Green Eggs and Spam

Why Twitter will always be the "One" or, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha"

In the old TV show "The Brady Bunch", Jan Brady always feels she has to live forever in the shadow of Marsha, her older, better looking, and more popular sister.  She is always trying to outdo Marsha and get the attention to center on her instead of her sister.  Jan's schemes would ultimately backfire on her and Marsha would get even more attention prompting her to cry "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, all I ever hear is Marsha." This on-going story line was used countless times throughout the series and played up even more in the campy movie remakes of a few years ago.  The conflict created loads of laughs, often at Jan's expense.

"What does this have to do with Twitter?", you ask.  Quite a bit actually.  In the online Social Presence, Micro-Blogging, or slow motion chatting world, Twitter is the Marsha to all the other services Jan.  Twitter is the older sibling who gets all of the attention and praise, and even if it fails and all you see is a whale, it can't seem to loose for winning.  Some of the other sites only see heavy traffic when Twitter is down for any reason, only to see everyone flock back after using their service as a stop gap.  There was a stretch of time where it seemed Twitter went down every few hours.  People were upset, cried out in anguish, and threatened to leave Twitter for good, only to giddily post Twitter's resurrection on whatever site to which they had evacuated and promptly leave to run back to Twitter.

What makes Twitter so irresistible that people are willing to put up with the issues to stay online?  I wondered that same thing myself for a while.  After much thought, I think I know some of the reasons why Twitter is on the top of the heap and is destined to stay there unless another service can figure out how to push them off the top.

The first reason is, well, it was the first, or close to it, to engage people via text and web presence.  Twitter is designed around a mobile interface, hence the character limit. (And you thought it was to keep you from being long winded).  The idea you could use text messages to keep your friend updated on your status and have their updates SMS'd to you where ever you are in the world was revolutionary.  The service gave people a central point to keep up with each other and connect in ways they hadn't thought of before Twitter.  Being the first on the scene builds a lot of inertia that is very hard to stop.

Second, Twitter is VERY simple to use.  As a matter of fact, the hardest thing for me to do on Twitter is confine myself to 140 characters.  The site is simple and intuitive and with its SMS short code, even easier to use on a mobile device.  If you can text message, you can post on Twitter.  Following is easy, you just click where it says "Follow."  Simple and to the point has won the hearts and minds of its users.

Another reason for the devotion is it's roots.  Many of the early adopters of Twitter were the "Digerati" as well as the technically and socially connect folks on the west coast especially in and around San Francisco.  People like Robert Scoble, Kevin Rose, and Leo Laporte started talking about it and the rush was on.  Even now, these are some of the most followed on Twitter.  Leo alone has a following so large he can bring a web site to it's knees if he mentions it while video casting live.  From those movers and shakers and moving outward, Twitter has consistently gathered mass until I feel it is now past the tipping point of moving from early adopter/Geek applications to a real world tool and service that is very close to breaking into the mainstream of consciousness.  This critical mass is yet another reason Twitter is destined to stay on top of the heap.  Why leave where most of the people you'd want to talk to are staying?

The final reason I am going to talk about is the acceptance by many of the Twitter standard. What I mean by this is most sites which want to build a social component into their own offerings almost always either allow your Twitter Friends to be imported or allow you to cross post from their site.  This de facto recognition of Twitter's status has drawn even more people to it.

Twitter is rapidly growing up.  Just this past week, Twitter became a major source of information for the whole world during the terror attacks in Mumbai.  News was breaking on Twitter more rapidly than the cable news networks could broadcast.  This is why Twitter is on top of the heap and is very likely to stay there.  This is not to say other social sites will not be around or used.  There will always be other sites, but I think many of them will fall into the niche category.

All of the other sites seem to be destined to sit in their corners crying out "Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, all I ever hear is Twitter." for some time.  What does the future hold?  Well that's a post for another day.

The "Perfect" Big Brother - Twitter

I can't begin a series of posts on social web sites, without first looking at the one every site ALWAYS gets compared to over and over again - Twitter.  I go to a new site and it's "Well, Twitter does it this way" and "I like the way Twitter handles this better" or "Twitter is cleaner" and until recently, "Is Twitter down for you?"

