Getting Back To Local

February 8, 2009 By

So, a little over a year ago now… Almost a year and a half ago, actually, I started up a little project I called the Limestone New Media Group. When I got it started, I was about the only guy in town on Twitter but I’d heard a few other people were listening to podcasts. I figured that 3 or 4 people had to only be the tip of the iceburg, and that we should probably all get together for a beer, coffee or lunch. While it did take a few months more before anything other than a 1-on-1 meetup happened, they did eventually happen. And they happened regularly… For a while.

The past few months, though, have seen a real steep decline in the “real-world” gatherings of local people… And that saddens me. The local meetups were something that brought together three things I enjoy: Kingston, the web and meeting people. The meetups, from day one, were always planned to be social, for-fun gatherings and I think most people who attended had a good time. So a few friends of mine, and I, are going to start to get them going again.

I regularly say that one of the things I find most rewarding in this new digital web media space is building connections between two people. Watching partnerships, ideas, friendships and even relationships bloom as a result of a simple introduction tweet, email or phone call is a lot of fun. It’s even more fun when you can do that on a larger scale. So a few weeks ago I created the @limestonetweets account. It’s serving, right now, as a directory of local Twitterers, but will likely be used for announcements and such as time goes on. It’s my hope that it will help unite more people and build some connections between folks with similar interests.

But back to the meetups. I mentioned we’re getting them going again, and we are: The firs local meetup/tweetup/gathering will be helpd tomorrow, February 9th, at 7:00pm, at The Merchant Taphouse. This keeps it on it’s original schedule of the second monday of the month, and at our regular location. Come out for dinner, come out for drinks, or come out just to say hello! We’ll be there. I’ll be in a bright shirt, and the sig with the LNMG logo will be on the table. (We’re usually in and around to the left). If you can, give me an RSVP (here, twitter, email, wherever) so that I can hold a big enough table.

See you tomorrow!

[wpcf]

Filed Under: Archives, Events, LNMG, Local

Passing Credit – How The Mentor Lounge Happened

February 28, 2008 By

I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from people on this year’s Mentor Lounge at PodCamp Toronto and I’d like to take a quick minute to explain where it came from, and how it became the session that occurred this weekend.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m a big believer in the spirit of PodCamp organizers learning from other PodCamps. This means that where NYC slips up, Boston improves on, and the mistakes Boston make then get improved in Toronto, and so on. This allows us, as event organizers, to not only build an event that was better then our last event – but to try to build one that is better then ANY of the last events. This played a big role in my bringing the Mentor Lounge to Toronto.

Hello, Pittsburgh

I’ve attended all of the PodCampy events in Pittsburgh. They’ve held 2 full-blown PodCamps, and a single-day, newbie-focused BootCamp sandwiched in the middle. They’re also in planning mode for their 3rd PodCamp this fall. Prior to the BootCamp, the organizing team noticed that people new to the space were hesitant to walk up to someone else and say ‘hello’. They often didn’t mind talking to a presenter immediately following the presentation, but beyond that, they kept to themselves.

Online, there is no “barrier” to connecting. If you want to say hi to someon, you go to their blog and leave a comment. Or you send them an email. If they never respond, so be it – you simply assume they were busy and move along. No harm, no fowl. But if you go to say hello to someone in person, there’s a much scarier risk of rejection. People are scared they won’t be noticed, or they’ll be ignored. This stings a lot more in the real world then it does in the digital one.

So the team in Pittsburgh wanted to break down that invisible wall at BootCamp and make it easier for someone to say hello. The idea was pretty simple: A room was set aside, called the ‘Mentor Lounge’ and people could consider it an open space where anybody within it’s walls was willing to be talked to. You could approach them and say hello, or ask questions, or trade business cards… Anything you’d like – with no fear of rejection. Sadly, the room stayed mostly empty. A follow-up attempt at PodCamp Pittsburgh 2, this time with coloured dots on name badges to represent interest areas, also didn’t go over so well.

Toronto and Beyond

I knew the idea could be improved upon, and set out to do that with Toronto. This time, rather than create an empty room, I’d put people in it. Specifically, I’d put together a panel of people willing to answer questions from other people. No slide decks, no presentations, not even a projector. Just a panel, a moderator and an audience. It went over wonderfully. People were, at first, a little hesitant to raise hands… But once the ball got rolling (Occasionally with a “So everyone in this room knows everything they’d like to about [topic]?” prod) things kept moving pretty well. Questions were answered, people connected, and that invisible barrier was all but gone. At least for the hour and a half we were in there.

A lot went right with my attempt at the Mentor Loung, but in the interest of helping the other PodCamps looking to adopt this, I’ve already asked myself what went wrong. For one, we only had 75 minutes – start to end. This meant that to break things up into the four major categories we covered (audio podcasting, video podcasting, blogging and social networking) each only received 15 minutes. At the end of all 4 there were still questions in the room, so this could have, and likely should have, gone on much longer. I also regret not giving more of an introduction to who people were. When we swapped panels, I simply gave names and continued into the next question – I think more details on who the person was (And why they were on the panel) would have helped.

