Iyow - in your own words

I went to Vloggercon 2006, a tech and media conference for videologgers and bloggers, the weekend before last, and was truly inspired (as corny as it may sound). It was all reconstructed hippie idealism, knee-deep A/V geekery, and wandering media types – and it felt so good. Photos linked to image on right from Laughing Squid on Flickr.

This was most of what I took away from it:

• there’s tremendous idealism towards community and possibilities for small entrepreneurs within this subculture
• potential conflict between an awareness of a ‘window of opportunity’ and aforementioned idealism (I think this was a vague reference to the potential of another tech boom, but I think most people don’t want to think of it that way.)
• there was more diversity than you get at standard tech conferences – older women, ethnically diverse, geographically included people from the Midwest, Texas, etc. The woman who steered the camera at the final talk had a loose, gray ponytail
• content topics were non-fiction videolog/blog-centric, though some creators of fictional characters and series are starting to hit the big time, i.e. contracts with MTV, cable television, etc.
• Who is Rocketboom? You may not know her, but she’s a star in the videolog world.
• they are hyper-aware of political economic issues

And my favorite quote, “It’s not about the content; it’s not about the technology – it’s about social change,” from one techie audience member. I felt some wave of irrational idealism when I was there, but that’s the most fun stage to be working on something.