Congratulations to all involved that have worked very hard and made a big difference in Philadelphia.

Alex Hillman, cofounder of Independence Hall, covers it a bit more thoroughly.

Taken yesterday going south on Broad St. It was a hot but beautiful day in Philadelphia. Wish I could have stayed longer. At least I got a Pat’s Steak & Cheese.

Yes! The Philadelphia 76ers, my favorite basketball team for better or worse, is going back to their old logo.

I will be purchasing new apparel soon.

I’ve gone out to the PunkAve Flickr account and consolidated the Junto posters here. I suggest you visit the Junto Web site, the P’unk Ave. Web site, and the Junto tag on Flickr for more information if you are interested.

The posters are thoughtfully prepared and really set the mood for what I am sure is an excellent event for the exchanging of ideas about interesting topics.

I’m very much looking forward to attending my first Junto in the future – until then I’ll simply sit back and enjoy these posters when they appear in my Inbox.

I’ve always had aspirations to attend this event in Philadelphia and have yet to make it. So I live vicariously through Tony. Thanks for the coverage Tony!

If the camera model and the film type don’t mean too much to you – don’t worry. All you need to know is that my friend Albert Yee has managed to take some fantastic photos with his new toy, the Canon Canonet G-III QL17.

Source: 400TX and QL17.
Photoset: Canonet G-III QL17 + 400TX.

You can head over to Flickr to read the comments and see that several people have favorited the photo.  Yee doesn’t take too much credit for the shot, remarking that “…the sunlight streaming down Locust St. helps too”. Which leads me to believe that sometimes, things just seem to line up.

As I commented, I think this photo is fantastic.

I’m using this photo without permission Albert so, if you want me to remove it, just drop me a line.

Our topics of discussion on the show ranged from a general overview of Viddler itself, a description of what can be done with Viddler’s API, and of course we talk about SXSW Videos since this was just prior to the festivals this year.

If you have time, be sure to give it a listen. Sorry I haven’t mentioned it until now, but I had fun being on the program, and I hope Philly TIP returns stronger than ever!

Date taken: January 5, 2008 | A view down the Ben Franklin Pky. from the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Date taken: September 7, 2007 | A view from 20 floors above the Ben Franklin Parkway and Cherry St. intersection in Philadelphia.

Today at around noon I left my house with my wife who dropped me off at the airport. The airport that I like to fly out of is close, small, offers free wifi, and is pretty much the calmest airport I’ve been to yet. I arrived just about one hour before my flight which gave me plenty of time to pick up my boarding passes, get through security, and grab a coffee near the gate.

The gentlemen over the PA said something to the effect of; “Flight 5052 is being delayed until 2:45.”. My departure time had been set for 1:30 and I was trying to make a connecting flight in Philadelphia, where I was supposed to meet up with Donna, which was set for wheels-up at 4:05. Being that the flight from the Scranton/Wilkes-barre International Airport (AVP) to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is typically around 30 minutes – the delay didn’t concern me in the least.

No more than five minutes pass and the very same gentlemen that had announced the delay proceeds to tell us that the flight has been cancelled ‘due to a maintenance issue’ and that everyone who was to be on that flight should report to the US Airways’ ticket desk for instructions on boarding a bus to Philadelphia (a ride that takes about two and half hours). Maybe I should say that again; a bus to Philadelphia.

At this point I was rolling with the punches. I’m a fairly easy going guy and I had no real reason to be in a hurry. If I was going to miss my connecting flight, and not be able to travel with Donna, surely this wasn’t the end of the world and I would just catch a slightly later flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix and all would be well. The other passengers weren’t so accommodating, more on this in a second.

The only problem was that there was only one more flight leaving Philadelphia directly for Phoenix on this day – and it was ‘oversold’. I’m not even sure what the term oversold means in airline language – perhaps every seat was sold and there were people on standby too.

This is when the only good part of this trip happened; the woman behind the counter helping people to rebook their flights based on their current circumstances, who had at this point helped at least 40 people before I got to the desk, decided to ask me for my phone number (no, she didn’t want a date) so that she could ‘do some digging and see what she could do for me’. I hopped onto the bus with a new travel itinerary that took me through Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and ultimately Phoenix, Arizona with a touchdown time of somewhere around 2am local-time (or 5am for me).

The first bus left Scranton around 2:30 and headed towards Philly and I was on it. The 4:05 flight was no longer on the radar and so I was aiming for a 6:10 flight to Vegas. The bus ride was typical; uncomfortable and slow. About 2 hours into the trip I fell asleep with my ear phones from my iPhone, which was playing a random selection of Bayside, in my ear when I was awoken abruptly by my ringtone blaring in my ear. Looking at the caller-ID I didn’t recognize the number and being in my current mood I nearly didn’t pick it up. I still don’t know why I answered but to my surprise it was Doreen (I have no idea how to spell this woman’s name). Doreen said; ‘I’ve got good news. I got you on a direct flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix that leaves at 6:15, do you want a window or an isle seat.’. I had told her before that since I was traveling alone, and I’d rather not go through Vegas since I’d been in that airport before and wasn’t fond of it, that I could care less if I had to sit on the toilet in the plane – I chose window.

