When I submitted my usual session about “Think international” to BlogworldExpo I thought it would be a great idea to point out to the organizers Rick Calvert and Libby Durfee that there where other areas where this international angle would play well. Giving them a reason to put me on stage more than once, as an additional panelist or so in order to increase my chances of being accepted. A “take me and you get more than one” deal so to say. Little did I know that I would end up with three sessions – and only one of them I had material ready *cough*. :) As usual, the first time holding such a presentation is the hardest because after that you can refine the presentation and build on it – so if anyone like me to refine it for their conference, get in touch. ;))

Clicking with diverse Audiences
Togehter with three other panelists we tried to cover the area of clicking with diverse audiences and it surely was the most colorful of the panel – lifestreaming included. But it also had a slight drift towards talking about ethnicity, so it was not as much my area of expertise. Still it was an interesting session for me as there where many areas I had never looked into before. I hope moderator Hadji has the slides up for it somewhere and will link to it when they are available.

You might be interested in my older slides about A European view on Web 2.0 for the international angle.

My instructional sessions

Both of my sessions are geared toward beginners and the way I build them was to emphasize the basic principle behind things. I often see that users try to use tools but do not know in which direction to look for information and or how to combine tools. Once they understand the ideas and reasons it is much easier for them to get what they wanted. In the case below it is especially about the different types of traffic to your blog.

10 ways to build your readership
The last session of the last day I was surprised to see that many attendees but it only proved the point how curious and determine many of the visitors where to learn more about ‘beginner stuff’. It references the presentation below and it is suggested that you have a look at this first.

10 Ways to Build Your Readership
BlogWorldExpo 2008, Intro To New Media Track
“If you don’t know where you’re going anything will do”. There are more than ten ways to build your audience but where do you start? Do you need to do what the A-Listers use or can you ignore it? What are must haves and no-no’s? Comparing different approaches, this session will give you a better insight from when to use which strategies and how to make them work for you.

This session is part of the “Intro To New Media” Track and geared towards professional and businesses use of blogs and podcasts.

Where Do Your Visitors Come From & What Do They Do on Your Site?
As mentioned in the slides, I love data mining, analytics and logfiles. My best friend and I spend extensive amounts of time geeking out about search engine results and log file analysis. You do not need to be that deep into the subject, but you should give that data a chance to make your blog more accessible and also more attractive to visitors and search engines.

Session description: Basic Analytics & Blog Monitoring 101
BlogWorldExpo 2008, Intro To New Media Track
Do you know where your traffic comes from and how you can use this information to increase traffic? Who is talking about you in the blogosphere? Or how many feed subscribers you have? In this workshop you learn the basics about blog monitoring and analytics: how to set up a simple blog monitoring (also called Ego or Vanity searches) and how to set up and use Google Analytics, a free yet extremly powerful tool for all your website traffic. This is also a good session for Podcasters to learn how to increase their listenership / viewers.

Livetweeting the results
Kind of by accident I enabled people to live tweet my session – meaning that I have a first slide with my links on it so that when you walk into the session you already see a bit of my URLs. This is more of an information than actually a promotion but it helped people to include my twitter name into their tweets about the session. As they are also a nice documentation about what other people thought where the to be remembered parts of the session, I’ll include a copy of them below. (If one is missing, ping me).

With a special thanks to callkathy, AceMarketingonetakemovie, also thanks to everybody else who has done this (not only for my session), it helps others to be in two sessions at once! :)

