At the opening, I asked the crowd – 200+ folks – how many people had never been to a PodCamp before.

About 80% of the room raised their hands.

That’s huge. That’s amazing. I have to give huge props to the Philly organizing team for continuing to attract new members to our community. When Chris Brogan and I started PodCamp in 2006, we never imagined that years later, events in cities all over the world would continue to attract lots and lots of new people.

Another interesting curiosity from the weekend – the podcasting sessions were stuffed to the gills, standing room only for many of them. If you’ve read Seth Godin’s The Dip, I think podcasting is on the other side of its dip now. It came out strong in 2004 and 2005, was the shiny darling of the new media world, and then more or less went through massive growing pains. Based on the number of folks I talked to over the weekend, podcasting isn’t the sexy new thing any more – and that’s incredibly good news for people interested in learning about podcasting. The snake oil salesmen have moved on (they’re now selling Twitter expert guides) and the space has technologically matured.

Clay Shirky said best at TED @ State that something like podcasting becomes socially interesting after it becomes technologically uninteresting. The shiny has worn off and now people from all businesses and all areas of focus are looking at podcasting for what it truly is: a delivery mechanism for content that can, if used properly and selectively, give people the information they want in the method best suited to their needs.

Hats off again to the PodCamp Philly team for a great event and for continuing to show that podcasting, far from being dead, is only now starting its march out of the dip and into mainstream usages of all kinds.

Photo credit: Jakob Montrasio

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If you’ve known me for a while, you know squarely where I stand. I’m nearly antisocial on the entire topic of self-imposed limitations.

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.” – Richard Bach

If you believe there’s a glass ceiling, there is.

If you believe that life is unfair and that you’ll never succeed, you won’t. I guarantee it, because whatever success you have you’ll subconsciously sabotage anyway.

I fundamentally believe in two tenets: first, you are statistically more likely to succeed if you’re awesome, and second, if you’re not swimming the blue ocean, you’re dead meat. Let’s tackle these in reverse.

Blue ocean strategy is a popular marketing concept that’s so obvious, it’s amazing someone had to write a book about it. Red oceans – oceans filled with blood and sharks – are where idiots try to do business. They see a crowded space and try to jump in the crowd, yell louder, cut prices lower, claim unfair competition, and generally get eaten by the bigger sharks. Red ocean strategy is opening a fourth pizza shop in a strip mall. The only ones who win in red ocean strategy are the biggest, baddest sharks.

Blue ocean strategy says swim where the oceans are clear, blue, and non-competitive. There are niches for everything, and a decent number of them are profitable. This is where you do business, because it’s much easier being profitable when you have no competition.

The insurance against competition is the second part – being awesome. When I say that what matters isn’t between your legs but between your ears, I’m not being snarky. If you have awesome on your side, race, gender, religion – none of it matters. People want awesome. People want to buy from awesome, and will pay a price premium for awesome.

The real problem, the problem we’re too often too polite to say, is that most of the time, we’re not awesome. Most of the time, what we have to sell or offer actually sucks. Believe me, I sell student loans. I know what it’s like to market a product that completely sucks. Thus, we have to gussy up our total suckage in the trappings of awesome in the hopes of fooling the less clever. “Ooh, this doorknob doesn’t actually work but it has a Facebook fan page!”

If you believe your race, gender, or other defining demographic factor is a limitation in your efforts, then that means one of two things: you’re either swimming in bloody red ocean, in which case you’re an idiot (regardless of gender, race, etc.) for not moving to clear waters, or the product, service, or idea you have sucks. Sorry. There’s no neat and kind way to say that.

Barack Obama didn’t become President of the United States by whining that the white man was holding him down. He made his own game, leveraged all the technology like no one else ever had before, and swam the blue ocean to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Chel Wolverton didn’t become lead organizer of the first and oldest PodCamp by demanding a chance because she’s got a vagina. She got there because she’s got a brain, got there by being awesome, by always delivering, by always getting done whatever needed to get done, and when the time came for Chris Brogan and I to turn over the reins, her record – irrespective of gender – spoke for itself.

Look carefully at all of the tools of social media. Has Twitter ever said, sorry, you’re black, you can’t have more than 1,000 followers because only white people should have lots of followers? Has Facebook ever said, sorry, you can’t create a fan page because you’re a woman and women shouldn’t have fans? When you download MySQL, PHP, or jQuery, do any of the tools say, sorry, you’re Muslim and MySQL only works for God-fearing Christians?

No.

All of the tools and technology are available to everyone. You have complete and total equality in terms of tools and raw opportunity to make your own game. How you use those tools, what results you create are only limited by your talents and your self imposed limitations.

You are more than your limitations. You are much better than you think, but you have to awaken that inside you. If you get out of your own way and shatter your limiting beliefs, you’ve won half the battle.

I’ll finish with this thought, a lyric from Jewel:

No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from.

Every moment, every ounce of energy you spend on your limitations is time and energy you don’t have to spend being awesome, swimming your way through the blue ocean to success.

I wish you limitless quantities of awesome and blue waters, no matter what gender, race, or religion you are.

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What really struck me, though, was this idea of shackled potential being freed. From the lawn discussion under a beautiful sky to deep conversations on the beach (yes, PodCamp Boston 4 had a BEACH, so there!), to sessions and discussions about technology, marketing, and achievement, everyone brought with them limitations. Things they believed they could not do, things that seemed out of reach for them, things that were impossible – so many of the conversations revolved around this theme.

What was more interesting to watch, what was in many cases truly inspiring, was seeing how other members of the community stepped up to help out, whether it was lending advice about optimizing a web site, connecting new friends together, trying difficult or uncomfortable new things – many, many people stepped up to help, and more still took that giant step outside their comfort zone.

I hope that for many of those folks, PodCamp Boston 4 was the crucible, the anvil on which they made a first crack in the self-imposed shackles on their potential. Everyone that I spoke with personally, everyone who had a story to share, has incredible, unbelievable potential to achieve, to be what they’ve set their hearts on. For a few folks, it may be coming to peace with parts of themselves, while for others it may be material success or social good. No matter what, know that breaking those limitations is possible and the rewards for doing so will defy what you can imagine.

I want to highlight one story that I think is a good example of potential broken free of its chains, about PodCamp Boston 4’s lead organizer this year. Two years and change ago, I met Chel Wolverton virtually at Matthew Ebel’s concerts in Second Life. When I met her, that was about all we had in common. She was working a dead end job (phone service for an online florist) living in a dead end neighborhood, going nowhere fast from minimum wage job to minimum wage job. Chel knew that there was more possible out there somewhere, but was fairly certain it wasn’t for people like her.

Through a fairly short apprenticeship and an incredible amount of courage in the face of the unknown, she made leap upon leap, first moving out of her situation, finding her way north (eventually to Boston), working insanely hard doing virtual assistant and admin work to pay the bills as she developed ever increasing skills in the online world. She helped to pioneer the first (that we know of) completely virtual fan-bootlegged music album that paid revenues to the artist (Matthew Ebel’s Virtual Hot Wings), used leverage and knowledge to take on more complex projects for people who originally started looking for someone to manage their calendar, and eventually became a seasoned, knowledgeable virtual project manager. (not to mention competent SEO professional and Wordpress deployment specialist)

Then we threw her under the bus, so to speak, except that the bus was made entirely of a metal called chaos, weighed a gigaton, and bore the license plate PodCamp Boston 4, by making her lead organizer. What nearly 400 people experienced on August 8-9 of this year is the result of Chel continually refusing to limit herself to what her doubts and fears want her to be. Nearly 400 people had a phenomenal, educational time at PodCamp Boston 4, and hopefully took a first big swing at their own chains of doubt and fear.

It’s my sincere hope that you take away something similar from PodCamp. Folks at the closing heard about how PodCamp got started, about how Chris Brogan and I basically winged it with our first team 4 PodCamps ago, refusing to accept the limitation that new media conferences could only be thrown by professionals. I say this to encourage you to look at what you believe your limits are and take another swing at them on the anvil. I say this so that when I see you again in a year for the next PodCamp Boston that you are soaring higher than ever, your chains of doubt left far behind.

May you achieve your potential.

May you awaken your superhero.

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I’ll be leading three discussions at PodCamp Boston 4, and I encourage you to drop in and say hi.

1. What’s now for what’s next?

What are the things we should be doing now to prepare for what’s next?

2. Marketing Makeover

Let’s get a few people to bravely volunteer their marketing programs and web sites, and we’ll all critique – constructively – together, from SEO to social media to old school. Think of it like Extreme Makeover, only about your marketing and no comments about your physical fitness or hair style.

3. Marketing Over Coffee Live

Marketing Over Coffee, the marketing podcast I do with John Wall, will be doing another live session this year, with special guests Chris Brogan and CC Chapman. Casual, fun, and actionable are the themes we’re going for. Come participate!

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How many times have you been to a conference and seen the same session descriptions over and over again, fully laden with jargon and as generic as toothpaste? “Industry leading best practices session given by noted thought leader…” Will the session even be what you want it to be about? You don’t know, and you roll the dice and hope the session isn’t going to bore you to tears or be one long product pitch.

PodCamp Questions are a different take on the conference. We all have piles of video of top speakers doing their talking head thing. You can, as Mitch Joel pointed out, attend the best conference in the world from your desk. Why would you spend the time and money to travel across town, across country, across the world to have the same experience, or even a lesser experience, since TED Talks are probably the best video sessions available to you?

You wouldn’t. I wouldn’t.

What you would do, what I would do as an explorer, as a person on a mission to get my questions answered, is trek all over the place to get real answers to my questions.

That’s why PodCamp Boston 4 is asking people to sign up not as speakers, not as presenters, but as Questioners to lead a Question discussion. What burning question do you have about new media, podcasting, blogging, social media, etc. that you just don’t have the answer to?

Think about that for a second. The “speaker” doesn’t know the answers to their “session”? Yes. That’s the whole point. It’s reversing the speaker/audience model completely, because for every person with the courage to ask a question, there are a dozen people with the exact same question that aren’t as eager to give voice to it and another dozen who never thought to ask the question but deeply want to hear the answer now that they’ve heard the question. Instead, you’ll ask the question and be in a room with dozens of like minded people, putting together the answer you could never get from a talking head speech. Chris Brogan started this at PodCamp Toronto 2007, leading a session called, “Somebody Teach Me Final Cut Pro”.

Think about how much easier it will be to decide where you want to spend your time at PodCamp Boston 4. Rather than wade through senseless, jargon laden session descriptions, you’ll just take a look at the questions and decide which ones you want the answers to as well.

