Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
I decided to pull this into a separate post.
Once I had time to think on Dave’s idea, I found myself really liking it. As I wrote in my comments, just think of all the people involved in weblogging, all those different interests. In my blogroll are accessibility and/or markup folks, photographers, artists, philosophers, hard and soft core techies, writers, politicos, teachers, communication folks, and even marketing. Just the people in my blogroll alone (and who should be on my blogroll once I do another update) have enough energy to change the world if we got together in one room.
Just think of putting all that power into a single venue with a single focus — the mergence of humanities and technology. Oooh, it hurts to get this excited when I don’t feel good.
Dammit, I wish I had thought of this one. Dave, way to go. That was an excellent idea. I’m in.
Suggestions:
One thing I would suggest a change to is allowing the people to pick who they have dinner with. Make it totally random. Let’s force people outside of cliques. Let’s see if we can’t get liberals to sit with Glenn Reynolds, and so on. The way to run this conference would be to break the rules, and let’s start by not letting people stay within their comfort zones. We don’t in weblogging, let’s not do so in a weblogging conference.
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Update I’m going to be pulling out of the conference planning and re-direct you all to the person who originated it. I emailed Dave and suggested he set up a weblog to focus ideas. Lots of good ideas too, so Dave has something to work from.
If I go to a conference next year, it will most likely be something such as the O’Reilly Emerging Tech conference or something of that line. Right now the economy is very tight in the country and I, as do many, have to focus more on what helps my employment situation. Chances are I’ll only be able to go to one conference next year, and I need one that will help me keep my skills up, discover what’s new in the tech world, and where I can sell myself as a viable tech entity, in that order. And, no, this isn’t trying to sell O’Reilly. I think I proved last week that I don’t push O’Reilly just because the company’s my publisher.
I would love to meet other webloggers, and will, but more along the lines of sitting down and sharing a cup of coffee or a beer at the local pub.
I think the weblogger conference is a good idea, and will help if I can. But, after a bit of reflection (and an internal reality check), I don’t see it happening for me next year. I hope, though, that it happens for those who want it.
