May 1, 2008
Everything changes, in the blink of a Word
Posted by monicahamburg under blogging, social media | Tags: Monica Hamburg, social media, WordCamp, WordPressCamp |OK, it’s not everything – and my title makes just about as much sense as the Count Crotchula costume on Family Guy (Episode: The Former Life of Brian – Oh how I wish there was a clip of that Youtube to link to) - but apparently “WordPress Camp” became “WordCamp”… I’ve updated my Del.icio.us bookmarks to include both terms (for those who wish to see the articles & blogs I referenced during my presentation).
So WordCamp was great, very educational. Though I must admit, slightly intimidating… I will be creating a new website from WordPress.org and, well, it seems there will be much to learn, or at least much I could learn… Smart people these techies…
My talk on “Blogging and Social Media” went well, again I’d say “by all accounts”. I am a perfectionist and so there were about 2 instances where I couldn’t express what I wanted to say exactly, and of course those stuck in my mind - so I was very pleased to hear that people liked the talk.
I enjoyed all the presentations, especially Bruce Byfield’s “The Joy’s of Amateur Blogging” and John Chow’s “How to make money using a WordPress Blog”.
Bruce made some excellent points about blogging for fun and, somewhat paradoxically, John covered how to make money using your blog. Bruce was honest about his views about blogging and blogs and how his perspective had developed overtime. And his comments about how were he now to assign journaling to a creative writing class, he would suggest they put up a blog instead really resonated with me. I think students would get so much out of blogging and, in the process, learn a great deal about how their work impacted on others and about the medium in general.
And John Chow was tremendously inspiring. I met him for the first time several months ago at the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup , and promised myself I’d figure out how to monetize my (other) blog. I don’t yet have the traffic to make this feasible yet, but I will work on it. I would love to make just a third of what he makes on his John Chow blog, monthly (er, that would be $10,000 – as he earns, wait for it… $30,000 a month(!) off that blog)…
I am still contemplating putting up the slides/presentation/or a full post with notes re: what I presented. What do you think would be most useful (for those who attended as well as those who didn’t)?
Let me know your thoughts on this (and this isn’t just a tactic to generate comments, as I did make a similar suggestion in my presentation), but a rather a genuine question.
Note: Coverage of the WordCamp event is up already on Rebecca’s Miss604
and Raul’s Hummingbird604 blogs
And, finally, a big thank you to Rastin Mehr , Tazzu and all the organizers, sponsors (including Invoke) presenters etc. and amazing attendees for making this event possible.
Update @6:50PM:
Thanks for the feedback! Here’s the slideshow.
(All posts referenced are on Del.icio.us):
May 1, 2008 at 7:50 am
Hi Monica
I would think that maybe your slides would be most informative (either as a PDF or embedded, there must be some technology to make them available). You did a wonderful job and the flow of ideas was great. I am sorry this time I didn’t summarize your talk, but it was like six or seven talks and I just couldn’t keep up
Thanks for the link love too! You rock!
May 1, 2008 at 10:58 am
You did a really great job. It was very informative. I wish I could have stuck around longer to pick your brain more, but I had to leave right at the break.
I for one would like to have your presentation available for reference.
May 1, 2008 at 11:22 am
I really appreciated the contrast of having my talk and John Chow’s back to back. I’m only sorry that it was caused by the accident of the presenter who was supposed to be between us havng to cancel.
What I appreciated about your talk, Monica, was the number of examples you gave. I don’t know about anyone else, but I tend to get in a rut, visiting the same sites all the time, so I always enjoy seeing what other people are following.
May 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hi Monica,
Thanks for your presentation. I found it very interesting, humourous, and informative. I was taking notes! I had a great time learning from everyone and presenting.
-k.s.
May 1, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Monica! Your presentation was wonderful and engaging and really fun. I definitely could do a lot of the things you suggested, especially since I’m not very tech-y, so I don’t understand a lot of the behind-the-scenes blog stuff, but I can make the content itself a lot better and more appealing!
Good to briefly meet you at Flux, too
May 1, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Your talk was very informative. I took a lot of notes and have already made some changes to my blog and hopefully the way I blog. It’d be very useful to have access to your slides!
May 1, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Thank you all so very much.
@Raul: Your post on the Camp as a whole is great!
@Bruce: Cool! There are so many interesting sites out there, almost impossible to keep up with even with an RSS reader…
@David, Anya & Daniel: Did you know that was exactly what I was hoping (nay, praying) people would say… I wanted to make sure people felt they learned some thing & am really glad you did! (I did too!)
OK, I’ll post the slides tomorrow. Thanks for that.
May 2, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hi Kulpreet,
I learned a great deal from your presentation as well!
It was a fun night. Yeah, Rastin, Jeannette and Ash!
May 2, 2008 at 3:22 pm
[...] Hamburg for your presentation and blog post: [...]
May 6, 2008 at 5:12 pm
[...] See Also: Monica’s Followup Post & Presentation Screencast [...]