- What’s next in social media?
- How do I get more viewers for my podcast?
- What’s the ROI of Facebook?
- How do I write an application against Twitter’s Social Graph API?

If you’re not registered for PodCamp Boston 4, you’re going to miss out on some great questions and answers – including yours.

Register today to attend PodCamp Boston 4, then sign up to ask a question and lead a discussion to the answers you want.

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1. Use the tools! 2008 showed rapid growth in every social network of note, and as organizers, the more you can help people meet and greet prior to the event, the better. Set up Twitter accounts for your event, groups on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many others, use search and readers and RSS to keep tabs on word of mouth. There’s no shortage of opportunities to help your participants connect in advance. At MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer, every speaker’s Twitter handle was bundled on a handout – no reason that every participant at a PodCamp who’s active in social media can’t make a directory listing in the event’s wiki.

2. Separate lecture from conversation. Mitch Joel pointed this out in his Pixelated conference series, where he and others gathered together the talking head portions of major conferences. Figure out what makes your local PodCamp special and what’s just talking head stuff, and provide talking head stuff well in advance so that participants can maximize their time together. Grab videos of folks like Mitch, CC Chapman, Chris Brogan, and many other PodCamp favorites far ahead of the event and share them so that when participants arrive, they’re ready to collaborate and share, rather than passively listen.

3. Go paid. The economy has made life tough for the end user and consumer, but even tougher for the marketing budget. Plan your PodCamp to run 100% participant-paid at the door. If you get sponsors, great, but don’t bet the farm on them, and don’t financially extend your PodCamp beyond what money you already have in the bank. Continue to publish your ledgers publicly so participants can see how every dollar is allocated, but strongly consider going paid and having the event be wholly “sponsored” by the participants.

4. Support your local community. Pick a local charity and find a way to divert time, energy, or resources to it so that your community is a little better off for having a PodCamp.

5. Stay lightweight. Keep expenses to a minimum. We’re all adults for the most part who can locate the nearest Starbucks, Dunkin, or McDonald’s. The magic of PodCamp isn’t in refreshments or epic sponsored parties, but in bringing together people to learn, share, and grow their skills. Some facilities will allow you to unbundle catering from facility rental, which can keep costs way down, as food & drink are typically the most expensive part of any conference.

6. Add pieces along the way. Start with barebones expectations for attendees. As funding becomes available, you can add amenities later. Set expectations low, and you’ll never disappoint.

What things have you learned from PodCamps and other conferences in 2008 that you would pass on to PodCamp organizers for 2009? Leave your comments below!

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Old media
Broadcast media
Mainstream media
New media
Social media
Personal media
Citizen journalism
Citizen media

Here’s a summary of how I think some of this stuff breaks down. Not authoritative by any means, just a perspective that helps me classify what is what in my own head.

Old media is stuff that’s been around for a while. It’s traditional media, like books, TV, radio, newspapers, etc. Note that this isn’t specific to brands or organization sizes – the New York Times is old media, but so is the Boston University Daily Free Press or the Wasilla Frontiersman.

New media is stuff that’s new, in a technological sense. It’s audio, video, and text publication methods and tools that were previously inaccessible for publication purposes to the average person in the past. Sure, you could run your own newspaper, and many did, but you never had a shot at the same level of reach that a blog or podcast today can have.

Social media is interactive media, and it’s a subset of new media, since the tools that enable social media didn’t exist before, and therefore are a subset of new media. Social media is by definition interactive. You can blog, podcast, crank out videos on YouTube, host Blog Talk Radio shows, etc. all by yourself and no one else has to be involved for you to be creating useful media. For example, Seth Godin’s blog is new media, but not social – comments are turned off. Is it still useful? Absolutely. Is it new media? Yes. Is it social? No way.

Social media is the opposite – it’s media that REQUIRES the participation of others. Twitter, for example, would never have existed without other users in the network. PodCamp as a conference would never have existed if it was only one person who showed up. Take any of the social networks, remove the people, and you have something not useful at all.

That’s why new media and social media are NOT interchangeable terms, and why I refer to PodCamp as a new media conference and not a social media conference. Yes, you can absolutely learn about social media at PodCamp, but you can also learn about the greater view of new media, too, and even, true to its namesake, podcasting.

What are your thoughts? Are social media and new media the same thing to you? Are they different? How do you view the landscape and make sense of it?

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Imagine for a moment that your industry, that your specialty, is a single post, a single beam. It represents your vertical, everything you’re good at, and also everything that’s wrong with your industry’s growth. It’s fishbowl. It’s vertical. It’s a silo, an echo chamber in which no new ideas flow in or out.

You keep struggling to find new ideas, new innovations. Event conferences in your industry are the same old, same old, with vendors marketing the same solutions to yesterday’s problems.

Now imagine you found a way to tie together your vertical with others.

Imagine you found a way to bridge the gap between your vertical, your silo, your fishbowl, and not just with one other silo, but with a ton of silos. Imagine a series of fishbowls connected, so many that you effectively have an ocean to swim in. Imagine you found the commonalities among verticals that were strengths, and that working with others in completely unrelated fields helped mitigate your individual weaknesses.

This is the mission of PodCamp. Bring together everyone from different worlds who wants to learn, share, and grow your new media skills. Bridge the gap between pools of ideas so that the best ideas are accessible to everyone, and the power of friends working together can overcome the obstacles that by yourself stood in your way.

Bring together the verticals and see what you can achieve.

See you at PodCamp.

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Why pro conferences are different than PodCamps and why neither is better

Some interesting discussion this morning on the differences between PodCamps and pro conferences like the Affiliate Summit, which I’m speaking at on a panel on Tuesday, August 12. A difference to highlight, from the registration page of the Affiliate Summit:

PHOTOGRAPHY, RECORDING & VIDEO TAPING: Sessions may be photographed, recorded and/or video taped by Affiliate Summit. By your attendance, you give Affiliate Summit permission to be photographed, recorded or videotaped and agree to the public display and/or sale of the photographs, recordings and/or videotapes. Personal recording or videotaping of any kind during the event is prohibited.

This is part of what separates PodCamp from pro conferences (that and the price tag, PodCamp Boston 3 was $50, $99 at the door, the Affiliate Summit is $949 for early bird, $1,949 at the door). That said, there are several very good reasons for pro conferences to prohibit recording, considerations that went into PodCamp and were ultimately rejected.

1. Protection of speaker intellectual property. This is a big deal. PodCamp has been absolutely blessed by speakers like David Meerman Scott, Mitch Joel, David Maister, and many others, who normally charge tens of thousands of dollars to speak at a conference. The presence of any kind of recording online causes them real economic harm – it literally costs them money, since it makes them a less valuable speaker. Why? Exclusivity counts for a lot. Imagine being a conference planner and trying to advertise that your pro conference has information that’s exclusively available at your conference… and then finding out that your keynote speaker can be found on Blip.tv or mDialog for free. You’re less likely to book that speaker as opposed to someone who’s always behind a paywall.

2. Protection of conference revenue. One of the biggest sellers at a conference? The conference DVD, often for up to 2/3 of the price of the conference. If you pay $1,949 for the conference and the DVD is available for $695 or you can see it on YouTube for free, which will you choose? More important, if recordings are freely available online, why would you go to the conference in the first place?

3. Protection of conference attendees. As we said at PodCamp Boston, the conference is the hallway. At top-tier pro conferences, there are a lot of folks floating around who, quite frankly, don’t want to be recorded for any reason unless they’re compensated to be, and that’s fair. That’s their choice. Some of these folks have exceptionally valuable information that isn’t intended for the world to consume, and the premium they charge for that information is their prerogative.

All of these considerations are valid, and make good sense for a professional conference model. That’s an important distinction, because a lot of folks in social media believe PodCamps, BarCamps, etc. are the evolution of the conference, and that the models which power PodCamps, BarCamps, and unconferences are the right way to go for professional conferences.

They are not.

Professional conferences and unconferences are two completely different animals, two completely different models. Professional conferences work on a revenue model that emphasizes profitability. Speakers get paid and share proprietary information, attendees pay and derive value from sessions (not to mention craploads of handouts, printouts, etc.) and access to VIPs, vendors and sponsors pay and get lead generation lists and access to top level corporate folks. Everything works.

Unconferences emphasize a revenue model of meeting costs. Attendees occasionally pay, sponsors pay for exposure, speakers don’t get paid, but the net effect is that everyone pays much less than a pro conference. An “expo floor” booth at an unconference will probably run a company $1,000 or less. An expo floor booth at a pro conference will cost at least $10,000, if not more. Because no one’s making money beyond meeting costs, expectations are lower and people are more free. Again, everything works.

Which model is right? Both are right for their roles, and both are supremely wrong out of context. A professional conference that let recordings be free would do itself significant economic harm. A PodCamp that sold its registration list for $25/head would be demonized by its community. It’s inappropriate for members of either style of conference to criticize the other for not being more like them, since each plays a vitally important role in the events ecosystem, and each attracts the crowd that wants to be there.

There’s room enough for everyone, pro conferences and unconferences alike.

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I especially liked this:

In my talks with other podcampers, one of the issues that came out of PCB3 was the desire to actually create something at Podcamp. At this point, many of us are veterans of podcamps and new/social media, and are looking to expand our horizons. The sessions, while mostly interesting and informative, are generally rehashes of things we’ve seen and done for several years now. Many of us want some kind of track where we can physically put the skills we’ve learned and honed to good use.

Here is the challenge that faces America right now – people are making hard choices between gasoline and food, between college and electricity, between losing their house and losing their life.

We can’t do much at a single PodCamp to influence global policy, not yet. We can attempt to keep the carbon footprint of PodCamp as small as possible, as PodCamp SA did. We can’t influence ExxonMobil or the other energy companies directly yet, though new media folks are starting to work their ways into the blue chips.

What can we do?

Two things are squeezing the average Joe right now – food and fuel.

Here’s the social media challenge for PodCamp Philly, appropriate for the city of Brotherly Love, Geno’s, Pat’s, and some of the worst poverty I’ve seen in an American city.

Let’s make a social media cookbook that we can complete and distribute by the time PodCamp Philly is over. The focus? Making food as affordable as possible.

I’m reminded to say that this is open to everyone, not just people attending PodCamp Philly.

What might this entail? Between now and the close of PodCamp Philly, find, create, revise, and publish recipes using the lowest cost foodstuffs available that still satisfy basic nutritional needs and don’t resemble gruel. Use social media and real life connections to talk to a grandparent that got by during the Depression. Find old wives’ recipes and dig up ideas from old church community books. Dig deep into your community and history to find the treasures hiding just out of sight, like how to make popcorn on a stovetop or jam from scratch. How to bake a loaf of bread yourself. How to make pasta or plant an herb garden.

