The Blogo’Shawn

Did I already vow not to focus on tech mixers in the Bay Area?  Well scratch that!  I can’t avoid them, and they seem to pepper my weekly schedule with surprising frequency!  Simply put, there have been a preponderance of mixers and doings to attend in these last weeks, enough to the point that my response to the introductory challenge of “what I do” is starting to trip gaily off my tongue without much effort.

 Well last week was splendid.  It brought another STIRR mixer and an interesting mix of people to approach.  I was especially enchanted with some folks from the UK (Jackie Danicki, the SpannerWorks team) who apprised me of the state of Web2.0 abroad.  Their take seems to be that it is lagging in comparison to the Bay Area, but then that’s a generalization that applies to many places, non?  What that really signifies, though, is that companies like SpannerWorks have a lead advantage in not only providing services, but educating companies on new media technologies like blogging.  Sounds like opportunity to me, especially since those who have held out on learning about new developments in communication are coming around now.  Anyway, I do have a fondness for interacting with Europeans - yes, I confess to being a Europhile.  Earlier last week, I got to also chat with some of the Wordpress developers hailing from abroad at WordCamp - the WordPress team is distributed and this was the first time they were assembled together in the same place to meet in real-life.  Anyway, meeting so many engaging Europeans in tech lately has poignantly reminded me of my ultimate desire to work abroad in technology, preferribly in the UK which is my #1 travel destination.  Doubtless, I impressed that theme on some of those people I met last week too, LOL!

Ah well that’s just a little update on the vanguard of high tech society in the Valley.  I am saddened to say that the invite passed me by for the killer mixer of the week, the upcoming TechCrunch party.  I seem to have a penchant for taking blog breaks right about when everyone’s queuing up weeks in advance for the next one of these. 

Here I am up bright and early to say that I really enjoyed BlogHer. I knew I probably would, but the day’s final panel and cocktail party really surpassed expectations. Among others, I was pleased to hear Mena Trott (Six Apart) and Arianna Huffington during the closing session in a packed ballroom setting. What especially struck me was how personal and upfront they were in relating their experiences regarding a substantial ground of, not just tech and politics, but life at large. I was very impressed with their candor and what they shared with us - the talk was fairly intimate at times which was a wonderful change of pace.

Also I met some wonderful women I had seen in passing, but who I had wanted to meet more in-depth. BlogHer provided a casual, friendly environment for just that. I love meeting intelligent women undertaking significant initiatives in the tech space, and so I met some impressive ladies tonight one-on-one. In particular I want to point out Joanne Wan from the STIRR network. She, along with her partners, are working extensively to bring about a truly vibrant, emerging technology networking mixer in Palo Alto that i just had the pleasure to attend a few weeks ago. Check it out, next on Wednesday, August 9th!

Also, I have an admission to make. i have had an extremely technical education and career experience, but it has emphasized the logical, programmatic over business survival skills. I am yet endeavoring to raise my entrepreneurial pluck to the degree I desire. I have strong instincts within me and I have been sitting on a few startup ideas. That part is not unique to the Bay Area, but I do gain significant inspiration from strong female role models who light the way ahead. Not unreasonable, right? Honestly, I haven’t had the opportunity yet to talk to many female founders in tech. I don’t think I realized how vital that is until tonight when by serendipity I met CEO and founder Tracy Sheridan from Waxxi (recently blogged about in TechCrunch). We had an insightful conversation and I am impressed by her interactive podcast product and also with her as a person who is following her passion and steering her own ship ably. It’s amazing how empowering it is interacting with someone who is confidently pursuing her business idea. Very much so! I wish there was an accessible unconference/gathering of women tech entreprenuers, VCs, and vital connectors. That would be my idea of a primo conference, and admittedly I got a taste of that at BlogHer! Strong women doing it well!

I cannot resist also mentioning that Arianna Huffington was a stunner. She is a wonderful, engaging dynamo on stage and an approachable, gracious person off-stage. Check out her insights and overview of politics on blog and also she has an upcoming book about to be distributed! I figure she knows her stuff regarding effective life strategies, oh yes!

