Clearly I’M not in the corporate world!
Dan Greenfield commented on Toby Bloomberg’s “Atlanta Women In Social Media Marketing” post from yesterday (the one I’m in) and that reminded me of something.
In the post, I mentioned the anecdote of the guy who was completely condescending and dismissive toward me at SoCon07 and seemed to view social media as the realm of silly young-uns who haven’t entered the real world yet and when they do, they’ll leave childish things behind so they can be taken seriously. Surprise! He showed up at SoCon08, only this time he was a “social media expert” running a “digital consulting company.” (I see now he is also calling himself a “brand therapist.”) That experience is never far from my mind as I view the glad-handers keen on building their personal brands with a wary eye.
SoCon07 wasn’t the first time some “professional” know-it-all looked down their nose at me, and it wouldn’t be the last. For example, the one I remembered after seeing Dan’s comment:
About two years ago, Rusty and I went to a Social Media Club Atlanta meeting (this was when SMC-ATL was in its first incarnation). I didn’t mention it in the post, but the guy, Mike, who I talk about in that post? I remember him saying something exasperatedly to me about how, “Well, those of us in the corporate world don’t have time for all this stuff!” I was so fucking pissed off. Look at those assumptions. I didn’t try to conceal my irritation when I told him, “Hi, I’m in the corporate world, too. Why would you assume I’m not?”
I remember he was visibly surprised. I guess he assumed I just spent all day in my pajamas, maybe had a part-time job at Starbucks. People and their stupid assumptions.
Action shot from my SoCon09 session
Taken by Grayson.
Hopefully I’m saying something smart in this moment!
I’ll post a link to the podcast when it’s available, and hopefully it captured most of the session before the card was filled up. :P
Twitter updates for 2009-02-07
- About to get in the shower, then head to SoCon09 #
- At #socon09. Seriously folks use the hashtag then go to tweetchat.com. I told them they need to put it up on the big screen! #
- Might try to liveblog a few sessions today at #socon09. Will try to keep Twitterrhea to a minimum. #
- I’ve been passing out Buzzword Bingo cards. Come get one if you want one; they’re also at the front table. Play along! #socon09 #
- Many more ppl have attended an unconference by now than 2 yrs or even 1 yr ago. Little less than half the room. #socon09 #
- No need to take pictures since @hyku is already roaming around w/ his bad-ass camera #socon09 #
- @jhaynie – Heh, you just hit about 3 squares on the buzzword bingo card! #socon09 #
- Ruth-Ann Harnisch says TED used to be an exclusive event for the elite. Is it still not? It costs like $6k to attend. #socon09 #
- @SpaceyG – Heh, come to my session this afternoon and help me stave off a headache #socon09 #
- Why did some ppl laugh when @jhaynie said “we’ve created a wonderful community around hip-hop?” What’s up? #socon09 #
- @jbrotherlove – I was waving at you, it looked like you were staring right at me! But I guess you weren’t. #socon09 #
- @SpaceyG – Mine is at 2:30 (or is it 2? the online schedule and schedule I got emailed had a discrepancy) #
- @barelyfitz – They’re different but often go hand in hand. In the case of TED? Yeah, it’s a fair critique. Also, read this http://is.gd/iJLC #
- @urbanreporter – My vote goes for tweetchat.com for #socon09 but we don’t have to fight :) #
- (doing a terrible job of avoiding Twitterrhea. Non-#socon09 ppl, feel free to Twittersnooze me. I would if I were you.) #
- “People have a voice now and it matters.” Unless you talk about *certain things*, right @jhaynie? #socon09 #
- @SpaceyG – I def. plan to come to your session! #socon09 Also, I think tweetchat.com just croaked. Foot in my mouth, @urbanreporter! #
- Yay, tweetchat.com is back. Apparently we at #socon09 crashed *everything* (twittersearch, twemes.com…) for a minute there! #
