march 16 continues...
I found Carl in the lobby watching a few folks, some from fallon-mcgelliot, eating breakfast. one friend lisa wasn't finishing her pancakes and eggs, bacon, so i took her invitation and poached some ready breakfast castoffs. yum.
Carl and I had a round table at one pm. we hadn't planned anything. we were in a room with a bunch of folding tables pushed into a square donut, a few microphones and a projector/computer apparatus. very many beautiful people streamed into the room, i urged all the unknowns sitting in the dark in the eaves to approach so we would all sit at the table together. when time rolled around i started introductions, seemed fitting for a round table. truth was carl and i didn't exactly know what we were going to do with the time. as introductions built up steam, and it became clear that everyone in the room was articulate and interesting and curious or experienced or both, all my fears of flubbing vanished. after one score and four more had presented their personal URLs and profiles, we launched into a lively talk about the perils and prospects of publishing bits from your life online. besides the usual crew of personal web publishing mavens who graced the roundtable with their stories and examples, there were a crop of relative outsiders who were eager to start or had been making their own ways on the web outside of the raging dialog accompanying the web professionals. the range of folks present and the ready exchange between made for an easy job for this moderator; every so often i'd think of some larger issue behind a slightly rambling point and hurl it at an otherwise silent participant, recalling some factoid from their introduction. contrary to what doug is fond of saying about personal web pages, i do think most people have something to say. and while folks attending a web conference are perhaps prone to be articulate and thoughtful about web related issues, most any exchange of stories and ideas is an exciting one and i find i never regret a participant. personal web page publishing attracts some motley text slingers but none that aren't interesting in some light, especially in conversation with some other nearly opposing soul.
or heck, maybe we just got lucky. either way, it was reassuring fun, and i like learned stuff. molly used the phrase "stealing time" to describe working on a personal site from work. someone, pam i think, mentioned meeting a guy hitched up to his 5th online journal fiance. say that to yourself: "his 5th online journal fiance"
there was much talk of stalkers as well, where boundaries for sharing lie, and what sorts of dis-easing communication can occur. while many folks, often women, had sobering stories to share, carl mentioned that his most effective way of dealing with overzealous fans has been to go out with them for coffee, where they inevitably find themselves underwhelmed.
lance arthur i later verified had indeed taped the entired thing onto minidisk and spoke of later sharing it with the web.
then, an mp3 panel
16 march
next | march '99 | prev
daze | justin's links
justin's links | www.links.net
justin hall | <justin at bud dot com>