As an addendum, I am inspired to begin covering more personal career developments and revelations emanating out of my work as a consultant. I will have to be somewhat discreet and guarded due to these companies being more or less at a stealth or beta start stage but I should be able to generalize somewhat to points and practice principles. So please stay tuned - I vow to cover more than just tech conferences! Just needed to warm up the blog-writing muscles first!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be headed way down south to San Jose for the BlogHer conference. This day will be primarily geared towards the female persuasion and I think it will be interesting to have the gender equation slew the other way for a new media gathering. In fact, this will constitute the first mostly women event I’ve ever attended in the tech space - that gives me some pause for thought actually. It ought to be interesting and I hope a profound level of bonding takes place between participants. So far it’s looking like a jam-packed day with good conversation in store!

And in other un/conference news…Chicago just hosted it’s first BarCamp some weeks ago, which is wonderful to hear! Now then for those of you who are not tech types in Chicago, let me give a bit of background. Suffice it to say that I am quite perplexed and befuddled as to how the tech startup craze has managed to largely pass by Chicago. Chicago is my home city. It is a big metropolitan setting with tons of people, a good many technically-minded and a good many business-minded due to top-notch MBA programs like Northwestern and the University of Chicago. It has the infrastructure to host a cohesive tech startup community. So it peeves me when I find tech entrepreneurs who don’t know each other and rarely meet, if ever, amongst peers and mentors. That is much of the reason why moving back to Chicago was never quite enticing enough. I know how vital it is to have a supportive community of VCs, businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and tech folk. They have to be in place! How/why I wonder do other major and minor cities and towns surpass Chicago in this respect?! This is not right! Mostly all is splendid about Chicago (ok, well the weather could be better too), except this one niggling absence of collaborative entrepeneurial fire. It is the reason I meet so many Chicago “refugees” in the Bay Area. Anyway you get my drift, I’m sure. I expect a major city like Chicago to have the startup culture it deserves, like other places of similar and lesser size all across the U.S.
That’s why I am so pleased to see the Tech Cocktail emerge along with its adjunct Tech Social. Many kudos to Frank Gruber and Eric Olson for taking the initiative to get this off the ground and injecting some Boom2.0 enthusiasm and flair into the Chicago tech community. This initiative is such a needed step in the right direction. Alrighty I guess that’s my shout out to my home city - “Go team! Bring your people home to the promised land!”  So if you are in Chicagoland and reading this, I assume you are planning to attend these functions, ‘nuf said.

Today will be mashup camp in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum. I am excited to see what’s in store. Some proposed topics are of especial interest to me, in particular monetization models for mashup endeavors.  All these neat, wizzy mashups are cropping up ( I especially like the mobile 411sync collection), but I do wonder about the motivations of the contributors. Certainly, many are assembled with altruistic intentions, but what if the mashup takes off, then what does one expect the costs to be?  

 There seems to be no uniform, nor even approximately average, cost structure imposed by API providers for mashup applications that can potentially become commercial.  The stance seems to be to negotiate the fees down the line and hope for a fair situation.  So far, it’s perplexing to conceive of a business idea that progresses as 1) at the outset will probably be offered freely; 2) will gain traction and score an expanding user base; 3) at which point, one will have to negotiate with the provider companies about charges incurred by API use and hope to feasibly swing incurred costs while eking a profit. Isn’t that third step of factoring in costs supposed to procede the beginning of any bold new endeavor?? I hope we hear some concrete examples of how this step of arranging a mutually satisfactory balance manifests.

And so onwards to mashup camp, tally-ho!

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.

And so a new personal blog begins - this time administered by me rather than parceled out to various services like LiveJournal, MySpace, etc.  Exposed to the world at large without a friends-only filter, oh my!  I have previously set up and customized Wordpress blogs for others, but this is the first time that I am developing a blog for my sole personal use. 

Bear with me as I ramp up please.  I want to keep this relevant and not cast words willy-nilly into the blogospace.  I will start warming up by covering some conferences and meetings I will be attending, and then get to more meatier subjects as they arise.    So that means impending talk of Web 2.0, user experience, collaborative community, startups, strategies, insights and so on, followed before long by topics related to work.

 It has begun!