So I’m sitting in Midway Airport waiting for my two-hour delayed flight home thinking about how much fun the last 24 hours has been. The blog and wikivangelism at the IL-TCE conference was great, but the best part was going out to just a great dinner with Tim Lauer and David Jakes last night, and then getting to chat for a bit today with Steve Dembo, and getting a chance to spend a really quality 45 minutes or so just talking with David Warlick who is doing the keynote tomorrow. I am constantly amazed by how great all of the people in this community are when we happen to end up in the same place. And, on a personal note, it’s just really fun to have conversations about the tools with people who really live and breathe them. As always, I learned a lot.
The people who were at my sessions were by far the most Read/Write Web aware that I’ve come across so far. They asked great questions, especially about wikis. In both my wiki sessions, at almost the exact same moment, someone in the audience just couldn’t help but blurt out concerns about how wikis work. “Why on earth would we want to do this with our kids?” “How can you believe anything that’s on there [Wikipedia]?” The same reactions. But it made for a very pointed back and forth that I hope made the point: we have to deal with these issues because if we don’t, our kids are not going to have the knowledge they need to navigate all of the information they’re going to come across. (David blogged one of the sessions, btw.)
I realized just how connected I was when, during the car ride to the airport, I got on my Treo and read not only what David had blogged about my sessions but also what Tim had presented after I left. It was an interesting moment.
If you attended today and are reading this, please feel free to comment either here or on the wiki.
More tomorrow, assuming I get home sometime tonight…
Will, I was at the conference and sitting in the 9:45 session. I was too shy to introduce myself as a regular reader 🙂 but I did want to ask this …
The whole concept of the internet becoming a source of sharing, collaborating, responding, etc. depends on readers feeling compelled to do so. How do YOU as a blogger handle those days when nobody talks back? Sure, your close network (like the Davids) may respond and people like me might be nodding their heads in agreement, but we might not always write back. I’m sure there are days when you get virtually no public affirmation. What keeps you ticking at times like that?
Just curious.
Susan
Hi Susan,
Next time please say hi! I think I’ve just gotten into such a habit that while it’s nice if people respond, the most important part is getting it down. Ultimately, this space is more to chronicle my experiences and my learning more than anything else. I don’t have the greatest memory, so if I think it’s interesting or important, I try to store it here for future reference. (Plus the writing burns it in…) Sure, I write for an audience, and I do want people to interact. But I think what you find as you do this is that the act itself is what becomes most important. There’s no doubt that when you start blogging you have to do it for yourself, speak to the empty room for awhile. And ultimately, I think that sticks with you, at least it has for me. Thanks for asking!
Susan,
Susan, you ask a very important question, and if I can put in my 2¢ worth, it’s something that I pay a lot of attention to — not only in terms of what people say in their comments, but what they comment on. What’s interesting is that so often the posts that I think are going to generate a lot of conversation, seem to go out into a void — and then I’m surprised when something that I didn’t put very much thought into strikes up the band.
It’s really hard to describe what blogging is to the blogger, or at least to me. It’s not discussion, though that’s what it often becomes. It’s not about publishing a column, though it sometimes feels like that as well. Its that more than anything, it is a conversation that is really big and where all of the people who are engaged in the conversation are really smart, and all the questions are important and they force us all to think hard about what we do, why we do it, and whether we’re doing it the right way.
I’m going to keep thinking about this. Thanks, Susan!