Let’s unite all of our networks, all of our knowledge, and all of our generations we have access to. Let’s take this information, these recipes, and blog them, with instructions and cost breakdowns. Video them and publish the videos as tutorials. Record audio walkthroughs. Let’s rip a PDF of this that can be distributed to every soup kitchen and food pantry in America, something that they can then pass on to their customers. Let’s fire up iMovie and iDVD, Libsyn and Blubrry, and make some media worth distributing. Let’s grab Chef Mark Tafoya, Jennifer Iannolo, Nina Simonds, Kathy Maister, Ming Tsai, and ask the hell out of everyone doing a cooking show in new media to help us with this goal. Let’s get Second Harvest, United Way, and every corporation with some dollars to spare to get involved and sponsor this project.

Our goal? A social media collection detailing cheap, easy, healthy food so that a parent with 5 dollars in their pocket can do at least SOMETHING other than the dollar menu at a fast food chain.

Then, at PodCamp Philly, let’s put it all together. Let’s assemble it, put up the web site, search engine optimize it, use all of our social media powers to promote the hell out of it with every service we can get our hands on, and see just how far we can lob the thing into the air.

Are you game?

I’m reminded to say that this is open to everyone, not just people attending PodCamp Philly.

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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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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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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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This particular lifecasting crew decided that they’d set up shop on a sponsor’s table (having not sponsored themselves) and when asked to leave so that the sponsor could set up, reacted… well, watch the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The result, of course, is what you saw above.

Whitney did a superb job managing PodCamp NYC and meeting the expectations of the sponsors – without whom there would have been no PodCamp NYC, period. For this particular group of folks from Justin.tv to behave as they did was inappropriate at best.

Food for thought:

We were pleased and happy to have Michael Geoghagan and Tim Bourquin from Podcast Academy and New Media Expo, respectively, at PodCamp NYC. In the world of new media, reputation is everything, and in this case, a lifecasting crew from Justin.tv has demonstrated why “pro” events like NME might not want folks like this at their events.

Food for thought:

It’s very easy to behave irresponsibly when you have absolutely no investment in an event or in the community which you ostensibly belong to. After watching this video, I’m tempted to INCREASE the price of ticketing for events like PodCamp Boston to ensure that participants, if they lack an understanding of the social contract of a free event (for participants, not sponsors) like PodCamp NYC, at least understand the financial contract of paying to attend, and the financial consequences of being asked to leave.

New media community: prove me wrong. Prove that this crowd is the exception rather than the norm, that the community is wholly capable of self-policing and self-sanctioning itself, so that organizers can focus on bringing great experiences to you and not having to play parenting to the minority that chooses to willfully act badly. Prove that the new media community is capable of actively managing itself so that ticket prices for events like PodCamp don’t have to be financially onerous just so it’s clear what the value being provided is.

Please leave your comments here and on your own blogs and podcasts.

PodCamp NYC was yet another fantastic success in the ever growing lineups of PodCamps around the world, and I’m very pleased to have been a part of it. I wanted to take a moment as co-founder and Executive Director of the PodCamp Foundation to very clearly lay out what the vision and mission of PodCamp is:

1. PodCamp has a mission to welcome new people into the new media space. There are a TON of great conferences for new media people in the new media space, such as Podcasters Across Borders, New Media Expo, Podcast Academy, and many more. These conferences are powerful, informative, and very much support the new media community. While PodCamp fulfills a great community role, it is more important to bring in new people, to welcome folks curious about new media into the community with open arms.

I like to think of PodCamp as a real-life welcome wagon for anyone who wants to get started in new media.

PodCamp accomplishes this by putting veterans and new people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

2. PodCamp has a mission to connect new media professionals with resources. Very often, I have found at PodCamps over the last year that there are LOTS of individuals and organizations who have access to tremendous resources and want to participate in new media, but would prefer to work with someone already established in the new media space, rather than reinvent the wheel. The second mission is to help folks who have resources but lack knowledge connect with new media pros who have knowledge but might lack resources.

PodCamp in this fulfills almost a role of matchmaker, and accomplishes this by putting smart and resourceful people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

Are there other aspects of PodCamp that are important? Absolutely. A community focal point, a way to focus on local community building, a social outlet, a chance to reconnect with friends – all are important, all are vital to the overall fabric of the new media community, but these two mandates to me are what distinguish PodCamp, what keeps PodCamp going and growing, what makes PodCamp worth YOUR time and energy as a participant, volunteer, or organizer.

What’s your take on the mission of PodCamp?

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Not much to say right now, save that it was an excellent time and filled with an incredibly diverse crowd of participants, from hobbyists to educators, to lobbyists and politicians, with everyone there eager to learn new media and how we can continue helping change the world for the better.

If we met or you were in one of my sessions, please leave me some feedback – I’d love to know how I did, and more importantly, how I can improve.

Leave feedback on LinkedIn by clicking here!

Need to add me on LinkedIn? I’m cspenn at gmail dot com.

I look forward to seeing and meeting more great people at PodCamp NYC this coming weekend.

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The event isn’t, and from what little I understand, never was FREE. In a way, no event ever is. It is subsidized by sponsors and by volunteer hours. You attend for free, because somebody else paid your way. Simple as that.

I think opening up the option for it to be a nominal fee, or a pay what you want, or some other locally-derived setup, and oriented largely towards keeping attendance expectations (and resulting volunteer hours) in line with reality, is 100% reasonable.

While anticipating an event that huge, the volunteer corps of organizers really had to bust their guts. Hard. Long hours, much stress. Value their time at a nominal rate of $10 or even $5 an hour, and you see that a very small group paid hundreds and thousands for the rest of us to have the event for free.

Laura nailed it in one.

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1. Last year, we planned for 1,000 participants based on registration of nearly 1,500. Instead, we ended up with about 775. As a result, we had 225 shirts and other materials left over. Granted, the local homeless shelters were pleased with the outcome, but that was an expenditure of sponsor resources that was unwise. We could have instead invested those resources to provide more benefits to people who actually showed up.
2. PodCamp Boston is evolving to bring new focus to the event. Many people have commented to me over the last year that they wished PodCamp Boston 2 had been more intimate, more focused, less of a conference feel to it, which is nearly impossible with 775 people. Asking participants for a tangible, financial commitment to the event will help to bring more of the focus that participants have been asking for.

For those for whom setting aside 61 cents a day for the next 84 days would present a serious obstacle, there are still MANY, MANY free PodCamps – DC and New York City over the next two weeks are both free, and lots of other PodCamps are showing up every day on PodCamp.org.

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Download the PodCamp DC PDF, 1.2 MB.

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A few people have wondered what I’ll be sharing at PodCamp DC. I’ve got two sessions blocked out, plus possibly a panel – we’ll see about the last part.

Session 1:

New Media Marketing: How New Media Powers Business. 10 AM Saturday. I’ve been working on refining this ever-evolving presentation which now includes aspects of sales, internet marketing, search engine optimization, and just about everything else, all linked to a framework that you can take home and apply to any product, service, or organization.

If you’re thinking about using blogging, podcasting, social networks, or other new media tools to promote the ideas you care about, this session is for you.

Session 2:

Power Your Personal Network with LinkedIn. 3 PM Saturday. I’ll be co-presenting with Dan Williams, another LinkedIn Power User, on how to use LinkedIn to power your networking skills. This is a session by request from a few participants who’d asked early if there was going to be something about LinkedIn. I’ll be sharing a few of my tips about using the service, what it’s good for, and how to help you build your personal brand with it, including simple but effective techniques you can start using immediately for better results.

Dan’s got even more juice to add to the discussion as the person on LinkedIn ranked #1 in the country for recommendations. He’ll talk about his LinkedIn stories and power tips as well.

Session 3:

Speed Mentoring: Promoting Your Political Ideas in Social Media. 4 PM Saturday. This is an idea based on Dan Patterson’s PodCamp NYC panel about how social media is changing the political landscape. In this session, I’d love to put a bunch of us together and workshop either a candidate or cause’s social media efforts, showing where social media can optimize a campaign’s efforts to share and spread ideas.

It seemed funny to have a political discussion panel at PodCamp NYC and not have one in the heart of politics itself, Washington, DC.

This is not a discussion on politics itself – this is a collaboration, a brainstorming session, to help those individuals working at organizations with causes to power up their efforts. The ideas and techniques we discuss should apply equally to all parties, beliefs, and campaigns.

If you plan on attending any of the sessions at PodCamp DC that I’ll be participating in, please feel free to ask questions in advance of the event itself – just leave comments here!

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Jeff Pulver writes a great recurring blog post about how to prepare for an upcoming conference. His method of making a conference a productive experience for you is one that is infinitely valuable, and I highly recommend adopting the framework for your own conference experiences, whether at one of Jeff’s highly recommended VON conferences or unconferences like PodCamps.

Here’s my action plan for PodCamp DC, based on Jeff’s method.

Join the community. Taken care of.

Set your goals. My goals for PodCamp DC are twofold – to share as much as I can of the stuff I’ve been working on with all of the folks in new media who want to hear about it, and to learn from folks doing important work about what they’re doing and how I and my network can help. Social media has given me a rare opportunity to be a part of a community of millions, with thousands just a click away on networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.

I especially would like to meet folks who are interested in taking their existing communities in the political and government relations realms into the new media realm. There are a lot of people in new media who can be especially helpful to your work, and I’d love to be able to connect the two worlds together a little.

Say hello. Here I am. There are a lot of ways to get in touch with me. A few include:

• LinkedIn.
• Twitter.
• Facebook.
• You can even email me right on this site.
• Leave me a voice message at 646-452-3376.

My friend Chris Brogan recommends posting a recent photo of yourself before each conference so people know what you look like. To be honest, I haven’t really changed all that much in a decade or so, so this photo is perfectly up to date.

Change my email habits. I’ll definitely be checking email less frequently, probably in the early mornings and evenings. As much as I can, I’ll try to stay in touch.

Study the map of the conference. In this case, Google Maps is the main game, as I’m staying in one spot, helping with the UnKeynote in another spot, and presenting in a third sport. Here’s my public PodCamp DC map.

Be aware of the event schedule, and be in control of your own schedule. Both will be tough, but I think there will be plenty of time for, as Jeff calls it, serendipity.

Originally, PodCamp DC was scheduled for two days, but logistics and other considerations demanded a full one day instead. As a result, I’ll have a little extra time on Sunday if folks want to get together to chat, do some informal stuff, maybe grab a cup of coffee or lunch before I fly back to Boston. If you’d like to schedule a meeting on Sunday, please hit up one of the contact links above, and I’ll do my best.

