chrisheuer's blog

PodcampWest: Is it a camp or a conference?

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:21:24 -0800

In the beginning, I was very supportive of Podcamp West - we even added a link to it as something we suppoprt on our Web 2point2 Unconference Blog with other sponsors. While I was a bit upset that Vic Podcaster did not keep his promises to us for promoting Web 2point2 and he did not show up at the unconference to podcast as he promised and he did not bring his EVDO wifi router despite his promises to do so, I was really upset when I got an email from Eric Rice yesterday. His email was the first I had heard about being put on a panel with him and Matthew Wayne Selznick. Not only was I not invited to do this, I was never notified that it was happening until I received the urgent email from Eric - if he had not been upset with the panel description and reached out to me, I would never even have known about it. My plan was to attend for part of today (SAT) and then watch Jerry Rice have his number retired tomorrow at Candlestick Park.

Rent an Expert Event in 2 Days @ CNet

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:18:13 -0700

I am excited and a iittle nervous about the Rent an Expert event this Wednesday July 19th starting at 530pm. It still seems that a lot of other people have expressed interest in coming that are not on the Wiki - I don't know if it is because they don't have the password "yeswecan" or because they don't know how to edit a Wiki or because they are not really coming but are being nice to me :) Whatever, the reason, I will be there along with at least a couple dozen other good folks who want to share their expertise with others so it looks like this will be a very interesting experiment.

A great reason to stop roughing it - WordCamp!

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:59:59 -0700

I was really excited to see that Matt Mullenweng is finally moving forward with plans to host his own unconference for users of his WordPress blogging software, but bummed when I saw the date (August 5) is the same as the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue's annual confeerence. WordCamp should be a lot of fun and I hope to be able to find a couple slots in the schedule for my other conference where I can get over to WordCamp for a few sessions and will of course be able to make the party that night.

I have been fortunate to spend some time talking with Matt recently, and despite my post raving about VOX the other day, I am and will continue to be a loyal WordPress user. At the closing party of Gnomedex, we talked a bit about the power of unconferences to close the feedback loop between user and developer - how it was an authentic way to move product development forward in unexpected ways and how it ultimately leads to better relationships between a company and its customers.

BrainJams Lessons - Moving Forward with Social Media

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:44:56 -0700

Over the past six months we have learned a great deal about unconferences and the more general concept of bringing people together for conversations with their peers. We have experimented with different event formats and continue to innovate with events like our upcoming Rent an Expert on Wenesday July 19. We have affirmed our reasons for striking down the power of the podium and giving it to the people, but also have seen that there is a place for lectures and talks too – conferences can and have learned a lot from unconferences.

Ultimately, we have found that our original premise for BrainJams of connecting people from different communities to share experiences and insights is highly valuable and much needed – but the formats for facilitating these conversations are not the reason for people coming together. People come together to discuss, debate and work on shared passions – like Mashpits, Cyber Salons, Creative Commons Salons, Flickr Meetups, Third Thursday’s, Wiki Wednesday’s and Mobile Mondays. There is a common thread in these events – but it is not “Common Thread 2.0” – it is the intersection of people, technology and media – or social media as it has become popularly known.

Important: Upcoming BrainJams Events!

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:40:49 -0700

There is so much going on lately, it's hard to know where to start. For once, I will take the simplest approach possible - here is a list of some of the cool events we have in the BrainJams future:

Sunday July 2 930am-1230pm: The morning after Gnomedex in Seattle, WA I am helping Shannon Clark from MeshForum to organize a MeshWalk focused on three very important post conference questions we often don't have time to consider: 1) What are your big takeaways from Gnomedex? 2) What are you going to do with it? 3) How can we help each other to make it happen? Meshwalk is a walking conference with some occasional stopping points for engaging with other participants in wider conversations. It is a great chance to exercise your body and your mind (and work off the hangover from the night before!)

~~Thursday~~ Wednesday (oops) July 19 530pm-830pm: Our rescheduled date for the "Rent An Expert" event. Thanks to Joel Sacks from CNet for really stepping up to the plate to obtain approval for us to host the event at CNet's offices in downtown San Francisco (in the same room where I am writing this post from Bloggercon right now). I will be writing more about this over the next week, but please help us get the word out. If you are trying to learn how to do something with Blogs, Podcasts, Vlogs, Wikis, Photography or other forms of social media tools, come on over to our event Wiki and post a request. Likewise if you want to share your expertise. As Howard Rheingold says, "What it is -> is up to us!"

