Sunday 18 April 2004 — This is close to 21 years old. Be careful.
Yesterday I attended BloggerCon II in Cambridge. It was an interesting gathering. I didn’t know quite what to expect, which was good, because the organizers didn’t either. It isn’t really a conference in the traditional sense. There are no presenters or panel, just a hundred or two attendees in a room, with a topic and a moderator, and then the discussion begins.
Dan Bricklin was there taking pictures, as he always does. One of the photos on that page is of a New York Times reporter interviewing me, but I am out of the frame!
I met lots of people, and there were lots of people I knew of that I didn’t talk to.
I’m disappointed that I wasn’t at an impromptu and poorly announced session led by John Perry Barlow.
In the end, I was a little underwhelmed, and I’m not yet sure why. Is it because I’m not a blogging-is-journalism, we’re-going-to-change-the-world, power-to-the-people kind of blogger, but just a geek looking for ways to connect to others of my ilk? Maybe it’s because blogging is inherently a personal endeavor, so a blogging conference is bound to be just a cocktail party writ large? Maybe it’s because I had a head cold!
Comments
The Blogging as a Business session was overwhelming (where you there? the room was packed), if a tad idealistic. In a single room, seating most of the pioneers in the blogsphere (and nary a VC in sight), it was proposed how bloggers themselves would move this media into the mainstream. An energetic meeting, but what will be most impressive is if people take action.
The Blogging as a business discussion was wonderful, as was the Power Law session. They just aren't the reasons I went into blogging. It's why I really am disappointed not to have known that "The Emotional Life of Blogs" was even happening: I would have definitely have attended, because it fits better with my own reasons for being there.
And Omer, you were one of the people I enjoyed meeting. Thanks for introducing yourself, both in person and in these comments!
We met briefly in the Power Laws session. I found my way to the Emotional Life session afterward, but I don't think anything particularly inspiring came out of that session either (although JPB is fun to listen to)...discussions about the sorts of vulnerability blogging involves and the sense that it is a sort of art were interesting, as was a brief conversation about how to deal with all of the blogs we're supposed to read. I think the crowd that attended BloggerCon had a pretty large apptetite for self-congratulation, which is maybe what you'd expect of bloggers, but makes for an uninteresting conference.... I think a few naysayers or more of a focus on fact or controversy might have helped.
Glad someone else thought this.
http://www.emptybottle.org/glass/2004/02/echo_and_the_bunnymen.php
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