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Here’s what you must do. Get THREE people to register for PodCamp NYC, and in the “how did you hear about PodCamp NYC” section, have them put YOUR email address (munged is okay, like cspenn at gmail dot com) and the word socialthing. Example:

How did you hear about PodCamp NYC? Heard from cspenn at gmail dot com / socialthing

First two people who refer THREE signups to PodCamp NYC gets the invite.

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A theme that has cropped up in discussion lately about PodCamp is this:

Where do the veterans go to learn new stuff?

PodCamp, BarCamp, NewBCamp, BootCamp – there are so many conferences, sessions, and opportunities for new folks, from Zero to Podcasting at PodCamp Toronto to all of NewBCamp/BootCamp, and it’s heartening to see the new media community welcoming with open arms anyone who wants to learn. New media’s future hinges on the continued generosity of the community, and I hope PodCamp especially continues to be one of the welcome wagons.

That said, where do the veterans go to take their game to the next level? Where can they turn?

To be honest, there isn’t anything for them, not because of a lack of desire, but because being on the frontier means you’re responsible for your own training, your own innovation. You can get together with friends and share what you’ve created, but by and large, innovation is your responsibility.

Sure, I think it would be fantastic to have a 400-level track at PodCamps, and PodCamp organizers would do well to remember that all levels of skill welcome means all levels, including the occasional rocket scientist/trail blazer, or else that occasional rocket scientist has a diminished incentive to contribute.

But beyond that, the innovators are on their own. In the martial arts, one of my teachers, Ken Savage (of the Winchendon Martial Arts Center), compares our head teacher, Mark Davis (of the Boston Martial Arts Center) to a trailblazer at the head of our line, machete in hand, cutting a path so we don’t have to.

Being a trailblazer can mean recognition, thanks, and even fame, but it also means you’re the first guy or gal to step on the snakes, scorpions, and other delights the jungle has in store for you. Veterans of new media need to remember that as well – if you want to continue being a leader, the path never gets easier. Same scorpions, different day.

Where do I personally go to learn? I look at tons of different sources for idea components. For example, I got a thank you email from someone on LinkedIn that had a great idea component in it, something that I’m going to combine with a few other ideas and make even better. New ideas, new insights are all around, if only we’re paying enough attention to grab them as they whiz by. Ideas come from arbitrage – I’ve often quoted Mark Davis’ signature expression, study something old to learn something new. Finally, ideas come from just trying something, watching it flop, finding the parts that did work, and refining it until it does work.

As Thomas Edison said, “I haven’t failed 10,000 times. I have just found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb.”

Where do YOU get your ideas? Where do YOU go to learn?

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Keynote speakers are a violation of the PodCamp rules.

Now, the most recent PodCamp to have keynote speakers was PodCamp Nashville, and I want to be perfectly clear this is not saying their event was bad or their organizers did something wrong – they did not, and from those who attended, it sounded like a great PodCamp. This is an opinion and a request going forward.

Here are the Six Rules of PodCamp:

1. All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
2. All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
4. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
5. The event must be new-media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
6. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The reason why Keynote speakers are a violation of the PodCamp rules relates to rules 1, 3, and 4.

Rule 1. Keynote speakers are by default not equal to other participants. They’re placed in a position of prominence above other participants.

Rule 3. Keynote speaker slots are likely not going to be put up for general availability. The whole reason to have a keynote speaker is to select someone special, so it’s unlikely that anyone can speak at the keynote.

Rule 4. Keynotes typically have nothing going on alongside of them, which means participants have no other content options, and therefore cannot exercise the Law of 2 Feet.

Of the three rules, #1 is the most important. PodCamp is built on the foundation that all participants are equal.

When Chris Brogan and I set out our own guidelines at the first PodCamp for the UnKeynote, we agreed:

• An introductory statement and welcome by organizers is more than appropriate
• Logistical issues should ALWAYS be presented – restrooms are here, organizers wear this color shirt or this badge so if you need help, grab them
• Thanks for coming to PodCamp
• A reminder that PodCamp is YOUR conference, not ours, and the experience you have is driven solely by participants, not organizers

Like I said at the beginning of this post, this is relatively uncharted territory, but important to address now. No one in the past did anything wrong, but I’d like this guideline to be in the minds of organizers from now on:

Keynote speakers are NOT okay at PodCamps.

What are your thoughts?

I’ve been on the road a heck of a lot lately, getting to meet lots of interesting people, talking about new media. Ever since September, it’s been go-go-go and I’m grateful for a pause until spring. In order:

- NASFAA
- Podcasters Across Borders
- PodCamp Philly
- Emerson College
- Bentley College
- NASFAA private engagement
- PodCamp Boston
- MASFAA
- SREB GoAlliance

There have been a surprising number of commonalities during the trips; at each location, I’ve had the opportunity to speak publicly about new media – podcasting, blogging, social networks, and much more. Some of the commonalities of the audiences:

1. At least 50% of the audience has no real mental framework to even begin assessing the worth of new media. They know the buzzwords from mainstream media, but are unsure of how all the pieces fit together.

2. Virtually 100% of the audience is very, very, very interested in new media in one or more aspects. SREB brought me in principally to speak about social networks. MASFAA brought me in to talk about podcasting. The desire and interest to learn more about new media is very strong and growing.

3. Analogies to existing mental frameworks are critical to understanding how to explain new media channels to people new to the world of new media. Some of the explanations I’ve used:

- Blogs are newspaper columns written by columnists… without the rest of the newspaper. Hat tip to Chris Brogan for the seed idea on this one.
- Audio podcasts are downloadable internet radio shows.
- Video podcasts are downloadable internet TV shows.
- Social networks are a cross between virtual conferences and virtual water coolers.

When put in at least a semblance of a mental framework, it’s been my experience that audiences are more easily able to change aspects of an existing idea rather than try to form a completely new one. Downloadable internet radio isn’t quite right (it ignores RSS, subscription mechanisms, etc.) but it’s close enough that people can make adjustments to their internal pictures and sounds rather than create new ones.

4. People have no idea regional new media communities exist. For example, SREB brought me into Atlanta to speak, but there’s a huge blog and podcast community here – heck, there was a PodCamp here, so the community exists. I would love to be able to travel to each of the cities I have been to this past year and help them sign up for a PodCamp; because each city has had one (Atlanta, Boston, DC). That, I think, would go a long way towards not only making PodCamps more local, but also getting new media producers connected more tightly with their communities.

Travel will pick up in the spring again, but for now I’m happy for a couple of months of hibernation and family-only travel. Thanks to everyone who requested me as a public speaker at all the recent events lately – I am grateful for the chances to serve your communities.

One of the problems with an event the size of PodCamp Boston 2 is that things get lost along the way and after. Events like that need a public face or two, but rarely does the rest of the group get publicity. I want to take a moment to single out six individuals who made PodCamp Boston 2 possible; without them, there would have been no event at all, period.

Whitney Hoffman: if there’s a human being who can be said to epitomize the “organize” part of organizer, it’s Whitney. Without her, quite frankly, this ship would have been sunk. From smaller details like how many signs should be printed to large things like calling the Boston tourism bureau to secure the Seaport Hotel as a venue, Whitney made the vast majority of PodCamp Boston operations work seamlessly; but then, I would expect that of someone who both the ADA and the NFL have tapped to manage part of the Super Bowl’s operations.

Steve Sherlock: Steve Sherlock was our true collaboration enabler, arranging weekly conference calls and providing detailed transcripts of who attended and takeaways from the meetings. Steve also co-piloted registration with Susan Kaup and made that just work, too. Hint for future event planners: the conference call is a GREAT idea, and second hint, if an organizer doesn’t make at least 50% of the calls, they’re not an organizer, just a tourist.

Michelle Wolverton: or Chel, as she’s more commonly known. Chel picked up a ton of administrative details, stuff that seems unimportant but will quickly grow to nightmarish proportions if left ignored, like contract dates, reminders, etc. Chel also took leadership of managing ALL the PodCamp Boston event entertainment on Saturday night, a mammoth undertaking given how many multiple, conflicting priorities there were. If you had any fun Saturday night, she’s to thank for it.

Susan Kaup: or Sooz, depending on the context. Sooz brought us game day operations, including BostonNOW’s sponsorship of registration, and I swear she knocked over a Staples truck to bring as much stuff as she did. Sooz also organized our ad hoc volunteer teams and recruited additional people to help manage registration operations.

Dave LaMorte: Dave stepped up and brought serious horsepower to game day, managing all the directionals, signage, and other organizational things that helped you find your way to where you needed or wanted to be, from lugging around aluminum meter boards to managing the posted grid.

Last but certainly not least, Marni Shapiro of pulvermedia. You know the really nice venue we had, sponsored by VON, and the great A/V, seating, water, chairs and tables, sponsor setups, building interface, wireless, network connectivity, laptops for presenters, FANTASTIC audio systems with twice-daily soundchecks, frequent notices about building information, food court availability, and a billion other things you probably didn’t notice? All that stemmed from Marni’s desk in her role as VP of operations for VON and pulvermedia. If there was a compliment I could give her and her team, she’s VON’s Whitney Hoffman, who at the end of the day just gets it done, period. No excuses, no meandering, no bullshit. It’s done when you need it to be done, and that’s all there is to it.

Now, this is not to say that other organizers didn’t contribute, because they certainly did, but I wanted to point out that these six folks went far, far beyond expectations to make PodCamp Boston 2 a success. If I ever wanted to run an events business (I don’t) or anything which required operational excellence, these people would get job offers immediately.

In the beginning, there were seven rules of BarCamp.

1st Rule: You do talk/blog about BarCamp. (this later broke into two separate rules)
2nd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
3rd Rule: Only three word intros.
4th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
5th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
6th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
7th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present.

PodCamp Boston 1 changed a lot of these rules, as Chris Brogan and I found at least at BarCamp Boston that they either weren’t adhered to or they made people unnecessarily uncomfortable, particularly rules 5 and 7.

The rules of PodCamp evolved to:

1. All attendees must be treated equally.
2. All content must be released under Creative Commons.
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate.
4. All sessions and events must be free of charge to attend.
5. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet.
6. The event must be new-media focused.
7. The financials must be fully disclosed in an open ledger.

At PodCamp Boston 2, rule 4 was revoked.

1. All attendees must be treated equally.
2. All content must be released under Creative Commons.
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate.

5. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet.
6. The event must be new-media focused.
7. The financials must be fully disclosed in an open ledger.

Our reasoning for the revocation of rule 4 is based on feedback from the session on PodCamp Retrospective and Prospective: Where Do We Go From Here, as well as the hallway session on the state of new media, plus healthy discussions with folks throughout the weekend.

