Show & Tell: Northern Voice Part 5

I’m going to attempt to finish blogging on the remaining  five sessions today.  The key word being “attempt”.  Why?  Because tomorrow is departure day for the Massive Art Culture Road Trip 2009.  Check back tomorrow for more about that.

Who Are You: Defining Yourself in the Online World (Jenn Lowther, Rebecca Bollwitt, Linda Bustos, and Nadia Nascimento)

This panel of bloggers discussed the pros and cons of sharing personal information online and offered some sage cautionary advice. Do you use an alias, or not? Authenticity is great, but exactly what and how much are you wanting to share and who do you want to have access? One particularly good tidbit of advice: check your “Whois” profile and make sure your personal info is locked down.

Help! I’m Sick and Tired of My Blog! (Susannah Gardner and guest panel)

If you work in solitude at home, blogging may be the only connection you have to your community (i.e. artist, writer).  What do you do when you are hit with Blog Burnout?  The guest panel – which included Darren Barefoot and Anthony Nicalo – talked about how they keep it fresh.  Here’s some points I found pertinent:

1) Keep your self interesting (personal growth) and your writing will stay interesting.

2) Choose to blog on a topic or topics in which you have subject matter expertise.

3) Consider less frequent, longer and more thoughtful posts over short, constant posts.

4) Take a Blog Holiday, but be sure to inform your followers that you will be absent for a while.

Hmm…that last one sounds pretty good…

From Permalink to Profound: Where is the Art in Social Media? (Darren Barefoot)

Darren’s presentation posed the question, “Can you find profound art in social media?”  The consensus was, not often – mainly because the tools of social media don’t support it.  The examples cited of social media approaching profound were Post Secret (works because of the mass collected); Where the Hell is Matt?; The Big Picture; and We Feel Fine.

Say/Blog it in Pictures (Alan Levine)

Alan presented  the appealing notion of blogging through images, with longer captions, in flickr.  My favourite part of this session was his social media game, Five Card Flickr.  FCF was based on Five Card Nancy (invented by Scott McCloud of Reinventing Comics fame), where old Nancy cartoon panels are cut up, mixed up, and then dealt.  The object is to try and create a narrative using the existing panels.

Hip Hop in Dar es Salaam (Jay Grandin, Leah Nelson)

The last presentation, but certainly not the least in any way.  This was/is one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen.  There’s no point in me trying to explain it, I’ll just make dog’s breakfast of their wonderful presentation.  Instead, go to Giant Ant Media and experience it in their own words and images.