So, while I still have a few more minutes on this wonderful wifi (another Scifoo camper attending ASIS&T meeting just walked into the coffee-shop a few minutes ago – how the world is small!), let me summarize my thoughts on ConvergeSouth2007 before they are erased by the new memories generated by the ASIS&T conference.
First of all, I’d like to congratulate Sue, Ed, jw, Ben, Sean and the rest of the Greensboro crew for a fantastic job – the third year in a row – of organizing this conference. It is my favourite: I get to meet all of my friends at least once a year there. And next year, it will be even better – if that is possible – as it will team-up with the traveling BlogHer show.
It was also fun to be able to spend more time with Jay – in the previous years he was too busy organizing the music program to be readily available for ling chats. This time, we had enough time to reconnect again. Billy parked his airplane in front of the front door, just like last year, but this time he is not advertising his blog, but his candidacy for mayor.
Jude and AnonyMoses were there as usual and it was good to see that he is doing well after his health problems earlier in the year. Janet and Dan were there as always – I love those guys and always have fun with them at ConvergeSouth. This time they brought a contingent of other South Carolinians with them, including artists and filmmakers Farrah and Mitchel, with whom I shared the legendary BBQ (and, if anything, even more legendary banana pudding) at Hogg’s house.
I know I am going to forget to link to some other folks, but the entire list is here so go check out everyone. Check out the Flickr pictures and the blog posts by the other Convergers.
My session on Friday went smoothly. The audience was small but very good – mostly scientists – and the questions were excellent. I certainly earned my pay for PLoS over the two days, talking everyone’s ears off about Open Access and what a great job I have 😉
The Big Name of the Year was Jason Calacanis. The fireside chat with Ed Cone was a nice start of the conference. But the really cool moment was later, during a session he led together with Anton Zuiker on ‘Sociable Web as Social Force’. At one point, Jason wrote a twitter note, putting up his phone number and asking people to call to test if it was working. Within the next few minutes he received probably 20 calls or so. The very first to call, not surprisingly, was from Robert Scoble whose job and obsession is to be online 100% of the time. But the next person was someone in the back of the room, and the third caller was a programmer who got a job with Jason right then and there. Well, that was certainly a demonstration of Social Force! Another demonstration: Jason had to leave early so his hotel room was suddenly open. Sue sent out a message about it and I, being 100% online, responded within seconds and got the room! In the wonderful old Biltmore Hotel. Sweet….
The quote of the year, I think, goes to Brian Russell who, during a session on social networks (e.g., what are we “creepies” doing on Facebook pooping on the kids’ party), said that “Online Social Networks Amplify Serendipity”. What a great phrase, explaining exactly what social networks do.
Of course, everyone was worried about the trouble one will get into when the potential employees see your drunken party pictures on Facebook. But Amber Rhea siad what I’ve been saying for a while now – in a few years, everyone (employees and employers) will have such pictures online, i.e., it will not be unusual at all. It will be difficult to find someone without them. But what Amber said (if I understood correctly from the other end of the room) is that those without such pictures will be most suspect! I never thought of that angle before and now I think she is right! But it is certainly true that one needs to manage one’s image online – if you do not do it aggressively, someone else will do it and that may not be pretty. Google my name and see – top 100 hits are mostly about me – my blogs, my work, my papers, my usenet posts on evoluiton groups, nice people said on their blogs about me….I beat the Danish soccer player hands down and all of the stuff about me is positive. I managed my image online. Nobody’s photoshopped image of me will be able to break through into the top 20 hits any more.
On Saturday, Anton did a brilliant job, leading a hugely satisfying session on Storyblogging. At one point, my new friend Jayne asked a good question: what can one do to make sure that one’s content online stays there forever, i.e., what if Blogspot goes belly-up and all the blogs get deleted. George Birchard had a great response: “Call NSA and ask them to mail your content to you – they’ll have all of it deposited somewhere”.
Afterwards, Kirk Ross gave the background on the beginings of my favourite newspaper (the only one I read in hardcopy) – Carrboro Citizen. Check it out. The session produced another notable quote (paraphrase): “a big factor in starting a new venture is domestic tranquility”. Fortunately for Kirk all his wife is asking from him is not to lose the house in his endeavor!
Finally, the dinner at Ganache was delicious. I spent a lot of time talking with Lisa Sheer and then rode home to Chapel Hill with my old friend Jim Buie.
You bet I’ll be back next year!
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