- British guy speaking now, made a joke about his “Southern accent.” Went over well, naturally. Love his dry humor. #socon09 #
- Love Andrew Wilson (aforementioned British guy)’s point about “Atlanta” encompassing about 20 freakin’ counties #socon09 #
- I think BrandAtlanta is silly, but Andrew Wilson is awesome #socon09 #
- Accountability… buzzword bingo square! #socon09 #
- @thomasls says, “Save yourself, make another joke about Gainesville!” #socon09 #
- I missed the initial mention of accountability on the slide, bc I was reading a post about sex from my Baptist minister friend #socon09 #
- “Journalists have to fact check.” O RLY? This again? I am so *bored* w/ this perennial, incessant discussion #socon09 #
- @SpaceyG – Napriot! #socon09 #
- @seanwood says, “Thanks for bringing the Bingo cards. I wish more ppl would embrace the card.” #socon09 #
- @jbrotherlove – Well, you know THAT GUY loves the buzzwords. He and Geoff Livingston should par-ray. #socon09 #
- We have crashed tweetchat, twemes, and twittersearch again w/ our Twitter-rioting about this foolishness #socon09 #
- Where is @griftdrift, he would have a fit #socon09 #
- I totally agree that the online world and the offline world are alike wrt honesty. But that’s not what you’re saying dude! #socon09 #
- @jbrotherlove & @karsh – I vote that y’all go public for the day #socon09 #
- See me for your #socon09 buzzword bingo card, we’ve had at least 20 Bingos so far, I think. EMBRACE THE CARD. #
- @SpaceyG – @karsh is up in the right corner in red #
- Apparently we crashed Twitter searches bc #socon09 is the top trending topic right now. Oh but Atlanta isn’t social media savvy?? #
- Observation: ppl at #socon09 are way snarkier than ppl at #fem2! Maybe bc more of us have heard all this shit before. #
- What’s the Back Noise thing? I don’t understand it. Also, a guy is talking about Sherman now. For real. He’s serious. #socon09 #
- @rustytanton, @thomasls, @seanwood, @tessa and I are *trying* to keep the snark factor down… not succeeding #socon09 #
- Julie Squires talking now. I heart her and not just bc she said “PodCamp Atlanta changed my life.” #socon09 #
- @rustytanton – I wonder if @absurdities will get pissed at you for saying yankee?? #socon09 #
- RT @joeventures: Sing it like we used to sing at 50,000 strong, while we were marching through georgia #socon09 #
- Boo, once again man gets to talk before woman. We are all too comfortable backing down and letting the men talk first. #socon09 #
- “The rapping industry” WTF?? #socon09 #
- @museumfreak – You can still come! The best part is the afternoon sessions anyway. Those start at 1. #socon09 #
- @jesspater – I think the whole point is to embrace what *does* exist, rather than impose something that doesn’t make sense #socon09 #
- Snark w/ my ATL old-school blog pals is too fun. It’s half the reason I come to these things anymore. Also, bc @sherryheyl rocks. #socon09 #
- Politics is a taboo subject? Oh, Mary! #socon09 #
- Another white guy talking about hip-hop. I need a Bingo card for that, too. #socon09 #
- @karsh – but it’s in big red bold all caps! so it must be true. #socon09 #
- Keynote is stating now #socon09 Ppl need to shut up while @sherryheyl is talking. Ok, there. #
- I hate when ppl want to get in a circle. It takes for fucking ever. #socon09 Plan ahead! #
- Was tempted to put “deliverables” on bingo card but that’s more business buzzword than social media. Might make another. #socon09 #
- @tarynp – The breakout sessions always rock #socon09 #
- Well, so far only 4 ppl are signed up for my session: @karsh, @jbrotherlove, @thomasls, and someone I don’t know. #socon09 #
- OMG. Tweet of the day. “He’s given up on twitter tho, thnx to all the liberals.” Seriously y’all. #socon09 #
- @thomasls – … there will also be a fair amount of snark captured #socon09 #
- A blog “purely for our own use.” Imagine that. Oh, 2003… where have you gone? #socon09 #
