Ok. I will give you the IDENTITY highlights first...
I lead a session on OpenID at the unconference on sunday and the two of the four guys who were at the unconference came to the session (none of the women did). They wanted me to explain what it was because they had heard the 'buzz' about it and wondered.
I did get to explain OpenID to a feminist activist and photographer Laurie Toby Edison who was active in the 60's she understood it. This was a good feeling. After years of explaining the idea (at first in theory and now in reality) of Identity on the web - I know I can explain it to just about anyone who has some computer/web literacy (it helped that she had been active blogger for over 2 years). I think this is our major challenge...expanding who is using it. I think there is a huge opportunity to get the women bloggers using OpenID - hopefully there will be some services that cater specifically to that audience.
I found a search engine that lets you link up you on the web - called Lijit. Basically you tell it your LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, Flickr, Blog addresses and...it can then search across them...it makes YOU and your content a resource. I said to Tara their evangelist "so it is like ClaimID but with Search" but she didn't know about ClaimID. I am inviting her to DIDW so hopefully we can all get the scoop on Lijit. I have been thinking about the 'non-google' search engine space and what is out there that is better then google.
I ran into Hakia again. They are a semantic search company (this is going to be 'the year of sematic search I think... (or as we sometimes like to joke there are 3 years in one year 'internet time') [reminder to self...blog about visit to the Sematic Technology conference this spring] I have not used their search engine yet - there does seem to be a fair number of 'non-google' search choices that look interesting...I hope they get together and collectively let us know more about other ways to access info on the web because I am getting board of google in a way. I am smarter now...it is like google is the typewriter and I want a wordprocesser.
The Experience Project - this is a place where you can go and tell your story...and they will connect you with a community of folks who have similar stories... these may be stories that are really personal and you have not shared with anyone. They keep you anonymous/psdonomoys - I asked if it was like Post Secret Interactive and they said - yeah kinda. I think the freedom that we have to be on the net and the ability to find community around issues and episodes in our past that we feel social shame and embarasment is a very good thing. I really want us to protect the freedom to be on the web without suvelance and tracking because it is a good thing.
Regular Highlights:
I had a good time at BlogHer this year. Last year was challenging...emotional regression to highschool times....the 'popular' girls all prancing around in their really fancy outfits...wearing makeup and fancy shoes...hanging in little cliques. The 'unnofficial theme' last year turned out to be "Revenge of the Mommy Bloggers" We had Baby bibs in our swag bags along with Condoms (the male kind but designed for "her pleasure." (It turns out I did get a condom this year but it was the 'business card' for a blog called Motherhood uncencored.)
This year the 'unofficial theme' turned out to be a much more inoquous and fun one..."Crafters Take Over" and there was peace between "mommies and non-mommies."
I went mainly because I helped them run the unconference on Sunday after the 'official' conference ended. Many who attended thought it was the best day of the conference.
After the unconference I had dinner with Jessee Engle who is launching a really cool service called Design My Room that does for design what open source does for software - they have top designers do rooms...and you can lift the looks and THEN design your own room - making tweeks and changes.
With the election coming up and women particularly 'single women' being seen as a powerful voting blog this was no surprise. I met Gina Cooper the ED of Yearly Kos, Dana Singiser Director of Women's Outreach for the Hilary Campaign and Ramona Oliver Communications Director for Emily's list. Granded none of these conversations was a very long but I am hoping that I can at least raise the possibility of OpenID adoption amongst campaign sites.
I met some new women Tech Friends that were really fun Gwen who just moved back from Japan and Tara who is the new evangelist for Ligit.
Related posts:
Unconference.net
