Monday, June 29, 2009

Tweeting the Bloggers Summit

As noted earlier, I Twittered all through the genealogy Bloggers Summit on Saturday at the SCGS Jamboree 2009 conference. You can see all tweets from the SCGS Jamboree at Twitter.com that use the #scgs09 hashtag..

The tweet posts are limited to 140 characters, and are subject to the wireless access in the hotel working flawlessly. It didn't, so I missed some of the rational comments made by the Bloggers Panel. Oh well, my rational memory is about 100 characters, if that! You will have to read between the Ines sometimes. Here are the tweets captured from my Facebook page, with an approximate time (some typos corrected):

9:29: almost ready to start - they're all in their places with bright shiny faces
9:30: interesting dress code - Eastman, Manson, Mr AI in t-shirts, Morgan, Danko and Meitzler in shirts/ties, ladies look good!
9:31: more bloggers in audience than on panel, I'm next to footnoteMaven, Sheri is hiding behind shades, Cheryl taking pix
9:35: Paula Hinkel starting... testing mics...George "can you hear us now"
9:36: Thomas MacEntee introduced as sponsor of Bloggers Summit. Big hand!!
9:37: "biggest group of geneabloggers to meet so far" - over 35 here
9:38: George's intro - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, podcaster
9:39: Ancestry Insider - "man of mystery, hiding behind his mask"
9:40: Lisa Louise Cooke - looks stunning as usual, blogger, podcaster, videocaster
9:40: Steve Danko - blogger, lecturer, Polish expert

9:41: Pat Richley - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, podcaster, videocaster, introduced fiance Gordon Erickson
9:42: Schelly Dardashti - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, Jewish gen expert
9:43: Dick Eastman - EOGN blogger, lecturer, tech expert
9:43: Leland Meitzler - lecturer, blogger, author, publisher, editor
9:44: Craig Manson (Geneablogie) - blogger, author, columnist, lawyer, etc.
9:45: Lisa (Genealogy Gems) - uses digital audio recorder, blogs to bring readers to her podcasts and videos, two shows - Gen Gems podcast
9:47: Lisa - has Family History Made Easy podcast/video, has Genealogy Gems YouTube channel, "Socks to America" immigration story
9:48: Lisa - Sock family worked in laundry, had lots of soul, ... funny story, watch the video
9:49: Lisa - says sequel to Socks to America coming - maybe starring Ancestry folks

9:51: Dick is surrounded by ladies, feels inadequate becuz he had a newsletter and doesn't use word blogging much
9:52: Dick - spectator, not humorist or entertainer, mentions addiction, writes about technology and genealogy
9:52: Dick - has lots of fun, goes to conferences, shares his fun on his blog
9:59: Schelly - fun to see colleagues in person. started in journalism - gen columnist for Jerusalem Post, editor said "who's interested
10:00: Schelly "...in dead people.?" Twitter got slow, sorry. Schelly is a really interesting blogger
10:00: Schelly - genealogists are no longer generalists - now are more specialized

10:03: Leland and AI are tweeting from podium. The only ones?
10:06: George taking blog provider survey - mostly Blogger, some wordPress, others. Damn wi-fi signal up and down
10:07: Pat has been talking awhile, while signal has been poor. DearMYRTLE is a sweetheart - showing audio capability of blog posts
10:09: focus of dearMYRTLE is on beginning genealogists.
10:10: about 100 in attendance...George showing iGoogle features for some reason

10:11: George reads Genea-musings, listed many other blog posts. Pat says "cool we have free space to write about our genealogy"
10:13: Craig has Geneablogie.net - wearing his Geneablogie t-shirt. Started as way to keep track of his own research
10:17: Craig - not too concerned about who reads it. Checkered past - many careers and roles, wrote stories, 2007 changed his blog life
10:18: wi-fi problems still - Craig got known with legal analysis of Ancestry.com database problems. Introduced footnoteMaven
10:18: Craig is happy to be blogging and sharing his knowledge. Big hand for his philosophical views
10:19: Mr AI - got into blogging becuz of frustration when working at ancestry.com. Organizations need a human voice in corporate speech
10:20: AI - if they don't work with us, we will talk about them until they do. Employee blogging is dangerous, may want to be anonymous

10:21: AI - Craig offered legal help to AI. AI tries to be a supportive critic to A.com and FSI. Graphics and pictures add to blog posts
10:23: AI - Fireshot has screen shot grabs for Firefox. Schelly uses Snagit. Paint.net used to add shadows to non-square objects
10:24: AI - has tech background and creates widgets - shows one for most recent FamilySearch Record Search databases
10:26: Leland - blogging since Nov 2003, into it becuz tech guy said he should to support company. Got genealogyblog.com URL
10:27: Leland - blogging took over his life, as bad as gambling. 6-8 hours a day. (Is that all?). Leland has photos of audience now
10:29: Leland - now runs Family Roots Inc - book store. Patti edits books, not blogs. Does news, new databases, book stuff