It seems everything has to live up to or surpass some unwritten "Twitter Standard" (Twindard?) for the masses to accept and/or use the new service.  Twitter is like that "Perfect" older brother you always get compared to when you bring your grades home from school.  If it helps you understand the context, you can call it the "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" Syndrome.  Always being measured against a standard you know is almost impossible to attain.  Since all of my reviews will HAVE to compare the site to Twitter in order to form a frame of reference usable by most who read this blog, I decided to start by talking about Twitter and why I think it is so dominate now.

For those of you among us who are not "Technorati" or technology early/over adopters, you may ask your self, "Why are we talking about bird sounds?" (Note: for the Early/Over adopters, you may want to skim down a few paragraphs as you will find this section a tad boring.  It's OK, go ahead, the rest of us will catch up to you in a bit) Well, we are not talking the sounds of a bird, or light giggling, the "other" definition of twitter - to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter.  In the briefest possible definition,  Twitter.com is a site dedicated to light, rapid chat in an environment which would make the most ADHD among us squeal with glee.

Use of the site is quite simple, after you sign up for an account, you can post anything that comes to mind as long as it can be stated in 140 characters or less.  This is called a "tweet" among those in the know and displays on the screen as you enter it.  While this posting to yourself can be a fun way to get a lot off of your chest, it quickly looses its luster and you are left staring at a screen with your random thoughts staring back at you.  A rather scary proposition for some of us.  The "fun" in twitter comes in finding and following interesting "Tweeple", or other people who are out there posting tweets at the same time as you.  These people come in all varieties and ideological flavors which can give rise to some interesting discourses. 

To find someone to follow is as hard as it is simple.  You can start by looking at the public time-line and seeing if anyone has said something interesting in the past few seconds; that's the simple part.  Here's the hard part of this exercise, figuring out what's really interesting and what is reply fluff or TwitterSpam (More on that later).  If you don't see something that strikes your fancy, just refresh your page and I am VERY sure you will have a whole new list to look at and choose from.  the reason for this is the huge number of people who use Twitter and the even larger number of their posts.  Once you find a tweet that seems interesting, you can click on that person's ID and read other posts by that particular user.  If you like what you see, click on the little button labeled "Follow".  The person you just "Followed" will get a message you are now reading their posts and you may or may not get "followed" back in return.  By the way, if you follow one of the "famous" Technorati, don't expect to get followed.  Some of those folks have a HUGE list of followers (Leo Laporte has over 50,000 folowers!) and if they followed everyone, it would be like drinking from a fire hose.

Ok, now you've Tweeted and followed someone, what now?  Well,...um...really..., that's all there is to it.  Yes, there are other features, such as importing your address list and seeing if people you know are already on the site, or looking for and finding other people, that, essentially, I have given you about 75% of what Twitter is all about from a USAGE point of view.  From here everything gets a bit mushier/"insider"ish and involves social memes, twitter spam, and echo chamber discussions.  You're welcome to continue reading or go play with Twitter a bit and come back.

For those of you skimming, this is the place to reconnect. 

Yes, I know Twitter is more than what I just said, but I didn't want to frighten the new folks.  Some of this stuff is almost better if it is self discovered over time, but we DO need to talk about it for a bit. First, the Echo Chamber effect.  I have discovered it is VERY easy to only follow those who hold the same view as you on various topics.  Humans tend to shy away from conflict and gather in groups who are "like" they are in various ways, either in appearance, social standing, ideology, of MAC vs. PC preference (DO NOT GO THERE.)  We do that in real life and we also tend to do this in our Twitter life.  When this occurs, you end up in an echo chamber which parrots back to you your own ideals and it becomes VERY easy to imagine the majority of people feel/believe the same way as you do on various topics.  A great example of this is the recent vote on Prop8 in California.  Regardless of your views on the Prop itself, I was in an interesting position on Twitter.  I had a number of people I follow on both sides of the issue that did not have friends from the opposing side.  Each side thought they were in the majority of popular thought because of the posts they read on Twitter and at least one of those groups turned out to be surprised on election day. 

