I had a little talk with Scarborough Dude last night.

It’s sort of a biannual thing, my little talks with the Dude. It usually revolves around a Podcamp, some coffee or a beer. It always makes me want to write. He’s a wise man.

Last night’s talk took place in a loud, boisterous room filled with laughter and music. It was the Saturday night Podcamp Toronto social bash, an event that infuses the “social” in social media, brings online friends together in an offline way and adds a new dimension to already strong bonds.

The Dude and I surveyed the scene before us, taking in the moment. The Dude leaned over to me and said, “Can you feel it? Can you feel the vibe of this place? That’s what this is all about. People being free.”

I thought about that for a minute, the same way I think about most things the Dude says. And then I realized some things.

It starts with the environment. It has just dawned on me, after attending a total of 8 un-conferences (does that make me a veteran?) why the format of these events is so genius. It’s free. Not  just free, in the monetary sense. The entire concept is one of freedom. It doesn’t matter who I am, where I come from, how old I am, what I know or don’t know, how I dress, how much money I have, or what colour my hair is. I can decide I want to share something, and in one click I can become part of the event. I am free to tell my story and start a conversation around it. Others are free to join that conversation. The fundamental point of an un-conference is freedom of expression. And when there is total freedom of expression in an environment, amazing things start to happen.

Anyone can be a rock star. It’s common knowledge that at unconference events, everyone gets a chance. The playing field is completely leveled. Noobs hang out with A-listers. PR pros party with podcasters. Students mingle with CEOs. It happens because everyone that walks in the door is automatically given rock star status. The rule is that judgement and egos are to be left at the door, and all people are given equal freedom to express and connect. When this starts to happen, when it’s really working, it becomes what the Dude calls “The Vibe”.

Authenticity is an amazing thing. It’s a common misconception that New Media Un-conferences are about technology…that in order to get anything out of it you’ve got to be a tech geek of some sort. That could not be further from the truth. In fact, these are not technology events at all. They are human events. And because they are human events, they require one thing that enables freedom. They require the humans to be 100% real. Fortunately for this community, that realness comes quite naturally. And I think I’ve finally figured out why.

The medium IS the message. There are Bloggers, podcasters, Tweeters, Facebook status updaters, and media-makers of all kinds. We all tell different stories, stories that are unique to who we are. That’s a beautiful thing. But what is most fascinating isthat new media gives everyone the power to freely express themselves in their chosen format. Because of this inherent fact, we have inadvertently created a culture of freedom. When new media-makers converge in a single space, such as an un-conference, we  are already free, because we’ve been so good at expressing ourselves till now. When we get together in person, that sense of freedom proliferates at a rapid rate through the room. Our culture of freedom means we come into the space already accepting each other and respecting each person’s individuality and authenticity. And when a room full of people are completely free, accepting and authentic, an amazing thing happens. The energy changes. Everyone feels that Vibe of which the Dude so eloquently speaks. And for that time, we really are, completely free.

There are so many lessons we can learn from this. Freedom does not begin and end behind the walls of a conference. It’s something that we, as media-makers, inherently have. It’s something we have to offer others…from the people who consume our content, to our clients, to the people we love. Freedom begins with being true to yourself. It thrives when everyone follows suit. The Dude lives this. I am learning it. And the really cool part?  We can and will continue to create, share, and connect in the way that we choose.

Isn’t that the ultimate freedom?

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This weekend I’m thrilled to be attending my 2nd Podcamp Montreal. Last year’s inaugural event was, to say the least, fantastic. I met a ton of amazing people, and I can’t stress enough how much I love the unique vibe and class that the Montreal organizers bring to the event. You really have to experience it in person to know what I mean.

Podcamp is about connecting, sharing, community, and network building. It’s also about technology, and the Web. So it stands to reason that lots of people will be bringing their technology with them to Podcamp, and using it profusely throughout the weekend. There will be abundant laptops clicking away, video recorders running, photos being snapped, and mobile devices being mobile. Which is totally fine. Far be it from me to deny a geek access to their technology!

I choose to do things a bit differently when I attend conferences. I take a mostly low-tech approach to my environment here. I don’t lug a laptop. I carry my iPhone (I’m not crazy!) but I use it sparingly.

Ow ow ow! Hand cramp! I am definitely a note taker. I write stuff down all the time. I have to. It’s part of my composition – it’s how I retain information and learn new things. I type a lot faster than I write, so if I’m typing notes during a session, I tend to want to try to write everything down. And if I’m doing that, I’m not really listening to the presentation. So I come armed with no more than a notebook and pen. That way, if I am writing, it’s only key info. And, pen to paper is a lot less distracting for the person sitting next to me as well.

