There have been over 90 of these events. In many of them, another group started from (nearly) nothing and started their own experience. In all cases, I believe seeds were planted. Sometimes, they went unnoticed. Sometimes, they fell on rocky soil and didn’t take root.

In many cases, they have.

Thinking about the people who attended the first PodCamp 4 years ago, here’s who I connected with yesterday:

Christopher S. Penn – nice long conversation via IM.
C.C. Chapman – he’s participating in a project with me soon.
Julien Smith – he cowrote our book.
Doug Haslam – saw him last weekend, but read his blog yesterday.
Mitch Joel – we tweeted a bit back and forth about a good post he wrote.

And many more.

In all cases, I’ve been working on projects with people I met at PodCamp. The event connected me with Jeff Pulver (who attended the first PodCamp, too), which connected me to my current company, and it’s just this endless cascade of opportunities.

Julien found the best phrase for it and stuck it in Trust Agents: be the priest; build the church. Essentially, if you can make the movement happen through your passion, then good things might follow.

I’m grateful for the experiences that PodCamp gave me, but also for the seeds it blew into my wild garden.

What are you doing to promote wild new opportunities born out of creative, disruptive collaboration? Where are your seeds?

I’ve decided not to speak formally at PodCamp Boston so that others can have the stage. Why? Because it’s one of the MAIN TENETS of PodCamp: that everyone is a rockstar.

To make that more so, I’d rather just be there and see what you’ve got going on. I’ll particpate and help in any ways possible, but no presentation.

See you there?

How to Launch a Group Blog Project

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name

This took more time than we thought, but we got it within 30 minutes. We went to Ajaxwhois.com and used that for brainstorming. It’s a domain name finding software that works quickly, and shows you quickly (very!) which domain names are taken.

We decided on OMGPittsburgh.com, which was halfway funny, a little irreverent, and besides, it was getting late.

Step 2: Buy the Domain

We used a GoDaddy.com account to register the domain. If you’re into blogging or podcasting, more than half of your friends have affiliate codes that will get you some kind of discount. Be kind and use theirs. By the way, Ajaxwhois has links straight to GoDaddy on the site, so you can do it that way, too. (I have no relationship with the site. I just think it’s useful.)

Step 3: Point the Domain to a Host

We used Tubu. (Note: I’m an affiliate for Tubu). The reasons were: it’s $10 a year to host a WordPress install. They have a “build a WordPress blog” setup that makes it SILLY easy to set up a blog. And Tubu was a sponsor of PodCamp Pittsburgh.

Outside of those reasons, Tubu is inexpensive, we know the owner, and it was easy. Reason enough?

Step 4: Decide on the Software

We picked WordPress as our blogging platform of choice. Most of us were already users of that software. You use what makes you comfy. We launched a WordPress install on our Tubu site, which as I mentioned earlier was silly/easy to do.

Step 5: Decide on the Plugins

WordPress allows you to extend your blog by adding specific plugins to the product. I won’t tell you the details of this here, as there are no doubt better blog posts. What I find about how people decide on the plugins is that you look at sites you love, figure out (or ask) what they use, and then use those.

We haven’t loaded all our plugins, but what we wanted to do was make sure our group blog had good spam protection, good sharing buttons like ShareThis or AddThis, etc, and a few other things. Which ones do you suggest?

Step 6: Decide on a Theme

For a personal blog, I’d pick Thesis, no doubt. It’s the best WordPress theme out there, and made by Chris Pearson, a true pro.

For our group blog, we wanted something more group-friendly. We checked out what Blog Harrisburg was using, and we found it was made by Woo Themes. We started over there, thought we’d pick one of their great themes, but because this was a free/cheap project, we ended up choosing K2, which is a functional, editable theme. Not my first choice, but I think it’s a good starting point.

Step 7: Build Passport Accounts

I talk briefly about establishing passports in this post. The basic premise is this: if you’re going to use the web, you need accounts at certain places. Here’s our working list of passports you’ll need:

• Yahoo (for flickr, delicious, upcoming, stumbleupon)
• Google (for gmail, googledocs, calendar)
• Twitter (technically, Twitter’s an outpost).
• Disqus (for commenting).
• FeedBurner (which isn’t a passport, but was an account we needed.

What else should we have?

Step 8: Build Outposts

I talk about using outposts here. Essentially, build places that will help get people to know where your site is, and find people where they are instead of hoping they show up. Some outposts:

• Twitter
• Facebook (in this case, we’re thinking of building a fan page)
• MySpace
• Flickr (for group photo projects)

Step 9: Start the REAL Planning

We started a wiki where we could build out the conversation about the platform. Planning for a group blog is probably a completely different post. I’ll write about the mindset in more details later. But here’s how we started:

• Group blog to be the voice of Pittsburgh, meaning a way that outsiders will learn about the city. For people inside the city, we agree that I Heart PGH is doing a great job. So are some other sites.
• Multi-authors. The site won’t work without dozens of authors to carry the load.
• Goal of people explaining why it’s so cool to come to Pittsburgh for business. We figure there are tons of ways to talk about travel. If people talk about the city in ANY way, that’s great. But if I were focusing the efforts, I’d point it towards business, because that would have the largest impact on what a blog might do for the city.
• Administered by a few to start, until an obvious leader rises to the top (someone with passion for the direction of the site).

