ConFigures

Blogging Panels at Penguicon

After my Knowledge Gardening talk was accepted for Penguicon 5.0, Matt Arnold the Programming Wrangler copied me on email asking who was interested in co-panelling on [a list of possible topics]. I picked “Blogging Your Life Without Losing Your Job, Or Your Mind”, and emailed my co-panelists beforehand to work out who wanted to cover what. So, we had a plan, but due to some glitches, we ended up with Cathy Raymond and me doing “How To Blog Your Life Without Losing Your Mind” on Friday night, and then on Saturday Gini Judd and I did “Blogging Your Life Without Losing Your Job.” I wish I’d noticed the slightly different topics earlier, but I think we did reasonably well.

The audience Friday night was smaller than Saturday, but between Cathy and me, we got a lively discussion going anyway. One comment that interested me came after I mentioned how, in addition to standard text journalling, blogging software packages can make it easy to use them for other purposes (videoblogging for fun or work (installation walkthroughs), tying in with RSS for project management, or tying in with library catalogs to autogenerate a blog entry per book (with library patron commenting ability thrown in for free!)). One audience member said it reminded him of how VisiCalc revolutionized how people looked at and worked with data on computers, partly because what people could use them for was so open-ended.

At the Saturday talk, Gini talked about company communication policies and how to get involved in forming a blog policy if one’s company doesn’t have one. The audience had a lot of horror stories to relate. I mentioned a few articles I’ve read about how blogging can *help* your career if you’re techblogging. Recruiters may look for folks on blogs, or once you get to serious consideration, it may make a difference to your credibility (and show an ability to work with others) if you’ve contributed to discussions via forums or blogs. When the conversation got onto younger bloggers, it turned out Gini and I had both heard an interesting NPR interview with the author of Generation MySpace.

Lessons Learned:

• I had the agenda on my Palm Zire, but it kept powering down (next time, print it or change from the 3-minute power save cycle).
• According to the evidence (someone took pictures at one panel), I need to be more aware of my face and hands during a panel. Smile more, fiddle less.
• Even on a non-controversial panel and with good intentions between panelists, a moderator could help (smoother transitions/time-sharing).