One other thing I think went really well was opening up a seat to the room. When I found myself with a free seat during the video panel, I simply asked the room if anyone knew enough about creating, editing and posting video to answer questions on it. Someone volunteered. The same happened in the blogging panel. I think this really drove the fact that the people on the panel are simply human, too, and that anyone in the room could be a part of this space.

I know that some of the organizing team from Pittsburgh, NYC and I believe Ohio were watching the Toronto event closely and I look forward to seeing how, or if, they adapt and integrate the lounge into their events.

Filed Under: Appearances, Archives, Podcamp

Transistioning Back To Normal Life

February 27, 2008 By

It’s now been three days since PodCamp Toronto 2008 wrapped up and about time I posted something.  This was the 5th one I’ve attended, and the first I’ve helped organize, and I had an absolute blast doing it.

I gave 2 sessions this weekend: one on how I’ve been slowly abandoning desktop application in favour of web-based alternatives, and the other one was a getting-started session on TalkShoe. I also moderated the ever-evolving Mentor Lounge, and sat on a panel called “Twitter 101″ to a standing-room-only crowd.

As this was my first time helping to organize one of these events, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I ended up doing a lot of registration desk sitting and hallway monitoring over the weekend, just to make sure attendees were able to find what they came in to see. It was really interesting to hear the reasons why people were showing up throughout the day.

I want to give a big thanks to Connie Crosby, Dave Fleet, Rob Lee, Katherine Matthews, Sean McGaughey, Jay Moonah and Eden Spodek who were all involved  in organizing the event. I also want to congratulate Mark Blevis, Bob Goyetche, Rob and Katherine on the very successful “Zero to Podcasting” track they put on this weekend. There was a lot of buzz in the halls about it.

I’ve always supported the idea that PodCamps, as a whole, should learn from our own mistakes and over the weekend I took a number of notes about what I felt we did right, and wrong, so that other events such as NYC, Ohio and Pittsburgh can learn from where we slipped and better their own events. This can the let us better our own event in 2009.

I’ll be posting more about the weekend as the next few weeks go on. That’s it for now.

Filed Under: Archives, Personal, Podcamp, Rambles

PodCamp Ottawa: November 25th, 2007

November 10, 2007 By

So PodCamp Ottawa is happening on November 25th at the National Arts Centre – and I cannot WAIT for this one.

No chairs. No tables. No laptops. No net access.

Now, if any of you remember my ranty rant the other day about where I feel PodCamps should go, you’ll already understand why I’m excited. This PodCamp is ALL ABOUT shutting down the drains and getting back to learning. In fact, the guiding principals being used are not unlike the list of rules I’ve got in a notebook for another project (Details next week).

I’ll be leading a conversation at 11:00 in “conversation 1″ called “Web Applications – What’s Out There?How Do They Help?Which Do You Use? Why?”. The interesting thing about PodCamp Ottawa is that I won’t be presenting this information. I’ll be leading a discussion on it. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do that yet – but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

There are a few Kingstonians heading up for sure, and I’m hoping a few more follow us after the meetup on Monday.

See you in Ottawa!

Filed Under: Appearances, Archives, Podcamp

Bring The Message Home – Where To Take Podcamp Next

November 2, 2007 By

I posted a paragraph in my earlier ‘To Fee Or Not To Fee’ post, which really summed up where I think PodCamps ought to be heading, and promised I’d expand on it. The paragraph in question, just for reference, said:

To me, PodCamps seemed to be designed to bring new people into new media. To TEACH people what a podcast was, what blogging was, how to get your video podcast started or some basic SEO to ensure your blog didn’t get lost in the fray of the web. PodCamp, to me at least, wasn’t about the free food, or the free t-shirt, or the after-parties, or even the “fishbowl” people coming together to see each other. To me, PodCamp was about taking OUR community, and sharing it with others, to GROW the community, and bring new people in. It was the “new media school” in a day or two, and should have been used to expand the fishbowl into the aquarium. Then a pond. Then a lake. and, well, you get the idea.

So what of that? I’ve been tossing around the idea in my head (and out loud) to a few people that I’d like to open up here for discussion.  The idea is simply a new media crash course. A handful or organizers, a single room, and a draft schedule. Free food? Not required, but awesome if it’s present. A free tee? Again, not needed – but a cool addition. Essentially, bring PodCamp back to it’s basics. The only costs, really, would be the room rental (At say a local school or library), advertising (Because, as you’ll see soon, the web won’t necessarily work), and name badges. Tadaa. Instant Mini Podcamp.

