Top 10 Things I Took Away from Social Slam 2013

I figured I'd better open up The Inn again, since apparently it's fashionable again to blog--(oops, that's #7)

Anyway, in the spirit of one of things the things I learned at Social Slam 2013, held this afternoon in Knoxville, TN, here is my top 10 list of the most important, the most relevant, the most memorable (are those enough keywords?) things I learned today.

10)  There is still a growing "factionalization" of Social Media sites (I think I just coined a word).  No matter how much we hear the mantra of cross-channel and multi-channel content creation, some Social sites still have their major supporters and major detractors.  I personally still rarely use, nor see much value with Pinterest but it still has a large and vocal following.  Google + remains a mystery in it usefulness to me, as it does a lot of the crowd but some still swear by it.  I enjoy the rich business connection potential and useful Groups and other professional connectivity of LinkedIn, but some declare it little more than useless.  Some still decry Facebook and even Twitter, and there are still some hardy Instagram users out there.  Some fierce possessiveness still exists, and middle ground on some platforms seems difficult to achieve.

9) Vine is still basically a novelty.  Since half of the smart phones out there still can't run Vine (it's not available as of yet on Android devices), only the Apple contingent has access to it.  And of that group, it seems few consider it more than a souped up Animated GIF creator.  It may have its uses, and its greatest popularity may be yet to come, but not yet.

8) The most powerful force on the internet is not content, it's not community and it's not Mark Schaefer.  It's snark.

7) Blogging keeps circling back and forth and back and forth as being the most important Social Media tool. It seems to come and go in cycles, and now it's back again.  I think there's a reason for this, and I explain it in #1.

6) Nobody still has anything good to say about Klout :(  C'mon folks, if it's all you got, it's all you got.  Throw me a bone, here...

5) For all its good intentions as to putting the Social in Social Media, for me Social Slam remains a decidedly online-only event.  I rarely manage to bring another person from my work team with me to the event, and most of the local people I know that come to the event or are in the Social Media Knoxville group either organize the event, work the event, are speakers, or come in large groups of their own from PR houses or local media.  As such, I only spoke to a very small handful of people in person - the vast majority of my interaction during the day was through Twitter and using #soslam.  I realize I'm speaking totally for myself here, as someone who is a big introvert in large live social activities where I don't really know anyone.  I'm not making an actual complaint or offering up some kind of solution or suggestion, just that people like me exist and it would be nice if I could find a way to interact with more people I don't know at the event.

Caveat: This time of year I'm almost always working on a show, so my evenings are filled up with rehearsals and I wasn't able to make either the "night before" or "night of" parties.  Again, Your Mileage May Vary, but the actual social events weren't available for me.

4) If your presentation is lacking, the audience will turn on you.  There were a couple of presenters today who seemed to either wander far afield from their stated topic, or whose comments on stage began to border on insulting and unkind.  The attending community recognized this and reacted in kind online.  A living example of a community in action, both live and online.

3) Content is still, always has been, and always will be, king.  And I love the fact that this one nugget of truth is still held tightly by all who profess to see the value in Social Media and websites in general.  With all the talk of platforms and factions and tools and channels, good (great!) and interesting content is always the goal.

2) Raw, emotional, personal first-hand eyewitness accounts of 9/11 can still hold an audience enraptured and close to tears.  And it reinforced the idea that authenticity in content will attract and hold readership. But most importantly, damn, I hate that day.

1) There's nothing new under the sun.  As a long-time online healthcare marketing professional, I've attended several annual sessions of Greystone.net's Healthcare Internet Conference over the years. As such, I've seen the most popular and most emphasized topics range from simple website design to blogging to podcasts to multimedia to social to mobile and beyond.  I've also recognized points in time where the online world was catching its breath and really waiting for "the next big thing" to hit.  I think Social Media is at that point now, and Social Slam is caught up in the waiting game as well.  None of the main speakers or breakout sessions (that I attended) addressed to any great extent anything really cutting edge or new in either technology, innovation or cultural change.  Facebook and Twitter subjects still dominated the tool discussions, and other new online cultural changes were hard to find in the presentations.  Some years I go to these conferences and can scarcely contain myself from jumping right into all the new things and apps I wanted to try out.  Other than several good, new things from Google I hadn't heard of that my friend @shanerhyne spoke of, I would be hard pressed to really name any particular new items of interest to follow up on.

