September 24, 2008

Report from BlogWorld Expo

This pic totally looks like I'm part of Thriller, which is applicable as Vegas was pretty darn thrilling! I spent a few days in Sin City this weekend as a part of the blogger conference, BlogWorld Expo. Being one of the largest blogger-focused events of the year, BlogWorld took place in the Las Vegas Convention Center, though parties were held up and down the strip. Beyond the normal crazy/fun Vegas scene, I had fun speaking on two panels. The first one was mostly centered on monetization, with a particular emphasis on widgets. The other members of the panel were from Pheedo (Louis Moynihan), Disqus (Daniel Ha) and Lijit (Micah Baldwin, moderator). The other, centered on getting customer and executive buy-in for blog projects, included myself and several real social media gurus; Toby Bloomberg, Rich Brooks and Des Walsh (moderator).

Photo Credit Brad_Crooks

Both panels were well received, if I say so myself ;). As much as I enjoyed participating and attending the other sessions, the best part of BlogWorld Expo was investing some time in the blogger community and meeting many of the people I've been exchanging emails and wiki edits with over the past year.

One person that I finally got a chance to meet face to face was Chris Saad, of the DataPortability group. DataPortability is a grassroots effort to promote the idea that users should be able to move, share, and control their personal data online: identity, photos, videos and all other forms of personal data. I've been honored to be a part of this group since December of last year, and though I've been warned by many naysayers that "no group like this can ever enact real change", I'm more encouraged with each passing week. If you are at all concerned with the portability of your data and your users' data, I'd encourage you to get involved.

Here's my "why I want data portability" video, though I must warn you, I'm OBVIOUSLY not a professional talking head so be gentle.

Robyn Tippins
Community Manager, YDN

Posted at September 24, 2008 9:16 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Posted by: Toby at September 24, 2008 9:40 PM

Posted by: Des Walsh at September 24, 2008 10:52 PM