We need to stay away from the Echo Chamber if at all possible while following people.  I make an attempt to follow folks from across the spectrum, even those who make my blood pressure go up with each post.  I don't do this because I am trying to have an early stroke, but to make sure I am seeing a multitude of ideas and information.  Good ideas come from everywhere and limiting yourself is ridiculous.

Tune in next post, where I will try to finish up my thoughts on this "perfect" big brother and see why all of the other sites have the "Marsh, Marsha, Marsha" Syndrome.  Also, feel free to send me your favorite Twitter application hints or leave them in the comments and I will aggregate them as a future post.

Social Media Overload?

Hi, My name is Andy, and I am a Social Site Addict.

If there is a new site, chances are I am on it or will be shortly.  From Twitter, to Pownce, from Jaiku to Plurk, From Rejaw to Delicious, if it is out there I will find it, join it, use it for 15 minutes and probably move on to another.  I have accounts for sites I have visited once or twice (Newsvine for example) and others I visit semi-regularly (Plurk is good example there) and others I watch all the time, but can't keep straight (definitely Twitter for that one.)  When you consider all of these sites along with LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Ning (a social network for social networks), Hi5, etc, I really think I may need help sorting them all out. If you are brave, click on the link to the retaggr site and expand my profiles line, and that isn't even all of them.  I have so many sites I would go crazy if I didn't have 1Password to help me keep the passwords/IDs straight.  To make it even more confusing, I have some sites updating others and some sites only accepting updates from others, and MOST sites, i update from Ping.fm without even visiting the site (which is counter to the original purpose of those sites being social in the first place.) I know I am not alone in this as I see dazed people all of the time, floating from Twitter to FriendFeed, to Pownce, et al. 

All of this social exposure has lead me to stop and contemplate for a few moments on the state of social sites on the Net these days. I am beginning to wonder just how many really SHOULD be in the "must join" list, and which sites I should kick to the curb as a "social reject"?  I think we are so "engaged" we have stretched ourselves socially thin.  I also believe we need to really evaluate where we have joined and where we should join to determine if we will get what we need from the site, or if we should ignore that new shiny invite waiting in our inbox.

Since I am already a junkie with more site memberships that should be legally allowed, I have decided to "take one for the team."  Over the next few weeks, I will start reviewing the social sites I am a member of currently as well as new ones I come across in my travels on the Wonderfully Weird Web.  I am adding a page on this site containing all of the Links as I review them along with my label of either "Social Must" or "Social Reject"  I also welcome your comments on my reviews as well as suggestions for more sites to review as we go along.  Share your thoughts with me and we will see if we can't help those poor souls coming after us to avoid the social addiction we have committed ourselves to for the foreseeable future.

BarCamp Memphis - Wrap-up

Well, over a week has passed since BarCamp Memphis and I have had 8 posts (9 if you count the first "wow" post) on the single day known as the "unconference." I have been to several traditional conferences and I do admit, BarCamp Memphis was the most "UN" conference I have ever attended.  

I enjoyed all of the sessions (yes, even the eCommerce one that left me with more questions than answers) and I recommend an future session we may have here in town.  The organizers, all listed on the Barcamp Memphis website, but I want to say a special thank you to Eric Matthews and Dave Barger who seemed to be everywhere working to keep the day moving.  I almost think there were at least two of each of them as I am certain I saw Dave in two rooms at once.  To everyone helped who pulled this off, congratulations on a job well done.  Also, put me on the short list to help next time, I'll be glad to help where I can.

This is not to say the day didn't have it's bumps.  First, the wireless had issues at the beginning of the day.  When the wireless was fixed in the other two rooms, room three still had issues as it was quite some distance away.  There were some work arounds for this, however it was anoying to say the least. It didn't affect me much in the afternoon as I stayed in rooms 1 and 2, and it may have improved after I left.  I also should probably note I didn't really know to expect wireless all around as I knew there was going to be a Bloghaus, so I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

With the weird way the weather was acting that week, I think the organizers did a pretty good job environmentally, not to hot or cold for the average person. For ME, well that is another story as I go with a jacket and short sleeves until the temp stays in the 30s during the day.  I stopped expected sites to cater to my internal temperatures a LONG time ago.