Mind you, this is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it's really not a bad thing at all.  It means that we can take a break from discussing the latest uber-popular platforms and concentrate on the core topics - the big "C's": content, culture, and clarity.  I came away with a lot of confidence and excitement of the possibilities of how I can improve my content creation - both at my job as Website Coordinator for a large local healthcare company, and for my personal online projects.

So, congratulations, Social Slam - I think 2013 was another successful year for this event.  I think it struggled more to find timely "content" for its presentations than it has in previous years but in a way that was ok.  It left the door open to talk about the subjects that really mattered - finding ways to bring genuine, authentic content that you or your organization are passionate about, to those out there who share the same interest, and using those connections and intersections to form, maintain and grow communities.  And that - not Plussing, Liking, Following, Pinning or snarking - that's exactly what it's really all about.

My Sixth Bloggiversary

Six years ago, on January 11, 2003, I wrote my first post for Inn of the Last Home.

This is it. Welcome.

In case you're wondering about the title, learn about it here.

Who am I? I live in Knoxville, TN. I have kids, and a good job. I figure the blogiverse needs someone to reach that middle-ground, family-in-the-suburbs, church-going, theatre-loving, liberal, sci-fi-watching, politically-naive demographic. That's me.

A lot has happened in six years. We've had two presidential elections (in which the online community had significant influence), I've joined a semi-successful band.

I lost a good friend in a senseless, tragic way. I also remembered another friend who was killed in another senseless, tragic way - the irony is I never actually met her.

I've performed in or Music Directed eight shows around town (Company, Jacques Brel..., Annie, Honk, The King and I, Suessical, Grease, Peter Pan) and one in Florida. I joined the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Theatre Association, and recently became Community Theatre Chair. My goal of actually getting to direct plays continues to frustratingly elude me.... I directed a children's show in 2002, and that's my only credit thus far despite a number of requests and offers to direct. That is, and always has been my main goal in theatre and I am unsure as to why I have not found an opportunity thus far.

My kids have grown up around me in spite of my attempts to keep them at three and six. Tink is now nine and a fourth grader, and BrainyBoy is twelve going on thirteen in the seventh grade. My "conversations" with Tink (then known as GiggleGirl) began here and are quite humerous (follow the tag).

My job situation on the face is unchanged. I continue to work at the same place, for the same folks and with pretty much the same folks. I don't and shouldn't blog about my workplace in any detail for obvious reasons but I will say that my frustration and feelings of being marginalized have about doubled every year since I started the blog. I need to find something new and quick - but I've been needing to do that for several years now, with no results. Similar to theatre directing, the opportunities for change, growth, advancement and satisfaction continue to elude me. Enough about that.

I've made 2,276 posts since I started this blog (counting this one). That averages about 379 a year or almost a post a day. Lately that count has dropped precipitously (like my big words?). A significant reason for that has been my increased use of Twitter. A lot of my style fits twitter better than blogging, with quick thoughts and random replies. Other than a few political posts I made in the last few months my posting has slacked off a good bit. I think if you look back in the previous paragraphs it will give you an indication why: sameness. Job - same. Theatre career - same. Not that the details haven't changed, but the sense of growth and moving forward have remained the same. When there's growth, there's creativity and spark. When I'm constantly going in circles, I don't feel as if there's really anything to particularly unload or talk about on this site.

I've also noticed in the last couple years the continued rise of a style of blogging I dislike - the hyper-political blog. These are blogs where politics is king and the actions of political figures are elevated to celebrity status. In the past, tabloid magazines and TV shows exploit the every movement and thought of various movie stars, models and other performers. Political blogs do the same with political figures, but in a different way. They elevate to extreme the people they like (i.e. from their own party and way of thinking) and denigrate everybody else (all those not in their party). It was bad enough during the Bush/Kerry campaign in 2004, but much worse in the McCain/Obama campaign of this past year. As I said before, the online community had a huge impact on the recent presidential election - but I don't feel it was a particularly positive one. Little attention was paid to highlighting issues and beliefs each candidate stood for, but more for their personalities, faults, intelligence, background, etc. When Sarah Palin's ability to see Russia from Alaska gets more blog coverage than McCain's economic policies we know we're in trouble. And when know more about political activists Obama was linked to 30 years ago than Biden's foreign policy experience, something's wrong.

But that's what was popular and any other noise was drowned out. So I didn't feel I had much of use to contribute. That was a big factor as well.

