PodCamp Boston 3 was amazing. The venue this year was unbelievable, thank you, Harvard! It was easier to run into people this year, which was fun. PodCamp Boston 2 was nice and big, but this year the event was very close knit. I was more social at PCB3, and this year overall – last year I was very reserved. I also knew more people in general, those I had met on Twitter and at various Social Media Breakfasts. (For those interested in the Academic Technology session I led at PodCamp, check the end of the post.)

My junior achievement award. Photo Credit: Gradon Tripp

I won a Junior achievement award this year! Thank you, Adam Zand (I think, at least.) Unfortunately, I was the only teenager (I knew of) at PodCamp Boston 3. Last year, I was 1 of 2, this year, I was 1 of 1. I had hoped more teens would show up. I did know a few who wanted to come, but couldn’t. Next year!

Jamming at PodCamp.

Being social and having fun makes a huge difference. Don’t be afraid, introduce yourself to everyone. We have so much virtual, or digital, contact with each other, it makes such a huge difference to get together and have fun in person. Twitter went down for maintenance on Saturday July 19th, during PodCamp, and I think it actually was for the better – it helped people actually connect with each other. Not to say that Twitter is bad; sometimes, the best part of the session was the conversation taking place on Twitter. Check out the PCB3 tag on Twitter Search.

Steven Sherlock.

My Session

I led a session at PodCamp Boston about Academic Technology, mostly outlining the work I did at the Cambridge School of Weston, for my Capstone Project. If you’re interested in the presentation, you can see it on Slideshare, download it as a PDF, and download the audio recording.

Here are some of the people I met at PodCamp Boston 2. Fairly incomplete, I didn’t collect cards as actively as I should have, but, nonetheless, here are some of the people I met. I got this idea from Dave LaMorte, thank him for the format.

Here are the highlights:

Chris Brogan – http://chrisbrogan.com/ – Cofounder of PodCamp(s) in general. He worked really hard to make sure I had a session, and make sure I was actually enjoying myself at PodCamp Boston.

Mitch Joel – http://twistimage.com/ – I attended his session on Saturday about Tools of the Trade, and the next day, Hugh McGuire must have mentioned my name, and he began following me on Twitter. Amazing. Really amazing ideas about marketing and PR.

David LaMorte – http://davidlamorte.com/ – Runs the podcast “Teaching for the Future”. He sacrificed his session slot so that I could lead my teen podcasting session. He was a major participant in the discussion that took place in my session at PodCamp. Hopefully he and I will work together in the future.

Ann Bernard – http://whygosolo.com/ – She’s the CEO and Founder of startup Why Go Solo. She and I met on Pownce in July, and have been “powncing” back and forth for many months now. It was great to finally meet her.

Derrick Kwa - http://derrickkwa.blogspot.com/ – He was the only other teenager (I think) I met at PodCamp. He flew into Boston from Singapore all by himself, just to be at PodCamp. He came to my session on teen podcasting. It was really great to hear his ideas and opinions on teens, podcasting, blogging, and new media.

Bre Pettis – http://brepettis.com/ – Wow. I don’t even know what to say. Nice guy. It was amazing to see, and meet, Bre at podcamp. I’ve been a huge fan of his work with MAKE on the Weekend Projects podcast. Actually, at PodCamp, he and a bunch of friends created a website, http://lolsaur.com, got it dugg, and it was amazing to see all this evolve at PodCamp.

Hugh McGuire – http://hughmcguire.net/ – We met on Saturday at the High School Journalism Project session, and he attended my session on Teen Podcasting. Writer and founder of Librivox, he had amazing ideas about new media, podcasting, and education. He led a great session on how podcasting will save the world.

Whitney Hoffman – http://www.ldpodcast.com/ – As an organizer, Whitney was also vocal in finding me a session at PodCamp. She and I spoke a lot through email and right here on this blog, and it was great to meet her in person.

Steve Garfield – http://stevegarfield.com/ – We met in the food court at PodCamp. He knows so much about videoblogging and video in general. It was pure coincidence that we ran into each other, I’m a huge fan of his work.

Clarence Smith Jr. – http://doyouknowclarence.com/ – I met him in the food court at the event. Since then, he and I have been in touch via Twitter and AIM. He was amazed that I began podcasting at age 15. “Do you know Clarence?”

Anita Roy Dobbs – http://www.studioae.com/ – I met her at Hugh McGuire’s session on Sunday. She wanted to hear all about my experience with podcasting, and we, along with a few others, ate lunch together. She’s currently getting into video production, and working on Hugh’s website, Librivox.

David Tames – http://kino-eye.com/ – He paid for my lunch on Sunday! He was also impressed with my podcast. He, Anita, Andrew and I ate lunch together, and we had great discussions on politics, podcasting, and audio and video production.

Fred Munao – http://selectrecordsonline.com/ – He and I also met at Hugh’s session. He’s the president of Select Records, and had some thoughtful comments about new media and the record industry.

Adam Weiss – http://podcastconsultant.com/ – He introduced himself at the final closing “keynote” on Sunday. And, I really thank him for doing so.

