Travel

I’ve just returned to NYC from Podcamp Boston 3.0. This year’s PCB was, as always, a wonderful experience. I sincerely thank the organizers for all their hard work, and the attendees for contributing. However, PCB3 was not without it’s problems. The energy and attendance were both very low. Cost and date seemed to cause universal consternation, and ’social media’ rather than ‘podcasting’ seemed to dominate discussion. Having said that, Podcamp was still successful. Below are the + and - of the conference. I think that by a healthy discussion of what worked and what did not work will help us grow our community.

The Good:
- The people, people, people!
- The hallway! Podcamp hallways are where the action is, and this year was no exception. Impromptu songs, networking, business, and friendships sprung up everywhere.
- The sessions! Always very wiki-like, although I arrive at PDB3 a tad late, I caught some amazing sessions run by amazing people. Needless to say, I learned a ton.

The Bad:
- The People! This year’s PCB was missing a lot of people and organizations that have had previous years’ so bitchin. Why?
- The cost! Wasn’t “Podcamps should be free” a motto last year?
- The date! Podcamp Boston 3.0 came less than a year after 2.0, and less than three months after Podcamp NYC 2.0 - burnout, anyone?
- The Narcissism! The social media community MUST do more than just talk about our shiney toys lest we relegate ourselves to irrlevence.

What we can do:
- Invite your friends and explain to them why you’re passionate about what social media does for you.
- Stop bitching, start doing - in-hallway sessions are great, but we need to start acting on all our great ideas. This year’s Podcamp NYC education initiative was a great example.
- Constructively criticize! Let’s all work together to grow our family of content producers by talking about what can be improved on next year. Complaining is one thing, but remember the organizers work long hours to put these UnConferences together. Tell them what worked for you, and what did not.
- Communicate! We’ll grow our base of consumers and producers by speaking normal-person language. How can we explain what we do and why we do it WITHOUT jargon? Believe it or not, phrases like “I’m totally gonna Twitter my Flickr at the Podcamp, then Qik the shit out of my Seesmic,” can be alienating to some n00bs.

What do you think? What can Podcamps to to better integrate with their local communities, engage a more diverse demographic, attract young people, and DO something?

Dan on Twitter.

Thanks!

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I keep meaning to send a quick shout-out to my sister, Nancy. Over the past 4 years, she has completed a masters degree, spent a year in Ecuador, worked at Yellowstone National Park, and spent a year in Guatemala. She’s now spending another summer working for the Park Service at Yellowstone.

Her adventures in Guatemala, and now in Yellowstone, are chronicled on her Exploring Place blog. Her great photoblog is on Flickr.

She’s a great example of someone doing great stuff, and using social media to document her explorations.

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On the phone with Priceline.com right now. Actually I’m on hold with priceline.com. Again. Because they love to put their customers on hold.

Terrible customer service, misleading terms, fees everywhere.  I had purchased tickets for the IA caucus and NH primary.  I purchased the ‘I might need to change my flight’ insurance, and they won’t actually refund ticket.  They just issued a credit that’s only good for the specific airline.  And, with the fees the add on to EVERYTHING, I saved only a few dollars on the price of the ticket.

Customer service has a very defensive attitude, which, of course, doesn’t do good things for my attitude. I’ve worked customer service jobs and I know they suck, but when they charge me a $15 ‘on-hold’ fee I start to get a bit irritated.

Priceline is dishonest, rude, non-responsive, awful customer service, and EXPENSIVE!

When planing your next travel, do not use Priceline.com. They are terrible. I will pay twice as much to use someone else.

…and apparently I’ve been on hold long enough to blog about it.  Priceline.com is a rip-off.

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This video is Creepy Sleepy Show #64, but I thought it would be fun to post it here as well.

This video was shot entirely on my Samsung t809 cell phone. I have another 20 or so minutes of footage, including some of the Hells Angels. Apparently the Rally numbers were down this year due to a war going on between the Outlaw’s and the Angles. As the Angels apparently hate being recorded, I thought it prudent to eliminate that footage.

Click Here to Download Video

UPDATE: Apparently YouTube is now limiting videos to 10 min, so you must click the above link to view the entire video. Below is a little sample.

From the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper:

CUSTER - Two Hells Angels members were arrested Wednesday morning for the Tuesday, Aug. 8, shooting of six men - who were Outlaws members or affiliates - in the parking lot of the Legion Lake Resort in Custer State Park. The shooting occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m.
–
The Outlaws and the Hells Angels are rival “1%” motorcycle gangs. The 1 percent means the gangs are part of the 1 percent of all motorcycle gangs that do not conform to society or its laws.

- dhp

Technorati Tags: Sturgis

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So Curtis stopped by this afternoon. I was editing some audio, and he knocked on the door intent on working on his “web in space, man!” That’s Curtis-speak for wanting to update his PodShow site. See, believe it or not, Curtis actually maintains that site. I do the logging in and typing, but in between gulps from his 64-ounce cup of beer Curtis tells me where to go, what to click and what to type. Seriously, he gets a kick out of it.

Anyway, I was digging around in his audio folder, and came across Brookhaven Chronicles #1 - a gem if ever there was one. When next you have 13 free minutes, allocate them to listening to this classic Curtis show:
UPDATE: So the sample rate on the Curtis interview is all jacked-up. In layman’s terms, the chipmonk effect comes from the way the file was originally saved, and cannot be altered. So, stream if you like (it’s still funnt=y) but if you want the original, it can be downloaded here.

…and, while we’re on the subject of silly, here’s a new Creepy Sleepy promo:

Technorati Tags: Curtis

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