Beyond that, we didn’t get into the planning as much YET. I presume the wiki will be a way to start that ball rolling.

Step 10: Have Fun

From here, it’s all a learning process. Every group project is different. Dad-o-Matic launched powerfully, but what surprised me was that we had SO MANY AUTHORS right out of the gate. Dads love signing up to be part of the action. I didn’t expect that.

This step is probably worth 10 blog posts.

What Else?

That’s how we got started. How have you done it in the past? What steps seem to be missing? What else would you recommend for this project flow?

After lunch, en route to the airport, Matt Homann gave me a great tour of St. Louis. We went through various neighborhoods, and I learned a lot about the history of the area, a few really interesting spaces, and some of the interesting news about neighborhood redevelopment.

It got me thinking: why aren’t tourism agencies looking to build relationships with visiting bloggers?

One group that is trying this out is Visit Pittsburgh. My friend and PodCamp organizer, Justin Kownacki, connected me into a program with Visit Pittsburgh that ties to the upcoming PodCamp Pittsburgh, happening on October 18th-19th 2008. They have a tour set up for me, and are doing a lot to show me the better side of Pittsburgh, a place I’ve visited three or four times now and find exciting and dynamic and full of great rebirth stories.

I’m not sure how it works. Maybe you have some ideas. Would this be the kind of thing that would attach to conferences being held in the area? That’d be a great way to find out who was visiting that might represent the new media. Or is there some other simpler mechanism to put people together on these kinds of opportunities?

It’s on my mind.

And Michael? Thanks for the gooey butter cakes. Those were a delicious taste of St. Louis.

Want to organize a PodCamp? Though it’s not exactly “easy,” it’s also not especially rocket science. If it was, I wouldn’t have been able to pull off the first one with Christopher Penn. He could’ve, but boy, we learned SO MUCH just in the middle of the action. You could do the same, but if you want to cheat a bit, take advantage of all the cool blogs written about it out there. Want a place to start? Here are 10 of the most important points to getting started.

Quick PodCamp Starter Kit

1. Are there more than 10 podcasters or videobloggers or bloggers in your area? If yes, then you can probably do a PodCamp.
2. Make a wiki. We use http://pbwiki.com . Easy cheesy to edit.
3. List your PodCamp with a tentative time frame up on PodCamp.org
   • Remember that there are six rules listed on the page to make it an official podcamp.
4. Blog that you’re going to do it.
5. Ask for co-organizers. Assign them very specific tasks.
6. Find a venue. This is way harder than you think.
   • Room for ___ people (it’s your event. How many do you want?)

   • Wifi
   • A/V gear (unless you can get a sponsor to give you some)
   • Food costs – Some places charge 3x the venue costs for meals
   • If you can get a corporate venue, that often works the best
7. Seek sponsors to cover costs.
   • Be very clear on what they get back for their money.

   • Make sure this includes link love on the web. If you can, ask others to also blog about the sponsors.
   • Be very open about who will come, what type of people, and how the sponsors will interact.
8. Decide whether to charge for attendance (something nominal).
9. Delegate to the volunteers such that everyone knows what they own.
10. Hold a great event and write about it for years.

I’m sure that Christopher S. Penn and Whitney Hoffman have some other advice, but that’s a super tiny starter pack list for you to think about, should you want to start your own PodCamp, and hey, there have been 50 or so of them. Why not?

What I loved most about the experience was the energy, the sense that we could make progress, the fact that people came into the venue, engaged, and took EVERYTHING further. I felt energized, and excited by the conversations I had, and will unpack several of them into blog posts, a newsletter article, and more.

Thanks also to Nina Simonds for arranging a beautiful small dinner in honor of Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty. Thanks to Roger Berkowitz, who had a few of us into his restaurant for dinner, at Nina’s recommendation.

If you’re thinking of learning more about media making, and how this might impact your business, I highly recommend checking out a PodCamp in your neighborhood. What? There isn’t one? Start one. The six rules are easy to follow. The work is hard, but can be done with a few friends, and the results are astounding.

Lastly, a shout out to Jeff Pulver for throwing a pre-pre PodCamp supper for 30+ folks at Bertucci’s and for sponsoring two last-minute tickets (proceeds to the Boston Food Bank). You were there for the first two, and you were there in spirit for the second.

Cheers.

There are a few stipulations and things to know about.