Reinvigorated by the fact that Doreen ‘hooked a brotha up’ it was only a few minutes before, after going through security again for the second time of the day, I was at Gate B7 in Philadelphia sitting between a man that looked exactly like Ted Danson and an older woman that represented, perfectly, the capital letter ‘O’.

Looking directly above my head there was an LED readout that was flashing “Flight 192, Phoenix, San Diego, 6:35pm”. The flight was twenty minutes delayed but I was okay with that since I didn’t even have my new boarding passes yet. Once a man was stationed at the desk in the Gate I approached and said I needed a new boarding pass, presented my driver’s license, and was given them immediately.

At around 6:15 the would-be passengers of flight 192 were beginning to get a little restless. I hardly noticed yet because I was still trying to figure out if the dude next to me, who was reading a fairly well worn copy of a Biography about Eric Clapton, was indeed Ted Danson. The woman directly to his right was not Mary Steenburgen – but I still wasn’t completely convinced yet. I turned around to look out the window, half seeing if I could get a better angle on this guy’s face using the reflection in the window and half to see what was going on with our plane.

Our plane. It wasn’t at our Gate yet and our flight was set to leave within the next 20 minutes. Then the gentlemen that gave me my new boarding pass began to speak over the PA in a Jamaican accent “Ladies and Gentlemen we are being told that the plane is ‘within range’ and should be touching down shortly. At that time we’ll get everyone off of the plane that had come from Phoenix, clean the plane and cater it, and then allow you to board the plane.” Straight forward enough and, even though this plane was already delayed by 20 minutes, I felt I was ahead of the game since I no longer had to go through gambling-country in order to make it to Phoenix.

The excuses as to why the plane had not made it to the Gate yet had continued for about another hour. An hour. I guess ‘within range’ in airline language means ‘somewhere in the air’. Philadelphia’s airport is, from what I’ve seen, completely over congested and my guess is that once NASA is able to release its findings, we might see an entirely different schedule of flights coming out of these troubled areas.

The very last issue prior to boarding came from a young woman’s voice which said that “there was a maintenance issue that would delay boarding for quite awhile”. The smell of riot was thick in the air. The gentlemen came back on the air again within 30 seconds of this announcement and began to ask everyone with ‘Zone 1′ on their tickets to begin boarding the plane. The breakdown in communication was evident.

Upon boarding the plane the pilot came on and said that nearly every passenger was in their seats and “we’re just waiting for them to get the bags on downstairs”. Ten minutes or so pass and we began to feel and hear the bags being loaded underneath our seats. One hour and twenty-five minutes later the co-pilot gets on to let us know that the captain had gotten off the plane to hunt down “the manager of this airport for US Airways to get to the bottom of the problem regarding the loading of the luggage taking well over an hour”. There was not another word about this before, about 20 minutes more had past and the pilot told everyone we were scheduled to take off.

You might guess what is coming next.

I am not sure how much time had passed between the pilot saying we were scheduled for take off and the flight attendant going into the bathroom in the coach section of the plane and discovering that someone had “ripped apart the toilet” – but we weren’t “going anywhere until the technicians can come here to fix it for us”.

The gentlemen sitting in 14c, two seats to my right, who is in the Pharmaceutical business flies about once or twice a month on US Airways because “the Pharmaceutical industry really cracked down on the spending it has been doing regarding employee travels and so I’m stuck with them”. Each and every flight he has been on over the last 6 to 8 months has some “some sort of issue” that has delayed him at least several hours each time.

An older couple en-route to Franfurt, Germany who I had spoken to a little earlier in the day swore that they’d never fly with US Airways again but that they wanted to take advantage of the miles they had built up. They too have had several different types of issues which had led to “all types of delays” during their travels with US Airways. From what I could tell this couple had flown to various parts of the earth very often throughout the year.

A younger couple sitting near me on the bus and who nearly missed their plane to Paris, France, were going through their troubles they’ve had with US Airways like a grocery store receipt. One problem after another was thoroughly detailed with the other backing them up by providing even more detail. When I asked them why they were flying with the airline again, they said the same thing as the older couple heading for Germany; they wanted to use up their miles.

Ted Danson, I mean, err, the gentlemen sitting next to me in Gate B7 in the Philadelphia International Airport who was reading a worn out copy of a Biography about Eric Clapton, while telling his wife that George Harrison had originally wrote a few of Clapton’s songs (I am still not sure I overheard this correctly), began to speak his disgust with US Airways after waiting a little over an hour at the gate for the plane to arrive. This was the straw that had broke the camels back for him and his wife. Man that guy looked like Ted.

I was reiterating these stories to the man in 14c when finally the pilot said that we were ready to “get the hell outta here”.

Fast forward through 30 minutes rolling around to find a runway and about 2 and a half hours of some horrible ‘complementary in-flight movie’ and here I sit, about ~1000 miles east of Phoenix charging my nearly dead iPhone with my nearly dead Macbook via USB so that I might be able to call my wife when I touchdown in a few hours.

I’m hoping that my trip home is the polar opposite of this experience.

Podcamp Philly opened my eyes to a completely different way to help grow Viddler’s community in new directions, and to help me do my job better. Solve the problems of the community you want.