The Food was MUCH better than expected.  I don't know how they managed to feed all of us with BBQ that good without going into the red, but I am very glad they figured it out.  Also, a conference of this nature with Red Bull as a sponsor is a match made in heaven. The one sponsor/prize provider I found a little awkward was Zannel.com.  I can understand the idea, but it didn't work as well as I would have expected as I couldn't get the search to work via mobile well enough to follow more people, and I am not quite sure just how many used the system or abandoned it for Twitter later in the day.  i know there were a few of us who kept with it and I think we did a pretty good job of pushing the service for a couple of hours which was the REAL reason behind the sponsorship I do believe.  (Nothing like an army of tech twitterers at a BarCamp to test a new social conversation site.)

As my (endless) posts on BarCamp Memphis come to an end, I would like to say this BarCamp was an unqualified success and I again thank the sponsors and presenters and look forward to continuing the conversations we started that day.  Also, to all the new subscribers my BarCamp posts have brought me, I say welcome and I hope I don't bore you to death in the future. Below is an embeded video from BarCampMemphis.org.  I think it does a good job giving you a taste of the event and it doesn't have too many pictures of me in it, a plus in my book. I hope you like it.  This is from the BarCamp Memphis site, by way of blip.tv if you'd like to go to the source.

[blip.tv ?posts_id=1478100&dest=-1]

BarCamp Memphis - Online Video Production

The final session of the day was concerning Online Video Production.  This session was facilitated by Dave Barger and Bob Hazlett.  By this time, I think most people's brains were on overload, between the Red Bull (awesome sponsor btw) and the excellent content.  I know I was at the point of saturation but this session was just enough to fill me up with out making my brain explode.  it was also great as many of the people I had been Tweet.., er Zanneling(?), for most of the day was in the room as well.  The last hour of posts on Zannel almost looked like we were racing to get the first post of a topic or idea.  It was extremely fun to use these last minutes to zip messages back and forth and compare notes, but I digress.

The session started with a short discussion on Streaming vs. Recording.  Both are excellent methods for providing video content and some streaming sites will record your stream and make it available for viewing later.  The real key is determining your audience or niche (I think I've heard that once or twice, so it's probably important.)  If your audience is connected or uses the streaming sites, then that may be the method that is best for you.  If being on camera LIVE makes you break out in hives, or if you know your audience would prefer the convenience of watching on their schedule, then recording would be better suited for you.

The conversation then moved on to equipment.  Bob showed us the Flip Mino he had been using throughout the day.  It was a small camera with built in memory and rechargeable batteries.  It is a good base digital video camera and has built in editing tools for Windows. (I'm not sure about the Mac) The price on the Mino runs from around $140 on some discounts sites to $229 for the Mino HD which is relatively new.  Dave showed us several devices and reminded us we don't necessarily need an expensive device to record video.  Everything from a cell phone to a jail broken iPhone using Cycorder.  Also there are several inexpensive digital only cameras such as the Aiptech which shoots in HD at 720p and can be found at Walmart for under $150.  I personally bought one of these for my son and he loves it.  It is relatively simple to use and can have memory added in the form of SD cards.  Of course, you need to remember you really DO get what you pay for, so don't expect the level of quality you'd get with one of the new Red HD camera systems a a hundredth or less of the cost.  Personally, I invested in both the Aptech for my son and a JVC MiniDV camera with a USB and FireWire connection for family/personal video projects.

Editing was the next topic we covered.  if you are on a Mac, it came with a pretty handy program out of the box: iMovie.  I have used iMovie quite a bit and find it pretty handy for most editing needs.  If I need to get a bit "fancier" (like add a second or third audio track or special effects) I use Final Cut Express.  On the PC side of the great OS divide, there are Several Programs, such as Vegas from Sony as well as the Windows version of Quicktime Pro for minor edits.  Adobe Premier is available for both OS X and Windows and is an excellent tool.  If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you can go with the professional Final Cut Studio package for about $1300 and there are packages that are higher still.