• onetakemovie: summary of how to grow your audience: be passionate. be yourself. conduct outreach. have fun! – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• AceMarketing“>AceMarketing: @nicolesimon great presentation, thanks for having slides
• seoadvice: @nicolesimon thanks for pointing out the importance of SEO, category focus, and other tips on building blog readership #bwe08.
• EdGarrison: #bwe08 @nicolesimon says that blogs should have an editorial calendar just like magazines, i.e. prepare for important dates, events, etc.
• onetakemovie: good tip : have an editorial calendar – mark important dates so you can write ahead of time / “prepost”) – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• onetakemovie: be reliable. be consistent in schedule – at least 2-3 times a month / maybe more. manage expectations – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• AceMarketing: @nicolesimon taking about making sure you use ID3 tags on your podcasts to help people find it easier, and offer notes on the podcast.
• onetakemovie: “and please please please use ID3 tags!” – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• onetakemovie: same thing applies to podcasts: pick a format and stick with it. be consistent in delivery and length. – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• AceMarketing: @dan_patterson she’ll have a slide presentation on slideshare.net/nicolesimon
• onetakemovie: Split up blogs to be topic-centric and attract more visitors. Search engines are happier with topic-centered blogs. – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• AceMarketing: @nicolesimon talking about dosh-dosh as a niche type blog…blogging on a niche is easier to get readers…keep posts niche oriented.
• onetakemovie: be recognizable and authentic. use a photograph. be consistent. use the same one in all sites – @nicolesimon (echoing @mattdickman) #bwe08
• onetakemovie: social bookmarking services can deliver more interested visitors than search engine ranking improvement attempts – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• callkathy: is anyone live tweeting @nicolesimon’s session? Want to be there, but need to be here. :) #bwe08
• Genuine: @NicoleSimon picking out you tweeters! We need you for International flavor of the IBNMA
• callkathy: loving all the screenshots @nicolesimon is showing of actual blog analytics data. I get it now. #bwe08
• callkathy: not all traffic is equal. number of pageviews alone is misleading. need to understand your users and viewers. @nicolesimon #bwe08
• callkathy: Ego/Vanity searches: Your personal clipping service for yourself. Good thing to do. @nicolesimon #bwe08
• callkathy: webceo.com web tracking/ranking tool recomended by @nicolesimon. Check it out! (Check yourself and your competitors) #bwe08
• callkathy: @nicolesimon: When gathering data on your blog, store it localy. You can get current data online, but not usually historic data #bwe08
• callkathy: Next up: @nicolesimon on Where do your visitors come from (in room 219) #bwe08
• onetakemovie: “just be aware that there is a world there outside your door, and that they may be reading.” – @nicolesimon #bwe08
• onetakemovie: American attitude towards sex and things related befuddles @nicolesimon – “I’m European. I’m not that prudish.” #bwe08
• onetakemovie: “colloquialisms like ‘whole nine yards’ – nice to explain these once in a while for the benefit of those who don’t know” @nicolesimon #bwe08
• onetakemovie: date and time issues abound, according to @nicolesimon – calendar widget problems : U.S. week starts Sunday German starts on Monday. #bwe08
• onetakemovie: btw, crueltobekind.org is @nicolesimon ‘s blog #bwe08
• callkathy: RT: @betsyweber: In session @ #bwe08 bout diverse culture- @nicolesimon rocks! She’s great for an Int’l prespective. highly reco her blog
• trishussey: RT @betsyweber: In session @ #bwe08 bout diverse culture- @nicolesimon is rocking! She’s great for an Int’l prespective. I highly recom …
• betsyweber: In session @ #bwe08 bout diverse culture- @nicolesimon is rocking! She’s great for an Int’l prespective. I highly recommend her blog

To see all the other stuff which happened around the Blogworldexpo, I suggest having a look at the twitter search for bwe08 as well as on friendfeed! And see you again next year. :)

Identitycamp Bremen will be the first Barcamp in Germany that focuses on identity 2.0, single-sign-on, reputation management, relationship management, privacy 2.0 and related issues. It will take place in Bremen in Northern Germany … currently, we aim for a capacity of about 100 participants.

IdentityCampBremen is being prepared by an informal network around Identity and Privacy in cooperation with the Bremen Innovation Agency BIG – Die Wirtschaftsförderer.

Who should come?

• web professionals
• developers
• identity architects
• Startups
• researchers
• enthusiasts
• privacy protectors
• people who run social networks
• Community Manager(s)
• IT lawyers

Yes, we no know that the European Soccer Championship starts on the same weekend. We will make sure the soccer fans will not miss the games.

We are still looking for kind folks who want to help us with planning of content, documentation (videos, pictures, streams), with setting up and with everything else that needs to be done.

This will be an interesting event, especially in relation to recent ‘advancements’ introduced by the German government which are handled in court now.

Co-organizer Ralf Bendrath blogs about his “thoughts and observations of a privacy, security and internet researcher and activist” in much better detail and eloquence than I will ever do, so please head over there. ;)

And while I have my issues with German Barcamps (more with the lack of interest by many to evolve and be challenged / challenging), this is one I am looking forward to, as this content wise should an event like a Barcamp are supposed to be: go in, have fun, but also learn a lot and be challenged in your thinking.