One other side benefit of not bringing a laptop? Well, I typically don’t like to walk up to someone and strike up a conversation if they look “busy” on their computer. How available do I look if in between sessions, I’m head down trying to figure out how to upload the video I just shot, or checking my email? If I’m not clacking away, I stand a much better chance of making eye contact with someone, and starting up a new conversation.

Are you here for you or for them? I might get in trouble for this one, but again, this the way I do things – I’m not judging others here. If you find value in live tweeting events, then go to town with it. Really. However…consider what value live tweeting is really adding. Again, if I’m head down in my laptop or on my phone, posting to Twitter every darn thing the speaker is saying, am I really absorbing the information? Am I actively participating or passively documenting? And to what end? Are your followers deriving value from your stream or are they tuning you out till the conference is over? Are real conversations happening and if so, are you paying more attention to the online stream or what’s going on in front of you?

Other than maybe taking a photo or two or documenting something funny or compelling that happens in a session, I tend to keep my in-session tweeting to a minimum. Not everyone cares about ROI on social media, so I don’t feel that filling my stream with strange, out of context quotes adds value. If I really want to talk about what I’m learning, I’ll blog about it that night. But live tweeting? Not for me, thanks.

Reach out and touch someone. I don’t go to a ton of conferences, but the ones I do go to tend to be the unconferency, grass rootsy type of affairs. I like the format and the flexibility and the fact that I can wear jeans and a sweater and a ponytail. I like The Law of Two Feet. I like that it’s totally inclusive. I like that I can just sit on the floor in the hallway with a group of people and experience and learn and get excited about things as easily as I can inside of a formal session.

Gathering at events like conferences is about BEING 100% THERE. It’s not about bragging to all your followers how you’re hanging out with the popular kids. It’s not about waltzing around telling everyone what an expert you are. It’s about coming together with other like minded, talented, passionate, and genuine people and building friendships and business relationships and yah, you know what? Sometimes, it’s a little bit of sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya too. And I’m totally down with that. Because it’s about being together, live, in person – connecting. And at the end of this weekend I intend to have some fresh ideas, some new friends, and a renewed sense of passion for this work I do. That’s why I go. That’s why you should too.

Podcamp Montreal 2009
September 19th and 20th
UQAM Design Centre
1440 rue Sanguinet
Montreal, QC

See you there

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Podcamp Toronto is less than a week away and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it. I’m excited about the trip there with this guy and this gal. I’m super excited about finally meeting good friends like Kathyrn and Danny and Keith and (I just found out!!!) Amber face to face. I’m excited about the wonderful sessions that are planned and about how much I’m going to learn and contribute.

I had so much fun at this event 2 years ago. It was a really special weekend for me. It was my first real foray into social media and I was a complete newbie, but thanks to the kindness and openness of extraordinary people like Mark, Chris, Bob, Chris, and Jay, I came away from the weekend with a whole new outlook on the Web, and some really amazing friends to boot.

Now here I am, two years later, and I am highly active in the new media world. (Heck, I’m even teaching the stuff now!) I have made lifelong friends with people that I may never have gotten a chance to know otherwise. I’ve had amazing opportunities to collaborate and do business with a bunch of remarkable people. Simply put, it’s been life-altering. I mean that. And I owe it all to you, the people who have been with me on this journey as I learn and experiment and expand and explore.

This year’s event is likely to have a much different dynamic than a couple of years ago. Instead of a hundred or so people, it’s now going to be at least 500. This changes the interaction some, and it’s something that I’ve been very conscious of as I’ve prepared for the event. Some people look at the larger numbers as a bad thing – it might be too crowded, I might not be able to talk to all the people I want to talk to, I might not have a chance to ask my questions…those are just a few of the rumblings I’ve heard. I have a different perspective on this. I actually think it’s a good thing that so many people are going. And I think there are some great opportunities to really make the most of it. Here’s how:

Embrace Interaction
One thing about social media people…they are very social. In other words, you will be hard pressed to have a moment when you are standing in a room by yourself with nobody to talk to. If you are a shy sort, rest assured that it won’t be long before you are scooped up into a conversation with plenty of interesting people. The whole idea of this event is to get in there and get your hands dirty. And that means seeking out people to talk to, and making connections. So whatever you do, don’t stand in the corner. If you are stuck for someone to talk to, just come find me. Can’t find me? Send me a message on Twitter and I’ll find you.

The Energy of the Crowd
There’s something about a crowd of happy, engaged, excited people that is irresistible. It is nearly impossible to be in a bad mood at a Podcamp. Why? Because people are so excited to be there. And that excitement wears off on you. The energy surrounds everyone, and whether you are immersed in a session or conversing in the halls, the momentum of so many people sharing so many ideas truly energizing. Don’t plan on getting a lot of sleep – and not just because of the parties – but because your head will be spinning with all of the positive energy this event creates. It can be a little overwhelming, to be sure. But just remember to roll with it, have fun, and see where the energy takes you.