Displaying your video was next up for discussion.  Just as there are a huge number of cameras to use and just as many editing packages, you guessed it, there are many places and ways you can host your video.  The Grand Daddy of all sites is YouTube.com.  With its huge built in audience and format which can be seen on almost any device, it is a good central spot for your videos.  Other sites include Blip.tv, Viddler, Kyte.tv, Vimeo, uStream, Mogulus, and a cast of hundreds more.  These sites all have their advantages, so you need to look at each and decide which is best for you.

Some questions from the group included "Why  would you use video?"  Bob responded with How-tos, Product demos, explanations, FAQs, Testimonials, Interview, almost anything. People prefer to hear and see the information they are seeking rather than reading a document.  Watching someone setup a home theater system is much easer to follow than reading a manual.  Video is the best way to communicate information in today's world. Another question was "How do you measure success?" There are a number of tools to use from simple view counts, to comments, and p to full analytics which can track browsers, IP addresses, referrers, and other demographics about your viewers.  Youtube uses Analytics to even show the region of the country your viewers call home.  

This session was very informative for me and I think we could have gone on for hours discussing the tools and logistics, but unfortunately it was time for BarCamp Memphis to come to a close.  My next post will sum up my views, feelings, what I thought went great, and the areas where I think there can be some improvement.

BarCamp Memphis - Social Etiquette

After the discussion on eCommerce and entrepreneurialship in Memphis, I moved over to a conversation on "Social Etiquette" facilitated by Dave Barger.  This session started with about ten of us sitting around a table simply discussing what social media meant to our lives and our privacy and how some felt over exposed and/or unwittingly exposed by well meaning friends.  

Have you ever been at a party and knowing it was a weekend, or a special celebration, had a little more to drink than you normally would, or done something you ended up regretting when you heard about it in the morning? In days gone by, these events and happenings ended up among friends and if people had pictures, they were circulated, but eventually the event faded away.  In today's Social Media world, this is no longer the reality. There are many times we have pictures of us posted and tagged by friends we would rather keep private, and once it is online, it is out there, almost forever.  We have reached a point in our society where we no longer have complete control over how we are portrayed.  This is the situation and scenario we discussed at great length during this session.  

We are not fully aware of how our online personas are viewed, and we definitely do not know who is viewing them.  What happens if that picture of you with a beer in your hand and a "dazed" look on your face finds its way into a search for you on Facebook by a potential employer?  What happens when a person with an ax to grind starts posting things about you on your MySpace page?  It is evident the idea of personal privacy is no longer completely viable in today's upload and go society.  Can we really expect any level of privacy or control considering how easy it is for someone, anyone, to publish about us without our consent.

We started with the idea of an "Etiquette Manifesto" which would dictate proper social behavior, however, it quickly became apparent this idea, while good, is not really attainable.  The idea of using the "Golden Internet Rule" was posted to Zannel.com by bkmontgomery, "Do/IM/Email unto others as you would have them  Do/IM/Email unto you", however, following this would take something that seems to be in short supply: Common Sense. Yes I know that seems to be a bit cynical, but how else can you explain people posting pictures and videos of themselves doing things you KNOW they will regret in a few years, maybe even just a few weeks.

Knowing this propensity for people to post, or have posted things about them which may have been better left unposted, I shared a philosophy with the group I have taken when hiring new people where I work.  I do NOT search social media sites for them and I do not Google their names unless I have reason to believe there may be an issue I need to address before hiring them.  People need to be given room to be human beings.  The group stated we tend to equate how people are at work with how they are outside of work.  That notion is a fallacy. One person stated we need to give people room to be Human and make the kinds of decisions and, possibly mistakes, that make a person who they are and who they will become.