- Not really paying attention to this presentation, talking about capitalism on my blog instead. Looking fwd to lunch! #socon09 #
- Aha! First invocation of Chris Brogran of the day. Mark it on your Bingo cards, peeps! #socon09 #
- Notes to self for later: term “online etiquette” often seems to stand in for “stuff you better not talk about” #socon09 #
- Personal human connections online. THANK YOU. #socon09 #
- “We’re buying a person.” -ok, suddenly this got creepy #socon09 #
- @thomasls – Hey I’m a huge fan of This I Believe #socon09 #
- Talked to @jbrotherlove, @karsh, @dedej, and @hyku on my way back from the restroom. They’re having fun out there! #socon09 #
- Ah, a joke at the expense of sex workers and the whole room explodes w/ laughter. *sigh* #socon09 #
- Discouraged about people again #socon09 Sex workers are always funny ha-ha right?? Fuck. #
- In @spaceyg’s Twitter session at #socon09. Meta! #
- LOL @ acai berry juice. Yeah, what’s w/ the spam Twitter accounts focused on acai berry juice?? #socon09 #
- Conversation has turned to criminals potentially using Twitter to break into your house? Super weird. Umm. #socon09 #
- We keep breaking tweetchat, twitter search, etc.! #socon09 #
- @sadieup – Yeah, my point exactly. That’s a level of paranoid I don’t comprehend. #socon09 #
- Ha! The Tweetgrid twwet on tweetchat.com is a perfect example of bad Twittering! #socon09 #
- @ivey – Just Twittersnooze everyone for today. ‘Cause I ain’t shuttin’ up! #socon09 #
- @thomasls is watching your tweets about UPS! #socon09 #
- Yes, you can use any hashtag. Example from the election: http://twemes.com/myfriends #socon09 #
- Oh, also: http://twemes.com/myfriend (That’s where *my* friends are!) #socon09 #
- Just downloaded Tweetdeck. Am I an idiot or is the UI bad, bc I can’t figure out how to *send a tweet* from it. #socon09 #
- Ha! According to @SpaceyG I am now part of an “older demographic.” Hey, I’m still 29! #socon09 #
- Len invoking Robert Scoble. Please, can we stop w/ the Scoble twitterhandjobs? #socon09 #
- @TheLetterM – Yeah, apparently. The price of fame. #socon09 #
- I’m glad Scoble *didn’t* come here, bc he was an asshole at ConvergeSouth 2006. #socon09 #
- I met Kwanza Hall at #socon09 and he was really nice and funny #
- @RedLightChicago – The 1996 Olympics actually did some really great things for Atlanta. #
- @LaLibertine – Obv. ATL isn’t Chicago, but in our case the Olympics served as an impetus to rebuild a bunch of crappy infrastructure. #
- About to go visit our new house again! :) #
- @RedLightChicago – Sssh, let’s not talk abotu that little thing! #
- @LaLibertine – I just had to Google the Cloud Gate. So *that’s* what that thing is. #
- Catching up on reading the capitalism thread on my blog. Glad ppl are actually commenting! #
- @geierman – I’m glad you stepped in! #
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Sundries
(Am I the only one who always reads “sundries” as “sun-dries,” like the plural for sun-dried tomatoes?)
Been busy w/ work and the new house. Hate saying something like that because it sounds so cliché, and also because I hate when people use “I’m busy” as a go-to excuse for everything. Hello, everyone is busy, it’s nothing special.
Anyway, here are some summaries of what’s been happening.
~*~
Monday I went to the Feminism2.0 conference in Washington, DC, with Ren. The subject matter and issues discussed were not new to me, but overall it was interesting and I’m glad I went. I liveblogged the following sessions:
- Feminism on the Move – Where we were and where are we now?
- Media and Culture: Feminists and the Media – Speaking Out
- Bloggers and Activists: An Intimate and Frank Conversation
I also posted a few photos on Flickr, many of which show the linkfluence node map thingy that was blowing everyone’s mind. I thought the top 30 list was pretty neat – and that’s all. Such things should be taken with the appropriate serving of salt. Or to put it another way, Technorati rankings are not character judgments.
