The folks at Webzine 2005 have now published the podcasts from the conference. It took place in San Francisco on September 24-25, focusing on Independent Online Publishing. When the conference began in 1998 it was before the hype, let alone the business model, had risen around blogs (aka weblogs). You can have a voice for free or cheap, and everyone can access it.
The spirit is the same today as it was when Ryan and Eddie started it 6 million internet years ago. My only worry is that some folks are reading a little too much of their own press (which they and their friends are largely writing). Utopian visions are great to have, reach exceed your grasp and all that. But there's no excuse for being naive after what the industry and culture went through in the boom and bust of the late 90's. Cooler heads need to remember there's more to life than being "cool". The technology is great, and yet it requires a fair amount of motivation to come near its potential. And that enthusiasm is hard to maintain even for some of the hyperactive folks who spoke at the conference. It doesn't invalidate the spirit or even some of the particulars. But I get skeptical and then perturbed when people gloss over the challenges and essentialy "round up" to the idealistic outcome.
Anyway, that doesn't dim my pleasure and honor to be involved with the event. There were a lot of great people who helped make it happen and who spoke, taught or demo'ed. I learned a bit and got inspired to start posting more on this site again (as you can see from the flurry of posts this evening).
So here you'll find the podcast of the panel that I moderated: Culture Jamming in the Post-9/11 Mindset. A fun time with a diverse group of culture-jammers, and me trying to ring lead and foster good convo. Check HERE for extended bios and links to the panelists sites and related resources
