BlogOn 2004 BootCamp: Blogging Needs Better Stewards

I attended the BlogOn Bootcamp yesterday which was intended to be a hands-on workshop on blogging for those attendees that are interested in the blogging phenomena. Unfortunately, that was a mission that was doomed to fail.

The speakers did a good job with the material they were assigned. The issue was really twofold:

• Complexity - Blogging is such a complex industry that it's often hard to remember the number of bean bags being juggled at the same time. As a result, trying to cram the entirety of the blogosphere as well as demonstrating how to use these technologies into a few hours is a near impossible task.

  It would have been more beneficial to do a high level and then dig into the few most important topics than to try and broach the entire space.

• Presentation - It's sad to say, but we're terrible at explaining what we do in this blogging business. To really sell the notion of anything, really, requires a good deal of practice and refactoring. It takes time to learn what works and what doesn't, what people like and what they don't.

  Most important, it's about creating a picture, sometimes literally, that leaves people with a mental model that persists once they walk out the door. For the most part, the Bootcamp failed to create that image and it was easy to tell from the audience.

If we want to make this move, we need to sell it.