So what do I have to contribute to the blogging community? I lean way local, with a lot of Knoxville/Knox County/Tennessee related posts. I also lean personal with discussion of my family, my... (what would you call my theater and musical pursuits? They're less than a career but more than a hobby. An avocation?) Anyway, the stuff I do on the side. I don't rant, I don't pontificate, I don't throw things against the wall to see if they stick, I don't run things up flagpoles and see if anyone salutes, I'm not a curmudgeon, I'm not a rabble-rouser or an activist. I'm not a mommy-blogger or self-actualist. I don't claim to know the truth, the skinny, the dirt, the lowdown or the real story.

I am what I am. I live in a medium sized town in a southern state. I love music and I love theatre and Lost and Star Trek and Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and Jurassic Park and Back to the Future and dragons and spaceships and transporters and Civilization III and World of Warcraft and Agatha Christie and Christopher White and Stephen King and The Beatles and Huey Lewis and the News and Jimmy Buffett and Carmina Burana and Beethoven's 9th and To God Be the Glory and Amy Grant and hot, sunny days in the Caribbean and cool days in the Smokeys and Walt Disney World and EPCOT and Neyland Stadium and LP Field and spring church softball and bottom of the ninth. I'm blessed to be reconnected and continue to connect with old friends from high school, college and elsewhere. I can't wait to be around the people I have met doing theatre. I adore my wife. I'm continually proud of my kids and want to see them grow up well. I'm thankful for my parents and my in-laws. I love God and want to do his will. I have opinions like everybody else. I want to succeed, do things that people will be proud of and above all do the right thing.

Is any of that blogworthy? I guess I'll find out. I have a few bloggiversaries to go :)

Coming on Friday

My 6th Bloggiversary, and perhaps one of the most introspective posts of my brief blogging career.

Those of you who have been decrying my absence - hang on.

Social Symphony

Frank Murphy informs us it's time again for Blogger Night at the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra!

Be the first 50 49 48 local bloggers to email Stephanie Burdette at the KSO and, assuming you promise really nicely to blog about the concert the next day, she will give you a pair of tickets to the January 15, 2009 performance free!

The KSO will perform selections from Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn that night, and the featured soloist will be pianist Navah Perlman (daughter of violinist great Itzhak Perlman - or as my kids know him, "that guy with the violin that introduces the whale segment of "Fantasia 2000")

Real Evidence of Shoddy Journalism and Blogging

A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence

It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.

Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.

...

[The comic creators of Eisenstadt] say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.

“With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find,” said Mr. Mirvish, 40.

Mr. Gorlin, 39, argued that Eisenstadt was no more of a joke than half the bloggers or political commentators on the Internet or television.

This is part of what I meant by how bloggers take any tidbit of dirt they find that shows their opponent in a bad light and run with it.

But most of Eisenstadt’s victims have been bloggers, a reflection of the sloppy speed at which any tidbit, no matter how specious, can bounce around the Internet. And they fell for the fake material despite ample warnings online about Eisenstadt, including the work of one blogger who spent months chasing the illusion around cyberspace, trying to debunk it.

This past election, bloggers and the media took small pieces of stories and ran with them, gleefully, without worrying about whether they were true or even really plausible. If there was a nugget of truth, or even a hint of plausibility, as long as it made the other guy (or gal) look silly, stupid, uninformed or evil, it was repeated and expounded on.

This is why it was almost impossible to separate fact from fiction in the blogs this year. First the opinions are biased - they're backed up by facts from biased sources that were themselves researched with biased intent. Then the comments to these articles, where supposedly the great internet strength of fact-checking is supposed to come into play, revealed refutations and defense by people who had equally biased "sources" on the other side. There was no way to tell, short of personally talking to the candidates face to face, what was right and what was exaggeration, distortion, and outright lies.

I do want to take a moment to comment about my friend Rich, of the blog "Shots Across the Bow. He took exception to me in this post and on this site for painting him and his site with the same broad brush I did with a lot of other political blogs. I actually counted on his site a great deal for some well-researched commentary and it was one of the exceptions I noted in my post. I apologize for not spelling it out more completely to him before-hand, but I just didn't want to get into naming specific sites either way out of fairness.

After the post and commentary were reprinted in the Knoxville Sentinel this past Sunday, I thought some more about it and wanted to respond to his concerns publicly.

