I’ll set the tone for this update: I hope we have more WordCamp/Tech/Computer events in Arizona.

Yes, I enjoyed the speakers, and the free WordPress stickers and pencils and all that, but I think I enjoyed most being in a room with 500 other technically — or perhaps rather, internet — in-tune people. I spend a lot of time doom-saying the world’s love of twitter, and Facebook. It’s not hard to do, these things coupled with mobile tech are changing the way we experience the world. Whether I’m reading articles about what is Worrying about the Real-Time Web, or smirking at a clever New Yorker cover, it’s not difficult to find bitter lenses turned on our social networking addiction.

And the articles, the art, the blogs are right. It’s important to keep an eye on ourselves, to understand what dark bits slip in with our radiant improvements. For all my cynicism, though, I have a twitter account, and I use Facebook. And really, that is why I loved WordCamp. It was fun being in a room with others familiar with all the gadgets and applications I love. Sometimes trying to explain why something is cool sucks the joy right out of it. An event where nearly everyone ‘gets it,’ is validating.

But the speakers were great too, I didn’t pay just to hang out with interesting people with similar interests, I can do that for free. I’m sure part of it was the t-shirt, breakfast, lunch, and the swag, but information played a part, too. Take SEO for instance.

SEO is something I talk about frequently at work, and I just have to wing it and admit when I’m beyond what I know for certain. But really, I’m finding that SEO is all around a field where concrete answers are rare. The search engines are reluctant to give information to prevent abuse, and people that do SEO for a living are reluctant to give up their best tips because A) what they’re certain about today, they could be uncertain about tomorrow; and B) because they probably worked hard to discover what makes them good. Enter Jim Christian, Go Daddy’s very own SEO manager, and the conference became more interesting. Christian shared a number of excellent optimization tips, explained what he’s learned, and put a finger on the value of monitoring. Most of the tools he recommended were for monitoring rankings and traffic, and he seemed to want to get across that the best way to practice SEO is to watch and if something is working, continue doing it, when that changes try something new. He both added and cleared a bit of the mystery, and I’d listen to him speak again.

After lunch, Matt Mullenweg took the stage for a Q&A session. And mostly I sat in awe of his intelligence as well as his attitude and optimism. He created WordPress, but he’s aware that it is successful because of the users. Not in the same sense a band is successful because of its fans buying records, but because WordPress users actively help shape and develop the application.

Then there was Merlin Mann. Worth the price of admission himself, the lens returns to social media. Mann discusses respect, danger, and the roles of business in the social media. Funny and poignant, Mann’s talk is well worth a listen.

Merlin Mann’s Speech

The level of negativity I’ve been hearing and seeing has become obtrusive and is growing more than a little unpleasant. I would like to think we as a culture are better than choosing some ideologue club and blindly swinging at anyone with a different opinion, all while simultaneously attempting to plug our ears so as to not hear our chosen enemy. Without choosing any topic in particular: there are things in this world that are broken, in this country. It would seem that our current system is to treat problems like an old table with a broken leg, one that has been propped up by a book  for ages. We have become so used to it, we don’t bother to change the leg, much too risky. What if the finish did not match? What if we measure wrong and the table is still lopsided? We forget that the leg can be changed again, and again if necessary, until perhaps we have a leg much greater than the first. If it is already broken, what’s the harm in trying something new?

We are very good at telling people something will not work, that it is not worth trying, to simply criticize. Criticism is a fine thing, but we need reciprocity now. Rather than wildly shouting at new ideas, expand upon that idea. Acknowledge there is a problem, and share perspective. This is tough because it requires we listen. But if we legitimately listen and respond, I think, the quality of the dialogue will improve. The ones in our culture that do not actually say anything, that put up straw-men to tear down, that treat their opinion as some sort of doctrine, might become less prevalent.

I only like to imagine that we might have the capacity as an entire people to accomplish the above. In reality I think I will continue to read about people bragging that they turned off the President’s speech before it began because that is how it should be dealt with, or bumper stickers claiming whichever right/left wing media champion the driver feels says nothing in the way he or she likes best. It is all very unsatisfactory.