We’ve got an incredible community on Viddler. Loyal, active, bright, and fun people that are willing to help us through our growing pains, partially because we strive to fulfill their requests as we move forward. Listening to and acting on requests is vital to growing a strong and sustainable community.

But what if we’d like to also attract a completely different Viddler? How do you branch out from your core community into a different community? Some may say education is key. Going out and educating ‘that other community’ about your product. This is true, but only partially true. The main strategy should be to strive to help the new community as much as you’ve helped your core community. Figure out the main problems of the new community and adjust to meet their needs.

The typical active Viddler is someone that enjoys conversation and actively participating in community activities. This is a great community to start off with. This will mean that as new ones join the community, it won’t seem inactive, stale, or unwelcoming. But rather they will be immediately accepted as though they’d been there all along.

The typical podcaster is not one of these people. More often than not they are community leaders themselves. They have an audience that they speak and interact with. In order to help podcasters you really need to either become one yourself, or immerse yourself into an event like Podcamp Philly, to really see the daily challenges these producers face. Don’t just speak to this new community, listen to them when they speak. And that is what I tried to do at Podcamp Philly; listen.

“Who is new to Podcasting?” (credit: CC Chapman)

Here are two main points I took away from Podcamp. Neither of these things where revelations to me but both were definitely solidified in my mind as very important points to remember.

1. Even though our technology for “citizen journalism” (or podcasting and videocasting) has improved 100-fold in only a few years, we are still very far away from making this as easy as it could be. Producers, editors, and everyone else involved with creating a really great podcast has a huge learning curve ahead of them when they are first starting out. Once they get rolling they face many daily challenges. They are constantly changing strategies until they find the perfect mix to get their “show” out and into your hands. Once they find that perfect mix they generally stick with what works. This all takes a lot of time and their time is valueable.
2. Most video podcasters do what they do because they love doing it. If your service inhibits that passion in any way, you lose. Sure, a few podcasters are now making a living with their podcast, this doesn’t mean its all business. Podcasters may put up with crappy service to earn a living for a time, but in the long run they’ll end up finding a better way. Be that better way.

I really enjoyed myself at Podcamp Philly. I’m happy that Viddler had the privilege of being one of the sponsors so that everyone in attendence could get all of this information for free. The more people that know how to do a podcast well, the more podcasts we’ll see, plain and simple. I’m looking forward to other Podcamp events in the future (there is one in Boston I might make it to). And I’m really looking forward to next year, when everyone in Philadelphia has had an entire year to learn, grow, and teach even more people about this wonderful world of self-publishing.

Oh, and the parties were great too.

Early Saturday at Indy Hall
View more photos from Indy Hall.

Independents Hall is nested nicely in Old City, two-floors above Strawberry Street (or what could be called an alley), and is now the venue for the future of coworking in Philadelphia. Spending the better part of the day there, on a Saturday, working with a few other people is a real joy. The space, the people, the weather – all factors in inspiring productivity.

My main reason for coming to Independents Hall on this day was to be part of the judging panel for the Viddler MealToday contest and to use the space’s grand opening party as the backdrop for the announcement of its winner. Alex Hillman, and the rest of the coworkers at Indy Hall, were all extremely accommodating – allowing us to take over a few of their desks for the day, a good portion of their second floor, their projector, and their board room. Really, we couldn’t have asked for better hosts.

I had a ball seeing all of the people in Philly again and had a great time judging MealTodays with Scott McNulty, Marisa McClellan, Rob Sandie, and Gary Vaynerchuk. We’ll be releasing a video later today We’ve released a video on the Viddler Spotlight (our blog), which shows what went on that night and that should give you a good glimpse into what it was like to be at Indy Hall’s party and to be judging the MealTodays.

With well over 100 people in attendance there is no doubt in Philadelphia’s interest in coworking and community (and probably champagne). Such support makes me both jealous and inspired to someday setup a coworking space further north of Philadelphia. But that won’t be until I have time to settle down.

If I didn’t get to say hi to you while in Philadelphia, sorry. I’ll be in again this weekend for Podcamp Philly.

But then, after some time passes, you notice that nothing ever really becomes of those conversations. Or, you do end up getting together and end up finding out you never connected as much as you’d thought. In my own experience I’ve often just passed those times off as “in the moment” occurances. Like a wine that tastes really great at a restraunt when your favorite song is playing, you’re surrounded with your family and friends, eating what has to be the best meal you’ve ever had, and the lights are just bright enough to distinguish each other across the table. You buy a bottle of that wine, take it home, and realize a few days later that it wasn’t nearly as good as you’d remembered.

Recently, while attending BlogPhiladelphia I had a few moments that I thought may end up heading down the same path. Rob Sandie and I both enjoyed ourselves at the event but we definitely enjoyed the company even more so. Knowing Alex Hillman from our experiences at SXSW this past year made the welcome all that much easier. Little did I know that everyone at this conference would be as welcoming, accomodating, and hospitable as Alex. (For those of you that have not met Alex Hillman, you can apply most of this note to him as well) After chatting over the few days the same types of conversations began to arise. “We should do this, we should do that.” Of course I really wanted to make an effort to get back to Philadelphia and be involved in everything that is going on there (and there is a whole lot going on), but in actuality I was a bit skeptical about these types of responses given those I’ve had in the past.

