced a reassuring message over the stage at the Friedrichstadtpalast venue as the talkfest began. A wireless local network was supposed to have allowed all 1,400 participants to connect to the web as they talked.

Most participants just laughed and shut down their laptops, but one man groaned. "It's like the 1990s again," he grumbled.

The bulk of participants were younger men and about half of them arrived at the event wielding either a video camera or a notebook computer, ready to create podcasts and simultaneous blogs about the conference.

The three-day event is to discuss the future of web communities. An organizer, Markus Beckedahl, said the event had doubled in size since it began in 2007, with 700 bloggers attending.

Internet: http://www.re-publica.de/09/category/info-eng/