Podcamp Pittsburgh

Podcamp Pittsburgh is underway. This two day workshop takes place at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and has over 250 participants. The day started with a native Pittsburgher sitting in front of me, trying to explain to her Los Angeles table-mate (who flew in just for the weekend), the nature and meaning of the word, “Yinz.” Entertaining. I digress.

The varied crowd consisted of professionals and amateurs of varying abilities and ages (including a six year old--where are the Foster students?!) and the sessions were appropriate for everyone. Of course, all concurrent sessions were streamed and archived on Justin.tv. Check it out.

I was relieved that I already knew most of what the presenters shared during the Intro to Blogging session so I decided to attend the advanced web hosting session next. Mini mistake--That's why we have a Tech Dep't. I should have brushed up on my html...

Blogging Best Practices was highly informative and shared some interesting local blogs--re: Pittsburgh, Steelers, etc. My Bloglines are getting much longer. Cynthia reminded us of the basic rules of blogging: 1. Post regularly 2. Link to others 3. Use tags for easy access 4. Respond to comments to engage the reader

The afternoon sessions consisted of video documentaries, creating a mini-video that will air tomorrow, 2.0 tools, and tours of Second Life. I'm still not using Second Life to its fullest potential, but my avatar looks good! I even picked up a free Discovery laptop on EduIsland.

Despite the slight PC-bashing, I networked, ate well, and now off to Bossa Nova for dinner... Next step? Can you say, “PodCruise?”