Fast forward to today; where I had a layover at the Philadelphia International Airport that lasted nearly three hours. Upon landing, of course, I announced my arrival by way of Twitter. Then it happened. My skepticism instantly faded as I was offered to be picked up, taken to lunch, and dropped back off at the airport to ease my 3-hour stay.

Geoff DiMasi
Photo credit: Roz (stellargirl)

Geoff DiMasi of P’unk Ave. picked me up, took me back to their lovely studio offices, treated me to lunch, drove me to see Chris Matta (who recently had a very serious bicylcling accident, and it appears he enjoyed the visit), and then drove me back to the airport. This is the type of generosity, between still yet relative strangers, that is really heartwarming to experience and feels almost unrepayable.

Should I be surprised though? The more I learn about Geoff the more I end up thinking that this type of thing is old hat to Geoff. Geoff, a “retired” professor and owner of P’unk Ave., is constantly giving of his time and resources for others. Obviously choosing a career in teaching shows his desire to give to others. On our way to the studio from the airport he pointed out some trees to me saying: “I was able to help plant all of these trees.” I can’t even describe to you his expression of sincerity as he told me how planting those trees was one of the most rewarding experiences of his life. He also helps out his local area in many different ways. I don’t know Geoff well enough, yet, to continue a list of his generosity credentials, but I’m fairly certain they’re as extensive as they are impressive.

It would appear that, this simple act of generosity that he displayed towards me today (though not simple, nor small, from my point of view) is nothing new for someone like Geoff.

Hats off to you Geoff. You are one huge reason why Philadelphia is such a great city.

The main problem is; we’re all hiding. In general the entire east coast is overridden by old-world companies that are closed, non-communicative, and local. With more events like BlogPhiladelphia – I think we could start to see some real change in Pennsylvania. I think we’ll start seeing some of these companies start to reach for the open, community-driven successes of their west coast “competitors”.

BlogPhiladelphia was thoroughly enjoyable. Unless you knew it, you’d never guess that this was the first event of its kind (that I know of) that has been held in the Philadephia area. The unconference was well organized, well attended, and properly represented outside of its venue walls.

The sessions of BlogPhiladelphia

Every session on the BlogPhiladelphia schedule seemed to have just the right balance between education and discussion. Each seemed to also hold enough value that it made me wish that I could have attended them all instead of needing to choose between two conflicting sessions.

BlogPhiladelphia attendees – Credit: Jason Smith Copyright: uwishunu.com

Each session had a “leader” who acted as the moderator for the discussion topic rather than a lecturer. This worked very nicely for the majority of the topics and each moderator seemed to do a very good job at involving the attendees into the discussion topic. My favorite sessions ended up being those where the leader of them didn’t end up saying a whole lot, but rather steered the conversation in a way that kept with its topic. I think the vast majority of the session leaders did a fantastic job!

The food of BlogPhiladelphia

Pleasantly surprised. That is how I would describe my reaction to the food that was served at BlogPhiladelphia. Breakfast and lunch, for each day, was provided by uwishunu.com, ziddio, and philly.com. Thanks to each of those organizations, and whomever picked the menu, for providing good food rather than what is typically given at some of these types of events which would eventually have you going home holding your stomach.

The after parties!

When I arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday night I drove straight from my home to the studio offices of P’unk Ave for a pre-party hosted by my new friends Geoff, Alex, and Rick. The P’unk Ave guys are excellent hosts! The pre-party was great and I can’t wait to get back to Philadelphia sometime to spend more time with the P’unk Ave team.

After Thursday’s sessions we were invited by the Radisson-Warwick hotel to the bar in the lobby ( I think it was called Tavern 17? ) for free finger-foods and wine. The wine was actually fairly good (I’d venture a guess that it was some type of Australian Shiraz. Can anyone confirm?) and I wish there was someone there to thank for everything before we headed to the next location.

Alex Hillman

Marisa and Roz

Crazy people!

Owen Winkler

The party at Triumph Brewing Company. All photos credit Roz.

The party moved to the Triumph Brewing Company where, and I think I can speak for everyone that attended, we all had a very good time chatting, playing games, taking photos, and just generally enjoying the company of our fellow attendees. Thanks to Indepedents Hall (Alex Hillman) and anyone else that helped pick up the tab for us all to enjoy ourselves until Triumph closed. If it wasn’t for you I may have remembered Geoff Dimasi of P’unk Ave picking on me all night.

I was unable to attend the final after party on Friday night due to my long drive home. In retrospect I should have stayed for a few hours because all I ended up doing is sitting in traffic. Ugh.

The value of BlogPhiladelphia

Scott McNulty and I
Photo credit: Marisa McClellan

As Chris Conley pointed out in his recap of BlogPhiladelphia, there is much more value than meets the eye with BlogPhildelphia in the relationships and conversations you hold during offtimes of the event and after the event has come and gone. This is something that is true for nearly every event I’ve attended over the last half year with Viddler. The value of these events is in the relationships you build while attending them.

Not that there was not any value in the sessions or discussions that took place during BlogPhiladelphia. To loosely quote several attendees that commented about their experiences: “I’ve learned more in the last 48-hours than I have in the last few years.”.

BlogPhiladelphia was a huge success and was very meaningful for everyone that attended. I’m very happy to have attended and I look forward for the next event in Philadelphia.

