PodCamp was… AMAZING.
Where to begin…. I went to sessions on podcasting, the next venture I’d like to tackle. I met great people from D.C., Pheonix, Ohio, and of course, Pittsburgh. I talked books with Chris Brogan. I found out I wasn’t the only Fayette Countian at PodCamp. I touched Justine’s iPhone. I left with buttons, pens, and business cards.
I really enjoyed how there wasn’t a teacher-student mentality, or a feeling of elitism. The people who were in charge of some sessions would sit in others and participate. Honestly, there was just a buzz of new ideas and the networking taking place, it made it such an exciting place to even witness conversations take place.
One conversation I witnessed was the birth of bacn. Bacn is the e-mail we receive that is not quite worthless (spam), yet not a personal message, or one important enough to open with any sense of urgency. Think Facebook notifications, Twitter followers, Amazon coupons, and the like. Stuff I like, I want, but I don’t want to read everytime I check my e-mail. In the short time since, bacn has grown to discussions all over the Internet, even criticism. The writer said he doesn’t ”see any reason for a term for “low-priority e-mail.”
I really go with what Justin said on this: Love it or hate it, “bacn” is a way to differentiate important-but-untimely email from “real” email or spam. It’s a descriptive word. It’s a classification. It’s useful. From a linguistic point of view, whether we like it or not, words are and will constantly be changing, evolving, forming, and dying from our vocabulary. It is honestly the coolest part of language, from when people first starting adding meaning to certain sounds, to words like bacn which are a spin on an existing accepted set of syllables.
Okay, I just took something and went really nerdy with it. Sorry about that.
Biggest lesson I learned? I need business cards. Next year!
4 Comments
August 21, 2007 at 2:54 am
Glad you enjoyed the event! It’s easy to create an atmosphere of elitism, so I’m glad we seem to have avoided it…
Meanwhile: You think YOU need business cards? I realized I spent the entire weekend (at an event I co-organized) with zero cards in my pocket… Looks like the onus of all follow-up is on *this guy*…
August 21, 2007 at 11:04 am
Glad you were there, and yeah, you need cards. http://moo.com : ) Books, books, books. That was a memorable moment in the weekend for me.
August 21, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Come back this Saturday. We can go to Doughnuts and Art and have Bacn.
August 22, 2007 at 7:44 pm
@Justin– Definitely no elitism. I thought I saw some STBD cards floating around… I know I got some buttons!
@Chris– Thanks for the link! I tend to be a kinda nerdy, this blog reflects that.
@Jen– I’ll be there. No worries.