podcampperth07

You are currently browsing articles tagged podcampperth07.

Microsoft “professional geek” Nick Hodge captured me on video muttering about punch cards as part of his Geek Stories series. This actually happened in November last year, but I just found the note amongst my draft posts.

15 January 2008 by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

Distinctly personal reflections on 2007

31 December 2007 in Personal, Photography by Stilgherrian | 6 comments

Photograph of sunset over Enmore, 31 December 2007

As the sun sets on 2007 — literally, as I took the photo just before I sat down to write — it’s time to reflect on an astounding year. The Snarky Platypus will join ’Pong and me later, and (perhaps) help us put together some predictions for 2008.

This was a watershed year for me, for my household and business, and for Australia. Many of the changes happened late in the year, so we haven’t noticed the effects yet. But as 2008 unfolds I think we’ll look back and see that, yes, 2007 marked a change of direction.

Personally, my understanding of how I fit into my world (and yours) became much clearer.

Read the rest of this entry »

PodCamp Perth 2007: Social Media and the Federal Election

31 October 2007 in Internet, Personal, Politics by Stilgherrian | 4 comments

Here’s a video of my presentation from PodCamp Perth 2007.

Thanks to Stewart Greenhill for the video work. As Stephen says:

I’ve put them on Viddler because it supports long videos and has some nifty tagging and commenting features. Feel free to be social: if you see something fun or interesting just click on the green “+” button and add a comment. That way, if people don’t have time to watch the whole thing at least we can check out the highlights. If you see the word “PROGRESSIVE” in the bottom left, click on it to switch to STREAMING mode. You can skip to any point in the movie by clicking in the seek bar, or on a comment point.

Alas, the very end is missing thanks to a flat camera battery. Mind you, Stephen wasn’t the only one to “experience technical difficulties”.

[Update 15 January 2007: I believe I have a complete audio recording of the session. If there's enough interest I'll combine it with my slides and this video, and/or generate a transcript.]

Yielding to Temptation

30 October 2007 in Human Nature, Photography by Stilgherrian | No comments

Photograph of poster quoting Oscar Wilde: The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it

Spotted at Perth’s Belgian Beer Cafe on Sunday afternoon, some excellent philosophy from Oscar Wilde.

The crappy pimple-cam photo is made moderately acceptable by converting it to black and white.

As I pack to return to Sydney, here’s a quick thank-you to everyone I met in Perth over the weekend — especially the organisers of PodCamp and everyone who had comments on my presentation. I’ll name names later, and post some more reflective thoughts as well as links to all the books and essays I mentioned over beers. I’m sure 5 hours on an aircraft will give me plenty of thinking time. Meanwhile, feel free to add me on Facebook.

29 October 2007 by Stilgherrian | No comments

PodCamp Perth 2007: first comments

28 October 2007 in Blogging, Internet, Personal by Stilgherrian | 13 comments

Photograph of Leslie Nassar presenting at PodCamp Perth 2007

Beer. Yes, it needs to be said. Beer. More precisely, beer and geeks. Many of both. This is my clearest memory of yesterday’s PodCamp in Perth. Other memories may return shortly, once coffee and udon work their magic. Many brain cells will not. I bid them a fond farewell.

Nick Hodge has posted a much better lead photo for PodCamp Perth, showing Cameron Reilly’s passionate opening keynote, replete with a vast image of Che Guevara. It helped me feel more comfortable using an image of Joseph Goebbels in my own session.

I’ll explain the Goebbels reference when I post a version of my presentation. I’d prefer to post something of lasting value, not a raw dump, so it might take a couple of days. Plus I want to continue the dialogue I started about social media and the federal election.

I’m also writing a piece for Crikey tomorrow, and I’ll post a version here too.

I won’t bother listing the sessions. Nick and others have already written their initial impressions, including Cameron Reilly and Simone van Hattem and Michael Minutillo… I’ll complete all the linkage later too.

But for now, a rest and a read before catching up with people at the Belgian Beer Cafe. Yes, beer. Again.

Politicians and Social Media: a catalogue of cluelessness

18 October 2007 in Internet, Media, Politics by Stilgherrian | 3 comments

I’ll be in Perth on 27–28 October for PodCamp, the New Media Community UnConference, where I’m presenting a session on Social Media and the Federal Election.

Screenshot of John Howard MySpace, 18 October 2007

While my first visit to Perth will be fun enough, I’m also enjoying researching my presentation. Australian politicians really don’t have a clue about this stuff.

Starting at the top of the food chain, John Howard’s MySpace profile is a disaster. The screenshot (right) records how it looked this morning — with a a broken rectangle obscuring part of the photo and adverts for the Labor party. Click for the full-size version.

MySpace is the world’s largest and best-known social media operation. Yet this profile doesn’t have anything to offer apart from a recycled media release. No blog entries. Not even any personal information beyond Howard’s age — reminding MySpace’s relatively youthful audience that he’s “old”.

How could John Howard’s personal profile not even mention cricket? If a profile contains even less information than we already know, why would we bother reading it? Why would we bother coming back?

At the other end of the spectrum — in more ways than one! — is Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett.

Read the rest of this entry »