There doesn’t seem to be much blogging, podcasting, and tagging going on at this year’s TIES Conference. Scott McLeod put his lunch time session online in audio form. So far a Technorati search reveals a grand total of three different people who’ve tagged a blog post with the “ties2006″ tag.
There are blogging and podcasting sessions throughout the conference schedule and yet no one is using the technology. I’m not sure how to make sense of this. We could have a whole parallel conference going on full of reflections on sessions, reactions to vendors, etc., but no one is showing up for that conference. Maybe next year.
I’m watching from the outside. Agreed…a bit disappointed that I’m not seeing more. I thought things might have grown after a year.
I have a nagging idea in my head that we may be more successful introducing blogging through something a little more like del.icio.us tagging. It has all of the elements, but keeps things a bit more lightweight and simple.
Not sure. Yeah, not moving fast enough for me.
John, I agree that the current tagging system is too complicated. Unless you’re using a blogging platform that supports it out of the box or are techsavvy enough to install a plugin, I don’t think most bloggers will go to the trouble.
Hi Tim:
Interesting observation. Here’s my opinion: I think that right now, regarding education and web 2.0 stuff, we’re seeing 3 groups of people:
1. Folks who are “there” – John, yourself, others – who are waiting for more of us to arrive “there” and talk with you.
2. Folks who are “traveling there” – I’ll count myself in this group. Last year I attended several workshops about blogging (in fact, one was your all-day RSS / Blogging workshop at TIES). From that, I read a lot of blogs, I sort of write a blog – but I have never “tagged” anything yet. (In addition, some of us “on our way” don’t have laptops or enough access at TIES to actually write about it while there.)
3. Folks who have heard about “there”, but haven’t started the journey yet. I was in a blogging for administers workshop today and there were quite a few people who were just starting to learn what a blog is, how is it different than email, how to post to one, ect….
This year TIES wasn’t quite as exciting and new for me as it was last year, and I suspect that for you, having been in this “2.0″ world much longer than me – you’re simply getting tired of waiting for more people to join the conversation.
We’re trying!! I’m sure that more of us will be there soon! (In fact, I’m going to try to “tag” something tonight!)
Amy Hendrickson
Hi Tim,
Great observation and sadly true.
I do think that the really slow wireless internet access at the conference negatively affected the blogging and tagging. Three of us were sitting together at the final session. I could get online but couldn’t get an entire page of anything to load and the other two I was with couldn’t get online at all. That makes it tough to blog the conference.
Then there’s the whole tagging thing. I am admittedly new to actually blogging myself – as opposed to just reading everyone else’s! I thought I tagged everything ties2006, but you’re right that they don’t show on technorati. Why? I don’t know! I’m probably doing something wrong which means somebody else is probably feeling the same frustration
Finally, I’m hoping TIES as the conference organizer will promote this aspect more in coming years as well as providing space online for presenters to share their presentation notes, slides, etc. There are always overlapping conferences or those that run out of handouts. This service would give us more information and opportunities to expand learning.
Thanks for your great insights and ideas in your Web 2.0 session.
Cara
Cara,
I agree wholeheartedly about the lack of promotion by TIES on the blogging and tagging possibilities. Have you seen the Technorati help page on tagging? It can be confusing. You may want to visit Technorati and have them “ping” your blog. It’s possible that they haven’t found you yet. You can do that by visiting the ping form and entering your blog’s URL.
I would encourage you to communicate with TIES about this. (I know I’ll be doing that.) The only reason they’ll support blogging more is if they hear from bloggers! Here are their phone numbers.
I jotted down a few observations about sessions I attended (belatedly) at:
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2006/12/5/getting-back-in-the-mental-mindset-ties-helped.html
Sorry I missed you this year, Tim.
All the best,
Doug