Leslie Seifert – He led the session on High School Journalism. He’s working with the MIT Media Lab on teens and journalism. He also attended my session with a journalists point of view.

Maynard S. Clark – http://maynard.clark.googlepages.com/ – Another attendee to my session. He’s the director of the Vegetarian Resource Center. I don’t know really why he came to my session, but I’m glad he showed up! I guess he was just interested in teen podcasting.

Jesse Baer – http://digitalnative.org – From what I can tell, he’s doing amazing work with the Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society. We now follow each other on Twitter.

I think that’s it…Of course, I ran into and briefly spoke to many others, but these were the ones I actually had insightful conversation with. If I left you out, I’m sorry!

So, as I’m sitting here in a session, might as well talk about the event so far.

My session on Teen Podcasting, late Saturday afternoon (yes, it did happen!), was unbelievable. Some great people, including Ann Bernard from Pownce, showed up with great ideas on teens, podcasting, education, and (new)media. Forget the fact that it was a “session”, it seemed more like a group brainstorming session. Later, once I can get my thoughts together (that’s a sleep issue), I’ll be sure to write it up and put it up somewhere. As far as I know, there will be an audio recording of the session, but that won’t help too much because the session was highly participatory, and only I had a microphone. And, thanks to Dave LaMorte for giving my his session slot.

And, thank you Ann, Hugh, Derrick, Dave, Leslie, and everyone else, for coming to see the session. I had fun.

Currently, I’m in the “Is Podcasting a Revolution?” session in room 206b.

(Here’s a post on www.nerdnewsradio.com)

So, here’s what’s going on. First of all, things will be all right. The previous blog post may have been a tad harsh, and I did not mean to attack anyone personally.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been in touch with Whitney Hoffman (a PodCamp organizer) and Chris Brogan (Cofounder of PodCamp!) about the issue, and it looks like it’s all going to be worked out, as a community. “Everything is gonna be all right”.

Here’s Whitney’s comment from my previous post:

Just so everyone is aware, the Podcamp Boston team is actively working with Kabren to try to find a mutually agreeable solution. Planning an event that will work for over 1,200 people is a challenge, as is planning events that will meet the needs of a maximum number of attendees. Regulations regarding ID have to do with Convention Center rules, not policy issues regarding this event alone.

Just so that you know, a recent check of registrations indicate that only 3% of the registrants are under 21. This said, we have made specific arrangements, long in advance of Kabren’s concerns, to make sure the Saturday evening social event at the Seaport Hotel accessible to everyone, with wristbands available to indicate those over and under 21.

We certainly do not want to make anybody or any group feel excluded, as that is NOT what Podcamp is about. That said, I do not appreciate the less than fully informed allegations made here, but we are still actively working to resolve this issue to everyone’s satisfaction.

Thank you for posting that, Whitney. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to post an update sooner, otherwise I would have. So, here it is!

Thank you all for you’re support, it’s good to know that people actually care about this. That means a lot to me (honestly).

Hopefully a session slot will open up, and I’ll see you all at PodCamp Boston 2. I’ll keep you all informed of the ever evolving situation.

Thank you,
Kabren

UPDATE: Read this.

This afternoon, my excitement about PodCamp Boston 2 was shattered. I received an email that the PodCamp Boston “master schedule” was released, and minutes later I downloaded the PDF, only to discover that my proposed session on Teen Podcasting was not included. For weeks I’ve been in talks with Matt Pippen, the vice president of the Teen Podcasters Network, about how I should lead this session, what information to include, and we were even thinking about setting up a live audio/video link so he could be “present” during the session. I told everyone that I may be leading a session at the event; some people from Pownce even said they would come from afar to see me present.

Now, I know that the organizers of the event had a lot of sessions to deal with. Leading an UnConference can be a big deal, since you open your doors to everyone. But the part that truly makes me mad, is the fact that sessions from the wait list made it onto the “master schedule”, yet mine was excluded. I wasn’t even consulted about this decision. So, I contacted Whitney Hoffman to see if this was simply a clerical error. She said that “there were several things on the wiki with no attribution and we couldn’t even track down those people to verify they were attending”. Huh? My email is right on my session proposal, here’s a screenshot.

The bigger issue here for me is the fact that the grounds under which PodCamp Boston was created to support new media makers of all ages and a diversity of voices. On the PodCamp Boston website, they say, “PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills.” So, why in this “community” conference are teens excluded? In the guide to the conference, they tell people to “carry Government-issued photo ID with you at all times”. What about 13-16 year olds? The opening event Friday night is at “Tequilla Rain”, which is a 21+ bar in the Boston area. So, right off the bat, teens are excluded. All the after parties, by the way, are also at 21+ venues.

I hope you will support me by contacting the PodCamp Boston crew, and ask them why teens are time and time again shut out of this “community” event. You can use the form on their website here, or post on the forums here. There is still time for them to correct this inequity, so they can truly show that this is a community.

The adults are scared, ladies and gentlemen.