Some additional numbers and facts:

1,357 people registered for PodCamp Boston 2 (sponsored by VON, thank you!)
Approximately 650 attended, or 52.1% no show rate.

212 people registered for the Saturday night party.
Virtually all plus an additional 25 at the door actually attended (paying $20 cash), making for almost zero no-show rate, even with a $9.99 expense coverage fee.

To give you some additional perspective, 1,036 shirts were printed (paid for by Foneshow, thank you!), as well as 1,200 name badges, 1,500 lanyards, etc. The name badges are headed straight for a recycling center; the lanyards don’t take up much space and will be stuffed in my office at the Student Loan Network. The shirts are likely to head either to Father Bill’s Day Shelter or Pine Street Inn for dispersal to the homeless.

Each of those things cost money and generated overage which has a financial and environmental impact.

Some final, more personal numbers. PodCamp Boston organization really ramped up in June of this year for me. For 3 – 5 hours per night (more on the weekends, and more as the event got closer), PodCamp Boston -was- my life. Just about everything outside of work and family took a major hit in order to gather the resources, people, and materials to make it happen. 147 days, or about 90 work-days’ time (assuming 8 hour days) to make it happen, and that’s just my time, not counting the other organizers who busted their asses to make it happen.

Why was rule 4 revoked, and what does it mean?

Rule 4 was revoked to give PodCamp organizers more freedom, more choice, and more options for how they want their events to be run, and how they want to deal with the very real and tangible costs of operating an event.

Rule 4 also gives organizers a way to encourage commitment to the events that they work relentlessly to create.

Before the firestorm really gets going, here’s what rule 4’s elimination does NOT mean:

- PodCamp organizers are not required to charge money. They are given the option to do so.
- PodCamp organizers do not have to sell tickets. A variety of commitment mechanisms have been discussed, such as a refundable deposit paid back to attendees after the event begins.
- PodCamp organizers do not have to have a set price. Something as simple as “pay what you think it’s worth, as long as it’s greater than 1 cent” might be effective.
- PodCamp does not need to become a formal conference, such as the excellent VON and Video on the Net conferences.

Rule 4’s revocation may significantly reduce the number of people who no-show for a PodCamp should organizers choose to charge money, and that’s not a bad thing at all. I’d rather sit in a small room with 100 committed, smart people and jam together than be in a convention center the size of an aircraft carrier with 1,200 people, half of whom are there because there’s nothing more exciting to do on that weekend in town.

Rule 4’s revocation is no more written in stone than the original was, either. If there’s a case where organizers of a PodCamp behave badly, Chris Brogan and I reserve the right to reinstate it.

Laura Fitton said it best in a discussion thread on CC Chapman’s blog:

The event isn’t, and from what little I understand, never was FREE. In a way, no event ever is. It is subsidized by sponsors and by volunteer hours. You attend for free, because somebody else paid your way. Simple as that.

A final thought. BarCamp, the event by which many compare PodCamp, has in its rules many things, but no requirement that organizers make it free.

The problem posed to the community is this:

How do you reduce the number of no-shows (52.1% attendees, 10% presenters) to under, let’s say, 10%? Solutions and discussions welcome.

PodCamp Boston 2 is over, and I find myself more optimistic, more energized about the potential of new media than ever before, despite being physically exhausted. I’m proud of what our organizer team pulled together, and deeply grateful to all the volunteers who stepped up and helped out with registration, filled empty sessions, and made the experience a seamless one for the many new PodCampers.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our sponsors, headlined by the exceptionally generous Jeff Pulver and pulvermedia teams whose efforts made PodCamp Boston 2 an amazing and well run experience.

New media really is at the beginning of the roller coaster, despite all the progress that has been made in the last couple of years. It’s like 1994 on the Web still, and that means great opportunities, as well as a few stumbles along the way.

Ironically, I was so busy running around doing stuff that for a new media conference, I have relatively little media I created. Like a wedding, I’ll have to relive this through other people’s media.

Thanks to all.

Just a quickie, two things I want to get off of my plate.

1. Just because it doesn’t come from Chris Penn or Chris Brogan doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

Chris Brogan and I founded PodCamp, true. However, our co-organizers are every bit as important, if not MORE important, than we are, because an event like PodCamp Boston is a HUGE team effort. If you get messages from other organizers like Steve Garfield, Michelle Wolverton, Whitney Hoffman, etc., please give them as much attention and importance as a message from Mr. Brogan or me.

Our co-organizers are legitimately our equals, not our lieutenants.

2. If one organizer says no, do not ask others to say yes.

We’re a team. Yes, we can be uncoordinated at times, and yes, we can occasionally get mixed up, but by and large, if an organizer has stepped up and taken responsibility for a part of PodCamp, they own that piece. If someone is unhappy with a PR piece, you need to talk to Doug Haslam. Chris Brogan and I will NOT override the authority and responsibility that our co-organizers have willingly taken on. If someone is unhappy with the music arrangements, Michelle Wolverton is the final word on that. If someone doesn’t like that registration is a certain way, that’s Susan Kaup’s authority to change or not.

I wholly and fully endorse our co-organizers, and gratefully acknowledge that despite day jobs, families, and to-do lists that are legendary, they can still find the time to make PodCamp Boston 2 a great event. Please do not ask Chris Brogan or me to treat them with disrespect or dishonor their commitment to the new media community by overriding decisions in areas of responsibility they have willingly shouldered.

Thanks.

Bill Weye on his blog asks a great question – has PodCamp Boston, in effect, sold out, with its huge list of attendees from corporations?

Gosh, I hope so. But not in the sense he’s thinking. In terms of sponsors and vendors, there are so far three – VON, Blue Sky Factory, and Jay Berkowitz. You’ve heard VON’s commercial pitch – attend Video on the Net for $200 instead of $1,695. Blue Sky Factory hasn’t gotten their sponsorcast stuff to us yet, but they’re a mailing list service, the one that powers PodCamp Boston’s outreach efforts.

Here’s my thinking about all the corporations, venture capitalists, media, and marketers coming to PodCamp Boston:

Welcome! Please go meet some new media people, and learn all about new media.

In the year that’s passed since PodCamp Boston 1, there have been a number of success stories about new media folks being able to make a living doing what they love to do most. At the same time, there are orders of magnitude more stories about people wanting to get connected to resources (money, media, marketing) to share their work who haven’t been able to. At PodCamp Philly, Brian Conley from Alive in Baghdad mentioned very publicly that AIB is desperately looking for donors/sponsors. He and his organization are doing great, very important work telling stories that the mainstream media aren’t.

It’s my hope as one of the organizers of PodCamp Boston that if we put folks like Brian and AIB in the same room as producers and directors from media buyers, venture capitalists like Openview and Masthead Venture Partners, that new media experts with legitimate, great content can get connected with resource partners. It’s not about selling stuff to PodCamp attendees at all, but rather connecting new people and new media together to make exciting partnerships and friendships.

If PodCamp Boston didn’t invite people with resources to the new media community, we’d be doing the community a disservice. As Bill Weye pointed out, people come to PodCamp to collaborate and meet others doing exciting things. I hope that idea and feeling extends to new people who want to know more about new media, and isn’t just reserved for people already in the community.

Finally, I’ll remind EVERYONE of this: the Law of Two Feet – meaning you walk away from what doesn’t interest you – doesn’t just apply to sessions. In every interaction at PodCamp, you have the right to walk away, and should do so immediately. With so many people of so many different backgrounds, you can find plenty of people of similar mind if you choose to do so. I hope you don’t. Corporate or evangelist, early adopter or conservative, I hope you meet some new friends and find ways to help each other in whatever best suits your needs in new media.

It’s… Amish ChrisBrogan!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to Howard Greenstein and Kathryn Jones, as well as Eric Skiff and PodCamp Philly.

So, in no particular order:

• John Buckley
• Linda Mills
• Simon Toon
• Phil Campbell
• Dean Whitbread

If you’re in the UK and are free 1 September and 2 September, stop on by PodCamp UK and celebrate the day after Blog Day 2007!

Tags: blogday blogday2007

1. Create the organizing team. Who wants to be an organizer and help make this event a reality? Ideally, the organizing team will be more than 50% local New Orleans residents.
2. Create the fundraising team. This is a departure from standard PodCamp procedure. Reasons for this will become clear shortly.
3. Select a date. We’ll rely heavily on local organizers for this.
4. Select a venue. We’ll rely heavily on local organizers for this.
5. Get attendees.
6. Get sponsors.
7. Have the event.

The major departure from your standard PodCamp is the fundraising team, which is independent of the organizers. The goal for PodCamp New Orleans is going to be to raise a large pile of cash, and instead of reinvesting it in a future PodCamp or sending it back to the PodCamp Foundation, any leftover funds remaining will go to relief efforts as selected by both the organizing and fundraising teams. It will be good to bring new media’s storytellers to the area to tell the stories that aren’t being told. It will be better to bring new media and a war chest that can make real, tangible change.

If you’re interested in being a member of either team, please comment this post with your name and what team you want to be on. We’ll get the web site, registration, and other stuff up and running soon.

Jazz?

Great food?

Or a city that was destroyed by a hurricane and willfully ignored by a nation afterwards?

Chris Johnston has sparked talk about having a PodCamp in New Orleans. I can’t think of a better location for a major event like PodCamp than a city like New Orleans, because New Media professionals are storytellers, and there are more stories in New Orleans than in almost any other major American city.

We know when people visit New Orleans – Mardi Gras. After I survive PodCamp Boston 2, I’d love to participate in organizing something in the birthplace of jazz, right around the time people are visiting anyway.

Are you in?

Video camera contest details!

Events like PAB are essential for podcasters to recharge, to regroup, to get together and share and reaffirm that podcasting is still the exciting venture it was when they started. It’s a source of energy, a source of inspiration to help people motivate or remotivate themselves to produce new media.

On the way home, Bryan Person and I stopped at a McDonald’s in Oneonta, New York. There, a senior in high school who had just graduated came up to me at the table (Bryan was still in line) and asked, “Hey, my friends and I saw your shirt – what’s a podcast?”. (for the record, I was wearing the PAB2007 shirt, skillfully designed by Nico Pin of Snowy Day Design)

Full stop.

Here’s someone who is probably as ideal a candidate for new media as you can get, and they don’t know what a podcast is. When I said “it’s an MP3 internet radio show” she got it immediately as to what it was, but didn’t know what kind of content was available.

We have a lot of work to do.

