An Autobiography of Sorts

One thing that Jeff Pulver and I agree on is that blogs do a horrible job of showing someone one’s best work. Or rather, I’ve done a poor job of implementing a feature or tag that allows you to find an easy way to catch up with what matters most to me, and give you a sense of why you should bother reading my blog.

As my RSS Subscriptions just went up something like 60 people overnight, I thought it’d be a great time to tell you a bit about me, what I’m writing about lately, what I’m interested in. For those of you who’ve been here all along, go out and buy a sandwich, eat the sandwich, and come back later. : ) (Update: this turned out a little long, but if you ever wanted to know, some of the story’s in here).

Who I Am

I write about things that excite me. People these days know me for co-founding PodCamp, the unconference about new media community tools, which I did with my partner, Christopher S. Penn. I work for Jeff Pulver, visionary entrepreneur and godfather of VoIP to some on his Network2 startup, and also at his pulvermedia conference, Video on the Net. I also write for LifeHack.org, the lesser known but still widely useful website about personal improvement.

I write about community a lot, about new media tools, about personal branding and self-development. I write about empowering you to become rockstars and superheroes. It’s what drives me the most.

My professional background was in telecom. I worked for New England Telephone and then NYNEX for seven or so years, and then I worked 9 3/4 years for a wireless services company called bcgi, who served pretty much every US wireless company over the years. Through these jobs, I did everything from answer phones to manage people answering phones to building nationwide computer networks to building data centers and acquiring companies. A lot of my recent years at bcgi were in project management and then applications engineering. Nowadays, I work on community development for a professional conference, as well as an Internet video startup.

The Way Old Days

I started blogging somewhere back in 1998 or 1999. My first stuff was done through Dan Bricklan’s WYSIWYG software, Trellix, and it was basically copy/paste/moving a table cell with the date and a table cell with my post for the day down a notch every time I wanted to write something else. Once, a swarm of Trellix guys contacted me because they thought I’d written a hack to blog using Trellix. Turned out, I was doing the same thing Dan did. Somewhere later, I used LiveJournal for a while, then Blogger, and now I write in WordPress on my own hosted site.

My first websites dealt with writing fiction. I wrote voraciously through childhood and was really proud and passionate about my writing. I got lots of early readership through my site, and built a little online community of writers.

After 9/11, I changed. I was no longer interested in reading or writing fiction. My site turned upside down and went into conversations about sustainability, then nature. I wrote a lot about being out and about in forests.

In August 2003, I started working on my physical health and nutrition, and my self-esteem. I started writing about my fitness efforts, and especially my running. I found my way into Mark Iocchelli’s running blog family and he still graciously lists me there (#197),even though I stopped writing about running and fitness some time after my marathon, and after my injury.

For a while, I turned my site into a place to feature my cartoon art. I love visual thinking and design and I’m a huge fan of Dave Gray’s XPLANE company. That was a big passion, and the underpinnings still help me professionally, as I still practice visual thinking and visual communication often to figure things out and to get my point across.

Somewhere in here, I met my friend Reverend Jon Swanson, who needs a note in this “history of Chris,” as I talk to Jon often about matters of the spirit. In this same part of my life, I should mention Rob Hatch, an old school buddy from Pittsfield, Maine, who I reconnected with and fell deeply in love with him and his family. We hung out a LOT over the last year or so, and I enjoy my connection to Rob and his wife, Megin.

More Recently

I went through a strong self-improvement stint on my blog, and that included writing a lot about time management, presentations, work life, and other related topics. Echoes of this still ring through my blog.

Then, I fell into podcasting. I started like most people do, by listening to a few favorite shows. I was in love with Doug Kay’s IT Conversations and Daniel Steinberg’s Distributing the Future, and CNET’s Buzz Out Loud. And of course, I cycled through dozens of other shows along the way.

Doug Kay announced they were doing Podcast Academy 2 in Boston in April of 2006, and I was thrilled! I wanted to go, to learn about how to do all this. And it was exciting. I met Michael Geoghagen, Paul Figgiani, C.C. Chapman (who I just remember as this smiling rockstar guy), John Federico, and Eric Olson of FeedBurner. I also realized I was probably not cut out for podcasting, because it looked like it cost a ton of money. The only shining light: I saw Steve Garfield’s presentation on how to videoblog using your typical digital still camera and this changed my life forever.

I almost wouldn’t have started a podcast, had it not been for Tom Merritt of CNET, who’s Real Deal podcast happened to do a quick and easy podcast about “how to podcast.” And that’s where I started my first audio show, ‘Fat Guy Gets Fit.’