Seek Out Your Own Opportunities
Jay just posted a great article talking about food at Podcamp. This feeding ourselves thing can be tricky. Lunch and dinner are undoubtedly two of the most social times at Podcamp. This year, due to the sheer volume of people, things have to be done a bit differently. It’s just not feasible to think that we’ll be able to go out in groups of 40 or 50 to eat (nor would I want to do that). Jay’s suggestion of breaking into smaller groups of 6 or 8 seems ideal. The challenge is to still be inclusive in this scenario. Inevitably someone might get left out. That person might even be you. But if everyone takes it upon themselves to create their own opportunities to socialize in smaller groups, then that is less likely to occur. My suggestion is to use your tools, like Twitter, and your blog, to communicate your mealtime plans to people. Point them to those sources for updates and changes to the plans. But most importantly, don’t feel left out or disappointed if you don’t get to connect with the people you want to over dinner. Just find yourself another group. Who knows, maybe you’ll have even more fun! And, we’ll all see each other at the party later, anyway!

The most important thing to remember about next weekend’s event is we are all there for the same reasons – to have fun, to engage, connect, and contribute. You are going to have some amazing experiences, meet a whole whack of new people, and come away with lots of great memories and new ideas. So relax, breathe, and dive in to the experience. Enjoy each moment as it comes and we will all have a good time.

See you next weekend!

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Hubby and I were having a great conversation over breakfast for dinner tonight. It all started with Gary Vay-ner-chuk, and his chime in the other day about Twitter vs. Facebook. In his video post, he talks about how apps like Facebook need to become more immediate and instantaneous or they are going to be eclipsed by the Twitters of the world.

These are great ideas and I think Gary has it bang on. But he really got me thinking about why this shift needs to occur. And what I think it comes down to is WIIFM (pronounced “Wiff-umm”). What’s In It For Me? Here’s my theory.

When I first started using Facebook about 6 months or so ago (that’s like 3 years in Interweb time), I thought it was just the greatest, most fantastic use of the Internet I’d ever seen. I reconnected with elementary and highschool friends whom I had not spoken to in 22 years. I found former colleagues, and discovered what they had been doing with their time since we’d last spoken. It really was as if a whole new world had opened up for me. I mean, who ever thought I would get to (or want to!) talk to my first boyfriend ever again? I certainly didn’t. The fact is, at that time, I was getting something out of it. It was entertaining, like a virtual highschool reunion that never stopped. Every day someone else would come to the party and that would make it even more fun.

But you know what? Eventually, I found every old friend and acquaintance I would ever want to be reconnected with. And the novelty, frankly, has started to wear off. And I’m not alone. I’ve noticed lately that of my 200-and some friends, only about 15% of them actually still post regular updates.

You know what? Facebook…I’m just not that into you anymore. WIIFM, after I find all my old friends? Not a whole lot, I’m afraid.

In terms of actual networking, well, I’ve never really used Facebook for that. Sure, some of my social media pals are also my FB friends, but it’s almost like it’s just common courtesy…well, I’m subscribed to your blog, I follow you on Twitter, so I may as well be your FB friend too, right?

So what is the WIIFM factor with Twitter? Well, as @garyvee says, it’s immediate, instantaneous. All Twitter wants to know is what I am doing RIGHT NOW. (Hmmm, Eckhart Tolle would be impressed!). The social network is shifting. People are becoming interested only in who is at the party now, not who was there yesterday or last week. They don’t want to see that video you made last weekend, they want to see the Qik interview you are doing with Robert Scoble in an elevator right now. They want to get your latest Utterz that you recorded on your subway ride home. In a sense, they want to be in your life as it happens.

The value of Twitter over Facebook is clear. Twitter has the ability to stand the test of time, because by its very nature, it is changing and adapting to its environment all the time, but it’s the community who is doing it, not the developers. @zefrank’s Color Wars and @bedtime stories are clear indications of that, as are the power of the Twitterverse when it comes ruling events like SXSW and Podcamp Toronto.

I think the question really is, is Facebook ready to adapt on the same level as Twitter?

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I’ve recently come into contact with a lot of people who don’t know a whole lot about the whole social media thing. When I try to explain the stuff to them, I either get a yah, but….or just a blank stare. It’s true, there is SO much going on in this space right now that it’s hard to even know where to start or who to listen to.

A year ago, much like many other people, I barely knew what a podcast was let alone an RSS feed. I didn’t see much point in having my own blog. I would read the odd blog here and there, but I really couldn’t distinguish between what was worthwhile and what was a waste of bandwidth. I too, was confused.

The shocking part was I’d been working as a web designer since 1998. I was there when all this World Wide Web business started! I’m an oldtimer! I was an “industry professional”! How did all of this social media stuff pass me by? How come nobody told ME about it? I realized very quickly that if I didn’t get out there and learn about it I’d be left behind.

