Why PodCamp in a Social Media World?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jul 25, 2008 in PodCamp | 9 comments

Why PodCamp in a Social Media World?

A few people wondered why, with so much focus on social media, we still use the word PodCamp. It’s not just legacy or brand, though those are two considerations. There’s also a vitally important legal reason.

Terms like Social Media Club, Social Media Breakfast, Social Media Camp, Social Media Bar, Social Media Meetup, etc. all have failed in part or in whole the trademark process. The reason is that Social Media is a generic term, like toothpaste or lawyer. Organizations have in the past tried to register these terms and been told that they can’t, as the term is too generic.

Last year, Chris Brogan, Whitney Hoffman, and I kicked in some cash and made PodCamp a registered trademark as part of our incorporation. The PodCamp Foundation is a legal entity, an S-Corporation registered as a business in the state of Delaware, and the primary purpose of the PodCamp Foundation is to enforce and defend the trademark of PodCamp.

We did this primarily so that someone can’t arbitrarily start PodCamp Microsoft or PodCamp General Motors, and use the PodCamp name and community goodwill to promote a specific brand. It also gives us the ability to selectively approve or disapprove the use of the PodCamp name, in case someone chooses not to adhere to the six rules of PodCamp and the PodCamp Foundation License.

If we want to change the name of an event itself, that’s fine – we can always do “PodCamp presents…” or something along that vein. However, the PodCamp name and associated legal rights are an important part of keeping PodCamp owned by the community that started it.

If you’re running an organization of any kind in the social media/new media space, give some consideration to what you name it and how well you’ll be able to retain intellectual property rights over the community you shepherd. Check with a lawyer if you can to see what your options are, because ultimately as the founder of your organization, it will be your spirit and vision that drives it, and if you can’t retain rights to the name, you may lose everything you’ve worked for.

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On PodCamp, Epic Parties, and Brand in Flames

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jul 24, 2008 in PodCamp | 36 comments

On PodCamp, Epic Parties, and Brand in Flames

Over the past few days, I’ve received lots of feedback about PodCamp Boston 3, and I’m thrilled people had such a good time, had such an educational time, and came away in some cases transformed, ready to take on new challenges and make themselves and their communities more powerful. I want to highlight one shift that has also been noticed at PodCamp Boston 3, well said by David Fisher:

Perhaps I missed a thing or two, as you can never capture 100% of what is happening at Podcamp, but also there was an absence of epic parties, and just the raw excitement. I would describe the vibe best as more mature and more professional, which isn’t bad thing but certainly a shift.

David, thank you so much for noticing! That was exactly one of the goals of this PodCamp, and I’m glad we achieved it.

A few thoughts on this.

First, epic parties are the responsibility of PodCampers, as is all content. Whitney Hoffman, co-organizer of PodCamp Boston 3 along with the rest of the team, helped me to understand why epic parties are definitely something best left up to the wisdom of the crowd. In case you didn’t know, Whitney’s also an attorney, formerly of Madden & Patton LLC and author of Public Facility Law, and has a JD from Dickinson School of Law. There’s a thing, apparently, called dram shop laws, which essentially make any organization that serves alcohol liable for the behavior of its customers. Additional court cases expanded this scope to include social organizations, which means that if someone gets blitzed on drinks paid for in part by PodCamp, we the organization become liable and can be sued into next week.

This, by the way, does not extend to venue rental, like we did with Tequila Rain. The venue is responsible under dram shop laws, unless we contribute money towards drinks. The moment a dime from PodCamp as an organization goes to a drink, liability spreads like disease.

In past PodCamps, generous sponsors like Jeff Pulver have opened the bar and performed other acts of social kindness for PodCampers, but in those instances, Jeff would be liable for someone doing something stupid on his dime. Silly, but it’s the law, and it’s an area we refuse to get entangled with.

Second, and most important, as David noted, PodCamp is maturing. It’s growing up, becoming more professional – and by that, I don’t mean owned by businesses, but rather the folks who came to PodCamp Boston this year were far more focused on learning, sharing, growing, getting the most of the experience, and finding new ways to understand all of this stuff. Socialization, realspace social networking, and enjoying the company of your community are all super-important, but we as a community are understanding just how much reach we have, and the consequences of that reach.

One of the lessons I learned by watching SXSW from afar is how easy it is to damage your reputation when you’re caught up in the manic energy of a massive crowd who are encouraged to party by the conference. I jokingly called SXSW the single best opportunity to ruin your personal brand this year, as some of the drunken tweets of folks – respectable folks that we all know in our online community – wouldn’t even be fit for an episode of Taxicab Confessions. At the MITX forum, Mike Volpe of Hubspot dubbed this “Brand in Flames”.

