SocialCamp Memphis
Although I am really getting quite sick of having to explain I am not the ONLY Perl developer in Memphis (or the world for that matter), I was glad to meet my friends (Yeah Mike, you know who you are — who keep abusing me) and new folks at SocialCamp.
SocialCamp, a day of down-right geekery about everything that makes WEB TWO point OH land tick. I just got done editing some video, and it brought back great memories, even though the event was only yesterday… (although as I type this it’s technically two days ago). Despite having to get up at an ungodly hour for a Saturday, and not being able to find the venue until I realized it was *IN* Overton Park and not on Poplar Ave. I still had a great time.
SocialCamp is about everything that is social networking/social media. There were sessions on FaceBook, Twitter, Creative Commons, Blogging…. Wow! Overwhelming!
For me the day started with an excellent session by @skeletonkey (Kerry Crawford) from the Commercial Appeal (the Memphis news paper) who educated us about traditional vs. social media and how the two interact. There was some great discussion going on in the room while I explained, to an obvious new-comer what “FTW” means. Sure I drew some laughs doing so, but we can’t all be social media gurus typing on machines referred to as TornadoBaby (instead of just “my laptop”).
Next up I had to jet to room 4, where Shiloh was just finishing up her talk on “People connect not machines”. I was next… Giving a presentation is a gut wrenching experience. It didn’t help that I needed internet connection and it seemed as if my laptop was the only one that couldn’t find a wifi signal. Luckily the friendly folks from the Memphis College of Arts were able to supply me with an ethernet cable. My topic (Data mining vs. Privacy) was met with some tough questions. While the audience was def. paying attention, the dead silence after I finished was somewhat uneasy…
I decided to skip session three for the morning. I needed more coffee and some unwind time… Time to check twitter, have some nicotine *AND* some fresh air…
At lunch (Great BBQ by the way) I was joined by the same lady who asked me to explain FTW and her co-worker, both teachers wanting to know more about soc. media because their students keep talking about it. Dick Pepper hit me up and told me my talk was referenced in another session, maybe the dead silence wasn’t because I failed, but rather because people were intrigued. MUCH BETTER!
While I didn’t win the door prize, some people that left early missed out on some iPods. Hey suckers, next time stick around! Not much time to reflect though, it was time for the afternoon sessions. Blake P. did a great job on explaining Creative Commons. I picked that session because I didn’t feel like going to a book review. As a podcaster, or pod-fader, I know all about CC, there wasn’t much news there for me, but the way Blake explained it was refreshing nonetheless. The freebie CD with cool software was another bonus…
The best session of the day was (no argument) the collaborative panel on “what will bust the social media bubble”. Very interesting topic with some great ideas from the audience, Eric and Dave sure created a winner. I was amused to see that some of the topics I presented earlier came back in that talk…
Next time we need two tracks. a social media 101 track and a track for nerds like me (and all of you reading this). That’s my only gripe. Meanwhile here is some VIDEO…
Social Camp Memphis from Skinny White Boy on Vimeo.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Great writeup! I wish I could have stayed for the afternoon sessions, but I had to prepare to get lost in the woods. Nice meeting you and the others, can’t wait for the next one!
March 9th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Hey @Team140, glad you like the blog post and that you had fun #socialMEM. It was great meeting you!
March 14th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
You should have had a very well educated person come and warn people about just how ADDICTED some people get on this junk and how they not only destroy the people around them with their addictions, they also destroy themselves.
Sometimes the addiction is so strong that they lose the awareness of truth and their “second lives”
It makes me wonder how they can choose a make believe world over even children.
March 15th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
“Me”, I find it hard to believe that you would label a technology conference as “junk”. The fact that an institution like the Peabody engages in social media, a candy maker like Skittles, or a newspaper from a city as large as Memphis does the same tells me that inbound marketing is the wave of the future. Maybe this “make believe world” (as you call it) is pretty real considering that whole throngs of people get married after having been introduced on electronic media.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:06 am
And even more get divorced later. JUNK I SAY J.U.N.K.
Second Life… What a bunch of life missing addicts.
how is it that even at your new little “Make Believe World” conflab CONFLAB hmmmm
that you manage to make another enemy?
Must make ‘em everywhere you go.
March 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Hmm… One in eight couples married in the US in 2008 got introduced online. One in two marriages end in divorce. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, out of these 8 couples 4 will get divorced and let’s say the online couple is one of them… That’s still 3 divorces that had nothing to do with your “life missing addicts”. Or 75 percent over 25 percent. Just goes to show that numbers don’t mean anything, that we live in a changing world, and you can either embrace that or ignore it. One of the ways to embrace the changing times is to get educated through technology conferences (which is what the article was about). Please stick to the topic at hand!
And “even more get divorced”? How can more couples possibly get divorced than get married? Now correct me if the rules changed but I was told that marriage is pretty much a prerequisite for getting divorced.
March 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Perhaps my comment was a bit much for you to comprehend. What I meant was that MORE get DIVORCED because of internet CRAP and addictions and CHEATING online.
NEED more information than that?
Or is it perhaps that YOU yourself are gulity?
March 28th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Not hard to comprehend, just irrelevant. You are talking about addictions and marriage and a game called Second Life, while the original post is about a conference on social media. None of what you brought up is relevant to the topic at hand.