BloggerCon News

Frappr map

Were you at BloggerCon IV? (Either physically present or tuned in over the webcast and IRC.) If so, please add yourself to the Frappr map, and let's see where we all are from.

http://www.frappr.com/bloggerconiv

MP3s of the sessions

Day 1

1. National Anthem.

2. Tools.

3. Citizen Journalism.

4. Users In Charge.

5. Standards for Users.

6. Emotional Life.

7. Post-game show.

Day 2

8. Half-time show.

9. Making Money.

10. Building Bridges.

11. 2008 Politics.

12. Video blogging.

13. Core values.

14. Fat Man Sings.

How to tune into BloggerCon

http://tinyurl.com/j3f66

What if your number is greater than 150?

There's a basic fact, the room can only hold 150 people, and at that it's going to be crowded, and maybe hot. While there's no guesswork about the size of the room, everything else is an art, not a science.

That said, here's an almost-certainty: Some number of people won't show, or won't be there for all the sessions.

If your number is greater than 150, you will be asked to wait until the next session starts, and if there's room, you can go in, if there's not room, sorry, you can't. It's pretty simple. No one knows if there will be room, and since this is a free conference (no one pays to participate) there can't be any guarantees. But if you really want to participate, come, wait, and with any luck, you'll get in.

I guess that the first sessions on both days will be the most full and that there will be more room in the afternoon sessions. That's just a guess, and we put interesting sessions at the end of both days to try to even things out.

But even if you don't get in to all the sessions, there's free wifi in the lobby, and there's likely to be a good schmoozing scene, even though we try to keep things lively in the conference room, I'm sure there will also be interesting conversations outside.

Postscript: To be people who have signed up and know they're not coming, it would be a good idea to mark your place in the list with "not coming" so people with higher numbers can make better guesses.

Technography and OPML at BloggerCon IV

Here's a heads-up on a project I'm doing for BloggerCon IV that involves OPML.

During the conference, Murphy-willing, Doc Searls will act as the conference technographer. This means that he will use an outliner to take notes of what's being discussed, and the outline will be projected so that everyone in the room can see the outline.

We've done this before, it can have very interesting results, kind of like instant outlining but there's only one outline, and it's all real-time, there's no latency. When it really works it's like magic. Of course we hope to achieve that result this week.

The HTML version of the "Doc Nography" content will be here...

http://www.scripting.com/docNography/

The OPML version is here...

http://www.scripting.com/docNography/index.opml

Sign-up page for the Friday night dinners

A famous BloggerCon tradition are the Food For Thought dinners, which are held at local restaurants on the first night of the conference (if there's more than one).

http://bloggercon-sign-up.pbwiki.com/Dinners

Thursday night party: Jillian's in the Metreon, 6:45PM

The opening party for BloggerCon IV will be at Jillian's, on the corner of Howard and 4th; it's part of the Metreon. The party starts at 6:45PM and goes till we call it a night (or 9PM whichever comes first). There will be hors d'oeuvres for 100, a no-host bar. We have our own room, called (not very imaginative) The Lower Dining Room. Not much more to say, but it'll be a great place to kickoff the Con!

Jillian's
101 4th Street (at Howard)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415.369.6100
Fax: 415.369.6103

Beginning of the week update

BloggerCon week is finally here, and things are starting to shape up.

The show will begin with a party in San Franciscon on Thursday night, starting at 6PM, location still TBD.

Day 1 begins at 8AM on Friday, sorry for the early hour but we have a lot to get done. The music for the Con will be selected from Brian Oberkirch's Carnival Cast, featuring the music of New Orleans Mardi Gras. This is the first BloggerCon since the Katrina disaster, and while it's not specifically a blogger's thing, I'd like to inject the memory of the city into the tradition of BloggerCon. I love New Orleans, I lived there when I was young, it taught me the spirit of lagniappe, and I want to spread the gospel far and wide.

Every BloggerCon begins with the big question, "What's the song?" At the first Con it was Take Me Out to the Ballgame, in respect for the Boston Red Sox who would go on to lose yet another World Series, but we didn't know that then, so what the heck. At Robert Cox's Nashville Con the song was Dixie. Way down south in the land of cotton, etc etc. So I'm thinking this time the song should be Iko Iko. It's a very simple song, easy to remember, yet spiritual and funky. A good song to launch a BloggerCon? Maybe, maybe not?

Lunch is On Your Own both days, luckily there are lots of great restaurants nearby. We'll have a list tomorrow, with maps, and approximate walking time. The weather forecast is for warm days, cool nights, highs in the low 70s. Easy walkin weather.

We're having Food For Thought dinners on Friday night, with open signup, via Wiki. The pages should be up on Tuesday. First come first serve. There should be about ten blogger dinners in San Francisco on Friday. ">

We're not alone in downtown San Francisco. The Giants are playing the Oakland A's at AT&T Park on Friday night, 7PM, with day games on Saturday and Sunday, both at 1PM. The locale for the conference is on 2nd St, about four blocks from the stadium, at the end of 2nd. The gay pride parade is on Sunday, there's a celebration on Saturday, details at SFGate.com. So, while this part of San Francisco can be quiet on a normal summer Saturday, it will very busy this Saturday. Arrive early, parking may be hard to find later.

We need $8K for the webcast

The webcast has always been the hardest part of BloggerCon, it's an expensive proposition to do right, we thought we had it covered this time, but I found out late this afternoon that we don't.

We need some organization to provide the webcast transmission for us (we will provide the production and engineering), or find $8000 to pay a vendor to do it for us. We're only doing audio, not video.

If you want to make a contribution, you can use the PayPal account, or contact me directly. For donations of over $1000, we will find an appropriate way to thank you during the conference.

Basically, if we don't raise the money, there won't be a webcast.

Preliminary BloggerCon Schedule

1. Ladies and gentlemen, after much deliberation, discussion, negotiation, arm-twisting and cajoling, the preliminary schedule for our fourth BloggerCon...

http://www.bloggercon.org/iv/schedule

2. A note to the discussion leaders -- if you have yet to write your description, now is the time to do it. Please post it on your site, hopefully as a blog post, with a place for people to comment. You may change the post as you see fit. Send me the link and I'll point to it from the schedule.

3. Please remember, this is a non-commercial, user's conference. No product pitches, don't talk over users's heads. DLs: Make things understandable, always advocate for the people in the room. Don't be afraid to cut people off who are repeating themselves. Keep things moving fast, keep the conversation in the room. I will find a way to say these things many times. It's what makes this conference different.

4. We're trying to organize a party for Thursday night, but we may not be able to use the space at CNET. If you have a space nearby please let me know.

5. Steve Gillmor and I are going to do a series of podcasts on Wednesday and Thursday of next week to warm up the blogging community for the conference. If you'd like to participate, send an email or post a comment here (we'll provide the location at CNET and times as we get closer to the date). It'll be relaxed and informal, and will help get people thinking about the topics we'll be discussing at the conference.

6. If you're not already on the mail list, please sign up now. Post questions to the group there.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloggercon-iv/

It's moderated, so you won't be inundated with irrelevant stuff. It's mainly for announcements related to the conference.

7. The closest hotel is the Courtyard Marriott, which is adjacent to the CNET building. As of June 14, there are still rooms available for Friday and Saturday night. They have free Internet. Obviously it's a very convenient location.

8. If you're anywhere but San Francisco, it must be hard to imagine how chilly it can be here this time of year, but it pays to pack a sweater and a warm jacket. The daytime highs are likely to be in the mid-60s to mid-70s, but at night, when the fog rolls in, the temperature can get down into the 50s, and with the wind it can feel much colder.