This morning kicked off with Alex Hillman, of Independents Hall, and Doug Bellenger, of PhindMe.mobi talking about working remotely, coworking in Philadelphia, the challenges that surface and how those are handled by those in attendence. Several people brought up simply using Twitter to communicate and obviously other PIM managers, etc.

10:30am – A discussion about the mobile web, cell phones, and how technology in this area is far more advanced overseas.

Scott McNulty (photo | video)

1:30pm – While I’m listening to Scott McNulty‘s second session of BlogPhiladelphia about group blogging I just made his session about negative comments public over on Viddler.

We’ve also featured the first session video from yesterday so if you would like to review this session via video – now you can. Remember to just check the blogphiladelphia tag on Viddler for more video.

2:10pm – Partial video of Scott’s session on group blogs is also now available. Recorded with webcam!

Update: Just acquired is PhillyGeeks.net which will be a vanilla wordpress blog soon where anyone in Philadelphia that would like to write on the blog can do so. Hooray! Oh, and even though I’m not from Philadelphia – I am an adopted blogger from Philly for those unaware.

2:25pm – The OpenGrid session has now trickled into the main ballroom and this discussion is being lead by David Dylan Thomas about links and how they are being used.

Side note: uwishunu.com has a posted a few photos to their blog as well as to the official BlogPhiladelphia Flickr Pool. Thanks to Jason Smith, and many others, for such great photos of this event.

Update: The day wrapped up with a presentation of Toonamation, a very cool plugin that gives you the ability to do a “cell shade” effect (among other effects) to your videos frame by frame. Really, really cool.

Update: I managed to record the video demo of Toonamation and it is now available.

You can watch my twitter and my flickr for updates throughout the day as well.

Update: Dave Parmet pointed out that there is an official BlogPhiladelphia flickr group so please add all of your photos there.

9:30am – The introductions are complete. We had an introduction to “what an unconference is” for those in the room that have not been to one. And now the first session is beginning. For session information, see this page.

Update: The video of this session is now available.

Update: “I think being too serious can actually drive away readers.” — Joey Sweeney.

Caroline Marks says that Ziddio sees users that end up getting tons of views on Ziddio but not on their own sites. I’m beginning to wonder if there will ever be a market for an open platform for video sharing that does not have a portal site attached to it? Would someone pay for something like that to subsidize that portal? Oh, and Ziddio has cats on their frontpage – must be that Web 3.0 thing.

@BlogPhiladelphia attendee: Students “practice medicine” in SecondLife. Awesome. Would you try to advertise, or network, for your company/blog in SecondLife? Have you? Personally I’m not against it because I’ve read many success stories involving the use of Second Life. I think you go to where the people are, you don’t decide where the people should be.

Request: Anyone in the room have an advil or aspirin or something? Please bring it up to the front table to the guy in the marroon Viddler shirt. I’ll buy ya an open source beer.

Emily King: (quoted loosely) “It takes about a week to get a post out.” — Intelligent Travel. Is this “blogging” if it takes so long and is such a process? She says that she’s working hard to make that much quicker though, so keep pushing Emily!

The backchannels (blogs, twitter, etc) for BlogPhiladelphia must be working – because nearby bloggers are beginning to flock to BlogPhiladelphia. Come on down, and bring Aspirin.

Marisa, of ForkYouTV, hooked me up with some pills! Thanks so much Marisa!

Break time.

11:30am – In the Crystal Ballroom. About 60 people are in here, so far, to listen to the COO Dina Kaplan from Blip.tv. I’ll fill in the details as I have them.

She asked for a few examples of video blogs, one is called PhilaStories. Sounds interesting. She’s giving an overview of Blip and says the number one tip to building an audience is doing “regularly updated content”.

Dina: “The average video blog length is 3-5 minutes.” Setting a specific period of time for each show, and trying to live within that for each episode, will set the bar with viewers to expect a certain amount of time they’ll need to devote to watching it.

“You set the rate” regarding how much you should be able to get for sponsorship of your show. I thought it was amazing that she didn’t know ForkYou when they were mentioned when ForkYou uses Blip to host its raw video files while using Viddler’s flash player. I know Scott and Marisa. I heart ForkYou!

Attendee: “How do you address the questions of the media buyers like: How many rolls of toilet paper will we sell by sponsoring a video blog?” Trial and error. Faith. Instead of going gangbusters, do a trial period. If the results do not pan out, move on.

1:45pm – Lunch was very good. Cheese steaks! Looking forward to the afternoon’s sessions as well as my opportunity to demo Viddler!

Side note: Tonight there will be a sponsored event at a bar (Alex can you give details)? Please see Alex if you, or your company, can donate a few extra dollars towards the open bar. Thanks!

Update: Additional coverage of BlogPhiladelphia can be found everywhere. In podcast form at PhillyTip.com, and John Suder’s blog are two examples. Any others? Put them in the comments please. Oh, and of course – pay close attention to the blogphiladelphia tag on Viddler for video coverage of some of the sessions.

2:30pm – Don Bain from Electric Rain compares the 2d browsing experience with the 3d experience of Second Life. Tens of thousands of people are looking at the same page (Amazon.com) and you wouldn’t know it. In Second Life, you can be with other people looking at the same thing. The avatar is the “personalization”. The person is the cursor. “Navigation” is actual movement. Excellent points.