• You are a college student with an active .edu email address. You’re on the honor system, so we ask that professors and alumni sit this one out.
• You are an ooVoo user who can provide us with a valid ooVoo ID — it doesn’t matter if you subscribe to the fully loaded Super + Phone package or the free Standard package; in fact, it doesn’t matter if you just signed up today. But you will need to include your valid ooVoo User ID in the body of your email and send an ooVoo friend request to philiprobertson for verification. We promise not to bother you; we just need to make sure you are a subscriber.
• You have a first name, last name and a date of birth. We know you do, but we’ll need to know them to complete the PodCamp registration form — so if you are selected for a scholarship, we’ll need to ask that you share this information with us.
• You let us know you’re interested by emailing us at ooVoo@crayonville.com.

If you want to come to PodCamp Boston3 and you’ve got some EDU to show the ooV’s, read the details here.

See you at PodCamp.

Inspired a bit by Andy Quayle’s What Did You Do Today post, here’s a bit of what’s on my plate (not counting family life):

CrossTech Media

I’ve been doing lots of stuff for CrossTech Media in anticipation of our upcoming ITEC Houston technology event, I’ve been working with Radian6 on a webinar/video series that we’re producing for a CrossTech webinar. I’m also trying to build interest and awareness of our new The Next Data Center executive briefing event, which I’m really happy about. I’m also building out events for later in the year (something about the future of work, and one about communications, and another about social software). I’m building speaking engagements now for New Marketing Summit, my event in Boston this fall. So, that’s a lot.

PodCamp

PodCamp Boston3 is coming up this summer. I’m in charge of helping raise sponsorship money to cover the venue, the wifi, the other stuff that makes a PodCamp happen. Christopher Penn and Whitney Hoffman and others do all the heavy lifting, but fundraising takes some efforts, too.

Book

I’m co-authoring a book soon with Julien Smith. We’re in the proposal stage, so I won’t say more. Book is the new “rock band” thing we say. “Oh yeah, I’m writing a book, too.” But it’s something that matters to me, so I’m putting what I can into it.

Social Media Stuff

Here’s a pretty busy bucket that I’ve run out of time to cover. But there’s where I spend a lot of time, too. What comes of this part is always interesting, quirky, sometimes business-actionable, and filled to the brim with humans. THIS is where the above stuff starts. Social media are the fields I tend, where I plant seeds, weed out things that don’t work, grow new varieties of relationships, and develop ideas that might or might not lead to business or a further sense of being helpful.

Later, I’ll cover what goes into all this, but start here. Think here. Start here. Think about how this is what social media does for individuals. Do you know that’s why my bosses hired me in and gave me a big role in changing their company? Do you know that my bosses (and I say that half joking, because I think of us as business partners with different percentages) talk to me about Twitter and Facebook and things like that every day?

If you’re passionate about social media, real business happens here, real connections and value happen here. Education happens here. It’s what you want to make of it, and it’s a powerful force for STARTING and MAINTAINING good things. It’s up to use to close what you do with it. But if you use the tools, at least you can start.

What are you doing today? How are you using social media to move the ball forward in your life? What are your challenges?

There was an open slot. Shashi stepped up and filled in to speak. Kenneth Yeung stepped in to film it. Done. Pow. Easy content, created by knowledgeable people, captured by the participants, all done on the fly without a lot of fuss and sweat.

That’s why PodCamp is cool. Because YOU make it cool. The next event is in New York City this coming Friday and Saturday. If you can make it, you’ll love it. If not this event, find or MAKE YOUR OWN event near you.

Have you been? What did you think of Shashi’s session? Can you imagine an event where YOU are the expert on what you know, what you have to say? What’s your take on PodCamp as a concept, or unconference style event structures?

First, some history. Until last October’s PodCamp Boston 2, our attendance-to-no-show rate was unprecedented for free events. We had approximately 70%-80% attendance. Not so last year. We had almost 700 people not come. This caused some problems. One, we had sponsors paying money for a lot of things, estimating a higher number of attendees, so some people bought things like tee shirts for nothing. Second, and more important to me, participants who expected tons of people got something different.

But what we felt after the experience was somewhat sideways to both of those things: we found that we were craving a closer connection to the people who wanted to be part of our community. We wanted a more intimate experience, where everyone who came felt like they were part of something special, and that they were making a commitment to something we feel is valuable.

Is $50 a lot of money? Yes, to some folks. Does this make us less of an unconference? Frankly, I’m a little frustrated by arguing what type of event we are or aren’t. We allow for group participation, no keynotes, as much access to everyone’s ideas as possible, and with as much consideration for our community as possible. We’re an event that has proven itself to be useful to those who choose to participate. We recognize that $50 might be a barrier to some, but feel that the commitment it represents means a lot to us.

Remember, our ledger is open. You can read the blog to see that our costs this year are $35,000, which I will be helping to raise via sponsors. Chris and I don’t make a dime off participants, and we both put in our money at several steps. Repeat: we make no money off the event for ourselves.

So, I’m asking you to register and show your commitment to PodCamp, and the Boston 3 event. Potential sponsors, I’ll be reaching out to you, but if you want to be associated with a 40-plus event and growing experience, drop me a line.

Co-founder and friend, Christopher S. Penn states his take on it here.

Photo credit, DC John