Thursday August 3 930am-500pm: Our next Bay Area BrainJams event! I have been waiting to announce this for way too long - I am so excited about this BrainJam. We are organizing this day long unconference to bring together Bay Area Social Media and Web 2.0 enthusiasts with members of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. This is a great opportunity for our BrainJams folks to talk to real people who are doing really great work for their communities around the world and help them understand what is possible with the new world of easy to use Web tools. This event will be held at the Parc 55 Hotel as a pre-conference workshop for the NCDD Conference. Due to the costs of the hotel and the lunch that will be provided, there is a fee of $50 for this event to cover the costs that the conference organizers are incurring. In deference to our prior free events, the organizers are offering a reduced fee for this BrainJam (other workshops are priced at $75). I also have a few free passes for those who are willing to contribute their expertise and lend a hand with the workshop, so call me or write me an email to discuss.

Bootcamp on Professionally Lighting Photographs

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:48:26 -0700

It is not often that I read something from TechMeme and want to share it with you immediately - especially when I am in the midst of 3 deadline projects - but this is pretty cool and worth a look. The Strobist BootCamp is a public/free educational project for learning how to effectively and professionally light photographs that is being offered on the Blog of the Strobist. This is exactly the sort of thing we are seeking when we talk about dScribes (our program idea for educating and empowering a profession of "Digital Scribes") - it is also exactly what several people at Vloggercon said they wanted to see more of - educational content and projects on Vlogs. (ok, so it is just a blog right now, but it could be a vlog easily enough - but it has the right spirit).

BrainJams New Orleans - Ad Hoc Collaboration in the Real World

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:49:28 -0700

For the past month a core group of folks from BrainJams New Orleans has been working together to find ways to help the New Orleans economy. While there is still a large humanitarian need there for disaster relief and recovery, I have felt strongly that someone needed to pay more attention to the economic recovery - throwing money at the situation would not solve the bigger problems. So the original purpose of the event there was to bring together small businesses with technologists to empower them with the knowledge they need to help rebuild their businesses.

While the turnout for the event may have been small, the impact clearly was very large. Earthlink Blogger Dave Coustan (who was with us in New Orleans) has written an exceptional article on what we are doing as a result of that event. Our primary focus thus far has been on "adopting a small business" who we could help to use best practices for operating a business with emerging Web 2.0 technologies. Jeff Harris introduced us to the Sclafani Cooking School and we have been working out a plan for the past couple of weeks which we are moving to implement this month.

No Venue for Rent An Expert

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:23:07 -0700

Well, I finally got the word from Joel Sacks over at CNet that he was unable to help us secure one of their conference rooms for our Rent An Expert event on Thursday. I am really thankful that he invested his time in trying and completely understand that this last minute bit makes things difficult.

A few people mentioned the new space over at the Long Now, but I don't know any of those folks. Guess I could have just called, but was really waiting to see if anyone in the community would step up and take some initative to support this. All the responsibility and effort can not be left to the "Chris and Kristie" show if we are ever going to make this sustainable.

I guess we only have ourselves to blame for this since we do want to do our best to make the events better and more consistent and this produces more reliance than collaboration from the community. One of the big lessons I learned from a very brief project with Nicco from Echo Ditto was how the Dean campaign really lost it when they tried to take control of the grass roots efforts and those grass roots efforts slowed as a result. I have thought of this a lot in regards to how we operate BrainJams, but have not had time to really think through how BrainJams engages the community of like minded supporters. Then again, most of my open calls for assistance and support are just not heeded by anyone - even very close friends and suppoprters who I speak with directly and explain our needs to in simple, direct terms.

OK, enough whining, time to get back to it...

Seth from Interplast offered up their offices in Mountain View as a potential venue, but since I had promoted it as a San Francisco event, did not know if this was something that the participants would want to do. So now I am asking you and I need you to comment below to let me know what to do.

Who is coming if we have the Rent an Expert event in Mountain View? If we get enough people or something else cool happens this afternoon, then we will still have it. If this is not resolved by midnight, I will need to postpone the event until a later time. With some more lead time, Joel thinks he might be able to help us out with CNet.

The IT@Cork/O'Reilly Dustup: Some Lessons and Thoughts

Wed, 31 May 2006 09:09:37 -0700

Just another incident for the books that helps Steve Forbes prove his point about "Attack of the Blogs". Some of the comments I read were so extreme and misinformed that I actually felt hurt by them myself. I have been railing against this problem almost since I hit the blogosphere (and before that in the real world).

Why people feel the need to resort to this sort of dustup in such a crude way is perhaps beyond me... but I do have some thoughts which may be useful to consider in trying to reduce the number of these occurrences in the future. It is not so much a solution as an exploration of the root causes, but in understanding them we might be able to make things a bit better all around.

1 - Power. People still want it and will want it for a while to come as we transition from a society of command and control hierarchies to one that is more chaordic and self-organizing with fewer elites and more of us in the middle, actually doing instead of pontificating - the machina behind the knowledge economy.