So I went to Podcamp Toronto.

For me, that was where this new world opened up. I learned about WordPress, Twitter, Talkshoe, Skype, RSS and a ton of other stuff, and realized the future of the Web. I met some great new friends who answered all my silly questions (and they still do, thanks guys!), and what I didn’t have answers for I figured out on my own. I farted around with it. I set up blogs and broke them. I mean, I really screwed them up bad, man. I made RSS feeds that didn’t work and played with them till they did. I clicked on every link I saw. Read every blog post I could, till my eyes went blurry. And I figured it out.

We have some new interns working at our office. Great bunch of guys, fresh out of college. Unfortunately the educational system always seems to be about 1 year behind the real world in what they teach, particularly when it comes to technology. The reason is that curriculum is set too far in advance. By the time they are teaching the classes, the technology has already changed. This happened back in ’98 when I graduated from my college Multimedia programme. We were focused mainly on CD-ROM development. We had only ONE DAY of HTML coding, using Notepad and Netscape version 4.7 because our school computers had not been upgraded to the new version 5.0 yet. We had a couple of in-class demos from some company we’d never heard of called Macromedia, showing us these new tools called Flash and Dreamweaver, but we really didn’t see any practical use for them at the time.

Within weeks of graduating, I was hired by one of my instructors to – believe it or not – TEACH web site design! So me, with my demo versions of Dreamweaver and Flash and my “Teach Yourself HTML in 7 Days” book, set to work to learn everything I possibly could about this stuff. 3 weeks later, I successfully taught a class of 20 students how to make their own web sites and put them online. I succeeded, not because I had any special training in it, but because I was curious about how it worked. And I sat there at my computer, and frigged around with it for days, till I got it right. Thank God I had no social life back then.

I sat down with “The Interns” today and had a serious talk with them about social media, something they (remarkably) haven’t really touched on in school. Told them everything I know about it. Got them excited about it. Gave them a bunch of links and said “Just go in there, play around with this stuff, listen to these guys, they know what they are talking about, and have fun with it. Explore it. Get curious about it. This is going to be your career.”

There is no magic tool that is going to make you an expert about the Web or about social media. All you need is a computer, a web connection and a browser…and extreme curiosity. Oh, and lots of coffee.

Oh, and by the way? If you want to figure out what all this social media stuff is about, click on some of the links you see in this post. That’s a GREAT start.

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James Koole from Tucows presented this afternoon at Podcamp Toronto on enhancing corporate communications through social media.

Tucows is doing some really neat stuff as far as creating a social media focused web presence. He’s showing the group that it’s not rocket science and all it takes is some creative people willing to invest a bit of time to improve their company’s profile.

At this session, they were talking about how to convince “the powers that be” in companies to embrace the power of social media.

It’s a challenge I come across often when talking to clients. How does one make a good business case for social media? How do we communicate the real value of social media to our clients, to convince them that their corporate communications can be greatly enhanced by not only getting online but getting linked in to the industry through blogging or podcasting, or even Twittering and Uttering?

As podcasters, bloggers, media creators and storytellers…what do you think our communications strategy should be?

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I am a virtual attendee of Podcamp Toronto 2008. Sadly I was not able to be there in person, so this is the next best thing.

I just sat in on a session lead by social media guru Chris Brogan. One thing Chris is great at is putting things into a context that anyone can understand. This means he has some great quotes. Here are my Brogan-isms from the past hour:

“Mainstream media is not afraid of social media, they just don’t know what to do with it.”

“No one has to be granted the authority [to make a blog, a podcast, or contribute to a conversation].”

“The thing about social networking is, the more we help people feel good about themselves the more they do good things.”

I’ve been troubled by something for the past little while. I now consider myself to be an “intermediate” level user of social media. I’m at the point where I’m pretty well versed on many of the popular tools and sites, I have a pretty good network of social media experts around me to answer my questions and open my eyes to new things, and I now have the confidence to start talking about what I know with other people.

I get RSS. I get Twitter. I get podcasting, Oovoo, and WordPress. But I can’t figure out for the life of me how to explain it all to my Mom. Ok, my Mom is a bad example because she has a Facebook page, reads blogs and uses Instant Messaging. But she is the exception of her generation, not the rule.

This morning’s Podcamp session has got me thinking…social media is now becoming more mainstream, because mainstream media is starting to catch on. Fast Company is doing it. USA Today is doing it. Now, people who get their news the old fashioned way are being given an opportunity to take advantage to the biggest thing to happen on the Internet since …well…ever!

My challenge is not in explaining the technology, but in explaining the VALUE. The value in using an RSS aggregator like Google Reader. The VALUE in using Oovoo to host a conversation. The VALUE in posting your own blog and contributing to other people’s blogs.

Social networking is one of those things that people don’t get until they try it.

So maybe, the question is..how do we get them into the social media space in the first place?

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