Why then do we post so much of ourselves out on sites such as Myspace, Twitter, Zannel, etc.? Daniel Pritchard, the facilitator from the FriendFeed session as you may recall, stated and posted this nugget online:

Why do we share on social networks? Because every 3rd time we log in there's reinforcement waiting for us. X likes you! Y read your post! Z wants to learn more about you!

That, of course is the answer.  We like to get positive feedback and we, as social beings, like the interaction such sites tend to bring.  This interaction disarms us and causes us to look at the social interactions in a false light.  We think we are having a "private" or "semi-private" conversation, however, these interactions are more public than we normally would allow ourselves to be in real life.  Michael Rowe, aka godorito, posted this nugget of wisdom I then reposted and I post here as well.

I think this is the replacement for talking to someone at a club, or on the front porch. It isn't that there is more information available from an individual, but a broader reach.

In a nutshell, social sites are the new water cooler/campfire in our society.  The problem with this campfire is it isn't just "us" listening but the whole world.  At the end of the session, the group referred back to the "Etiquette Manifesto" and decided rather than publish rules we knew would not really be followed, it would be better served if we remembered and watched the series of videos that really state the reality of today's world by Steve Rambum - Privacy is DEAD - Get over it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsxxsrn2Tfs]

BarCamp Memphis - eCommerce and Memphis

WOW, up to part 5!  Who knew it would take so long to write about the events of one day.  I've been trying to keep the posts at 300-500 words to keep it from being so long, but I never thought I'd go out to 5 posts and beyond.

The last 3 sessions were discussions and conversations, so these posts are much more involved to enable me to give you the basis of the conversations and my take on them.  From this post forward I will title the posts as the root conversation to assist you (and me) in keeping up with them.

After the session of FriendFeed that turned into a good conversation, I moved to a session on eCommerce and Entrepreneurialism in Memphis.  I was interested in this topic as ALWAYS have ideas, I just don't know what to do with them.  I was hoping to get some answers on starting up in Memphis but as you would see, I didn't get my exact answer.

This session was facilitated by a person who is living the topic, Dale Berryhill, "Chief Spotter" of a very interesting concept, a site known as Onthisveryspot.com.  Onthisveryspot.com is a travel guide with a twist where you can research sites of a historical nature, or other interest and book events and travel based on that selection.  In their own words from their about page:

Welcome to the world's first Reverse Travel Guide!^TM

Look up famous people, things, or events, and we'll show you places around the world related to them.

Our goal is to pinpoint every spot on the globe where interesting things have happened!

Dale began to describe the problems gathering capital from VCs in this region as well as the trouble Memphis seems to have gathering good talent to assist in the building and growth of eCommerce sites in Memphis.  Several benefits to eCommerce were detailed, such as low overhead and smaller long term costs, especially if you do not manage an inventory.  

Dale also did a great job outlining the growth of the eBusiness model with a fact that I found very interesting.  Dale stated Google had twice the market value of GM after 2 years on the market.  It now makes sense why everyone seems to be scrambling to get a piece of this huge pie.  I also had a thought while listening to the conversation.  The old adage, "If you build it, they will come." is dead and buried.  With the saturation and shear depth of the products and services available on the web these days, if you do not find a niche and fill it, you will not survive.  You also have to work at it, as hard, if not harder, as you would in a traditional business model.  It takes extreme effort to pull together the idea and the site for eCommerce to work.

Another point of discussion was the lack of a community of programmers/developers in the Memphis area.  The economic and educational support in this city does not seem to be conducive to supporting a high-tech business model.  My main question down this line of thinking however, is have we started concentrating on the tools and back-end over the idea itself?  Frankly, in today's global society, do we really need a huge base of talent here in Memphis to do a solid high tech business in Memphis?  I know, as members of the community, we want to hire and spend our capital in the city in which we reside, but can we allow that to be a barrier to our ability to "get the job done" and act on the ideas we have?  There is a huge base of coders and developers around the world who can invest time and energy in development if we seed them our ideas and give them the funds and tools needed to build them for us.  You may push this idea aside as "outsourcing" but it is not outsourcing if it was never "insourced."  

