PodCamp Pittsburgh 3: Three Questions

Fellow PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 planner Dawn Papuga posted three questions aimed at social media people this week, as part of her weekly "Friday 5" series intended to provide bloggers with writing prompts. Here are my answers:

Q: What brought you to social media, and what keeps you hanging around?

A: I started creating web video in 2003 (and I still am) because I liked the idea of immediate feedback. I knew I could release an episode of Something to Be Desired and hear what people did (or didn't) like about it within minutes, rather than months or years. It's that sense of instant communication, and the interesting people I've met as a result, that keeps me involved in creating media for the social set.

Q: Which social networking tool gives you the shakes when it’s not updated or is experiencing down time? (Podcasts, Blogs, Micro-blogging, etc)

A: I'm pretty sure this question is a not-so-thinly-veiled primal howl over the Fail Whale sightings at Twitter, and I'll agree -- for a tool whose sole purpose is to connect people immediately, it's quite frustrating when that tool is down (and quite addictive when it's up, which is why none of us complainers have migrated away... yet... even though we idly threaten to do so on a regular basis...)

Q: What kind of insight could you offer to others on a topic at PCPGH3?

A: I'm already on the hook to host several sessions and moderate a few panels, so if you join us at PCPGH3, you'll hear my POV on such topics as:

* Creating serialized, sustainable content
* Avoiding social media burnout (and bouncing back when it happens)
* Using Twitter (and other social media tools) for business
* What constitutes "success" in social media?
* Feedback: The good, the bad and the ugly (and why we need it)

If you'd like to learn more about social media, or simply commune with fellow bloggers, podcasters and other content creators, you're welcome to join us at PCPGH3 -- and it's free! See you there.

I Haz Bin BlawgTagged?

I was evidently blog-tagged by Dr. Mani regarding the online experience. Having not blogged recently, this is a good opportunity to revisit the keyboard...

Onward:

1. How long have you been blogging?

A: I've been blogging since 2004, when I began by dabbling with a MySpace blog.

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?

A: It was an experiment at first, like most things I do online.

As for mentors, I think that's a presumptuous question, which infers that everyone must blog for a reason and actively seeks to emulate the style of someone else. For example, I may read Chris Brogan's and Seth Godin's blogs on occasion, but we paddle in different boats these days.

3. Are You trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?

A: I'm trying to make money, period. Paying my rent and eating every day are great accomplishments. If I happen to make that money online, so be it.

Right now, I look at social media as a still-emerging market, so putting all of my eggs in that basket would be ludicrous. Then again, so would putting zero eggs in that basket.

And, rationally speaking, putting eggs in baskets never seemed like a sensible storage solution in the first place...

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.

A1: Meeting a variety of people I wouldn't meet otherwise

A2: Consuming large and varied amounts of information

A3: Near-instantaneous feedback on new ideas, breaking news, and other benefits of being plugged into the collective subconscious

5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.

A1: The relevance, permanence and unstable momentum of online relationships (and the movements created therein)

A2: Information overload, resulting in an inability to focus for long periods of time / parse the truly important information from the trivial or temporary

A3: The massive amount of groupthink, errant "wisdom of crowds," and general mediocrity associated with being plugged into the collective subconscious

******

Must I tag others? Fair enough. I tag Julia Roy, Tim Siedell (Bad Banana) and Locobone. Feel free to swap out questions with more relevant ones, if you're so inclined.

Fragmented Conversations

When someone blogs about someone ELSE'S blog post, where should YOU leave a comment?

For example, yesterday I blogged about Lan Bui's troubles with Podtech. As a result, some folks left comments on my blog, which I dig... but unless Lan himself stopped by, he'd never have seen them.

Conversely, had everyone only commented on his post, I'd have been under the impression that my two cents hadn't furthered the conversation.

Proposed Solution

What the blog world needs is a conversation tracker.

This way, after Lan made his initial blog post (for example), anyone else who'd blogged about the issue would have their post automatically included in that conversation stream. Then Lan (or whomever originates a blog post) would be able to see all other posts made regarding the original post / topic.

Plus, everyone else further down the conversation chain could see up and down the trail in both directions, AS WELL AS seeing any nodes that grow off their OWN posts about the subject.

In addition, any comments made on subsequent branches of the topic could also be cross-posted back to the preceding blog posts -- for example, Roxanne's comment on my post could also be CC'ed back to Lan's post, if so desired.

So, in the end, the structure looks more like a tree than a river.

Programmers of the world, you have been prompted.

7 Songs I Like

I awoke to find I'd been tagged by Chris Brogan re: a new meme, started by 7 year-old Aidan Hatch (!), called 7 Songs I Like. The concept is pretty self explanatory:

7 Songs I Like (in absolutely no order):

"Idiot Kings" by Soul Coughing
"El Dorado" by The Tragically Hip
"New Millennium Homes" by Rage Against the Machine
"Some Party" by The Constantines
"The Morning Story" by Running from Dharma
"Time Running" by Tegan and Sara
"Luck Be a Lady" by Frank Sinatra

And now, I tag: Steve Garfield, Sarah Atwood, Jim Kirks, Vergel Evans and iJustine.