One thing I do wish Rich had done - I would have liked to have seen more posts - any posts, in some cases - dealing not with they Obama should not be president, but why McCain should be president. Or any reasons he could find that signaled positives he could see in an Obama presidency. I know I saw pluses and minuses all over the place for both candidates throughout the election, and the positive aspects of either candidates (and their VP's) deserve to be highlighted - even more than the negatives, in most cases. But that's just me, and maybe reflects more on the lack of such posts elsewhere. It's not fair to expect one person to cover the whole spectrum of political discussion - that's everyone's responsibility.

I've seen several interviews with Sarah Palin this past week where she refuted and explained - over and over, it seemed - some of the "charges" made against her. I can't imagine they're all true, but it seemed to some they were, or must have been, because of who she was and what she represented. To start with the conclusion and work backward...that's just kind of sad.

But that's politics.

C'mon, You Know You Want To...

It sure would be nice if my feedburner stat bar over there on the right-hand side had, like over 20 readers. It's hovered between 14-17 since I installed it several months ago.

Just sayin'.


UPDATE (5/9/08): Oops. Lost one. Dropped back down from 18 to 17. Ok, who did it? Oh wait, you unsubbed, so you're not seeing this... (giving the community at large the skunk-eye....)

Particularly Proud

I'm Seventh on Google searches for the name "Barry".

At least at this writing...

I don't know why this makes me happy but it does...

Our Name in Lights

There's something indescribably cool about seeing this:



Doug, Rich and LissaKay were kind of enough to join The Atomic Horns last night at Ray's ESG - Doug has a great review, and Rich will have video soon. Watching bloggers at an entertainment event, Twittering, Utterzing, Seesmicing and blogging away was a bit surreal but fantastic. Thanks guys, it meant a lot to have your support!

My Fifth Bloggiversary

On January 9, 2003 I posted my first blog entry.

It's been a long strange, trip, but a lot of fun. I've considered hanging it up a couple of times, but thought better of it. I've made a lot of friends while blogging and visiting blogs and all those of you out there who I've come to know via this online community please know I appreciate you all and value your friendships.

Thanks for five good years. Here's to five more! (and more!)

Does It Count If It's From a C-List Blog?

Interesting post...

The Evolution of My Blog

This is a really tough post. Tish tagged me to come up with a brief story of how my blog came to be, and how it evolved to this point. The trick is we have to use five posts from throughout the site to illustrate the changes here and with me along the way...

Sometime around 2001 or 2002, I participated in a Yahoo! Group called "K2K" which may or may not be still around. It was a discussion forum for Knoxville/Knox County issue. and a number of regular folks and politicians alike took part in rolling conversations of the local issues of the day. This was just before blogs started coming on, and as time went on several of the participants starting building their own sites to chronicle their own lives and experiences. Randy Neal, aka "SouthKnoxBubba", was a heavy participant in K2K and also created probably the first blog I ever saw. After a few months of commenting on his and others' sites, in January 2003 I decided to create my own and relate my experiences online. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to write about, so one of my first posts outlined my search for an online identity: Who am I? Who am I? I'm Jean Valjean!.

To be honest, and compared to Tish's evolution, not much has changed in my home life really in the almost 5 years I've been blogging. My kids have grown from 6 and 3 to 11 and 8, undergone a couple of name changes. I decided early on to keep them anonymous so they were BrainyBoy and GiggleGirl (who eventually became Tink). I still have the same job, same house, my wife also has the same job, we go to the same church and we all still have the same problems any normal family does. I did get mentioned in the News Sentinel for one of my posts (A Round Dog Day) so I started getting some exposure fairly soon. I was also one of the first to join the Rocky Top Brigade, which was the group of Tennessee bloggers who helped each other by commenting and linking to each other.

I had a lot of fun posting about my 20th High School Reunion in 2004 (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) that was a source of a lot of introspection for me. At that point I realized it was kind of ok to be in your late 30's...

In early 2005 I posted what would be the most popular post I've written, the one that still gets lots of Google hits today: "Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz" - The Unplayable Symphony - this sheet music is a mess, and hilarious for anyone who's ever played (or tried to play) in an orchestra. Folks continue to return and return to the site to download the music sheets.

In June of that year I posted my experiences on trips to both Virginia/Washington DC and Orlando (both links are beginnings of several posts - just read the whole month to be safe). I love to travel, and I love to write about the interesting things that happen when I go to new places with family and friends.