So what do you talk about? Everything – but in it’s basic form. So you’d run a session on the web in general, then one on getting started in blogging, podcasting, and video podcasting. Perhaps you can toss some web tools (Delicious, flickr, twitter and the like) into a session, some basic SEO perhaps, and maybe a touch on the new media business models. Just enough to whet someone’s appetite, but not enough to sustain them. Why? To get THEM thinking about this space and the medium.

But, I can already see the comment being typed, won’t that create new content creators? Well, maybe. But it will, in any case, create the potential for new content consumers, too. This is where the advertising comes into play. You don’t WANT to have this be a “fishbowl”/”echo chamber” gathering. What these events need to be is a door opening to extend the community. The podcasting/new media space won’t grow if it’s the same folk listening to and participating in everything all the time. And it seems to me like new adoption levels are really tapering off.

But what to call this event? I tossed around the idea of PodCamp ODOT, short for One Day One Track… But have never really liked the sound of it. BitCamp? PodCampMini? PodCampFire? Having a look at the official 7 6 rules for PodCamp, it could simply be called a PodCamp. Anyone who wants to speak can, release the whole day under CC-by-nc-sa, open the doors until your room is full, don’t charge a cent, allow people to come and go as they please, focus on new media, and disclose finances in an open ledger.

So who is the market here? Local folk. Because you don’t want this to become a “fishbowl” gathering, the event should really focus on getting a local audience. Advertising in local newspapers, on radio and on tv would be a great start. Remember too, that community event listings are often free. Posters at local colleges, universities and high schools are great too. Maybe local like-minded businesses would allow a poster to go up. The point here is to keep things local.  Who can host one? Well, anyone, really. Would Toronto be a candidate? Or Boston? Or NYC? Maybe – it would depend on how it was done. Perhaps Mississauga, or Cambridge, or Manhattan. Or Kingston. Or Erie, PA.

Feedback?

Filed Under: Archives, Podcamp

To Fee Or Not To Fee

October 31, 2007 By

My summary of my time at PCB2 will have to wait in draft for a while – there’s something more pressing I want to talk about.

There’s a discussion taking place all over the web about this weekend’s decision to revoke PodCamp rule number 4. Before this, rule number 4 read: “All sessions and events must be free of charge to attend”. That rule is no more and organizers have now been presented with the option to charge a fee to attend PodCamp. There is, at the time of writing, a recommendation on the wiki that reads “sessions and events are strongly encouraged to be free to attend to allow as many people to attend as possible”, but it’s no longer enforced.

I said something on Saturday afternoon during the “PodCamp Retrospective” session which I’d like to repeat and build on here. Having been an attendee to both of Pittsburgh’s PodCamps, their PodCamp BootCamp, and PCB2, along with PAB 2007 and various one-day paid events – I can tell you that I see a clear difference between a PodCamp, and the for-paid events like PAB, or the session side of the PME (Note my exclusion of the vendor floor here).

To me, PodCamps seemed to be designed to bring new people into new media. To TEACH people what a podcast was, what blogging was, how to get your video podcast started or some basic SEO to ensure your blog didn’t get lost in the fray of the web. PodCamp, to me at least, wasn’t about the free food, or the free t-shirt, or the after-parties, or even the “fishbowl” people coming together to see each other. To me, PodCamp was about taking OUR community, and sharing it with others, to GROW the community, and bring new people in. It was the “new media school” in a day or two, and should have been used to expand the fishbowl into the aquarium. Then a pond. Then a lake. and, well, you get the idea.

We in this new media space are constantly moaning that our world seems to be tapering off. That we need to start reaching outside of the fishbowl and bring in new listeners. PodCamp IS our chance to do that. There is NO reason that Podcamp CAN’T be we, the new media community fishbowl, reaching out and teaching other what this space is. Will we be creating new content creators in the process? Sure! But there’s nothing that says that everyone who attends a PodCamp will become a content creator. And besides, what’s to say someone doesn’t come to learn some blogging tips, and walk out knowing a lot about how to LISTEN to a podcast. That’s one more content CONSUMER. Even if their blog never gets off the ground/

So, you’re asking, what about the other side?  What about it! There’s still plenty of room for “fishbowl” gatherings to occur. The PABs and PMEs and the like will still happen.We, the existing community, are still trying to better ourselves, and there’s nothing that says we have to stay still. The existing fishbowl folk are still going to group off at PodCamps, it’s human nature, but that shouldn’t be the FOCUS of the event. I don’t think I met anyone at PCB2 looking to get into this space or learn about it. They allhad a foot in it somewhere. Which was great, but didn’t make it feel ANYTHING like a podcamp to me.

So what about a fee? For a PodCamp, as I’ve defined it above, I say no. For the fishbowl events? Sure. If we went people to come to podcamps, learn about our space d then participate in it as either a content creator, or a content consumer, then we need to do as much as we can to lower the barriers. And if they go home without a free shirt, then so be it.

I’ll post more on where I think PodCamp should go tomorrow. This post was long enough.

Filed Under: Archives, Podcamp, Rambles
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