Predictably, there are now conversations ensuing about who was “excluded,” and it’s driving me batty. I really try not to get all “snarky tech geek” on people, but this isn’t an issue of exclusion/inclusion. And honestly at this point it seems like there’s no pleasing some people. As I said at Renee’s, if WOC bloggers are not highly ranked by algorithms like that, it’s likely because of a lack of interlinking, which may happen because WOC bloggers feel that other feminist blogs are hostile environments and therefore don’t link to them. This is not condoning anything, it’s a straightforward explanation. Example: if you make your blog private, it’s not indexed by Google. That’s just the way the internet works.
Frankly, I’m sick of these conversations because they always seem to be Oppression Olympics and too often it seems like people who don’t understand the way SEO works are making outrageous, spurious claims. And more and more, I get a sense of people not wanting to be proactive, but rather just passively snarking about how everything is so unfair.
And I hate that saying that makes me sound (to some, perhaps) like the assholes who deny that privilege exists; the people who, when someone points out an instance of white privilege, male privilege, hetero privilege, whatever, take it as a personal attack. I can’t STAND those people! I hate that there seems to be such a dichotomy set up, though, that you can’t have a legitimate critique with being painted as identical to those people. And I’m afraid it will make people not listen to me when I raise legitimate critiques (e.g., exclusion of sex workers’ voices; myriad instances of male privilege and institutionalized sexism, especially the “unintentional” kind). -Of course, the corollary to that is, if people can’t make a distinction between a legitimate critique and passive snarking, that’s their problem; but we all know that common sense is not so common.
~*~
SoCon09 is tomorrow. I’m glad Rusty and I are going this year; we went in 2007, but missed it last year in favor of going to PodCamp Nashville. That turned out to be a mistake, because PodCamp Nashville sucked. We still had fun in Nashville and the rest of the road trip, but seeing all the tweets and liveblogs from SoCon08 made us realize we’d chosen the wrong unconference for that weekend!
I’m leading a session tomorrow called “Online Etiquette: How to Balance Your Personal and Professional Image Online.” I didn’t pick the name. The session was already named and Sherry “assigned” it to me. I would not have used the word “etiquette” in this context, because to me that belongs in a completely separate discussion, and I’m bothered by the way the two are often conflated. But, I plan to bring that up in the session! Hopefully there will be some good discussion generated (and hopefully I won’t end up with a massive headache). If it’s anything like my BlogOrlando session, I’ll be pleased.
And, I have an order in at Office Depot for 80 more Buzzword Bingo cards. Josh initially prodded me; J motivated me and offered to chip in to help pay for them! Nik offered twenty bucks, too. So I’ll give the people what they want! There won’t be a formal game or anything, but it’ll be interesting to see how many Bingos people get throughout the day. ;)
~*~
Progress is being made (how ’bout that passive voice!) on the bedroom at the new house. The first coat of paint is complete and we’ll be putting the second coat on this weekend.
I feel like we’ve been very fortunate w/ this whole home-buying process. Everyone has been very nice to us. We’ve gotten gifts, for crying out loud!
From Stacia, our agent:
She also gave us two types of birdseed, a card, and a Lowe’s gift card.
The home inspection company made postcards with a picture of the house, the address, and “Just Moved” on them; and return address labels with a picture of the house.
Last weekend, we discovered champagne and chocolates in the fridge, from the seller:
And last night, when I went over to the house there was a package on the doorstep…
It was from the listing agent. It’s a stained-glass bird!
The bird is actually their logo, but it doesn’t look like a logo. (Rusty and I have discussed how this is very smart marketing.) They gave one to the seller at the closing, and I guess after finding out that we’re “bird people” they decided to give one to us, too. It was a really nice surprise.
On a geeky note, I should mention that I uploaded some of the closing pictures to Facebook, and immediately friend requested and tagged most of the people in this group shot.
~*~
New favorite recipe: Macaroni and Cheese with Cauliflower, from Real Simple Magazine. It’s really more of a casserole. Rusty was skeptical at first, but after he made it, all the skepticism was gone. It makes enough to feed a small army. After we ate a bunch of it the first night (photo is of my first serving only), we made six individually packaged portions and put them in the freezer. We ate the last of it yesterday. Maybe we’ll make some for our eventual housewarming party.