The conclusion of PAB kicks off the promotional season of PodCamp Boston 2 for the PCB team. We’re rested, recharged, and ready to bring new media to the mainstream, and the best way we can do that is to do as much outreach as possible. PodCamp Boston 2 will ideally be the largest, best, most exciting PodCamp ever – until the one that follows it. We’re going to take the lessons of previous PodCamps and put together what we hope to be the best community UnConference we can, and we’ll need your help.

In the weeks to come, we’re going to be talking a lot more about what we need for PodCamp Boston 2, but immediately, we’d love your help in directing people to the registration page. The URL is easy to remember: http://www.PodCampBoston.org/register

Here’s the thing I noticed all over Stockholm, and other European PodCampers confirmed in other countries – there were an awful lot of people listening. They had headphones jacked into devices all over the place.

FEW of those devices were iPods. Of the ones that were MP3 players, the iRiver T series seemed to be the player of choice.

For every MP3 player I saw, I saw 10 mobile phones being used as media devices. Mobile phones that were spinning up music, content, and everything primarily from telco carriers.

I also learned that there are an awful lot of handsets equipped to be able to listen to podcasts – most of the Nokia N and E series phones supposedly can – and that the only thing missing is a way to get the listener to subscribe easily. Right now, asking the user to key in an RSS feed is far below optimal, but if we can figure out a way to get one click subscribe working on those handsets, then podcasts can join the music on headphones everywhere.

If you had the opportunity to have your show – audio or video – on half a million more devices, to half a million more listeners, would you? And how much would that be worth to your show?

A quick shout out is earned by Andy Nyman and the Swecasters for being co-organizers, and of course to Jeff Pulver and VON, and Audana for sponsoring.

Other random things… apparently, Swedish fish actually were Swedish at one point. The Swedish Chef from the Muppets was not Swedish, but may have been based on an actual Swedish chef. Swedish meatballs are called köttbullar and are served at IKEA. This I did not know.

Rehearsal went well last night for the Podcast Marketing presentation. I’m much happier with the current version, which is a lot more coherent, as opposed to being just a bag of stuff.

If you’re going to be in Stockholm, email me – FinancialAidPodcast at GMail dot com – and we can try to grab a cup of coffee and see the sights of Stockholm!

Just got off the phone with a company representative that wants to do a regional sponsorship for a few grand here in New England. My show was very much not the right fit, so I talked the rep through navigating MySpace and Google to locate other podcasters in the area, as well as pointing them at the New England Podcasting home page for other great shows in New England that might be a better fit.

Here’s the zinger – the rep was on every major podcast network site out there, and couldn’t search by locale. This is a local sponsor, and there was no way for them to say, “Show me all the podcasts in Massachusetts” that they could find. MySpace is one of the few sites that publishes that info.

And Todd Cochrane – I stand very much corrected in my initial statement about demographics in the last post. This advertiser wants a specific area because their ad spend would be wasted if the target audience isn’t within an easy drive of the locale, so demographics very much do matter here. Crow ain’t bad with dijon mustard. A little feathery.

To everyone out there running their own podcast or podcast network – if you want to take advertising, make sure you have a media kit. Want to see an awesome media kit? Check out the Mommycast media kit. It’s a thing of beauty. If you run a podcast network, please help make it easy for people like this potential sponsor to figure out which shows would be a good fit for them, right on your site.

Maybe I’ll add how to create a nice media kit to PodCamp Europe.

I’ve been collecting Twitters from folks about Podshow’s campaign:

Mike Yusi: Is anyone else on Podshow getting emails complaining about the new openings?
P. W. Fenton: Better question: Is anyone not?
P_Dub: Some podcasters have avoided putting out podcasts until the one minute “suck less” goes away.
Mike Yusi: P Dub: I actually got someone that said they weren’t going to listen to any more of my shows until they change it.
C. C. Chapman: @UCRadio – I have already lost some listeners due to it.
Rob Usdin: Podshow needs to use the radio model – have 5-10 different spots ready to go at the get-go – rotate them. Less listener fatigue.
Rob Usdin: @P_Dub: See my comment to noebie re: having multiple spots ready at one time. Want me to listen? Make it so I have a reason to.
Ranslow: I listen to a lot of podcasts from Podshow. The new intro is annoying after awhile. How about some variation on the theme.
Matthew Ebel: Hey PodShow… the 60-second Suck Less crap is making me stop listening to your podcasts. CC and R&RG are all that remain on my iPod
Britney Mason: Wondering if i listen to too many, PodShow Podcasts…They can suckless by coming up withnew plug for Suckless, tired of hearing it already
Britney Mason: I do luv My PodShow friends, but not sure what knowing how much I make per year has to do with suckingless…
Britney Mason: PodShow should put together a podcast like bluberry does.. let people know whats going on..be open!
Britney Mason: Okay then not to turn this into a PodShow pick on session..where does the $25 mill VC go? equipment?

All of these comments were made publicly on Twitter. They indicate a serious problem in the marketing department and in many ways, in the corporate culture of Podshow. Here’s what is broken about Podshow: Podshow believes it is the most important part of its network.

It isn’t. Not by a long stretch. What is?

The podcasters. The people who are providing the content for the network. Podshow has some of the finest, best podcasts online – Lifespring, Managing the Gray, Digital Flotsam, UC Radio, the Jersey Todd Show, Pacific Coast Hellway, Accident Hash, Phedippidations, Geek Brief, the ReMARKable Palate, U Turn Cafe… I could go on for quite some time. The network derives its value from the content its members are providing it, and by extension, the audience that is attracted to that content.

What’s broken is that Podshow treats its content producers as commodities. What do I mean?

Example: the Super Panel. You don’t need a Super Panel to tell you what listeners want. Listeners do that already with each of the shows they listen to. Look at the comments on AccidentHash.com. Look at the sales of tracks in iTunes from podsafe artists. Look at the subscriber base, server statistics. Listeners are already telling your content producers what they want, and the most successful shows are listening and changing to fit their audiences’ needs.

Example: Suck Less. This may have been funny in a conference room somewhere, but hearing Suck anything in front of shows like Lifespring, which has a dedicated, super-family friend focus, or in front of Managing the Gray, a business show that has executives (like myself) listening, is just inappropriate. Asking your producers, “Hey, what do you think of this new campaign?” before you start putting it in front of their shows is not only a good idea, it’s also professional courtesy.

Example: Podshow Plus. I’ve asked many Podshow-contracted producers about the tools they receive when they sign onto the network or how it’s performing. I’ve been told that frankly, there really aren’t any. There’s no indicator of how large the network actually is (44,067 as of 1:50 PM ET 6/1/07) or how fast it’s growing. What’s more, Podshow controls the Podshow Plus platform – why do their content producers, especially the ones under contract, have to manually DIG people like any other user? Why wouldn’t you give them special tools to reach the entire 44,067 registered users to promote your premium shows?

Example: Contract. Keith and the Girl made quite a show about this, but fundamentally, why wouldn’t Podshow publish a standard contract for everyone to see? At the Student Loan Network, our affiliate contract is public, open, and a matter of record, so prospective affiliates can see what the terms are and whether it’s worth their time to sign up.

Example: Sirius. Did anyone ever explain to the podcasters WHY the Sirius contract vanished so suddenly?

How do you fix something like this that’s broken? Change focus. Your podcasters need Podshow for its ability to aggregate advertising dollars across a network, broker deals, do promotion, and provide tools. The function of the podcast network is a lot like a well-run, ethical record label like Binary Star Music. They take care of all the administrative functions for the artist so the artist can focus on making music. They even help the artist improve their music.

A podcast network needs to do exactly the same and more so. Provide podcasters with great marketing tools – MySpace data managers, mailing list software, podcast widgets, chicklets, blog themes, anything and everything you can use for guerrilla digital marketing. Heck, I give away most of my tools when I present podcast marketing at PodCamps – Podshow should be doing the same thing on a network-wide scale.

Treat your podcasters not as commodities, but as talent, as rockstars. Make them the rightful stars of their shows with tools like inexpensive press releases, search engine optimization for their show notes, webinars and seminars for them to learn how to improve their shows, and more.

I have no plans to start a podcast network. I don’t have enough free time as it is. If I were to, however, I’d invest the bulk of my time helping podcasters who joined the network with so many tools that any independent podcaster who wanted to grow their audience as fast and as large as possible would be insane NOT to join the network. Tools, metrics, advertisers, everything I could find to help them be insanely successful immediately, because the more listeners they gathered, the more advertising dollars I could raise.

Let me also be clear about this: I hold no animosity towards Podshow or any other network except for what it earns. I very, very much want Podshow and ALL podcasters to succeed, to grow, to be able to QYDJ if they so desire, or become new media rockstars. To that end, I want Podshow to suck less by helping their rockstars instead of focusing on the organization itself. The network is nothing without the people who produce for it.

Bottom line: help your podcasters become the very best they can be, and network growth will take care of itself.

THAT is how you suck less.

• Bum Rush the Charts Case Study – a discussion of flash mobs
• Podcast Marketing – how to build your audience
• LinkedIn Power Tips – get the most out of LinkedIn
• Thinking Differently – five different types of thinking to jolt creativity

As per all things PodCamp, these are released under the Creative Commons 3.0 US by-nc-sa license.

I’ll be arriving late Friday afternoon, probably an hour or two before the party at SLATE. I’ll be at the party at SLATE both nights, as well as supporting podsafe musicians with Natalie Gelman’s concert at Stain Bar Friday night and Brother Love’s CD Release Party Saturday night. Amidst all the activities, I’ll be doing some presentations, running around having fun, and trying to be helpful as best as I can for the largest PodCamp yet.

• I will in all likelihood not be on Twitter that much.
• I may or may not even have consistent Internet access.
• If you’d like to get a message to me, email FinancialAidPodcast@GMail.com or call the show’s hotline, 206-350-1208. I’ll be checking email for sure.
• If you have my cell phone number – good luck. That damn thing does everything except actually function as a phone, and I swear that my shaver gets better reception.

I will be sharing at these sessions:

• 9 AM – Thinking Differently
• 10 AM – Let’s Make Something in the Spirit of PodCamp with Chris Brogan
• 1 PM – Podcasting 101 with Garageband on the Mac
• 2 PM – Bum Rush the Charts case study
• 3 PM – Marketing 2.1 – 7 tools you can use to market your show

I’ll also be at the Student Loan Network booth on the second floor mezzanine at these times:

• 7:30 – 8:30 AM – Setup and registration
• 12 PM – 1 PM – lunch, hanging with Uncle Seth and Natalie Gelman playing live

Please stop on by to say hi and enjoy what we’ve got at the SLN booth. There will be the usual corporate stuff like business cards, but we’ll also have:

• The Mashboard: grab a sticky note and a marker, and Twitter offline on a big wall about ad-hoc sessions, meetups, ride board, etc.
• Networking Bowl: Put 3 business cards in, take any 2 out, then go find those people.
• DIY Business Cards: Forgot yours? Don’t have any? Draw your own – you might just reinvent your personal brand.
• Jingles for Dollars: Uncle Seth and Natalie Gelman will be selling CDs at lunch. Buy a CD, and you’ll get a coupon for a 3 – 5 second personalized jingle for your podcast or company. Originally we were going to record them on the spot, but it’s going to be wicked loud there, so unless you want that live feel, I’d go for the coupon.