Another barrier we may raise would be the inability to make the person that is over 1000 miles away understand our idea well enough to build it.  This idea has merits but if we cannot adequately communicate our idea to a technically minded person in a manner sufficient for him to understand and build out our idea, how can you expect your customer to understand your idea and spend money with you?  Are we making it tougher on ourselves needlessly?

While the session didn't really answer my root questions, it did one very successful thing; It made me rethink my questions.  I believe we may be stuck in a regional mode of thinking for the development of our sites and ideas.  While our concept may be pointedly directed at a region or certain niche, we cannot allow ourselves to think this way on the back-end development of the idea itself.  To do so limits us unnecessarily and can be a hinderance to our success.    If the region has the talent to support us in development and maintenance, then great, if it doesn't, why wait for the area to catch up to us?  Do what you must and then when you are earning, reinvest in the area for the future.

I'd like to know your thoughts, especially if you are in the Mid-South region.  Do we have what it takes to become another tech hub or are we now past that paradigm and moving into a globally sourced model of development and resources?

BarCamp Memphis - Part 4

Let's see, where did I leave off, Oh yes, now I remember, LUNCH!

After lunch, we started back into the sessions, however we now had a new twist.  During the morning sessions, attendees could list topics the were interested in presenting or attending and everyone voted on the sessions they would like to see added to the afternoon schedule.  This "twist" is what makes BarCamp unique among gatherings of this nature.  The sessions aren't just what the organizers think we might like, but are a mix of what we as attendees would like to hear or present.  This naturally presented a problem for me as I saw several sessions I would like to attend.  It almost came down to a coin toss on some, but in the end, I decided on a group of sessions I thought would be great.

The first session I attended after lunch centered on FriendFeed and was facilitated by Daniel Pritchett. Here is his Twitter and of course FriendFeed.   Daniel's presentation did start out a bit rocky.  His slides were hard to read and the selections of screenshots suffered, but then Daniel did what every good presenter is supposed to do; he improvised.  Daniel gave us links to go review his slides on Google (that link is to the finished slides on Slideshare) and then forged ahead by dropping out of the powerpoint and using his web browser to literally show us FriendFeed in all of its glory.  We discussed using rooms and link lists to keep feeds separated and easier to keep up with on a daily basis.  We also discussed a feature I was unaware of until this session, Imaginary Friends.  "Imaginary Friends" is a tool which allows you to enter feeds from people who do not use FriendFeed.  Using this, you can continue to gather information, posts, tweets, or whatever in FreindFeed so you do not have to visit multiple sites to keep up with your Friends.  This feature was an eye-opener for me and has given me a real reason to use FriendFeed.  From here, the discussion took an unexpected but interesting turn.  We started talking about RSS feeds in general and how people use them.  For instance, I currently use Wordpress's own RSS engine for the feed from this blog.  It's simple for me to work with and I don't have to "think" about it.  Others use tools such as FeedBurner to keep better track of their feeds as well as modify them from simple lists to straight forward copies of their format.  Then the discussion drifted to how people use RSS feeds to keep people informed as well as publish information for specific audiences.  Yahoo Pipes was briefly discussed, but a quick survey of the room showed Pipes didn't really have much of a following in our group.

All in all, this was an excellent session, not just because of Daniel's quick thinking, but because we all started contributing to the conversation.  This "Open Conversation" was, to me, the defining ideal of the second half of the day.  We as a group of interested and committed individuals came together and discussed topics WE thought were important.  My next post will show how that carried forward through the next two sessions I attended.

On a side note, the BarCamp Memphis website has been updated with pictures and info and a Zoho Wiki was setup with links to a lot of the session presentations and the Flickr picture pool from the day.  If you look close you will see me in WAY too many pictures. If you have a collection of posts or info from BarCamp Memphis, please list them in the comments and I'll compile them into a list.

