Blogger night thoughts.
Good morning/afternoon and goodnight.
Last night I attended the First Blog “conference” Seminar thingy held in the great land of Oz, in Perth. Perth being the type of city it is, always leads the way in my eyes, and this was another shining example about how we do things first! First for the niceties, Thanks to the organisers etc - it was enjoyable and thought provoking, I left the university with more questions than I had going in. Thanks to Curtin for proving the venue and the munchies, very nice, loved the fish. Thanks to the speakers: ochweidnit; Bret Treasure; Richard Giles; Anthony the yummy Blogchef , and he wasn’t naked either; Tama , a lecturer at UWA; Robert, and I read his blog often; Warren, who makes money from search engine optimisation; and Chris, I did’t know he wrote software for photoblogging! The compere for the night was Graeme and he was great! You all challenged my views on a few things, and clarified other thoughts I had.
I took my partner M with me, and I was glad I did, had I gone by myself, I would have been all by myself like a shag on a rock and felt very self conconcious since I didn’t really know anyone, except David. I’ve met some of the other geeks, but due to work/life committments I hadn’t attending blogging meetings on that monthly wednesdays. I should change that, but I need more girls to be going cuz i don’t like being the only chick at a geek meet. M got alot from the conference/seminar and walked away with lots of thoughts about current programming projects he’s working on.
I think there should have been someone there to talk about the other side of blogging, the ethical side, the impact it has on the human being and their psyche, on what it can do to a group of people. Despite the fact that there were alot of people talking about the “humanisation” of the net over the last few years with the social software coming on to the market, the focus of the seminar was still very corporate and business focussed and not focussed on the human side at all. Except really the first speaker - the rest were on business, what we could use blogs for to promote WA, business, make more money.
Robert’s discussion about politics and the history of it and using blogs as just a new media and type of way to for people to get their views across was interesting and eye openining, and not sure, but perhaps tinged with a bit of cynicism. I am a regular reader of Robert’s, and understand how he may feel when attacks come from other more right wing blogs about his views on subjects. I’ve seen them and they are quite vitriolic. My main thought being that most of the time, the abuse is almost always served by right wing believers and factions, and most people left leaning just accept it. However I’ve seen a of lefties give as good as they get.
The most disturbing speaker of all to me was the man from Ineedhits.com. He struck me as someone who makes a living off other people’s creativity. Not actually content to make something of their own, there is a group of people who make money by using other people’s websites. He stated he wasn’t a blackhat, and for those who don’t know what black hats and white hats are in the search engine optimisation industry are.. There’s an article here, which explains a bit about the different techniques.. keep in mind, whitehats are ethical use of search engines and blackhats - aren’t. Even though he said he didn’t use it, he didn’t actually say those words, but he does possess the tools for blackhatting. I think Robert and a couple of others felt the same way judging by his request not to use that kind of software on his blogsite. All in all however, it was most illuminating.
Richard spoke about corporate blogging, and how it’s good and positive and enables people to communicate with eachothers and the internet world in general and perhaps provide a better light as to who the company projects itself to be. He points out microsoft even have a man who blogs, but he was employed to blog, to me, it’s a cynical exercise in marketing. He pointed out that companies have blogging policies, but here’s a thought - do those policies extend to cover the employee’s private thoughts out of work hours?. What if you have a blog, in which you talk about your work at times, where is the line? between private thoughts and ideas about companies, and what a person should say. Do they need to be on guard 24/7 ? Companies like microsoft have sacked staff for saying things which haven’t gelled with the company ideals, or perhaps in their thoughts given out critical company information - perhaps they are right - maybe they did (in one person’s case he said Microsoft purchased some Mac’s)
Hypothetical..what if a person is sacked for talking about how horrible their boss is, and never mention the company name, and someone finds out who it is and passes this information on to that guy’s boss? I know I have bitched about one of my employer’s big time in this blog. I have never mentioned the company name, or his name to preserve his privacy and my own. What if I was sacked for talking about him? Lucky for me I wasn’t. I know that he did search using google every single employee’s name in the company to see what they had written or about them that has been published on the net. Lucky for me my real name isn’t listed in google except for some vague reference to UWA when I worked there in the mid 90s. I have another friend who have bitched about their managers on a regular basis but never used names, and then this manager has read the blog, but could do nothing because no names were mentioned. (these people worked for an Aust. Telco).
I think people blog online because they can choose to remain anonymous. They can reveal their inner most thoughts and feelings, and not feel ashamed because people they don’t know can’t judge them and if they do, it’s not going to matter. It’s the last great freedom really, your thoughts there for anyone to read, anyone to comment about, and there is no existing social stigma - people can talk uncensored by those they know. That is the one great gift that blogging has brought to the world. Honesty. There are times when we see blogs which make us want to cringe, rage, scream, that might promote hate, illegal activities.. but it opens our eyes to people we may never meet in our lifetime - their thoughts, their fears, their dreams. I just hope that the great machine of progress doesn’t take over weblogging and turns it into something ugly, and manufactured.
Those are my thoughts so far on the subject, no doubt, more will surface over the next few days/weeks. They are thinking of holding a national blog convention next year and possibly hold it over east. Can I suggest Adelaide? It’s kinda in the middle and cheaper for everyone to get to!?