I've been thinking about a glorious recap for the threads and lessons extrapolated at blog|Philadelphia. The very timely column by The Inquirer Associate Editor John Timpane aptly titled The Future: The Ultimate Has Been does the job. A former English teacher and poet, Timpane is in the unique position to view the currents of our times in the proper perspective.
After spending two full days with people who are into video casts, podcasts, and other technologies that are in varying degrees of emerging, I am gravitating again towards the comfort of what I know -- the inner thinking and feeling of people.
Timpane hits on the key element, the foundation, that made blog|Philadelphia worth attending -- the future has indeed arrived.
As things to come are just... (yawn) ...long live the present, where we have inner space instead of outer space.
Not that we've stopped believing there's such a thing as the future.
Only that the cultural place of the future, the place it once had in the collective conversation of the Western industrial democracies, is gone.
Why? Because the future arrived - and, perhaps for the first time in history, people know they are living there.
And the future is not as advertised. We have landed, not in outer space, but in a richer, deeper inner space.
Why are blogs so popular? I've heard it over and over again in conversations -- they are authentic, they are real, there is a person behind the writing and not a disembodied corporate drone. If that is an advantage, if that is something we have come to appreciate, there is a danger and responsibility that comes with that.
Annie Heckenberger said it at the welcome: everything you say here may end up on a blog somewhere. I see more and more email signatures that specify that what is being said there is not for publication, unless we agree so. I've adopted the line myself. It's practical and it reminds me and the other person that although what we say might be interesting to others, this is still a private conversation.
This is also what companies fear and one of the reasons why many have not joined the conversation. What if something we say on a blog gets taken out of context and used inappropriately? It still happens in the traditional media.
Bob Sutton was gracious enough to correct me on an inaccuracy in my post at The Blog Herald on Friday and still help me make the point I was making. Mistakes do happen, especially in the rhythm of our daily or frequent posts.
Sutton had a misadventure (and a good ending) with BusinessWeek in May. Speed is not the only reason why we make mistakes -- we also see the world as we are and sometimes we code things in our mind and then come to view them that way.
In the same post I stated that we are now all self publishers. Our blogs are also news broadcasting places, in that we report the news from our point of view -- our feed is live all the time. The spammers who have been inserting comments to that post in the last couple of days do not get the idea at all apparently.
We talked about blogs and business with Dave Coustan, Blog Master at EarthLink. It was during this session that I learned that people use Twitter as a way of stitching groups together at large events, trade shows, etc. It makes sense; I would have not thought of that use.
We discussed the practice of ghost blogging and expert blogging in paid blogging and commenting with Chris O'Donnell, Sales Executive at TechDirt. There was some commotion during the discussion as Chris Boggs, Search Strategist at avenue a razorfish suggested that sometimes customers may want to pay to align themselves with SEO by highlighting a specific product in a blog.
Joey Sweeney of Philebrity talked about blogs in cities.
One of the most productive discussions I had was with session leader and social media consultant Josh Hallett, who blogs at Hyku -- I even let him put a sticker on my laptop. Josh is a veteran in blog years as he can claim 5 spent with the tool. He talked about the importance of blogger relations in pitching consumer-generated media (CGM). It was during this discussion that some of my ideas about releases written to pitch bloggers catalyzed. I will be using such a format to make an announcement tomorrow.
By far the least talked about and most important aspect of blogs are relationships -- as in the ones we forge and the ones others help forge by commenting, sharing information, and providing feedback. Jeremy Pepper, also a veteran with the tool and also a public relations professional has a couple of pretty interesting posts about the community aspect of blogging -- I'll let him make the point. Make sure you take a look at his "about this blog" and "comment policy" on the side. They are very instructive.
For more on blog|Philadelphia, check out the wiki and join the conversation there.
I wrap up with Timpane:
Our new gadgets encourage us to use this moment to build something - to refresh old connections, forge new ones, store, query, reply, amplify.
It's not always good. A lot of it - like a lot of everything - is just garbage. People shouldn't be contactable 24/7; people should not give up so much of what used to be called "private time" to their employers and acquaintances.
There's also, however, a great deal of potential here. We can skip a lot of old, tired steps: We can learn many new things, meet new minds like our own, build new alliances. Welcome to the future as kinetic present: a this-moment that opens out into new connections, a filling of the present, not a flight from it.
Main stream media is and should be part of this conversation. Many of these editors and writers know what they're doing. In the coming weeks we will visit with new media editors. The future is now. Stay tuned and remain inquisitive. Thank you for reading.
[with Benet Wilson of Aviation Week above; aerial view with Dave Coustan, Josh Hallett and Benet Wilson; while speaking about open source marketing]
Wow - it sounds like a great time! I'm so bummed I missed it (and you).
Posted by: ann michael | July 15, 2007 at 08:43 PM
Great meeting you, and I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the sessions.
Posted by: Dave C. | July 16, 2007 at 03:27 PM
Ann -- you would have really enjoyed many of the discussions and people.
Dave -- likewise, your session was packed with great questions.
For my readers, you can find them here http://blogs.earthlink.net/2007/07/blogging_and_business_session.php
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | July 16, 2007 at 07:55 PM
Sounds like quite an event!
Posted by: Roger von Oech | July 16, 2007 at 09:31 PM
Valeria:
It was great to meet you at BlogPhiladelphia. Your photos came out nice. We were the lucky ones, getting there early enough to score plugs for our laptops. For those of you who missed BlogPhiladelphia, I encourage you to sign up for BlogOrlando in September, hosted by the talented Josh Hallett of Hyku.com. I will be there as a co-session leader with my new friend Dave Coulson of Earthlink. I'd say it's worth the price of admission, but since it's free, it's a real bargain!
Posted by: Benet Wilson | July 18, 2007 at 12:00 PM
The event was great, Annie did a great job, and it was great meeting you. :)
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | July 18, 2007 at 04:17 PM
Benet -- I enjoyed meeting you and learning a little bit about your work and hope we can stay in touch. These are such great bonding events.
Jeremy -- I am quickly becoming a fan of your writing and will stay tuned.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | July 18, 2007 at 11:23 PM