AAN announced today that programming for the 2008 Web Publishing Conference is substantially complete.

The conference, which will be held Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in San Francisco, is designed for alt-weekly publishers, editors, electronic publishing personnel, and any other employees with responsibility for their paper’s website. Most of the program has been organized in plenary sessions, but on a few occasions the conference will split into two streams — one for business and advertising, and the other for editorial.

The conference will begin with two big-picture sessions. On Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 30, immediately preceding the opening-night cocktail party, the New York Times‘ Nick Bilton will take a look into the future, demonstrating new and emerging interactive newspaper technologies from the Times‘ R&D department. And the following morning, Tacoda Systems’ Dave Morgan will make a return appearance at AAN’s web publishing conference; he’ll talk about the latest trends in online advertising.

The remainder of the conference is dedicated to practical, nuts-and-bolts programming that will be presented by both expert speakers and AAN members like Todd Stauffer of Jackson Free Press, Tim Keck of The Stranger and Carol Flagg of the Austin Chronicle. Topics include user-generated content, online video, blogging, tagging and social bookmarking, search-engine optimization, web analytics, social networking, legal issues and the mobile internet.

The program will end on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 1, with user groups. AAN West, which will be held in San Francisco a few blocks away, is scheduled to begin the same day.

The conference will be held at the Hotel Kabuki (formerly Miyako Hotel) in the Japantown section of San Fran. Registrants may reserve rooms at the Kabuki online or by phone. Complete hotel information is available on the conference website.

Online registration is currently open. Cost is $200 for AAN members ($250 after Jan. 4) and $400 for nonmembers ($450 after Jan. 4). To register, click here.