~*~
Not sure if I ever blogged about this, but Rusty posted a really fascinating interview with his great-aunt Jane, who was working at Grady Hospital the night of the Winecoff Hotel fire in 1946. She ended up taking in almost all of the bodies at the morgue. This is the kind of priceless history that is imperative to preserve.
If you’re having trouble viewing the video, try upgrading your Flash player. You can also download the file and watch it on your desktop.
After watching the video a few times, I had a dream that I was in the Winecoff Hotel fire, only it was happening now, and I knew in advance what would happen, and there was a social media conference going on at the Winecoff (Tessa and other Atlanta social media people were there), and I kept trying to convince the people on the upper levels to get out now because the fire was slowly coming up the building and I knew the people on the higher levels wouldn’t be able to escape, but they were all nonchalant and ignored me.
~*~
Am I becoming old and boring because I post about things like recipes and painting the bedroom of the house my long-term partner and I just bought? Hey, at least I’m not posting photos of my kids and blogging about the cute things they did today. Stop me if I ever get to that point! (Probably moot because I don’t plan to have kids – but of course, I reserve the right to change my mind.)
Feminism2.0, SoCon09, and Sex 2.0(.2!)
What events will I be attending over the next few months? Well I’ll tell you…
- Feminism2.0, February 2 in Washington, DC. I’m staying with Ren, woohoo! Watch out, we’ll be all sexee in our big coats and scarves! I’ll try to do some liveblogging. And I’ll try to keep the Twitterrhea to a minimum, which is easier for me than some because I don’t have an iPhone or Blackberry.
- SoCon09, February 7 at Kennesaw State University. Rusty and I went to the first one in 2007 but missed last year’s, regrettably. I’m supposed to be leading a session but I haven’t heard anything else about it from the organizers. Stay tuned.
- And of course Sex 2.0, in its second year, the organization effort being headed up by Match et al. It’ll be in DC on May 9, which also happens to be Rusty’s and my 4th anniversary. Talk about a testament to the power of sex and social media!
Quickie
So this one guy who was at SoCon07 saw my live-blogging post and “question[ed] if there was real value for the readers” in it. Ha! Oh, passive-aggressive behavior, the internet has really helped you grow into full-fledged snark. Anyway, I thought I pretty much spelled it out in my post yesterday and about a million other times in other posts, but here it is again: I don’t care. WTF does “value” mean, anyway? And like I wrote (and Jenny quoted) yesterday, who defines it? I write my blog for me, not for anyone else. This is not a difficult concept.
Okay, gotta run to Publix now to stock up on snacks for tonight’s podcast party. And hopefully I’ll put up a new Mostly ITP soon.
Liveblogging SoCon07
8:50 a.m. – We’re here, and we’re podcasting this.
The new social sciences building at Kennesaw State is a nice, brand-new facility, and what a great venue for this unconference! Right now Sherry is talking and giving the ground rules, and doing an awesome job as usual. I’m going to attempt to do some live-blogging here, as much as I can. Stay tuned!
8:57 a.m. – Leonard Witt just said, “Today, Linux is as robust as Microsoft; maybe moreso.” Maybe? Ha!
Oh, also, earlier Josh took a photo of Rusty and me… here it is:
9:05 a.m. – Oh god! Infinite loop!
9:14 a.m. – Note to Tim: stop using IE on the computer that’s hooked to the projector!
9:16 a.m. – First quote of the day, from Josh: “You can’t get away with shit anymore.”
9:20 a.m. – Oh god, some very earnest dude is talking about how horrible it was 30-40 years ago when WOMEN WEREN’T ALLOWED TO VOTE in various places around the world. I’m sorry, this might not come across as very funny but it has me cracking the fuck up. When you hear the audio, maybe you’ll do the same. Btw – he is NEVER going to support IE!!
(I mean, I completely agree with his view on IE, but shit… something about this guy is giving me the giggles.)
