Talk:BloggerCon
Trying to jump-start the process of adding sources and info
BloggerCon 1 (October 2003) was the place where audioblog content-creators like Chris Lydon, technology innovators like Dave Winer and Kevin Marks, and podcasting mega-enthusiast Adam Curry all collided and generated the optimistic fervor that kicked off podcasting. It was originally planned by Dave Winer as a one-day event with no paying sponsors, funded by having attendees-who-could-pay kick in $500--later a free day was added to the plan. The "friends" mentioned as co-conspirators in the BloggerCon article were essentially his friends at Harvard's Berkman Center, where he was a fellow. I know the Berkman Center gave him some money and paid some salary for Wendy (now Mrs. Accordion-Guy) to help him. Lots of details were also hammered out in the Berkman Thursday night blogger meetings there, organized and run by Dave, which I irregularly attended. I added my comments but I didn't plan to attend. I mean, I'm no bizblogger, and...$500????
I wasn't the only one with this objection. The run-up to the Bloggercon 1 generated a huge amount of anti-Dave flame-age, eagerly picked up by Andrew Orlowski of the Register, and here we get to my first "encyclopedia-quality" source: [1]
A later blast from the Register gives you more of the 2003 attitude toward blogging and Bloggercon: [2].
Planning for Bloggercon 1 continued--a free day was added, with a schedule tailored less toward "professionals" and more toward "bloggers." One day before the event Dave said that he/Harvard would "comp" me (because of my Berkman group membership?) so I could go to the paid day also. Woo-hoo! I live-blogged it in short quotes, if you want a contemporaneous account [3] and [4].
At Bloggercon 2 (April 2004), Dave introduced what he called an "unconference" format, re-casting speakers as discussion leaders who call on people in the audience. [5]. Another remarkable feature of Bloggercon 2 was its inclusion in the discussion of people attending only via IRC, for example the Iranian blogfather Hoder, who had been denied a Visa. Some of the highlights as I saw them then are still available in my blog archives: [6] and [7] and [8] and [9]. Okay, more later--do others have info or links? betsythedevine 01:42, 10 February 2007 (UTC)