[Now, collecting was the easy part. *sigh* now to bring that all into my systems cause I don't get mobile access *grrrrr*]

Information from the official site:

• Lists of speakers / panel by titles / panels by category, new additions: Book Readings plus Core Conversations (site and podcasts)
• The parties: Evening Events at SXSW Interactive
• SXSW Interactive Festival FAQ Additional information in and around SXSW
• mobile registration directory
• Tools: A Mobile Companion for SXSW Interactive or sxsw08 to phone number 41411 in the US / (blog article about it)
• sxsw.mobi for mobile access

Useful information from SXSW baby

• they have forums and a twitter account
• !! SXSW checklist – must read and store information!
  Phone numbers: folks to meet up with, your hotel front desk, and a few taxi companies already programmed into my phone, like Austin Yellow Checker Cab, (512) 452-9999, and Austin Cab Company (512) 478-2222.
• !! Google Transit options for SXSW
• !! Familiarize Yourself with Downtown
• Where to Eat During SXSW 2008 (make full copy)
• Ride the dillos (note to self: next year book a hotel near those free lines)
  Additional links from that article:
  More info about public transit in Austin can be found at the Capital Metro Transit site which includes a handy dandy trip planner, info on late night owl services and Airport Flyer service.

Also happening

• Barcamp Austin
• Blog Network Camp (upcoming)
• sxswbaby: the other festival:

  Everyone knows about the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive festivals. Pish, they’re old news. But alongside the big three, there are some other SXSW-sanctioned events you might not be aware of.

  • ScreenBurn: Now in its third year, the Screenburn Festival shows off the latest innovations and future directions of the gaming industry with a mix of panel discussions and the ScreenBurn Arcade. …
  • SXSWclick: An online/mobile media festival, showcasing short-form storytelling created using or for mobile devices or the web. This film-focused event is entirely virtual. …
  • Flatstock: Co-presented by SXSW and the American Poster Institute, Flatstock brings together works by music poster artists from around the world, representing all sorts of artistic styles and music genres. …

Links which help you manage the event / information overflow

• the official page has a kind of ‘pick your panels / films’ system which results in an ical file, start from this program overview
• collection: SXSWi 2008 ical schedule panels + evening events
• Upcoming SXSW Interactive 2008 thankfully the people attending sxsw use upcoming as it is supposed to be used …
• Additional tip if you live in another timezone and use MS Outlook: right click on the timeline in your calendar, pick “change timezone” and add a second with Austin time, helps you put stuff at the right place …
• google blog search request on south by southwest / sxsw / sxswi (3 because or does not work yet)
• twitter search on sxsw
• SXSW Videos with youtube import (although I am more likely to go with OVI as it seems)
• Connect: Twitter wiki with attendees’ twitter ids
  Additional infos from the wiki:
• great BBQ near the Convention Center. Look no further than Iron Works BBQ at 100 Red River.
• There are two WiFi Networks, each on a different frequency band. One is identified by SXSW2008 and the other SXSW2008 5GHz. The SXSW2008 5 GHz network is the higher performance network with more channels and faster speeds. If a WiFi device sees the SXSW2008 5 GHz network please select it. These are the only official networks for internet access at the Austin Convention Center
• http://sxsw.ning.com/
  additional information from there: Use craigslist http://austin.craigslist.org/sub/ to find a place to stay

Found on the way, also looks interesting:

• Second Skin, screening times

  Second Skin takes an intimate, disturbing look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of computer games called Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces. Second Skin introduces us to the real people who populate these online virtual worlds. Couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose, those struggling with addiction, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders- all living in a world that doesn’t quite exist.

• Edit Me! How Gamers are Adopting the Wiki Way
• Kill Your Mouse: Kinetic Computing Arrives Main Stage
• You Are Here: Gaming and User’s Geolocation in Web 2.0
• How Manga Explains the World
• Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned From Star WarsMake It So: Learning From SciFi Interfaces
• Tools for Enchantment: 20 Ways to Woo Users
• Core Conversation: Mobile 2.0: Why the Third Screen is Taking Center Stage
• Sexual Privacy Online
• Lost in Translation? Top Website Internationalization Lessons
• Core Conversation: Designing for "Oh No!"
• Core Conversation: Five Things Elite Designers Should Stop Saying
• The Web That Wasn’t
• Browser Wars: Deja Vu All Over Again?
• Core Conversation: Community & Loyalty: Gamers to Flamers, Lurkers to Workers
• Core Conversation: Creating Passionate Games: A Multidisciplinary Approach
• Core Conversation: Marketing to Real People in Second Life
• Following the Lifecycle of an Idea

Added links<2008-02-29: ul>

Three very different events, but all of them “want” international speakers and attendees.

If you plan to attend the event in Berlin or Hamburg, I suggest you try to add more time to your visit, either to connect with the local (startup) scene and or attend additional socializing events.