BarCamp Memphis - Part 3

Here we go with part three of my adventure at BarCamp Memphis

After the session on Podcasting, I decided I could use some brushing up on my blogging, so I I went to the session named Blogging 101, presented by mr StudioNashVegas himself, Mitch Canter.  Mitch is a self described WordPress junkie who drove down from Nashville to be with us.  Mitch described the basics of blogging, what they are, why start in the first place, and the best software to se to do it: Wordpress.  Considering where this blog is, I think it would be safe for you to assume I agreed with him.  In section on what a blog is, there was a couple of points that caught my attention.  First a blog is Consistent.  I know I need to post regularly, and consistently, but what is a good level of consistency that doesn't burn me out trying to post more frequently than my brain can compose, but also doesn't allow the spiders to weave tapestries on the hard drive?  I am leaning toward 3 to 4 times a week, but what do you think?

Mitch talked about hosting a Wordpress blog with its own domain name rather than do what I am doing here, which is using the free blogging tools of Wordpress.com. I can see the benefits of "rolling my own", but do I really want the hassle of keeping up with my own email setups and upgrades, etc.?  In any case, Mitch did an excellent job of showing just how easy it is to setup a blog sing Wordpress.  I doubt I will ever use anything else.

Next up was the most important time of the day---LUNCH. BarCamp Memphis went all out with a meal of Rendezvous BBQ.  I've been in Memphis for almost 3 years and this was my first taste of the world famous BBQ from Rendezvous.  (Actually, I couldn't tell you how to get there, so I can't go myself)  The BBQ was outstanding and the sauce was spectacular.  I could have eaten my weight in it, but I know they didn't bring that much.  During lunch I had several conversations ranging from Twitter posts to a Reactee worn by Bob Hazlett.  That Tee was very interesting and I think I am going to have to get one.

In Part 4, we'll go to a session on FriendFeed, and attend a discussion on eCommerce and Entrepreneurship in Memphis.  As always, feel free to ask deeper questions in the comments or Twitter,Plurk,Zannel,or Pownce me at AndyG1128.

BarCamp Memphis - Part 2

Picking up where I last left off, we made our way to our first sessions.  I have a hobbiest interest in programming so I selected a session labeled Zero-to-wiki in 30 minutes or Building a wiki with Django presented by Brad Montgomery.  Brad walked us through the basics of Django explaining how it works at a level which helped the non Code Monkeys among us.  As a Perl programmer from days gone by, I found Django very easy to understand and like the fact it is a "Code Once, Use Many Times" type of language.  An excelent example of Django in use is the Social Media site Pownce.  (I'm on there as AndyG1128, look me up)  The full presentation and sample source code, which Brad ha made available for download, can be found at http://bradmontgomery.net/bcmem/.

Next up, I went, well stayed in the same room for Podcasting: Just Add Talent with Tollie Williams.  Tollie, who you can also find at http://tollie.org/blog (suddenly had an urge to drink for some reason), has a long history of podcasting and did an excellent job of helping us realize it doesn't take a studio full of equipment, ala TWiT, to do an effective and entertaining podcast.  Tollie detailed podcasting history and helped me remember it hasn't always been this way.  Podcasting is a more recent addition to out lives, but has now grown to the point advertisers see it as a viable platform for advertising.  Tollie then gave us suggestions on software and hardware we could use to start out own podcasts, from the simple microphone and audacity, or GarageBand for we Apple geeks, to the sublime setup of one Leo Laporte, Pod, uh, um, NETcaster extraordinare.  Tollie actually was uStreaming his presentation, another form of live broadcasting and then used Skype to bring in Graham Hancock of The 10th Wonder, a podcast (http://www.heroespodcast.com) about NBC's Heroes. Graham answered questions about advertising and stressed the important thing about podcasting is to find something you enjoy talking about and don't get discourage if it seems no one is listening.  After listening to Tollie, I have decided to encourage my son, who is 13, to do the Football podcast he has been wanting to start for a while.  Look for the test run here in a couple of days.  Info from Tollie's presentation can be found at http://www.tollie.org/wiki

Tune in tomorrow for Part 3 of my adventure at BarCamp.  

BTW, I am not diving very far into each presentation, but rather giving you a taste and a place to go get more.  If you'd like a deeper exposition, let me know.  I'm always happy to talk.