Xark!

My problem with politics

I filled in as a moderator for the ConvergeSouth session titled "We Do Agree to Disagree," on Friday, and over the past few days that session has become the focal point of the conference's conservative critics. I've been thinking about it quite a bit, critiquing my own performance in my new role, and trying to find something coherent to say about it.

I mean, after all, didn't I spend years as a political editor and reporter? Shouldn't I have some insight into the topic?

And here's what I've figured out:

I can't say a single definitive thing about politics without coming across like a boring lecturer, a finger-pointer, a know-it-all jerk, an apologist or -- even worse -- all of the above.

So instead I'm going to ramble, get it out of my system, and move on. And to all my friends, because I love you, you're all cordially invited NOT to read this crap...

ConvergeSouth Film Festival stuff

A little funky video goodness for you from Greensboro (no nudity or earthy language, but not exactly "worksafe" or "age appropriate")...

Roof Sex by PES

Gi Ho Lo (The Legend of Richard Long)

Why most video stinks but yours doesn't have to

Tom Lassiter is teaching  on video

Why does web video sucks? He showed us a pretty horrible video that some people found interesting. The consensus is that quality depends on what you

Ed Cone: Why do most online videos suck? because they are unedited and the sound is horrible.

Steward Pittman: You can use basic fundamentals and make [web video] a thousand times better.

You really have to practice. Pittman recommends you have a plan. The conversation quickly gets steered by participants to quick tips on better technique.

Aside: reasons why i dig this

I love being in a room with people who are so aggressively interested in playing with new tools... trying new stuff... people who go out and do things and never think to ask permission or wait for the media to tell them that something is OK or fashionable or Certified For Grownups (or teens, or geeks, or entrepreneurs, or Serious Intellectuals... pick your label).

I love seeing what people are doing with Twitter, which I honestly never "got" before yesterday... I like seeing what people do with their gadgets... I love that people are thinking up little connections between the Web and music and video and commerce and what bands need and what filmmakers need and what audiences need, and then experimenting with cooperative solutions.

The Current TV people are on now, so I'm going to listen in...

Social networking & 'amplifying serendipity'

Comment from the floor by Brian Russell:

"These (online) social networks are a way of amplifying serendipity..."

But what about putting your dorm bong photos on Facebook? Soni Pitts talks about how agencies are using this in their application process... Elisa points out that in the future, people will consider it strange if they CAN'T find some record of you online... Ruby's quote: "You need to manage your presence. You need to HAVE a presence." Amber from the audience: She's chosen to relate to the world without all these artificial filters... I didn't get all of it, but it was interesting...

BlogHer 2008

Hey, Heather, the BlogHer Roadshow will be teaming up with ConvergeSouth in 2008. Women bloggers from Charleston (or anyone who's into that vibe), might want to mark this date on their calendars: Oct. 18, 2008.

We just heard Elisa Camahort of BlogHer give her schtick. As I often paraphrase Ed Cone as saying, she's about 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the world -- not a bad thing, just an acknowledgment that once you make certain mental connections -- pop! -- you're doing it yourself. I think we've got women in the Lowcountry who could talk on this topic and be very informed and interesting... different, obviously, but informed.

What's the real value of coming to something like this? Well, you do tend to soak up a bunch of info, but it's also the informal networking. That may be even more important to people whose focus is less professionally oriented and more about personal stories and connections. You get a different sense of people in meatspace.

Opening session: Jason Calacanis

JC: It's a huge lesson: If someone offers you $20 million for your company, you take it.

Ed Cone: Or $30 million.

JC: Or $30 million.

(Note to self.: "Take.. the... money...")

New word: "Crog"

crog (crawg):  v. 1. Cram blogging; 2. The act of reading a bunch of blogs in advance of a blogging conference with the intent of looking like you've been reading regularly all along. pp: crogged. prog: crogging. "I can't talk right now: I'm crogging for ConvergeSouth in the morning."

Yum Yum's: World's Best Hotdog

The memory of loving a hotdog is kind of like that of a charming but alcoholic ex-spouse. Sure, you know they were bad for you, but O When Things Were Good, They Were Great.

So it is with the all-the-way dog at Yum Yum, the ice cream and hotdog joint on Spring Garden Road in the College Hill section of Greensboro, NC.  I spent six years growing up just a few blocks away in the 1970s, and a Yum Yum dog with an RC Cola remains one of the most pure memories from my childhood.