As all of these events mean travel for most attendees, there is a tendency to start the evening before the event. (Hanover is a different beast, and if you want to go there, you should know what you are doing. )

• Enterprise 2.0 Summit plus Enterprise Open
  “Exclusive insights from best practices and international keynotes give an overview about the status-quo and the future of this topic.”

  Cebit may not be everybody’s dream ;), but if you are in the Enterprise biz, chances are you want to have a look at some vendors and have some appointments anyhow.

  Info: Website, 4th March, Cebit Hannover (use the code E20FRIENDS for a special price of 150 Euro, limited), no upcoming link yet, Facebook Group

  Enterprise 2.0 Open

  Additionally to the Enterprise 2.0 SUMMIT there will be an open platform for sessions on presenting and discussing the “Enterprise 2.0″ topic.

  The “Enterprise 2.0 Open” on CeBIT Sunday will offer the opportunity to further deepen knowledge, best practices and discussion on Enterprise 2.0. It is a Barcamp-alike event at the upcoming CeBIT 2008.

  We encourage everybody who is interested in the topic of Enterprise 2.0 – a more grassroots organizational approach for enterprise information and process management – to participate in this event.

  Info: Sunday, March 9th, Hannover, Free to attend, upcoming, Facebook group

• re:publica’08 – The critical mass
  A conference for the cultural and social aspects of Web 2.0 (including a tendency in Germany to be ‘non commercial’), republica is a bit different.

  But nice and interesting; especially if you want to get a feeling for the non commercial German blogosphere and especially the Berlin crowd.

  Info: Website, April 2nd-4th, Berlin, no price yet, upcoming link, Facebook group

  From the English announcement:

  From the 2nd to the 4th of April 2008 the re:publica’08 conference, subtitled “The critical mass”, takes place in Berlin. After the huge success of the April 2007 “re:publica – Life in the net” with over 700 participants, the cultural and social aspects of web2.0 is again on the agenda.

  [...]

  “When we talk about ‘Critical Mass’ today we do not mean the concept from nuclear physics” says Johnny Haeusler from spreeblick.com. “It is the number of participants in a network at which the user group begins to grow exponentially, acquiring a momentum of it’s own.” These chain reactions and the effect of social networks on daily life, on economics and politics will occupy the guest of re:publica’08 for three days.

  Markus Beckedahl from netzpolitik.org adds: “In 2008 the re:publica will be significantly more international than in 2007. Interesting speakers from other countries are being invited to discuss the global aspects of social media and the digital society. We plan to again have up to 100 lectures, workshops and discussions”

  I will be there with a workshop in German about how to not despair about bilingual activities like blogging and twittering. If you have any stories about that, feel free to send them to me. ;)

  Additional activity: Frasier night after republica.

• next 08: Get realtime
  From Berlin to Hamburg, Next probably is the largest event after DLD and also comes with a limited ‘friends’ price.

  Hosted by interactive agency SinnerSchrader, there is a strong orientation towards conversation, marketing and agencies.

  Info: Website, May 15th, Hamburg, limited friends price 190 Euro, upcoming link, Facebook group

  The program
  The next08 theme is “get realtime”. We ask why your customer is realtime – and you need too. Which brands are realtime brands. How agencies become realtime. What the way from E-Commerce to Realtime-Commerce looks like.

  Conference language is German and English – depending on the country of the speakers. New: moderated discussions, workshops and speedpresentations after lunch.

  The Participants
  We are looking forward to 1,000 participants from all sections of the economy: Marketing directors, project managers in companies and at service providers, start-ups and other independent internet professionals, agencies, investors, blue chips and visionaries.

  Registration
  Registration for friends of the next08 is now open. We are starting with a limited amount of tickets at a special rate of a 190 Euro for friends. This rate is below the costs of the conference in order to allow as many people as possible to participate.

(Disclosure: I work with kongressmedia which organises the Summit and am advisor to Sinnerschrader for the Next conference.)

In case you are a fresh startup, you should especially pay attention to the launchpad event during the Expo!

