OSW happened and despite some oddly controversial stuff, some quite interesting takes and great location, I left feeling mildly disappointed.
Despite taking copious notes most of the day simply failed to enegage me, possibly because I have heard most of it before. The little nuggests I hadn't were more sound bites than anything substantial.
Although I am generally an experimental, near cutting edge type of guy (well on some things:) ) I felt, given the objectives of the conference that they would have failed to convince the business community. Now you could argue that that is because they don't get it. Well maybe. BUT THIS WAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP PEOPLE TO GET IT. Journalists and other 'creative types' can cquite easily move forward on this basis. To a certain extent serious cientific guys can move forward on this basis. Straightforward business I believe will find it harder to swallow in the UK.
Perhaps as Tom Coates suggested, we in the UK don't believe you are allowed an opinion. Maybe we simply demand the numbers. Maybe the proof of the pudding is in the eating, but no one is willing to buy the pudding just yet, afterall they haven't finished with the main course.
Having has my little rant, its worth noting that there were some interesting talks, particularly from the psuedo academic stance.
I thought Lee Bryant's talk had a lot going for it - particularly if it had been dumbed down for the hard of thinking.
Suw Charman offer some insights into blogging behind the firewall, but it only felt like an entree and not the main meal I had been hoping for; more detail and case studies, less it feels like a good idea so lets play.
The afternoon was far too crowded with speakers and the very interesting Ross Mayfield was cut woefully short and I ended up missing Hugh's talk altogether.
Some plusses - talking with Stephen Price, Johnnie Moore, Lloyd Davis (and getting recorded) seeing Tim Kitchen again after a while. Seeing Suw Charman. Ben Hammersley's kilt and bowler though not the attitude and meeting, Ash, Rob, Graham and Taron Maberry.
I did get up at 4am to go to the conference and this (not the rain) may cloud my views but mild disappointment is here.
My own answer is that I think I can do better than 70% of speakers there - just got to consider the pitch.
Flames expected.
I'll add rest of links later and probably some more notes which may encourage me to change my perception.
EDIT: I should add in Loic's (or Bloic) talk on the wonder that is French blogging and the interesting, though not unique story of lafraise.com (I think). The customer participant model of product design and business as a community.
Posted by Paul Goodison at September 11, 2005 09:31 PM | TrackBackInterested in your comments.
As I've never been to one of these things before I found everyone interesting, although some speakers had a much higher number of ideas per minute than others.(thanks Jeff Veit) No one who spoke seemed to be able to speak to their time allocation, this is something I suppose, which occurs everywhere. But was difficult in this situation where speaking was open access and for a very long time over the summer there were more speakers than delegates.
I felt that the conversation that Johnnie's remarks provoked indicated a different understanding of what he was saying from my own. But as I am a novice in this field (and was chairing) I didnt feel able to become partisan.
It was of course completly apparent, even to someone like me who had never met anyone before that there were clear hierachies at work. Presumably enevitable too but which has provoked a long an intersting debate elsewhere.
http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/09/10/change-starts-at-home/
Not sure if the OSW experience would prompt me to be further involved in the 'vitual institutions' of this world but I have started a blog which may or maynot last. b/w
Hi Suzanne and welcome to the blogosphere. The hierarchies at play are interesting as long as you don't let them bother you. Most of the A list people are media types (journalists) and get a lot of readership - then again as they are in the business of writing and holding opinions you would hope that they could hold the thread together.
As Iknow the field I have a slightly different set of expectations from these sort of conferences than a novice, as such don't take this as a criticism of the organisation per se. The Burningbird debate is interesting and out of left field as the American's would say but then that is the blogosphere for you.
I've contributed comments on the SAinsburys related blog and have to agree that the controversy was slightly off the wall.
Shame if the experience puts you off. Where is your blog BTW - probably could do with a link or two :)
Posted by: Paul Goodison at September 12, 2005 09:51 PM