When it came to planning PodCamp Boston, we made the conscious decision to deliver the best possible venue, the best possible schedule, with the most free space and freedom we could give participants, and then get out of the way. While we had and have no desire to inhibit any kind of more casual social interaction, we also don’t have to enable certain less responsible habits by promoting partying. Instead, we promoted and focused on learning, sharing, and growing your new media skills – and left the partying up to you.

We’re seeing things like podcasting leave the “ooh shiny!” phase and enter the professional, educational, and non-profit communities as useful, valid, important tools that contribute to an overall media strategy. The people who make up the PodCamp community are wonderfully positioned as veterans of these new media tools and technologies. With the right amount of focus on results and professional behavior, we will see folks we know well as friends in the new media community become true powers in their organizations, helping to enrich the opportunities for ALL of us to do what we love in a professional capacity.

That can’t happen if you Google yourself and the first result is a photo of you laying naked in your own vomit with a caption of “OMG PODCAMP BOSTON WAS AN EPIC PARTY MAN!!!!! FTW!”.

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With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jul 22, 2008 in Awakening, New media | 12 comments

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” – Stan Lee

If there was one takeaway that Chris Brogan and I wanted you to have from PodCamp Boston 3, it was this – you have superhero powers, and it’s time to use them.

One of my slides in the opening remarks showed this list of superpowers that 50 or 100 years ago would have been solely in comic books or other wild fantasy stories.

Story is told over and over again
Can influence the minds of millions
Has legions of allies ready to do battle
Can be heard around the world
Can know the thoughts of others
Can see and hear through walls

And of course, these mapped to our sponsors.

mDialog, Blip.tv
Blue Sky Factory, MarketWire
Mzinga
Utterz, Blubrry
Matchmine, MarketingProfs
ooVoo

Think about all of the power technology gives you. Google Maps lets you walk around at ground level or from 30,000 feet over a huge chunk of the inhabited planet. Google itself gives you incredible reach, access to more knowledge in the palm of your hand or in your lap than any human being has ever had. A simple cell phone lets you talk to someone in real time on the other side of the planet.

We forget we have these “powers” because we take them for granted. We grow up with them, and once the novelty of a new device, technology, or service wears off, we forget to explore what we can actually DO with them.

Take a step back. Look at the technology that surrounds you as traits of a comic book superhero. If a superhero had the powers you did, what stories would be written about them? What crimes would they solve, what lives would they save with your powers?

What if podcasting, instead of being a discussion about MP3 vs. M4A, RSS vs. Web, audio vs. video, was a discussion about how to get the best teachers in the world to every student who wanted to learn? What if social networks, instead of debating the merits and features of X platform, was a community trained in early awareness and intervention for things like teenage suicide? What parent wouldn’t encourage their kids to be a part of a social network if they knew that others were ready to lend a helping hand in troubled times?

Troubled times are what we live in now. Community is the foundation of your true power, while technology is the bridge from power to action to accomplishment. Awaken your superhero by looking at what you’re truly capable of, then go out into the world and do.

Where to start? Simple. Find a local non-profit, charity, cause, group, or other volunteer opportunity that has need. There’s no shortage of need today. Find a cause worth supporting, then lend your talents, powers, and insights to it. There’s just as much nobility and justice in helping search optimize the local animal shelter’s web site as there is in promoting the cure for cancer, and the lives you save are no less valuable. There’s just as much good done by doing local outreach that brings in 5 more cans of food to the local food bank as there is in broadcasting a global hunger charity drive. The person at the end of the day who gets another meal is just as grateful.

Use your powers. Awaken your superhero.

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Incredibly proud of the PodCamp community

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jul 21, 2008 in PodCamp | 9 comments

Incredibly proud of the PodCamp community

PodCamp Boston 3 wrapped just hours ago, and I miss it already. The folks who attended made it one of the most amazing PodCamps yet, in terms of energy, passion, and excitement. I’m incredibly proud…

… of you. You made it to PodCamp Boston 3, made it your own conference, made some incredible discussions and shared amazing knowledge. I picked up some fantastic tips for my own work from my peers and shared as I could, but you made it happen. Plus, you helped raise just about $1,000 in cash for the Greater Boston Food Bank. The most amazing thing of all was your energy. Everywhere I went, there were intense, energized discussions, conversations, sing-alongs, and collaborations. Everyone made use of the venue and opportunity exactly as I’d hoped, to engage each other, to share their passion for new media and for making a difference in the world and our communities. As a presenter, I was happy to see more empty seats than normal, because it meant that people were out working together, collaborating, and making the conference their own.

