Podcampin’

It was the type of camp we nerds dream of: indoors, little to no physical activity (I had to click through some slides and nearly broke a sweat), and the only sign of “wildlife” being the “tweeting” of blackberries, cellphones, and macs.

Podcamp Halifax was good fun, and dare I say, I learned a bit. I didn’t get to meet as many folks as I’d hoped (I’m awkward about introducing myself as Lauren from the internet), but despite this had a few good chats with the great folks that make up the social media scene around these parts.

Having heard of his legendary 28-person friendslist, I took in Joel Kelly‘s “Unfriend Someone Today” presentation first. Lots of topics were covered here, from reputation management, the legal issues surrounding googling potential employees, and naked guys who jump into Halifax Harbour. You can see the presentation here (video by Paul Wesson).

The second presentation was an examination of grassroots community building through social networking. The focus was on New Brunswick’s Third Tuesday meet-ups, which have proved to be wildly popular. You can read Harold Jarche’s presentation notes on his blog. I hope to see Halifax’s Third Wednesday pick up the same way the NB events have, with an emphasis on “taking the show on the road” once in a while to different parts of the province.

The last presentation I went to was the smallest, but nonetheless very interesting. William Lachance gave us a walk-through OpenStreetMap and what local folks have been doing with it. The presenter is coming out with a very neat product based on OpenStreetMap that will have HRM bus-commuters throwing themselves at his feet, I kid you not. Watch this space. Another gem from this presentation that cannot be ignored is MappyHour. Click on Halifax, I dare you. You can read William Lachance’s notes here.

The keynote address by Rocketboom founder/producer Andrew Baron (Nice guy, and a good sport about the terrible weather) was excellent, of course. I can’t really do justice to the presentation, so I’ll direct you towards this TwitWall and have you stay tuned for the full video of the presentation to be made available online. I will mention that this is the first time I’ve heard someone utter the term “Web 3.0” outloud—be afraid, be very afraid.

Congrats to the organizers of this fantastic event. I am already excited to 2010—no joke.