Highlights

Oct 11, 2005

I rushed into a week of work, reading ( for tomorrow’s science writing book club), and a return to my exercise routine, but there are a few lingering items to note about my visit to Greensboro last weekend for ConvergeSouth. The highlight of the two days was when Ryan Irelan told me he was halfway through reading Step to Freedom and that he was very much enjoying my dad’s memoir. I also got to ride in a car with Paul Jones, my former professor and constant hero, who kept me awake that early morning with a detailed history of Turkey. After the conference, I attended a dinner with a group of conference goers and the man with the plan, Ed Cone, who wondered what to theme next year’s ConvergeSouth; videoblogging, said Ed, while I suggested a session on the limits bloggers place on what they blog about.

All in all, ConvergeSouth was a damn fine conference on blogging, journalism and collaborative new media. I’m so impressed with the way the North Carolina blogging community has come together, building on each effort. Last year, Greensboro held a small bloggercon. We followed up with a larger gathering in Chapel Hill in January. And then Greensboro’s encore built on that to give us a two-day, 300-person event. Bravo.

A few people asked me if I’d answer by organizing another Triangle bloggercon in early 2006. With Brian Russell organizing Podcastercon for January 7, 2006, I’m putting my efforts behind that. But sometime in 2006 I hope to organize a conference on storytelling. More about that in the coming week, and how a storytelling conference might bring together storytellers, bloggers, genealogists, oral historians and the senior citizens of our communities to put our “institutional memory” online.

For more about blogging in North Carolina, be sure to visit BlogTogether, where I chronicle the events and meetups that give bloggers a chance to meet each other. As this post and the previous two Converge entries relate, blogging to me is all about the people I can meet and the communities I can support. Please join me, won’t you?

Anton Zuiker ☄