WordCamp (Sat 17/11) – an ideasfest for WordPress afficionados – had loads of helpful info for bloggers. Apart from being plagued by Docklands’ flies and having slideshows that no-one could read because of the brightly lit venue (a pre-presentation check omission), there were plenty of handy hints and perspectives. A bit strange, tho, that at such a tech-savvy event, a few of the presentations were spoiled by gremlins in the various machines:(
Interesting – for an event for those at the blog frontline – there were no major Ad or PR agencies represented, which possibly signals two things: Either they’re all blogging on a different system to WordPress, or already know it all:)Here’s a precis of the prezos, and if any points grab your attention, contact the person mentioned, OK…

First up, Automattic’s Alex Shiels revealed there had been 1.8m WordPress blogs created to date, with 5,000 newbies created daily, and 125,000 posts and comments uploaded every day. Alex talked of WordPress’s future directions etc.
Then, James Farmer pinpointed his take on the difference between social media and blogs, suggesting that Social Media were sporadic ‘drop-in’ venues, whereas blogs were more regularly representative about what was core to your interest, industry or business. He also somewhat debunked the myth of blog millionaires, saying your most important motivation should be to do it for love, not money; the money might follow via networking benefits, contacts, speaking sessions and being provided with in-kind bloging support. James also reminded us about the importance of using images with appropriate reproduction permissions (like flickr, for eg).
A session on intranet blogs hosted by Richard used an education institution as a case study; the motivations for the case were to increase professional learning and to increase inter-school dialogue. Key issues emerging from my interest from a reputation management view was the notion of an’intranet blog policy’ – there wasn’t one in the case study, but Richard emphasised that all blog entries were covered by an ‘acceptable use’ policy. David Wallace from DIRC confirmed my concerns saying that “knowing about it (sic acceptable use) was different to adhering to it.” We all agreed that ‘Responsibility’ plug-ins could work to govern what was acceptable for being published.
Darren Rouse (ProBlogger) had ears pinned back with his ‘Making Money from Blogging’ session; he pretty much reiterated all the good oil that’s contained on his blogsite.
Christine Davis’ ‘tagging’ session was heavily bedogged by tech problems. She was lauded as a guru on tagging, so maybe her prezo is worth asking for…
I hosted a lively session on ‘Corporate Blogs and Reputation Management’ and especially enjoyed the contributions of Cyan Ta-Eed, Pete Williams, Michael B Cohen and Nina Fuentes.
Before the panel closure session, Alister Cameron – an engaging evangelist for Sandbox – suggested that all attendees link to 3 people they’d met and related to, in order to share some bloglove. OK, Alister:
Alister, David McDonald (Web designer) and Pete Williams (Preneur Marketing) all offered perspectives and feedback that were of real interest to me. Intriguingly, I was sure that Alister suggested that all Sandbox themes had inbuilt RSS code contained within each page – when I asked him to clarify/confirm he seemed less sure of this claim. Still, he knows how to present his material, and should be an inspiration to his fellow presenters. MC’d by the affable Brum City supporter James Farmer, this was one blogfest that provided loads of food for thought.