Informal Meetups are happening so far the following:

• 9th in Berlin, details in German
• as described by Tom Raftery: 14th in Cork
• 16th in London, no place set yet

I suggested to Brady to make a geek dinner out of the event, but so far no luck. I will be at the events in Berlin as well as in London, so if there is a chance to hook up for example for the german version of blognation, ping me ;o)

Tag(s): web20expoberlin, web20expo, web2open, launchpad

Probably my farest away recording – directly from Thailand. Michel Bauwens is founder of the foundation of p2p alternatives. His talk is named “The Politics of Web 2.0 and the contradictions of a sharing economy”

Michel and I talk about:

• why he wanted to do something which has meaning for him
• about passion and midlife crisis
• what p2p has to do with respect
• social trends: peer production, peer governance, peer property
• the roman empier did not simply disappear – and how this applies to today
• open design and why innovation could so much faster
• if it works, we have a sustainable world

Download MP3 (28:45 min, 16,9 MB)

Visit his profile on the reboot page or visit his blog.

He added some suggestions:

Brief four minute video presentation of basic P2P ideas

The P2P Foundation Wiki and Encyclopedia and The P2P Blog

Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499

[Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!]

Tag(s): reboot9, pre conference podcast, interview, Michel Bauwens, p2p, p2pfoundation

A conversational talk with Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, facilitator of reboot.

• the referenced talk with Stowe Boyd
• why human this year – to make again a central theme
• insight was: all what is happening currently is a massive shift from machine / industrial perception to a more social, playful, finding yourself way – the desire to make sense
• more self-organizing, more conversation, no Q&A!
• how the program was / is organized – the wow factor
• more rooms this year and an official babysitter!
• present among your peers and not sucking up to the participants
• about birth, kids and death
• companies can die, too.
• you do not raise people
• what would have happened if we would have had access when we were younger
• how children start translating japanese comics
• people coming from 23 countries
• why it is great that there is another conference with fancy names
• it is just for 500 people – well, go make your own version of reboot!

Download MP3 (42:43 min, 25 MB)

Visit his profile on the reboot page or visit his blog.

[Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!]

Tags: reboot9, pre conference podcast,interview, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal

Stowe Boyd calls himself a cross between a researcher and an impresario with a focus on social tools. His talk is going to be “Flow: A New Consciousness For A Web Of Traffic”

Download MP3 (40:30 min, 23,7 MB)

He and I talk about:

• the agenda is changing – they allow us now to do different things
• how he is the oldest teenager in the world
• how the desire to work more in Europe succeeded – but differently than planned
• his work with the open university project
• how twitter and a cocktail party are superior to social network app – and I forgot to add he is looking for designers! :)
• different speed of different social apps to get into the enterprise
• how many people can you really stay connected with – it might be more than just 150
• how tools like dopplr short circuit processes
• the mentioned talk with Thomas Madsen-Mygdal on Blogtalkradio

Visit his profile on the reboot page or visit his blog.

His description about reboot is definitely one of my favorites:

everyone is very open, a great mix of having fun and being very very serious
this very playful, but on the other hand people really trying to dig into things
very practical but at the same time it got strong theoretical leanings
it’s very aspirational while at the same time it’s pragmatic and
trying to help people trying to do things which are very nuts and bolds
[..] it is kind of amazing that it can spread so far and do so much

[Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!]

Tags: reboot9, pre conference podcast,interview, Stowe Boyd

Robert Slagter is a researcher at the Telematica Instituut in the Netherlands and is going to present “your ideal Working environment – what does it take to create an environment that stimulates productivity, collaboration and knowledge sharing?”

Download MP3 (24:43 min, 14,5 MB)

He and I talk about:

• his interest in collaboration and sharing
• how do people actually work and how to make something that fits
• what are free thinkers and why it is crucial to keep them happy
• some learnings companies make at the moment
• his ventures in Second Life and which roles virtual worlds can play, including some limitations
• you don’t need every function / opportunity which is available

Visit his profile on the reboot page or visit his blog.

[Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!]

Tags: reboot9, pre conference podcast,interview, Robert Slagter,Telematica, second life, virtual worlds

Dannie Jost, writer, philosopher and part time poet, is going to present a talk on “Theoretical Man – being human right there with public man”

Dannie and I talk about:

• why “human?” is one of the most fascinating questions
• “theoretical man” was born at lift, but already had a bit of a history
• “the I and the We” – balancing of a certain paradox
• as human we are genderless
• how we use language to communicate the levels of abstraction
• theory is not about truth, it is about being a model
• why the romans already knew a lot about management
• human behaviour in a quantum mechanic way
• the interplay of emotion and intellect

Download MP3 (31 min, 18,2 MB)
Sadly there is a interference during the recording when speaking – thankfully it is on my side, not when the important person speaks, aka Dannie!

Visit her profile on the reboot page or visit her blog.

[Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!]

Tags: reboot9, pre conference podcast,interview, Dannie Jost