Liveblogging #Wordcamp SF 2009, Part 3

Philip Greenspun spoke on writing and blogging, and is making some great points on new media. While he is a bit of a rambler (bad for making spoken presentations) he made some short points:

1. Prior to the blog, there were two primary forms of publication: the book and the periodical. Because of this, important content would not be publishable because it would be either too short or too long.
2. Marcus Aurelius was the first blogger. Flame wars were apparently much more bloody then. One must also wonder as to their commenting system.

He also got confronted on some of his humor, which included racial jokes, by a young woman in the audience. His response when asked why he included the material, he responded with the old story about when Chuck Jones was asked about why he included all the violence in his cartoons, to which he explained that they “put in the violence because they thought it was funny”. While I don’t like the PC police who seem to increasingly police our words and thoughts, I thought he dealt with it well.

Next, the Lockergnome himself, Chris Pirillo, is on the stage, talking about community. His primary points:

1. We are all walking Venn diagrams of interests and characteristics.
2. Community connections through technology are becoming more and more distributed. While in the early days of Usenet one had to go to a specific location to seek out community, now those connections are non-localized.
3. The problem with closed source and closed communities is that they force you to live in someone else’s idea.
4. “A blog is just a tool. If you think a blog is a community, then YOU are a tool.”
5. “You know you have a community when it takes care of its own instead of eating its own.”
6. “Community is a commodity, but people aren’t.”
7. “Community cannot be controlled, only guided.”
8. “The best community leaders come out of the community, rather than being dropped into it.” (wise words for you community managers out there)
9. “Community is no longer defined by physical boundaries.” (this is a big idea, one that I have discussed on the Social Media Philosophy Project often)
10. He collects Garbage Pail Kids and still has nightmares about rotary phones…this seems off-topic, but he is talking about how the ability to have community has morphed and expanded since his youth.
11. “Community grows its own leaders.”
12. “Community is the antithesis of ego. It is inside of you, but it is not about you.” (best quote ever about social media in general)

More to come later!

Tagged as: Blogging, Chris Pirillo, liveblogging, lockgnome, new media, Philip Greenspun, Social Media, wordcamp, wordpress