10:31: Leland out of job since 17 February, busy with Family roots Publishing and blogging. Has some sponsors for his blog - appreciates!
10:31: Leland - don't know of genealogy bloggers that make a living blogging...
10:33: Leland - wants to write a book about town of Arline Mills - worked on it for 20 years. Going to blog about it.
10:33: I need to get photos of the panel and audience...back in minute
10:36: Steve - run blog for over 3 years, primary info and original documents for his family history, and admin for 2 DNA projects
10:38: Steve - talking about DNA nobility group in Eastern Europe. Group found his blog and using his stuff. Niedzialkowski!
10:39: Steve - found a Nied--ski cousin, goes to Poland regularly, is helping Steve with research. All becuz of DNA projects and blog

10:41: Steve - cousin sent lots of material at Christmas. Much of it not microfilmed.
10:44: George showing George's Genealogical gleanings - tips for readers. Maintains Florida Gen society (Tampa) blog site.
10:45: George - societies not in competition with each other - should cooperate and share information
10:47: hi new twitter followers of @rjseaver. Thanks, will follow you later
10:49: George - talking about FGS-Tampa activities, blog not just "my research" - can be communication tool for other audience

10:51: Q&A: "not a writer. Would blogging help me become better writer?" Dick: "blog is what you make it. I write articles."
10:52: Q&A: Pat: helps you become a writer, have to think about it, blogs are for local gen societies to communicate"
10:53: Q&A Pat: use your blog to do whatever you want. Craig: a forum for collaboration, society or family.
10:55: Steve: did autobiographical memories as part of Xmas carnival.
10:55: Q&A: What is name of blog directory? George: www.Geneabloggers.com, and http://blogfinder.genealogue.com
10:57: Lisa: if you're going to write a blog, make sure you can be found. Let audience know location, interests, etc.
10:59: Q&A: taking a break, back soon

11:12: break is over - Pat: power-bloggers don't take potty breaks
11:13: George: don't be afraid of speakers - talk to them, share with them. work the vendor hall. Support the vendors
11:14: George: Thomas has put together website - www.geneabloggers.com site. There to help folks get started.
11:17: George: blogging is as easy as using word processor. Starting new blog using Blogger.com - should have google account and Gmail
11:19: Q: How do you get columns to line up? Schelly: blogger software uses templates - columns, fonts, colors, backgrounds, banners etc

11:24: George is creating the Genealogy Summit Blog Extravaganza blog - but I can't see the URL
11:25: Q: blog or wiki? Steve: why not both.
11:26: Q: how do use blog for surname research? Thomas: put surname in blog, and locations. Title needs to reflect interest and focus
11:29: George is showing editing features of blogger posting. Schelly says use readable font, minimize colors, info must be quickly read
11:30: #scgs09 is not in top 10 Twitter topics yet, but we're trying!

11:32: George showing how to create a link - but he's typing it in instead of copy-pasting from a site.
11:39: George trying to get first post. taking a long time. Added some tags in "labels" in blogger. URL is http://sonofblogger.blogspot.com
11:40: Q: how long do blogs last? Leland: his blog went away, becuz controlled by tech guy. Then it went away - 6000 posts lost

11:44: Leland: blog will go away if hosting service is not paid. happened to him. back up everything.
11:45: George - shows to change the blog template. looks terrible. changing layout.
11:46: time has flown by here. Almost over.
11:47: Q: is there help page for beginners? George: blogger has help center.
11:48: Q: can you use Google analytics for traffic and info? Schelly: Yes, sign in through google account, find analytics.

11:53: showing a gen society blog - http://calgensoc.blogspot.com
11:54: Schelly mentioned using Rss feeds and email alerts to read posts - Bloglines, Google Reader, Feedburner, etc
11:56: Q; how do I make sure that it is saved forever? Lisa: is a blog the best vehicle to do it?
11:57: George: wants fam history blog of own family - set up a wiki site with person pages, and web site with family pages
11:59: George: you can mix and match and link them together in a mashup, or composite. Schelly: set up fam website on social network site
12:01: Craig recommends Footnote Pages to add content, photos, stories, etc. George: social network sites let you control access
12:02: It's noon and we're done. Thank you to the panel. To audience for q

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To finish my thought above "... questions to panel" and encouraging folks to start a blog to share your research.

87 tweets in about 150 minutes. It would have been more if the damn wi-fi signal was strong! Go to Twitter to see all SCGS09 tweets.

At that point, wi-fi was slow, and I had to try to get folks to gather for a picture while the hotel staff was trying to turn seats into tables with chairs. We got a picture, but not everyone was there.

The funniest part of this panel session was when George created the http://sonofblogger.blogspot.com blog, when he hit Submit for the first post, Kathryn Doyle was already a follower! Others soon added their "Follower" icon.

There were about 100 in attendnace (my estimate) for the first 90 minutes, but only 60 or 70 for the second part of it. This bloggers session spanned two lecture sessions, so some people went off to hear something else.

I will have some comments about the Bloggers Summit in a later post.

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