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The event reminded me in many ways of the very first Podcamp in Boston two years ago. There was a clear energy present, and everyone who was there knew it. Yesterday was like that for me in many ways. From the moment I got there until the moment I rolled out of the Brewers Art at the afterparty, it was energetic, passionate, educational and inspiring among many other things. It was great to connect with so many other folks from the area and along the corridor (Boston, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC), the Amtrak corridor that is

For the first time in a long time it felt like the Baltimore scene was truly vibing. I know we have all been “vibing” in our own ways, but SocialDevCamp brought a lot of like minded individuals together for the first time ever in our city. Sure there have been small gatherings, happy hours, and definitely lots of great programming by the GBTC to bring the business community together, but this was the first time, that I can think of, where everyone came together. The entrepreneurs, the hackers, the developers, the media, (insert what you are here), etc, it was a collective, and it was a good one.

Thanks once again to Dave Troy, Ann and Keith for organizing this. A big thanks to all of the volunteers, and to all of the other sponsors for financially supporting the needs of the event, and finally thank you to all of the participants for showing up and making it happen. What a turnout!

Here are a few random thoughts from my perspective:

Facility & Location

University of Baltimore’s facility was a GREAT location for this event. The physical space simply worked. There was a main common area where the meals were and tables, the auditorium and the session rooms were all right there. This kept the attendees connected and engaged. It was refreshing to see that there were no sessions on multiple floors, lack of a common gathering area, and basically people all over the place, which is often the case when using university / academic facilities for these types of events. Finally, the actual location couldn’t have been better for out of town folks who hopped on the Amtrak and came from other cities. The UB facility is literally 2 blocks (at the most) from the train station. That fact alone definitely helped with the great turnout.

Sessions & Participation

Although I didn’t participate in the session selection and voting (I showed up a little late), I think the sessions were great. I particularly enjoyed the “Business of Social Media.” What was really great to see was the level of participation from attendees. I know thats the point of these events, and it was definitely present and accounted for. It was great to hear so many perspectives and to learn what was on peoples minds. I sat in the Business / ROI of Social Media, learned about the semantic web, attended Shashi’s session on selling social media to the boss, and the mashed up “who needs VC’s and Amtrak Tech” session. All good stuff.

Corridor concept (DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, Boston)

I liked the discussion that was started around linking up the “Amtrak” cities and building off of the momentum of every location. There was a lot of discussion and comparison around startups in Silicon Valley vs. startups out here on the east coast. Discussion around the available resources we have to us, from money to talent and more. The thinking is that we need to start to look at ourselves, out here on the east, as our own corridor or ecosystem, and shouldn’t look at it from a single city point of view. The connecting link between five major markets, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC & Boston, is the Amtrak. You can get to any of these cities VERY conveniently via the train, and be in the center of them within a few hours. I look forward to more discussion around this, as we truly are our own technology corridor. Lets tighten this concept up.

In many ways, its great to finally see Baltimore on the map as a micro-hub. I look forward to many more events like this in the future. The next SocialDevCamp is already being planned for this September, details will follow as they are announced. Blue Sky Factory will continue to support these events and any other event that helps bring everyone in our region together.

Here are some links to SocialDevCamp Media: (feel free to add more links in the comments to other media)

Flickr photos

Animoto Slide Show from East Coast Blogging

Video of Sessions by Kenneth

Twitter hashtags

Great to see everyone, catch you all at the next one!

Tags: socialdevcamp, baltimore, technology, barcamp, unconference, socialmedia, eastcoast, amtrak, corridor, eastcoast

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What is SocialDevCamp?

SocialDevCamp East is the Unconference for Thought Leaders of the Future Social Web

Where is the social web going? It’s going mobile, to geocentric services, and to open platforms. Join a community of like minded developers, social media gurus and thought leaders for an unconference to discuss the future of the social web.

We’re looking for thought leaders from DC to Boston to meet, forge relationships, and envision the future.