Tag Presentation @ NetSquared Today

Tue, 30 May 2006 23:29:55 -0700

Just a quick note on the presentation I gave at the NetSquared Conference today. It felt like it went very well and I got some good feedback, including a kind word from one of the guys from Kiwanis International who also told me that the name for our hula hoop exercise is "helium hoops" - that is so cool to be able to connect with someone over something so silly, but also so deeply meaningful.

As it is, the entire day there was very worthwhile and I had a chance to meet tons of great people doing amazing things. I am just so humbled to have opportunities like this to talk with such inspiring individuals - it reminds me of how little we have done so far and how much more there is to do across the board. Which is why we need to all just keep showing up, every day, to whatever calls us...

I have more to say, but not a lot of time at the moment. I will try to add my photos of the event to Flickr shortly. You can download the presentation from here. (5MB)

Web2point1 On Again - Because not enough people made the upgrade!

Fri, 26 May 2006 11:13:29 -0700

I hate it when the Blogosphere blows up like this, but when it does, we all need to pick up the pieces and move on. Seems that CMP has sued a non-profit group in Ireland over the use of the term "Web 2.0" in its conference. Tom Rafferty tells his story and posts the Cease and Desist order on his blog. It is one of the most active topics I have ever seen in the Web 2.0 world and reignites the debate over the use of the term in the first place.

Regardless, as a result of this (and because I am glutton for punishment) we are officially announcing "Web2point1: BrainJams on the Open Web" to be held in the beginning of November 2006 for all those people like me who can't afford the $3,295 to attend the other conference on a similar subject. So this year, reflecting the increasing cost of getting The Open Web out to many more people and the increased cost of gas (isnt that what everyone blames for rising costs?) we have increased our Web2point1 registration fee from $2.80 to $3.29, with all of the registration fees collected going to the Creative Commons. You may pre-register by sending $3.29 to joinus@web2point1.org via PayPal, but official registration won't open for a couple of months.

BarCamp and BrainJams featured in Business 2.0

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:51:44 -0700

Been waiting to see this for a while now and it is just so cool to see in print. While I probably spent over 2 hours on the phone with Kathleen Craig and the editorial fact checker, there were no quotes from me, but a very nice inclusion of BrainJams as a resource community - which is all we really need to help get the word out for both us and BarCamp.

Ryan King did get quoted for the now somewhat standard line on the purpose behind unconference - that "there was much more intelligence in the room than there possibly could be on stage." This was echoed at the Beyond Blogging 2006 event that happened last week in Washington DC. Now Fleishman Hillard is moving into a real thought leadership position in the communications industry with the same sort of unconference thinking, though no plans have been finalized yet for the next event for those interested in going "Beyond Blogging". But if they can get those 400+ people who attended to come back for an unconderence, it will be one heck of an event.

Going to WineCamp this Weekend? Yes.

Thu, 25 May 2006 08:14:57 -0700

I have had a few calls from friends wondering if I was going to make it to WineCamp this weekend - the simple answer is yes, but I am going to have to miss Sunday in order to prepare for my NetSquared presentation on Tuesday. If you have not yet made plans to go, there are still a few spots left so go ahead and register today. This is going to be one for the record books - Chris and Tara have done a heckuva job putting this one together, especially in light of all the logistical challenges that such an event entails.

Tara has a great post with all the relevant links, so I won't bother repeating that all here - just go and do it an

Share your expertise with the community! Rent-An-Expert in San Francisco July 19th (new date)

Thu, 18 May 2006 10:13:04 -0700

POSTPONED - NOW WED JULY 19

BlogBrevity:

Rent an Expert is an event where people who want to help others do or learn something offer their services to the members of the community for a very small fee. All the money collected will be donated to a charity that is chosen by all participants. Some examples of what might be offered include: how to setup a blog, how to get the most from shortcuts in Photoshop, configure a Drupal community, redesign a Web site, customize a WordPress theme, create a survey, optimize AdSense ads, figure out tagging, how to shoot better photographs or just about anything really - even non-technical things like how to write a press release. Ideally this will happen in one on one exchanges, but it could be a project with a couple of people involved that needs the expertise or perhaps a team of people who are offering their expertise. The event is co-sponsored by BrainJams and MindJet. We are still seeking a location and other sponsors, but the event will be held on ~~Thursday June 15th from 530PM till 900PM~~ Wednesday July 19th from 6pm till 9pm in San Francisco.

Quick Overview of BrainJams New Orleans

Fri, 05 May 2006 08:05:36 -0700

"Whoever shows up are the right people, whatever happens is the only thing that could have."

This could not have been a more appropriate lesson, which I am so grateful to have really learned within my heart rather than just understanding in my head. We had 15 people show up yesterday, which really through a curve ball to the design of the schedule (we planned on 30ish based on feedback and promises of local community leaders who did not even make it there themselves - more on that later). By being present though, we were able to adapt and make the most of the amazing people that were in the room with us.

We learned a great deal and we have some really important work to do going forward.