That fall I also get back into what would begin to be a good productive theatrical streak for me, Diary of a Musical Director (Part 1) where I write over the next month and a half about my experiences as the Musical Director for "Annie" at the Oak Ridge Playhouse. I was able to break a long dry spell with that production and proceed to do about 5 more shows over the next couple years, culminating with "The King and I" last fall. I'm taking a break right now but will be Musical Director for "Grease" next spring in Oak Ridge.

To be honest, other than my big Blogging From Orlando (keep scrolling) series I did last month, my blogging hasn't been terribly meaningful or prolific in the past year or so. I attribute that to nothing really more than my own continuing flat attitude toward the outside world and my own contribution to life and the blogging community. I'm hoping things will pick back up soon, but thank all of you for reading this far.

And thanks, Tish, for pointing this way. I hope you enjoy a walk through the Inn of the Last Home.

Oh, I think I'll tag some of my long-time blogger friends: Michael, Rich, SayUncle, Logtar and The Beast.

Don't Text and Drive

Think this is the whole story? Here's the real danger of texting while driving:

Sorry, Can't Find Any of Those Here...

Should I be concerned that my site was found by someone searching on Google for this word?

Or should I be more concerned that someone is so obsessed they actually worked their way through the first 500+ pages of search results to get to my link?

Geez, and I thought I was bad...

Brush With Greatness

Holy Cow - Tish is in USA Today!

The Family That Staggers Together, Stays Together...

My nomination for Picture of the Week



The McGaughan Family continues to outdo themselves in the name of (Addams) Family Togetherness.

100,000

Well, thanks to the hijinks and shenanigans of a couple of boobs, at or about 11:20 pm, someone from Keller, TX using Verizon Internet Services became the 100,000th visitor to the Inn of the Last Home.

To commemorate the occasion, I'm giving away a custom-framed, signed and authenticated photo of me in the shower to all 100,000 visitors. Expect yours in the mail next Friday. Or sometime after that. Maybe.

Seriously, thank you to all the friends I've made while blogging, everyone whose stopped by looking for that blamed "Fairie's Aire and Death Waltz", and all the great conversations.

Oh, and in addition I had the biggest one-day visit total since, well, since I don't know when. That was nice, thank you guys :)

Here's to 200,000!

Soon, My Pretties......Soon....

I am slowly creeping up 100,000 unique visits to my site. Sitemeter reports me at this moment at 99,522.

However, with my paltry visit count these last few months, it'll be a year before I pick up the next 478 visits.

C'mon folks, pick up the pace. Tell your friends and neighbors! If I can recognize the person who's the actual 100,000th visitor to the Inn of the Last Home I'll make a special post just for you. And even send you a framed photo of myself in the shower, how's that? (Guys, you'll have to just settle for the mention).

The Horror of It All...

The Beast has a synopsis of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and a review of our film-making extravaganza

In addition to the HHN event itself, Rex and I were going to be filming the sequel to our smashing 2006 success "Mission: IOA." This time around we decided to bring in some help, so Barry from over at Inn Of The Last Home stepped up to the plate. He gave a wonderful boost to the entire project and was responsible for some of the funnier scenes in the movie. We filmed most of the day on Thursday and Friday morning till about 11:30.

Aw shucks, tweren't nothin'...

Someone Please, Please Remind Me....

...why every year at our church picnic I insist on playing in the youth/adult 2-hand-touch football game, and every year I regret it the day after?

...why I refuse to take sick days when I have a bad cold and come to work instead? Even though I have a laptop and could work from home if I choose...

...why I love Tennessee football? Because I really can't remember today.

...of the time when we had to nice, loving kids who adored each other and one didn't say, "I HATE YOU - you're the WORLD's WORST BROTHER!!!" to the other?

...why we got a dog?

...to stop eating so many blasted chips.

...of the times I got 100+ visits a day at the Inn.

Almost as Good as an Emmy. Okay, since The Sopranos Won It's Even Better!

Tish, co-webmaster of blog review site BlogsWeLuv has reviewed The Inn of the Last Home:

...Inn of the Last Home has a permanent spot in my RSS feed reader. The content varies greatly from day to day. There are posts that make me laugh, posts that make me cry, and posts that inspire me.

Wow, Tish, thanks so much for the high praise!

Those folks visiting from BlogsWeLuv - welcome! Leave a comment and let me know you stopped by.