I must say, being in a room full of blogger aficionados, wiki neophytes, avid podcasters, and especially “Non-Programmers” was a refreshing experience.
Northern Voice 2007 (a non-profit personal blogging conference for techies and newbies alike) was held at UBC this year (February 23-24, 2007). Moose Camp (an organic, self-organizing, un-conference) kicked off the event with over 300 web developers and enthusiasts from around the world. Without a doubt, every participant shared (or ranted about) their success stories and of course debated about which blogging platform was the best (WordPress vs. Drupal vs. MovableType vs. Expression Engine).
There were numerous cool tools, tips, & tricks that I tried to absorb via osmosis (way too many that I will probably spend long nights playing with all of them). However, the one thing that impressed me the most (aside from snatching up a free t-shirt and funky buttons) is how these tools can remarkably help change an organization, a community (ex. VanCity’s ChangeEverything.ca), and even our very own lives (ex. Kristen’s story and her adventures).
Here are some of the sessions that I attended:
- Mashups for Non-Programmers (Yahoo Pipes, Twitter, OpenKapow.com, Dappit.com, Aggrssive, Grazr, Google Co-op, Ning Developer, Greasemonkey).
- New Rules for New Communities (shareyourstory.org)
- Transit Camp (Toronto Transit Camp)
- Photo Camp (Adobe Lightroom, How to get your photos ready for the web, Photo Mechanic)
- Hacking the MotherCorp (CBC)
- Mobile Photo + Video Blogging
- Using Geolocation / Geowalk
- How to Make Change Happen With Your Blog – Anil Dash
- Social Media for Social Change -Jason Mogus
- Social Software for Learning Environments – D’Arcy Norman, Chris Lott, Sylvia Currie, Jon Beasley-Murray
- Building Rich Communities with Wikis – Stewart Mader, John Willinsky
- Using Internet Video to Change the World One Eyeball at a Time -Eddie Codel
- Why Every Web Site Should Use Blog Software -Susannah Gardner
The fine folks at Podcast Spot have recorded all the sessions and are available at http://northernvoice.podcastspot.com/.
For photos, search via Flickr tag: nv07, northernvoice
The interesting part about this conference is that participants are actually encouraged to whip out their notebooks and blog, instant message, write emails, upload flickr photos, and simultaneously podcast during presentations. [I personally never did that…well, I only moderately checked my email …. and I only made a few blog posts… and I only uploaded ONE photo…but I had to IM chat with…. 😉 ].
I look forward to sharing my experience with thegreenpages.ca network.
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