Here's why they're different -- and for my money, better -- than any other hotdog on the planet: The Yum Yum all-the-way is a fusion of dog, chili, slaw, onion AND BUN into an enigmatic culinary unity, an elemental combination inexplicable by deconstruction into its original component parts. It comes wrapped in plain paper, two to a white paper bag, and each sells for just $1.50.

And so far as I can tell, the only thing that has changed about this meal is the RC Cola. Today it comes in a plastic bottle instead of a glass one.

ConvergeSouth wrapup:

ConvergeSouth 2005 set an amazingly high standard both in terms of its A-List presenters and the spirit and energy of the community that created it. It sent us home anxious to do our part to spread that energy to Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry (our contribution so far has been Lowcountry Blogs).

This year's conference was deliberately scaled back: From two full days to one, with fewer sessions and a much less ambitious social calendar. I talked to Ed at the end of the 2005 conference and he let on then that they were already thinking about dialing it down, that the two days were just too much, too draining, too expensive. Which is fine, because the people are still first-rate and the conversations are excellent.

Plus, if there's a better BBQ party than a bunch of bloggers at Dave Hoggard's house, I really can't imagine what that would be. Last year it was magic and it poured down rain and it didn't even matter. This year the weather was clear and cold and we sat around fires and I swear I'd make the trip just for that single event.

Technorati sucks donkeys

I started live-blogging ConvergeSouth at 9:19 this morning, filing posts under the category ConvergeSouth and the Technorati tag "convergesouth." But you won't see Xark listed as even playing along with the rest of the ConvergeSouth coverage. Why?

It's not timeliness or a shortage of inbound links. Other blogs that were registering tags earlier today filed after I did and have fewer referring links.

In fact the  only ConvergeSouth link that Technorati has picked up from here is our "Porn Star Highway" post last night, which was filed under "travel" and didn't even include Technorati tags.

Color me annoyed.

ConvergeSouth: Journalism session

Doug Fisher starts by talking about the project he did through the University of South Carolina School of Journalism to do an online community site called Hartsville Today. For the record, I've read their report on this study and you can download it as a PDF -- a good read for anyone interested in putting together a community publication.

Now Wendy Warren (assistant managing editor, Philadelphia Daily News) talks about NORGs ("news organizations")... "It's a network. It's not a philosophy or a thing." The idea came out of sessions in Philadelphia during the Knight-Ridder limbo... when Philly's pro journalists reached out to their local bloggers... and came up with this network.

The Xark ideal & Scoble's No. 3

I decided not to bring this up in the Scoble session because I think his point about niche is important and useful. If your goal is to get maximum traffic and branding, be your own niche, and hammer it. You'll be Tom Wolfe in the white suit.

I started that way with my media blog, but the thing I learned was that when you write about one topic you get exactly only those people who are interested in that topic to the point of fanaticism. I wrote about media and politics, which meant that the people who were COMMENTING were people who were finding me because they were media/political junkies.

Top 10 Scoble Blog Thangs

Change of plans: I'm here at the Robert and Maryam Scoble presentation "10 Ways to a Killer Blog: Getting noticed in the new word-of-mouth network."

Sue Polinsky says she was turned on to blogging via Scoble. Sue: Everybody in this room has turned an online relationship into a face. "The person who yanked me, who made me feel good about being a geek... is Robert Scoble.

RS: I think this is the first talk we've even given together.

No. 1: Blog cause you want to. "A story without love is not worth telling."

No. 2: Read other blogs. "Have you read 50 blogs for at least two weeks.? ... I learned early on that reading other people's blogs gave me something to write about... You should feel compelled to join in the conversation."

No. 3: Pick a niche you can own (be different). Some are just blogging for their families... but others want an audience larger than their family and friends. Those two groups of people talk differently.

ConvergeSouth No. 1

We're at the first session, which began with Ed Cone and Dave Hoggard leading (?) the crowd in a rendition of Nothing Could Be Finer Than To Be In Carolina.  This was not good, but it confirmed Ed's theory that group humiliation is a bonding experience.

Right now we're listening to Elizabeth Edwards, author and wife of John Edwards, former Democratic presidential candidate and vice-presidential nominee. Topic: building communities online.

On their early attempts at creating an online presence for their political campaigns:

"We were told that there was no point in being on the Internet. There were only conservatives on the Internet."

This got laughs.