The Blogo’Shawn

I attended Vloggercon this weekend in San Francisco. One huge benefit of living in the Bay Area has got to be the proximity to the mother lode of great networking and conferencing events. Anyway the turnout was considerable, drawing people all the way from NYC and even further a number of lively folk from the Netherlands and Britain. Many witty, smart, and proactive people who are striving to get their visions out to a wider audience and doing so in a way that is often highly collaborative despite long distances. There was definitely a sense of community support and cooperation - a facet that will prove important, I believe, as the business world catches on to the power of blogging and steps into the field.

Vloggercon veered more towards an ad-hoc format with a central theme being the need to grow and bolster the vlogger community. So far, corporations are observing the vlogging phenomenon as it enfolds, but hard to tell what they make of it. I don’t think it’s a stretch for them to assume vlogging as a novelty with a small, insular audience. Vlogging hits so far afield from present media in many ways - overall, cinema verite style slices of life predominate with extemporaneous speaking often times with nothing more than a webcam perched near a computer. In many cases, a viewer can readily get a sense of a vlogger’s mind and mood, deeming them honest and forthright. Compare this, to the opposite case of corporate TV where even the “reality shows” are staged and scripted with slick editing and music. Media assumes that the typical viewer as a passive observer who desires mindless entertainment! 

So then where is the state of vlogging at the present time? Jen Simmons wisely stated it’s as if there is just a window of time to act. I agree wholeheartedly. In order to make things happen, the time to seize opportunity is now, because it strikes me that media is going to have to push forward in the direction of vlogging and the fear is what will they do to make it serve alternative purposes. Ah, but it will be interesting to see how it all enfolds. I hope though that a cohesive and expansive vlogging community has already set precedents beforehand. And that the early adopters who have passionately worked to put forth content and technologies nights and weekends get their just rewards without having to sacrifice principles unduly.