9:26 a.m. – I just totally blew my cool and was the idiot gawking at the video camera that showed up over my shoulder. They’ll cut that. (Whoever “they” are.)
Now Jeff is talking about capitalism. Also, it’s kind of giving me a boner that the conversation has turned to standards and the importance of them (esp. wrt Mozilla, etc.). It’s good to have more geekiness here – that was kind of missing at BlogSavannah.
Stephen Eley hates the term “Web 2.0″ and admits to being a cynic. Heh. “There’s no specific message, but they just think it’s really cool,” he says. Also, he says it’s a problem if the conversation becomes too masturbatory. LOL.
9:32 a.m. – Sometimes being a snob is okay and sometimes it’s not. I need to think about this more and formulate my thoughts; I’ll write more about it all later. Oh god now a business guy is talking about how he doesn’t care about Firefox and blahblahblee. Here comes the Jerry Springer moment. This guy pisses me off. He’s very impressed with himself, apparently. I’m not using his name but he knows who he is!!
But, I mean, his point about focusing on content not tools is a good one… well, except, I don’t know if that was really his point. Josh is making the point much better, and is smacking down his shitty kind of snobbery. The guy was all, “Oh, this is crap, blahblah…” Well, as Josh said, it’s not crap to everybody. WORD.
9:38 a.m. – I can hardly keep up with my live-blogging! This is a good conversation – very heated, lots of passion and opinions, it’s really making me think a lot. Just listen to the podcast when we put it up next week.
Now Shelby’s talking about the “digital divide.” Give ‘em hell!
9:43 a.m. – Waffle House keeps coming up.
A guy was just saying, some conversations have value and others don’t. Yeah, but, who defines “value?”
9:50 a.m. – New quote of the day from James Harris: “Think beyond the screen.” It’s not hyperbole, I don’t think, to suggest that Web 2.0 (yes I said it) can be utilized to help change the world. Btw this is what I want to talk about at the session Rusty and I will be leading at PodCamp Atlanta, about building community through podcasting.
10:00 a.m. – Okay Coty, let’s wrap it up dude. (I’m not trying to be mean here. I’m just saying.)
10:20 a.m. – Chris Klaus from Kaneva is about to start his presentation. I’m uploading some more photos to Flickr.
10:27 a.m. – This presentation is more like a regular conference. He’s showing Powerpoint slides and talking at us. I don’t remember who said it (maybe Dave Winer?) but it really is true… once you’ve been to an unconference, it’s damn near impossible to go back [to a regular conference].
10:34 a.m. – Chris Klaus just referred to the iMac as “the iMac device.” Ha! Btw, re: the iMac… hi, welcome to 4 years ago. Anyway, I guess this is a good time for me to charge the battery in my laptop.
10:45 a.m. – “Anybody here have 3D modeling skills?”
11:01 a.m. – Great point by (imagine that!) an audience member – the harder companies try to control their brand in the new media space, the less success they will have. Things are changing and companies have to change accordingly. This is the smartest thing that’s been said for the whole session. This guy was the first audience member allowed to actually say something. WTF will Chris say. He’s totally not getting it.
Also Chris seems to think Microsoft hired Scoble specifically to blog for them. LOL.
11:20 a.m. – Okay it’s time for this session to end; it’s already gone over five minutes. I don’t give a crap about avatars. I can’t wait for the break-out sessions.
1:06 p.m. – Lunch is over and now I’m in the “Women and Social Media: Finding Your Niche” session. I’m using one of our portable digital recorders to record this, but people aren’t speaking up very well (I’m about to remind them to do so) – so I can’t say how this podcast will turn out. Some guy(!) is saying, women are more socially oriented. WTF.
1:15 p.m. – Already this session has me feeling very annoyed and I’m hoping I won’t go off on some rant and dominate the podcast. :P We shall see.