For all event details check out the wiki. Hope to see you there!

Tags: socialdevcamp, baltimore, technology, barcamp, unconference, socialmedia

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Twitter Starts Blacklisting Spammers

Yeah, thats right. Twitter has a blacklist now wild

(tags: twitter community spam abuse networks)

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Marketing Over Coffee is recorded every business Wednesday at 5:30am Eastern at a coffee shop in Natick, MA, just outside of Boston. The program is runs about 20 minutes and comes out on Thursday mornings.

You can subscribe to their RSS feed here, or check it out in iTunes here.

Blue Sky Factory is proud to be an official Marketing Over Coffee sponsor. Keep up the good work Chris and John!

Tags: marketing, technology, socialmedia, socialweb, tactics, strategy, onlinemarketing, blogging, searchmarketing, chrispenn, johnwall, marketingovercoffee

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The audio version of this session is now online and available on the Podcast Academy website. You can listen to the session right here.

I am looking forward to going to the 2008 New Media Expo in Las Vegas August 14-16. Get it on your calendar today.

Tags: pnme, newmediaexpo, paulvogelzang, mattsnodgrass, metrics, newmedia, podcasting, technology, media

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Blue Sky Factory even has its own Facebook page with fans (small but growing), and its own Twitter profile. Become a fan and follow us if you are on Twitter and Facebook.

These two platforms have been consuming a lot of my social media participation over the last few months, but Twitter definitely takes the front spot with the frequency and attention. Here are a few random thoughts regarding Twitter and just a little bit of Facebook:

1. While there is some cross-over of friends within the networks that I participate in, it is surprisingly minimal, which I find very interesting. This means each one of my networks is made of a different group of individuals. There is definitely cross-over, but at the same time there are many unique folks within each network. I have one set of people that I interact with on Twitter, another on Facebook, a completely different set on LinkedIn, etc. Frankly, all of this has made me think that I really need to learn more about my blog readers. I know I am linked up with many of you on the networks, but there are many of you I still don’t know. After all, a blog is a community as well (at least when its active!).

2. I noticed that since I started Twittering with more frequency, my blog’s RSS feed has mainly consisted of my del.icio.us links, rather than well thought out opinion pieces that I enjoy writing. This is something I need to address. You can’t always say it all in 140 characters or less.

3. Twitter is a much more spontaneous, stream of consciousness, life-streaming way to interact online. It gets more interesting, and more valuable, the more people you follow, and the more people that follow you. Metcalf’s law, definitely comes into play here. The power of the network.

4. I have become aware of SO many new things (people I have been introduced to, blogs I discovered, videos, podcasts, events, opinions, etc) thanks to Twitter. These are things that I would most likely never come across, or at least take longer discovering. Information moves fast.

5. Facebook, although powerful and interesting, is much slower. It takes a while for things to “propagate” and “aggregate” into your news feed (at least this is my perception).

6. There is an immediacy to Twitter, its very much “LIVE” and “REAL TIME.”

7. Twitter needs to develop features that allow you to organize your peeps. Think groups, channels, etc. You need to be able to manage your own signal vs. noise ratio. I often wonder what it would be like to be able to filter and organize the people I follow, and how a feature set like this would change the way people use Twitter.

8. It’s hard to “get” Twitter unless you actively participate and use it.

9. Posting this reminds me of the need to get back to blogging more often again to clarify and think through things, and write them down.

10. Twitter, as much as I love it, is like candy for folks with A.D.D. You can bounce all over the place in a very short amount of time, and thats part of its intrigue. And you can also cover a LOT of ground in a short amount of time.

This morning I also came across one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new videos. He has an interesting perspective on Twitter vs. Facebook. Its definitely worth a watch, check it out.

Are you using Twitter? What are your thoughts? Have you found that you are blogging less? Has it changed your habits at all? I am curious to hear what you think.

Have a great day.

Tags: blogging, writing, content, microblogging, lifestreaming, twitter, facebook, blueskyfactory

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