Web Design Blog

First a little background:

Northern Voice is a web type conference- two days in total. It’s in it’s fourth year and it is held in Vancouver. The two days consist of Friday including the “unconference” and Internet Bootcamp. I think I called it Internet 101 in another post at AliciaHarper.com - oops my mistake!

I did find out exactly what an “unconference” was. An unconference is- simply put - anarchy! Total chaos and I loved every minute of it.

The day included 8 - 30 minutes sessions. While running in between sessions was very hectic, I really enjoyed the discussion the unconference offered. It was a nice break from the usual type of conference.

My schedule included, talks with David Orchard on Enterprise Social. This talk focused mainly wikis and how to engage people internally on using wikis . One comment was maybe not to call them wikis to the corporate “suits” as they don’t understand what a wiki really is.

From there my colleagie and I were off to: Podcasting 101 with John Bollwitt a very interesting session and really was about how to create a podcast yourself at home. The equipment needed and how make yours interesting.

After that was Videoblogging 101 with Roland Tanglao, Jordan Behan and Warren Frey. I actually found this very interesting as it’s not something I am that really familiar with. I sometimes use other media on some of my other blogs but, not video. The guys that held Video blogging gave us some really good advice about video - including what sites do what with video. I will definitely be trying this out. I just need a new video camera now!

After lunch was by far the most interesting part of the conference….

First up was Government and Social or Government and Wikis ( I can’t exactly remember the name) by Micheal Klassen of Thinking Cap . Now I really walked into this one thinking, “This will be awesome maybe I’ll get some tips on how to convince the CEO to let us have a wiki” Well was I wrong! The talk got hijacked by someone turning it in a talk about the left winged politics here in Vancouver. I have to admit. I was incredibly lost.

It only got worse from there. Next up was TransitCamp and Open Source Government with Dustin Quasar Sacks which was more like him getting up on his soapbox and speaking loudly like he was protesting something. The funny thing is I am all for open source and open government and playing an active role. But, I actually felt like a protester in this room… Very awkward. One lady even spoke up and said something like, “Ok we get it, can we move on?”. It was definitely comical and to be honest if I was close to the door, I would have left. I seriously felt like I was doing something illegal by being there. It would have been nice, if instead of dwelling on the problem of not having open government, we could think about what we can actually do to improve it. For most of us we know the problems - getting people to open up - transparency, etc - I want to hear your solutions or your ideas for solutions.

For a little background for those of you in the U.S., in Canada our government is not as open with the information it has. The U.S. has adopted or has always had it’s government information more readily available. (it’s in the constitution)

After that I totally needed a break from the “Unconference”… off for coffee.

Then back again for Social Media Mecca with Megan Cole, this was one I was very into. It was all about how social media shouldn’t be a one man show. There were some great ideas about how social media consultants should get together and share the work as there many many experts who specialize in just one area. Some ides, were to set up a non profit association or create an invite only directory for social media marketers. Overall very interesting topic.

Last was What’s next. Which was really about where bloggers go and what they do after they have been blogging for a few years. This one had great discussion.

I’m off to the real Northern Voice 2008 Conference tomorrow!

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