Grasshoppers BarCamps and PodCamps

Instead of being content with one podcast, I decided to build a bunch of podcasts with friends. I’d just written a blog post called ‘Content Networks are the New Blogs,’ where I argued that standalone blogs were dinosaurs and that blogs or networks of blogs where people wrote together down the same RSS feed, were where things were going, due to attention and time requirements. I decided to put my money where my mouth was, and turned my Fat Guy Gets Fit podcast into Health Hacks, with Kevin Kennedy-Spaien ( It’s still live), and then I went on to launch Great Big Small Business Show with Becky McCray, and Career Mom Radio with Erica Douglas (later Megin Hatch, who runs our GNMParents blog with Stu Mark and Whitney Hoffman and team).

Another important part: one day, I wrote a blog post about small town actors, and this caught the attention of Justin Kownacki. Justin produces, directs, writes, and everythings truly one of the best web shows out there, Something to be Desired. Justin directed me to LOTS of what became my fascination with Internet video. Justin connected me to Jeff Pulver. Justin continues to be the closest analog I have to a best friend in my life right now (but that’s another topic). So, thanks Kownacki. When you become the news blowing Wallstrip’s acquisition price tag away, remember me, okay?

In June of 2006, I attended BarCamp Boston, an unconference about software and technology, and I was scarred for life. There, I met Eric Skiff, Bryan Person, and Christopher S. Penn (not to mention seeing Brian Del Vecchio again, meeting Rod Begbie, Jack Hodgson, and a lot of other interesting cats). The three of us podcasted in the hallways and generally got all jazzed about unconferences.

Between my experience with Podcast Academy 2 and BarCamp Boston, and Christopher Penn’s previous work with the New England Podcasters group, we got it in our heads to make PodCamp, a free unconference about new media community tools (podcasting, videoblogging, second life, blogging, whatever). We held the first event at the Bunker Hill Community College (famous for its location at guts of the American Revolution, as well as the filming locale for Good Will Hunting), and it was a blast! Lots of people came, participated, and had a swell time. I’ve written extensively about the first PodCamp, and will again and again. I should say that Mr. Penn, myself, Bryan Person, Steve Garfield, Adam Weiss, Susan Kaup, and Steve Sherlock pulled off the lion’s share of the planning and organizing, with some help from hundreds more along the way.

Two things came from that event. One, Chris and I decided we wanted tons more of these events, but that others would have to run them. If you go to the PodCamp site, you’ll see that there have been plenty of events so far, run by friends like Justin Kownacki, Leesa Barnes, Jay Moohan, Julien Smith, Mitch Joel, John Havens, Eric Skiff, Whitney Hoffman (and forget it… there are tons of you- it’ll look like movie credits). I have to mention Michael Bailey, who’s attended more PodCamps than me, and who’s a real pillar of the community.

The other thing was being hired by Jeff Pulver to go work at Video on the Net, his huge conference about the impact of the broadband Internet on the future of TV, Film, and Broadcasting. What a crazy difference between that event and what we’d done. Jeff’s was professional. Instead of tuna sandwiches, we were fed steaks. It was a traditional conference setting, but with completely amped up speakers who either were the enlightened of traditional media, or who were the new and wild upstarts. Jeff gave me the duty of bringing some of the fire and passion of PodCamp into his event, and so far, that’s what I’ve done, literally.

Spring 2007 Video on the Net in March in San Jose was where I brought guys like Justin Kownacki, Steve Garfield, Brian Conley, and more onto the stage to show the audience how it was being done in the trenches. I’ve got more planned for Boston in October, which comes right after PodCamp Boston 2. So look out.

During this time, by the way, I also joined Jeff’s startup, Network2.tv. Network2 is a guide to the best in Long Tail Internet TV content (or some of the best videoblogs and video podcasts we’ve seen). Through this work, also as a community developer, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and connect with hundreds and hundreds of amazing people who matter a great deal to me. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet people all over the US and Canada (soon to include Sweden, Israel, and elsewhere). It’s been amazing to be a part of this.

Where Next?

If you’re still reading this, thanks, and holy cow. I didn’t really set out to write a blog-biography. There’s tons missing, and tons more to write about. But hey, if you read all this, you’ve got a pretty firm sense of where I’ve been, where I am, and what I do. If you’re still along for the ride, YOU will know where I’m going next.

So thanks for all the fish, stick with me, and help add to the story. Thank you for who you are. I am here, in great part, due to you.

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