Thomas Taylor told me that there is now a BlogPhiladelphia wiki so if you can help to document this conference, and don’t have a blog or would rather use this wiki, please do so!

Updating the next day: I was without my laptop for the last 6 hours or so, long story. So I am going to edit this entry even though its already Friday.

Scott McNulty lead a session at the end of the day talking about negative, or bad, comments left on a blog. Opinions about moderation ranged from “delete immediately” to “never delete” comments that are felt as being negative. What are your thoughts on negative comments? Keep them? Ditch them? Ignore them?

At the end of the day we had an OpenGrid where Allen Stern, of the tech blog CenterNetworks, was able to present PreRollr. PreRollr allows you to add ad overlays to videos on your site. Then I was able to do a presentation on Viddler which, went, not so well considering that I didn’t bring the right cabling to hook into the projector here. My boy John Billota came to the rescue with his computer though (thanks John!).

Afterwards the hotel Radisson’s Tavern 17 (I think) invited us down for free wine and food which was a great precursor to an after party at Triumph Brewing Company. Thanks to all that chipped in (I’ll get a full list from Alex and update) and letting us eat and drink for free until the bar closed.

I’m aiming to leave for Philadelphia around 4pm, get a haircut, and then begin my drive southeast. So, I guess watch this space for the rest of the day, and my blog for tomorrow and Friday’s posts, and the blogphiladelphia tag on Viddler if you’d like to experience BlogPhiladelphia with me.

10:15am – I’ll also be updating my Twitter account with small bits here and there. Use that as your way to find out where I am in Philadelphia (especially for those of you that are going to be there), and also for small previews for information that will probably find its way onto my blog.

Please use the comments section of this post, and the proceeding two posts for each day, as a way to link to other resources regarding BlogPhiladelphia (including wikis, IRC chat rooms, blog posts, photos, videos, etc.) and I will do my best to include these in the posts as well. Many thanks to anyone that can help out.

11:00am – Somewhat related, since many of the bloggers in Philadelphia do indeed use video, I just posted on the Viddler blog about the video shot by Viddler’s President Rob Sandie (sandieman) at the NY Video 2.0 July Meetup where a panel from industry leaders discussed “What’s Next in Online Video Advertising?”. A very interesting topic for content producers that would like to make money from the video that they share online. So while I put together a demo of Viddler that I’m hoping to present on Friday in Philadelphia, watch the video!

11:15am – My good friend Alex Hillman just posted on his blog “holy crap, that’s tomorrow: blogphiladelphia” wherein he covers the history of his involvment and also gives a fairly good overview of the goings-on for the next few days. A good post to read if you need a crash course in BlogPhiladelphia. He also mentions that he will not be live blogging this time because he’ll be too busy – hopefully between Rob’s videos and my postings, we can pick up the slack.

12:00pm – The official BlogPhiladelphia Web site was missing a few key details, or at least they were hard to find, in that I couldn’t find any information about “where” things were happening in the city. So I pinged Alex Hillman and asked him to look into it. He responded amazingly fast by editing the header of the main site as well as writing up this post. Thanks Alex! I’ve now updated my iPhone with all of the relevant locations and hopefully I won’t get lost too many times!

1:00pm – Stan from Toonamation asked an interesting question on the official site so I thought I’d replicate it here as a resource for those looking for a place to park their car if you’re only staying in Philadelphia for one of the days. Here are all the locations to park near the Radisson Hotel where the unconference is located.

4:15pm – Heading out the door and hitting the road. First top: Gas. Then, haircut. Then, hopefully… the hotel. See you soon Philly! Follow my Twitter and Flickr for updates until I get wifi at the hotel.

1:51am – Sorry I didn’t post more but things got a little crazy. I’ll be trying, my best, to live blog the event tomorrow. Let me clarify what I will be live blogging too… My experiences at the event. I can’t possibly cover, nor attend, every single session. I hope that I can bring all of you along with me to the event… but brining you complete coverage of all of the information would be nearly impossible. I think there will be a strong need for this event, and future events like this, to be covered by a dedicated team of bloggers. Any takers?

Being updated periodically throughout the day, stay tuned…

Cira Center – Philadelphia, PA – Circa April 2006

This Wednesday evening through Friday evening I’ll be in Philadelphia attending Blog Philadelphia. I’m looking forward to this conference for many reasons – the first of which is because it is in my home state!

The schedule looks promising with there being plenty of time for some great sessions to occur. Its like an unconference with some guidelines, definitely something up my alley.

The sessions I’m looking forward to most include my friend Alex Hillman‘s “Being Independent Doesn’t Mean Working Alone” which should focus on his coworking efforts in Philadelphia. Another friend of mine, Scott McNulty, will be leading a few sessions about “How to deal with negative comments” and “Blogging: Is it better in groups” about his experiences at TUAW. Can’t wait to see these guys in action!

If you are going to be in Philadelphia later in the week and would like to meet up, leave me a comment or email me. Hopefully I will find enough time to meet with everyone who has told me they’ll be around so far. See you in Philly!