1:26 p.m. – You know what? I really think there needs to be an uncon specifically focused on issues with feminism and blogging. And not just feminism, but the intersectionality of all these different kinds of issues and how blogging, podcasting, etc. lets us talk about those things. And I want there to be an emphasis on sexuality – e.g., how all this new media stuff is giving women new avenues for exploring their sexuality and knocking down walls based on stereotypes and shit (a lot like what Dacia’s forthcoming book is about). I really need to get my thoughts together about this and have it coalesce into something more coherent… maybe after PodCamp I’ll organize this thing! Just you wait!
1:30 p.m. – Why are we talking about search engine optimization? This session is supposed to be about “finding your niche” and we’re 30 minutes in and so far we haven’t talked about that at all.
1:39 p.m. – Oh god here comes the conversation again about professional vs. personal. I can’t take it. Oh, and a woman and a man started talking at the same time, but the woman said, “Oh, you go ahead.” Oh and now this guy (same guy) was just like, “Oh, well, people get fired for that” when I was talking about how things are getting less compartmentalized and there’s a push for transparency. I said it’s a mental roadblock a lot of people hit up against, and they get over it at different times – and some never do. God I can’t handle this conversation again – I’m going go off on somebody. I just… I feel so passionately about this, and I want people to hear what I’m saying. (And what lots of other people are saying! Sherry really gets it, for instance.) Can I keep my mouth shut in here now that I feel my heart racing, or is it important that I DON’T keep my mouth shut? Arrrrghh…
1:44 p.m. – So, everybody has their own opinion of what makes a good blog and what they want to read in a blog. Yeah, sure, that’s great; opinions are like assholes. But ultimately? What it comes down to is, every individual gets to define what a blog is for themselves. If you want to be totally transparent, that’s your choice to make; if you want to be solely professional in your writing, that’s your choice too. And that’s the great thing about blogs! Each person can decide for themselves! The guy next door doesn’t like it? Fuck him! He can start his own blog and write it the way he likes; and he can read other blogs that are written in a way he likes. I’m not writing my blog for him, I’m writing for ME.
Yes this is the same discussion that always happens at these unconferences, but I think it’s still important to have. And, like Josh was saying earlier, a lot (maybe most) of these people are hearing it for the first time.
And goddammit, this guy sitting here next to me is totally hung up and he’s dominating the whole damn session. One of the session leaders needs to put the kibosh on this crap.
1:48 p.m. – Jeneane Sessum just said something about writing about your sex life – the assumption seeming to be, oh you would NEVER do THAT. Oh god. (Jeneane if you read this later… I’m interested to know, is this perception correct?)
1:52 p.m. – Ha! I think the guy sitting next to me may have finally shut up. Oh wait, no, there he goes again.
I like what Lee and Adam are saying about finding out who their audience is rather than making assumptions.
1:58 p.m. – The guy next to me just started a sentence with, “The thing she doesn’t understand is…” Argh!! Well, this one is almost over.
Oh good, whew! Now J. Brotherlove is speaking sense.
Okay! Off to Josh’s “Off the Record” session.
2:56 p.m. – There were only five of us in Josh’s session, so I didn’t do any live-blogging. It was me, Josh, Coty, Sherry, and David Cohen. We had a great conversation about the way the culture is changing with the (slow) move toward transparency and authenticity. No, I didn’t record it, so no podcast will be forthcoming; Stephen had my digital recorder with him to record the session called “The Power of Online Social Communities.”
3:28 p.m. – It’s over! What a day. A lot of people are heading over to Mellow Mushroom for pizzas and beers, but Rusty and I are going to head home. I can’t speak for him, but I’m probably going to take a nap. Right now Rusty is doing an interview with Stephen Eley which will be up as an episode of Mostly ITP at some point. After this? Packing up our gear and heading back down to Decatur!
It’s been a great day!
Stuff this weekend
It’s going to be a jam-packed (in a good way) weekend. Here’s the run-down:
- Tonight: Pre-SoCon07 dinner
- Tomorrow:
- SoCon07!
- PoleLaTeaz fashion show (unless I decide I need a nap)
- Sex Workers’ Art Show (possibly including an interview with Annie Oakley, which I won’t fuck up this time)
- Sunday: Podcast party
There will probably be live-blogging from SoCon07 tomorrow. See ya!