If you want to say hi, please do. I don’t bite. I’ll be wearing my PodCamp Boston organizer shirt, which is depicted here:

Finally, I want to give a huge shoutout to the organizers of PodCamp NYC. I’ve been following the evolution of this PodCamp since it was announced, and despite more than a few roadblocks (like venue change, etc.), the team of John C. Havens, Adam Broitman, Laura Allen, Eric Skiff, Jason Van Orden, Caroline Desrochers, and everyone who is pitching in to help have done a FANTASTIC job managing the chaos. The sheer number of people registering to attend despite it being a holiday weekend is a true testament to the power of this event and the work they’ve done in building the community’s trust in it to give up time for it.

Oh, and be sure to print out the UnOfficial Guide to PodCamp NYC. I checked with Kinko’s and they wanted to charge $6,428 for 300 copies, so that was a no go.

As with all PodCamps, it’s free to attend (excepting PodCruise Miami, which is technically free to anyone on the boat, but you have to pay to get on the boat) and will provide a great community gathering place for podcasters, bloggers, and new media folks around Europe.

Warning in advance to participants: I apologize for being American, and therefore functionally unilingual, though I think I can ask about the restroom (washroom/privy/loo) in a couple of languages. As we roll with the process, those of you in the international community, please help Chris and I with our unintentional but highly probable cultural faux-pas, like formatting dates incorrectly and other stuff. We thank you in advance for your help.

Dunbar’s surveys of village and tribe sizes also appeared to approximate this predicted value, including 150 as the estimated size of a neolithic farming village; 150 as the splitting point of Hutterite settlements; 200 as the upper bound on the number of academics in a discipline’s sub-specialization; 150 as the basic unit size of professional armies in Roman antiquity and in modern times since the 16th century; and notions of appropriate company size.

What does this mean for PodCamp NYC? Dunbar’s theories tend to suggest that people will self-reorganize around 150 connections, either dropping some, reprioritizing, or in some cases, like in communes, simply splitting off to a new commune or colony.

This is what I believe will happen at PodCamp NYC, and in virtually every large UnConference. People will simply divide up into optimal group sizes for the application at hand – it may not be Dunbar’s number, which is more of a theoretical maximum limit. I believe that people will naturally self-group, and in those groups you’ll have lots of opportunities for conversation.

What DOES need to happen is to ensure that groups are as diverse as possible – no college student group over here, no Fortune 500 executive group over there. The individual sessions, I believe, will help with that, as there will be lots of interest from all the demographics in different topics. It’s up to session speakers and ambassadors to encourage as many connections as possible, and to keep mixing things up, so that groups, while they will form, will be an enjoyable experience for all.

Above all else, if everyone keeps in mind the central ideas of PodCamp – learn, share, grow, contribute – then everyone will walk away richer for the experience. Even though the audience size will in aggregate be large, I think keeping these tenets in mind will help encourage the grassroots experience.

See you at PodCamp.

I’d eagerly vote for a Northeast/New England Podcast expo of some kind. My initial feeling is that it should start relatively small – so as to not make us all instantly insane – and then grow it. Maybe the first one or two should be like a meetup on steroids; if they can be managed well, tightly, then you could conceivably have one every six months, or even one per quarter. Certainly trying to go for a Podcast/Portable Media Expo right out of the gate would be cumbersome, but theoretically possible. - me

The podfather of New England, C.C. Chapman, played devil’s advocate in the debate:

Ok one thing I’m not clear on is the “WHY” for this event. I’m with John that by calling it an Expo it makes it seem like something bigger. I like the idea of having a big get together. LOVE that idea, but I’m not sure the world needs another “expo” with Podcast Hotel this month, Podcast Academy happeningi n Boston in April, the PodcastPalooza thing in Texas in June and then the Podcast Expo in the fall in Cali. Oh and don’t forget PodcasterCon in January. Kind of crowded if you get what I mean. Do we expect people to come from outside of New England to this? Just sort of playing devil’s advocate for a minute.

Michael Johnson of the Indigenous People’s Music Podcast even volunteered a meeting room or two at Foxwoods. Steve Garfield ventured this comment about the logistics of setting up a conference:

you could organize it as an un-conference see this:

http://barcamp.org/

Steve, you’re always the visionary.

Ultimately, the time frame we’d set – a couple of months – didn’t seem feasible, so we shelved the idea for a while. Then in May, I went to BarCamp Boston and met up with Chris Brogan and Bryan Person. We ran around a lot, recording various sessions, and realized two things:

1. BarCamp was extremely technical.

2. The BarCamp unconference model where everyone just kind of does stuff was a really good one.

Snarkily, after BarCamp Boston, I made something of an offhand comment:

Well, we have standing offers from CC Chapman for Babson College and Michael Kickingbear for space at Foxwoods. We’re all Type A personalities with a billion things on our plates, which means we don’t have the time to put together a full-out, hardcore conference. So here’s a thought, an idea, something for everyone to debate,
encapsulated into one word.

PodCamp.

Chris Brogan and I started talking an awful lot about a conference idea, and Chris dropped this on the group:

I mentioned a few weeks back about wanting to get together and do some technical howto exchanges with people, basically sharing out our skill sets with the mindset that someone knows something you don’t, and you know something they don’t. Tentatively, I’m thinking about a September gathering timeframe, and probably somewhere that’s train-accessible to Boston but still affordable (free) as a gathering spot. That’s all I want to share about that right now. Does that sound even vaguely interesting? If we get enough “yes” or “tell me more” type responses, I’ll put even more effort into making it really memorable (like flying a top-shelf podcaster or 2 in to visit with us all, etc).

Of course, we eviscerated Chris for implying that New England’s podcasters weren’t top-shelf, but once over that little bit of semantic, Bryan Person suggested:

I, for one, will not be attending the Expo and wouldn’t be opposed to a local hands-on session in September. Mrs. Person is pregnant and due the second week of October, so I need to be close to home. I throw this out: what about a PodCamp the Saturday after Labor Day, September 9? Just a thought.

And the official announcement from Chris Brogan:

The plan for the event is a 2 day UNconference, similar to BarCamp in format and style. We’re at the very early planning stages, and need lots of help from whoever can participate in some way. Remember, unconferences are built by the participants, for the participants, and are fueled by your participation as an attendee.

At this point, we need it all: venue, sponsors, helpers, podsafe bands

You can help by going to http://podcamp.pbwiki.com (real live URL forthcoming – thanks Chris Penn and Financial Aid Podcast), signing up, signing in, and thinking of ways we can get this all put together. The password is: nepod

This won’t be just another meet-up. The style and format of events like this is such that we can have gear show and tells, podcasting 101 talks, panels on how to work with bands on getting more podsafe music, and whatever else interests you. If you’re interested in podcasting at any level, there’s something that someone else will want to talk with you about.

Reading up about how BarCamp works is a good way to understand what we’re doing here.

At this point, it was mid-June, around June 20. The rocketship took off after this – the organizing team of Steve Garfield, Chris Brogan, Bryan Person, and me got off the ground. After about 6 weeks of search, we settled on historic Bunker Hill Community College with the help of Adam Weiss and the Boston Museum of Science.

PodCamp Boston arrived in the blink of an eye, literally. At one point during the setup process, we weren’t sure we’d have enough money to even have the event, and the next thing we knew, we were 33% over our needs. One week, we weren’t sure 100 people would come, and two weeks later, we had 400 people registered, of which about 300 attended.

Some quick looks back:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The funny thing was, the roller coaster didn’t stop at Boston. It kept rolling, kept picking up steam:

Podcamp Atlanta – March 16-18, 2007 at Emory University
Podcamp Toronto – February 24-25, 2007 @ Ryerson University
PodCamp Second Life – January 26-28, 2007 in Second Life
Podcamp Germany – January 12 – 14 in Berlin
PodCamp Copenhagen – December 10, 2006 in Copenhagen
PodCamp Kompresory – Dec. 11-12, 2006, Atlanta
PodCampWest – Nov. 18-19, 2006, San Francisco
PodCamp Pittsburgh – Nov. 10-12, 2006
PodCamp Boston – September 9-10, 2006. The first-ever PodCamp!

This weekend, April 7, is PodCamp NYC, in the heart of the city that never sleeps. We’ll have over 1,000 people registered to attend, over 60 presentations, and new opportunities to build and grow our community.

What a wild ride.

Can you fit your personal pitch, grammatically correct, inside one Twitter, 140 characters?

Should you be able to?

• Andrew Gallagher. Technology Coach,NYC Department of Education.To learn more about posting and hosting PodCasting on the Internet. I have used GarageBand to produce some PodCasts, but have yet to learn how to post them on iTunes.
• Anne Fraser, Participant. I have enjoyed listening and viewing podcasts and teaching teachers and senior citizens the advantage of podcasts in their lives. I would like to learn more about podcasts and how they are useful to people of all ages.
• Ava Barzvi I’m just starting to think about starting my own podcast, after helping others promote theirs!
• Ben Velez. Marketing. Looking to learn the basics to set up and grow my own podcast.
• Bill Rowalnd. Eager participant, newbie interested in learning more about this creative medium.
• Carol Cox. Science teacher, The Dalton School. Looking to learn what is new and how toapply it to my classroom work with the little ones – I teach gr. K – 3.
• Cynthia Meyers. Professor, College of Mount Saint Vincent. Wants to learn more for teaching a New Technologies course.
• Darlene Liebman. Producer, HowCast. I want to start a podcast, but not sure how.
• Dave Mangano. New podcaster, who wants to network and learn from others about developing content and building an audience.
• Dina Rosen. Asst. Professor, Kean University. Looking for information on practices and research related to podcasts, especially as a learning tool.
• Faith McLellan – Participant. Looking forward to learning the ropes!
• Gary Taylor Assistant Headmaster, Wooster School. Learn about social media and marketing opportunities vis podcasting.
• Gene Desepoli Looking for a good understanding of what I need to get started in podcasting re: equipment and services like libsyn, wordpress, etc.
• Greg Cannon Participant looking for ideas, inspiration, and some ideas on possibly starting a podcast.
• Jacqueline Cantwell. Law librarian, Brooklyn Supreme Court of Law. Our library is thinking of starting podcasting. I need to get up to speed on technology and content presentation.
• Jacqueline Dolly Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, Junior Achievement of New York. Wish to learn more about podcasting and techniques/strategy.
• Jill Neimark, Participant. I look forward to learning How to Podcast.
• Nancy Sharoff. Ellenville Elementary School. I’d like to learn more about podcasting and how to incorporate it into a 5th/6th grade math class.
• Scott Russell. I hope to learn more about the Podcast culture and get ideas to motivate my efforts to create a Podcast of my own.
• Tynisha Thompson I am hoping to learn more about podcasting and network with some of my podcast heroes, like Leesa Barnes and Jason Van Orden. I’m hoping to get the kick in the pants I need to start my own podcast this year.