10:08am – Probably 40th in line at the Apple Store in the King of Prussia Mall. The dude on the Segway (aka Security) already hates me. No idea why. Probably because I’m with Rob.

11:01am – Wet paint? So, the line keeps getting longer. Are you in line? Report in the comments or send a trackback. Oh, and people know about Viddler here!

12:05pm – Gruber just walked in and cut in line. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone.

4:51pm – About an hour to go. Nothing too exciting has happened today beyond the number of people lining up (around 200) and the security guys constantly Segwaying their way around stopping people from video taping or taking photos.

I’ll try to do one more post to update everyone on exactly what the Apple Store does right before 6 but the Wifi here is, well – unreliable. Keep checking Flickr for more updates too, since sometimes that is easier.

Late at night: Updating this post from my iPhone. Full review after a few days use.

Day two: It is about 11am and I played with iPhone until the wee hours of the morning before needing to put it on the charger, oh – and I needed a recharge too so I went to sleep.

Sorry I didn’t update this post much yesterday, I should have done a slightly better job. Perhaps now with my iPhone live blogging will become much easier as wifi seems to be hard to come by sometimes (especially at events where geeks are sucking up every bit they can). Here is a set of photos from being in line for the iPhone. Also you will start to see some photos that I’ve taken with the iPhone that I uploaded today.

I’ll be writing a review about this iPhone, probably after using it for a few days. Overall, if you are on the fence still about the iPhone being worth the dough, or the keyboard, or the speed of the Edge network – let me get rid of those fears for you right now without you needing to wait for my full review.

The iPhone is worth the ticket price and then some. The keyboard, in my opinion having not had too much experience with other mobile phone keyboards, is amazingly easy to use. I am able to type very, very quickly already and almost everytime I use it I am getting faster. And, using the Internet while on the road was very, very fast. For the sites that I frequent most while on the go, or accessing my email, I would say that it was only slightly slower than being at home. I’m not exaggerating, it wasn’t frustrating or slow at all.

So, go get one now. More on the iPhone later.

The crew on South Street after the last Meetup

It looks like Tony Green and I will be having a conversation so please be sure to join in as we discuss Microformats (which I’ve used to markup this post by the way).

I was finally able to pull Alex Hillman out of his shell. He was recently interviewed by Philadelphia Weekly about his efforts in CoWorking. You may want to pick his brain about this…

I just hope this snow doesn’t affect our plans. Though I think we’re pretty determined.

Note: You can add this event to your calendar program of choice since this post is marked up using hCalendar. Enjoy.

[tags]meetup, philadelphia, pennsylvania, ten stone, tony green, microformats, coworking, alex hillman, events, hcalendar[/tags]
[slug]meetup-031707[/slug]

When we first arrived Jen Simmons, Owen Winkler, and Kel (Joseph Kelter) were already there talking about various topics dealing with WordPress.

At this point I kind of flew off the handle at my disgust in the current WordPress world and with Habari (which I didn’t know Owen was one of the developers). However, after Owen literally gave me his laptop, in cool tablet form, to use Habari – and I can definitely say that the project is showing signs of potential. With Owen at the helm, I think the project definitely has a chance. Perhaps someday I will write up my thoughts on both of these topics.

Rob Sandie and Tom Kim

At this point people started to trickle in until the entire room was filled with people, conversations, and card games. I ended up mingling with Josh, Mike, and Jason for the majority of the time (which wasn’t long enough) and didn’t get to speak with many people that I really wanted to be able to.

Next month I’m going to try to get back down to the meetup (though I think I’m going to Philly at least two other times during the month of March so I have to check on a few things), and hopefully I’ll be able to speak to those I missed this time (Tom and Tony I’m looking at you two).

To any of you that attended that I did not get to meet or talk to – please make it a point to say hi to me next month.

[tags]weblogger, meetup, philadelphia, pennsylvania, ten stone, mike stickel, matt regula, jason santa maria, joshua lane, jen simmons, owen winkler, chris fehnel, eliza devroe, wordpress, habari, tony g, tom kim[/tags]
[slug]meetup0207-recap[/slug]

Chris at Ten Stone Bar – April 15, 2006

So far Eliza, Mike, and Chris are coming with me. It looks like Rob, Tom, and Marisa are definitely going. Andrea and Jason might be going. And sadly Tony G. can’t make it. Update: Happily Tony G. is able to make it!

And, it appears we’re going to have a fairly full house.

If you are in the Philadelphia area (heck I’m 2 1/2 hours away and I’m still going) and you’d like to meetup with some great people to discuss WordPress, blogging, Viddler, or just sit back and enjoy a beer – sign up to the meetup and we’ll see you there.

Note: You can add this event to your calendar program of choice since this post is marked up using hCalendar. Enjoy.

Note addendum: It appears that the above link won’t work for Outlook users? Not sure why – probably because Outlook sucks?

[tags]philadelphia, meetup, webloggers, blogging, wordpress, event, pennsylvania, viddler, rob sandie, chris fehnel, mike stickel, colin devroe, eliza devroe, tom kim, marisa mcclellan, andrea, jason santa maria, tony green, microformats, hcalendar[/tags]
[slug]meetup-021706[/slug]

What makes this gift all the sweeter is that I didn’t have to drive either! We opted to take a bus trip down where they provide food and drink, a movie on the ride to and from, and the tickets – all in one package. I am not a big fan of driving let alone driving in Philadelphia during an Eagles game.