… of my team. The PodCamp Boston 3 organizers – Chris Brogan, Chel Pixie, Sooz, Steve Sherlock, Doug Haslam, Whitney Hoffman, plus a TON of great volunteers all made PodCamp Boston 3 happen. I want to send three special shoutouts to Chel, Sooz, and Steve, who sat registration and skipped a LOT of the conference experience so that all of us could enjoy PodCamp Boston 3. They deserve tons of acknowledgement and recognition for their sacrifices and their dedication to PodCamp Boston, year after year.

… of our sponsors. Instead of raw shilling or crass commercialism, I was so pleased to see premium sponsors Blue Sky Factory and mDialog, plus sponsors Mzinga and Utterz, and sponsors Marketwire, MarketingProfs, Matchmine, ooVoo, Blip.tv, and Blubrry integrate themselves into the event. I saw frequently that sponsor tables were simply unmanned or abandoned, which meant that instead of trying to sell something, the sponsors were participating as part of the community, which was wonderful. I’ve been to a TON of conferences in the last year and a half, all around the world, and I have to say that the companies that step up and support the PodCamp community get it – they understand that community and business opportunity are not mutually exclusive.

… of our venue. Harvard’s team, largely behind the scenes, did an amazing job making sure everything was right, on time, and as promised, except for a technical problem beyond their immediate control. While I can never tell what the future holds, I’d have no trouble recommending or using Harvard Medical School as a conference venue again. The venue was well sized, well laid out with plenty of casual seating, included parking for attendees, and was overall a real treat.

… of my employer and wife. A special shout out to the Student Loan Network, because honestly, how many other companies out there let ANY of their employees create a conference while on lunch break? (incidentally, to my coworkers, that’s why I’ve been so anti-social at lunch the last week or two – sorry!) A double special shout out to my wife, whose husband has been working the equivalent of a second job for 3 months now. Honey, I’m home!

I hope you take to heart the message that Chris Brogan and I promoted this entire weekend. The time for talk only is over. New media, social media, whatever you want to call it, is an incredible power, the likes of which we as humans have never had before. We can affect events at great distances, see beyond walls, know the thoughts of others, influence millions without getting out of our chairs. I hope you take a step back, realize the power you have, and make something of it. I hope you DO something, whether it’s volunteer with a local charity, raise money for a food bank, help homeless kids, whatever your passion is, I hope your PodCamp Boston 3 experience has given you the means to begin improving your part of the world.

As Peter Parker’s uncle famously said, with great power comes great responsibility, and I hope you take advantage of the power you have while you can, while opportunities abound.

Thank you again, so much, for your energy and for making PodCamp Boston 3 such a memorable experience for me as both a participant and an organizer. I can’t wait to see what you do with what you got at PodCamp, and I hope to see you next in Philadelphia for PodCamp Philly.

Image courtesy CC Chapman

p.s. If you have any feedback on my little part of the conference, I’d love to hear about it on LinkedIn if possible.

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The Most Dangerous Part of Social Media

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jul 17, 2008 in New media, Politics, Rant, Social media, Social networks | 26 comments

The most dangerous part of social media is this: you don’t have to see, hear, or participate in anything you don’t agree with.

You have total choice. You have millions of podcasts, millions of blogs, billions of web pages. You have the option to subscribe to only the things you agree with, only the points of view that make you happy.

This has the net effect of making your point of view more extreme, and you may not realize it.

The great advantage of a time when there were three television channels was that opposing views HAD to be heard, even if some networks and anchors may have had subtle biases – at the very least, the other viewpoint was heard, if somewhat disparagingly. Today, you don’t have to be exposed to contrary ideas at all.

The only way to combat self-selected extremism is to willingly participate in social media outlets that are NOT in alignment with your point of view. Read news sources that you’re not comfortable or familiar with, like the BBC, Sydney Morning Herald, Jerusalem Post, Al Jazeera, Globe and Mail, Google News, and others. Listen to and subscribe to podcasts that are from differing perspectives. If you’re a liberal Democrat, tune into conservative talk radio from time to time. If you’re a conservative Republican, hit up a few of the liberal talk radio shows.

Turn off the inner voice if you can, or at least ask it to check in after the program was over. If you’re truly gifted as a powerful thinker, see if you can take any argument presented and legitimately see and agree with different sides of it. “If I were a Conservative, this issue would totally make sense because…”

The only way to prevent becoming the sort of extremist that in the past you’d detest is to willfully pull yourself back to the center by considering and integrating opposing viewpoints. If you don’t, soon you’ll find that viewpoints from the fringe that advocate willfully harming other people seem… reasonable. If that’s not who you want to be, only you can drag yourself back to the middle.

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