Now, what’s the common thread? These people are a selection from the registrant list of new people in podcasting, either looking to get started, or just fresh out of the gates. They are tomorrow’s rockstars. They are the people who are going to bring fresh ideas, fresh concepts, and fresh talent to podcasting, to keep it new and exciting, to dream up ways of using new media that aren’t even on our radar scopes now.

If you come to PodCamp NYC looking to meet rockstars, you will. But if you come to PodCamp NYC looking to meet tomorrow’s rockstars, you’ll get an inside edge that no one else has.

Rule 5: The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

In recent discussions, we’ve talked about the value of transparency and trust, and having open books for all the world to see will continue to build on the trust the community places in PodCamp events. Except for anonymous donors, it’s expected that you’ll post a ledger detailing income and expenses down to a transactional level.

This doesn’t mean that you couldn’t make money off of PodCamp, but it does mean that you have to disclose it. If, as we did after PodCamp Boston, you have a balance of funds left over from a PodCamp, that’s fine – organizers are free to do with it as they wish, as long as it is disclosed. (For the record, the balance of funds from PodCamp Boston 1 are sitting in an ING Direct account awaiting use for PodCamp Boston 2.)

People prefer transparency in a relationship and a lack of transparency outside of that relationship. As transparency increases, trust increases, and the converse is also true.

Think about this in terms of relationships you have. Transparency with a significant other builds trust. From the first date, you are opening communications and transparency, offering information and receiving information. As you become more transparent to a significant other, trust increases, and the strength of the relationship increases. You share secrets, you share feelings, and you even share physical intimacy, which is as transparent as you can get on a physical level.

Likewise, consider what happens when a relationship sours. Often, a decline in transparency is the first indicator of trouble. “Where are you going?” “Out.” “Where were you last night?” “With friends.” As transparency declines, trust declines. In divorce court, they could easily rename “irreconcilable differences” with “lack of transparency” and 99% of the time it’d be more accurate.

Transparency outside of a relationship is bad. On a personal level, we call it airing dirty laundry. On a business or professional level, we call it a security failure. You as a customer of the Student Loan Network want transparency with us – you want to know what’s going on with your loans, with your financial aid, but you explicitly don’t want anyone else to know what’s going on. Just as transparency inside a relationship builds trust, opacity to outsiders also builds trust. On a personal level, that’s called not kissing and telling. (transparency reminder, I work for the Student Loan Network and relentlessly flog our fantastic services)

We get angry as citizens at our elected officials because of a lack of transparency first and foremost. We fully and wholly acknowledge that in the digital age, our enemies have access to the same information as our allies, so keeping some information hidden (opacity outside the relationship) is to our benefit even inside the relationship. But opacity for information that’s not credible to begin with just compounds the problem. For the most part, though, for government to be trusted again to any degree, it needs to be as transparent as possible to everyone in the relationship – citizens, foreign nationals, even enemies. There’s great value in being somewhat transparent about your military abilities; the enemy knows that if you get serious, you can pop the top on a can of whoop-ass on them, and that alone might dissuade casual attacks.

Consider the reaction Chris Brogan and I got with PodCamp Boston. We went nearly 100% transparent on everything, from sponsorships (except in cases where donors requested anonymity), to event planning, to sessions, to everything. Anyone who wanted to could follow the process that we were going through, the process that the organizational team was having to deal with. Transparency was a currency we were giving away (and still are) because in this case, in the case of an UnConference, EVERYONE is in the relationship. Everyone has a place at the table, and sometimes help comes from the most unlikely places, but without transparency, they won’t know that they’re welcome to sit down and partake – and bring something of their own for everyone to share.

Here’s the beautiful part about transparency and UnConferences especially. The more transparent you are, and the more transparent you encourage people to be, the less likely it is for shady commercialization to take hold. A lot of people have said to me personally since the first PodCamp that it’s only a matter of time before businesses want in, want to monetize PodCamp, and that’s okay as long as they know that a deal will involve transparency. If they offer to pay to have someone speak, that fact will be disclosed in full. If they offer to sponsor just a segment of attendees in the hopes of currying favor with them, that will be disclosed, at least at any PodCamp I am privileged to organize.

My belief is that rather than risk the wrath of the audience they’re trying to reach and learn about, companies and monied interests in the PodCamp ecosystem will understand that they’re far better off being transparent about any business dealings they have with the new media community, which is EVERYONE, present and future rockstars alike. That transparency will then be the start of building trust, and that can lead to a beautiful relationship.

Probably not physical intimacy.

Here’s the most important point. If you’ve got a bunch of people who are in a relationship – business, social, community, personal – and they’re not thrilled with you, do a transparency check. Are you sharing information openly with the involved parties? Are you keeping that information away from uninvolved parties? More importantly, do you know who belongs on which list?

If you feel a decline in trust, check your transparency.

What was interesting though, was that other brands that I was familiar with conferred information about the unfamiliar brands. On the drive to Toronto, I first encountered a sign for Tim Hortons almost as soon as I entered the country. I had no idea what Tim Hortons was at all. However, what helped immediately was that it was next to a Wendy’s and McDonald’s logo on the road sign. That instantly communicated that Tim Hortons was a food source of some kind.

In this case, known brands established the function of another brand. While they didn’t necessarily convey any information about the quality of Tim Hortons, it told me enough to know what general function Tim Hortons played.

In another instance, driving along the QEW, I saw a store called Chapters. It was somewhat apparent that Chapters was a bookstore of some kind, but what really made it obvious was the positioning of a Starbucks coffeeshop in the corner of the Chapters. In this case, architecture and design of another brand indicated to me what the main brand was all about, much more so than the name or logo. Christopher Alexander, author of The Timeless Way of Building, calls this a pattern language of architecture – how we use a space defines the space. How bookstores use coffeeshops not only define the coffeeshops, but also define the bookstores.

The most interesting thing to me as a marketer, driving into Canada, was that purely Canadian brands had exactly zero brand equity with me, being an American who doesn’t get out much. As a result, I was being exposed to their brands for the first time, and I took note of what their brands conveyed and how quickly I “got it” with regard to their brands.

In an environment where brands have no equity, no mindshare, functionality is king – the brand name itself has to provide useful information so that I know what it does. On the top of the obvious charts: ScotiaBank (extra props for sponsoring PodCamp), Bank of Montreal, Maple Leaf Foods, Rogers Communications. On the list of brands whose names conveyed no useful information: Leon’s, Tim Hortons, Aviva, Country Style, and Domtar.

If you’re not a brand equity leader, or if you’re the leader with only a certain segment of the population, make sure your brand name conveys useful information in and of itself. Edvisors, Inc. is not as helpful as Student Loan Network or Financial Aid Podcast. Tim Hortons doesn’t say as much as Dunkin Donuts, but says about as much as Starbucks. If you’re in a niche market and looking to expand, think about what your brand says to someone with whom it has no equity – do they know enough to at least inquire about you if they need services in your vertical?

On Travelocity, searching for hotels with free High Speed Internet Access yielded these nearby results:

• Best Western Seaport – 33 PECK SLIP AT FRONT ST – New York, NY 10038 – $218/night – .39 mi
• Hampton Inn Manhattan Seaport – 320 PEARL ST – New York, NY 10038 – $209/night – .43 mi
• Holiday Inn Downtown – 138 LAFAYETTE STREET – New York, NY 10013 – $233/night – .49 mi

There are other hotels in the area, but Internet access is unconfirmed at them.

What have you found?

See you at a PodCamp near you. I’ll be at Boston, Philly, and New York for sure this year.

Rockstars, loosely defined, are the A-List, “name brands” in any given vertical. In podcasting, they’re the people who tend to have really large audiences and recognized personal brands – Andrew Baron, Amanda Congdon, lonelygirl15, Robert Scoble, and so forth. Rockstars are great to have if you’re a conference planner because they add name recognition to your event, encouraging sponsors to contribute more, encouraging attendees to pay more, etc.

UnConferences like PodCamp are a different breed. Rockstars are of course more than welcome, because it’s a bonus for attendees to be able to talk and network with people they might not otherwise get a chance to, but PodCamp is not about the rockstars of today, at least not to me.

From my perspective, PodCamp is about finding the rockstars of tomorrow, the people who have got great things ahead of them, and if you’re smart, you’ll get to know them and become friends with them early on. For example, one of the folks who “get it” about PodCamp is Jeff Pulver, who, when he saw what Chris Brogan was capable of, offered him a job on the spot. PodCamp is about meeting people and learning what’s possible, what you can do, and how you can help podcasting and new media grow as a medium.

Everyone who attends PodCamp and participates is a rockstar of tomorrow – even if they don’t know it. One of the central tenets of PodCamp is “everyone is free to participate” – so be sure to attend sessions by people you’ve never heard of. If you have something worth sharing and contributing to the community, by all means please participate!

There are gems to be found in unexplored territory. Make as many new friends and relationships as possible at a PodCamp near you.

Be sure to check out the PodCamp homepage for upcoming PodCamps.

So, the short version is that PodCamp NYC needs a wi-fi solution (and the RIAA are a bunch of boobs). Some options being explored are things like a permanent dedicated line from a fixed wireless vendor, but I KNOW there are other solutions out there. There was an episode of Geek Brief TV a while back when Cali had a Wi-Fi access point with an EVDO card slot that she used as their permanent wireless solution at home. If I remember correctly, it delivered close to 1 Mbps downstream. I think she said the solution was about $300; a few of those floating around and you’d have coverage. It wouldn’t be OC-3 quality, but it’d be better than going dark.

At BarCamp Boston, a takeaway from that event was that if you give a bunch of geeks a solution, they tend to point out the flaws in it, but if you give them a problem to solve, they LOVE taking ownership and making it WORK.

So, how can YOU help to solve the blackout at PodCamp NYC?