Pre-game at Lincoln Financial Field

We had great seats. We got an email one-day prior to the game asking if we’d like to upgrade our seats for only 10-additional dollars. After consulting the seating chart we both decided it seemed like it was worth it, and boy was it ever worth it. Our seats rivaled those closest to the field – yet we both feel we had a better view.

Panoramic view of the field from our seats

Even though the Packers did not win, we still had a great time and were treated fairly well by both fans and staff. We’re looking forward to doing it again sometime.

[tags]football, anniversary, gifts, eliza devroe, colin devroe, philadelphia, eagles, packers, monday night football, lincoln financial field, photos, panorama, nfl[/tags]

First, we met up with Andrea and Tom. This happened to be Tom’s first Meetup also. It would seem that Meetups are an old hat to Andrea, since she is involved not only with the WordPress and Weblogger Meetups, but because she also frequents the Philly Webstandards Meetups as well.

Mike, a freelance developer and Nintendo DS player, was the next to arrive. Mike’s hill-top view, like Andrea’s, into “the standards movement” was refreshing. Hopefully they, and their entire team, will keep up the good work they are doing on that front. Mike is a Ruby on Rails convert, so he is also involved with that group in the Philly area.

Ellen, who brought Pineapple stuffing (which I found delicious) and lover of cats, showed up next. Ellen’s perspective into the attidude, demeanor, and personality of cats really made me think twice about our cats. Ellen described her blogging purposes as “fooling around”, which is why I think many bloggers do their writing. In some ways, it is definitely the purpose for most of my posts here on my site. I find my personal blog a very personal outlet for ideas and thoughts that wouldn’t, and perhaps shouldn’t, otherwise have any public view.

Scott McNulty, system administrator and fellow Macintosh enthusiast came with his smile on. He did not hold me accountable for my Drew Carrey comment, to which I will forever be in his debt. By far, the funniest guy in the group, Scott even made Ellen’s Pineapple Stuffing recipe hilarious.

Ben, fitting name for a bloke in Philly, came in fresh from the Philly Pillow Fight (his photos from the fight). Ben has a firm hold on what he likes musically, so he and Chris had a nice discussion regarding that. Here are some photos that Ben took while at the Meetup.

Amardeep, also known as Deep (the best name on the planet bar none), wandered in from the nearly 75 degree Philadelphia air. All of us wished that we had more time to talk to Deep, though the amount of people and the amount of time that we had together didn’t add up. Deep teaches Literature, and so his site is driven towards his thoughts on that specific topic.

Marisa of Apartment 2024, showed up beaming. I doubt she’ll ever live down the fact that her site comes up first for “Does Papaya make you poop?” on most search engines. We all have our vices Marisa. She also writes for the Philly Metro blog, which has the purpose of advocating local blogging. It will be decades until we see a Clifford Metro blog, this much I can assure you.

Tony, whose specific job title eludes me right now, works for TV Guide in Phildelphia. I didn’t realize they were based there, but you learn something new everyday. Again, another gentlemen that I wish I had more time to talk to, he writes his personal blog for the very same reason we all do, as a place to jot down thoughts. Recently Tony wrote an article called Bon mot du jour, in which he states that he isn’t always as eloquent as he’d like to be. I can fully attest to that, being that I’m often caught saying something that sounds like someone ten years my junior.

Stephanie, of Patrick Murphy 06, walked in next. I didn’t get any time to speak with her, but she’s on the front lines of blogging about politics in the Philadelphia area. Seems like their doing a fairly good job too.

Leah (spelling, sorry) and Duran came in last. Slackers. After talking to Duran for a little while I learned about his hatred for Active Directory, or those that manage it improperly to be sure. I’m with ya Duran. Leah, another person I only literally got to say “Hi” to, was very excited to get some help with her backyard. Go help her out if you can. Oh, and she thinks that Hilary could use a bra. I can’t say I agree.

Final thoughts Springer style

All in all the trip was definitely worth getting to my first Meetup. I had fully expected to see Owen, who ended up having a medical situation, and I hope he recovers quickly from that. Jason Santa Maria, Rob Weychert, and Joshua Lane of Pixelworthy were supposed to show up too. I hope their teeth are ok.

It was enjoyable, if only for a few hours, to spend some time with people that hold the same importance on this thing called blogging that I personally do. I look forward to doing it again one day, and I’m even considering starting up a Meetup closer to home.

[tags]philadelphia, meetup, weblogger, wordpress[/tags]

This Saturday, at around 2pm EST, Eliza, Chris and I are heading down to Philadelphia for the April Philadelphia WordPress Meetup, organized by Owen Winkler.

Shortly thereafter, since it would appear that the WordPress meetup will only last about an hour, we’ll attend the April Philadelphia Webloggers meetup.

Having never been to a meetup, I can’t say as I have any expectations as to what will happen. I’m simply going as a trial to see what all the hoopla is about.

If you will be in the Philadelphia area, and can attend either meetup (which happen to be at the exact same venue), then please stop in and say hello.

[tags]philadelphia, meetup, wordpress, weblogger[/tags]