I’m in my last session of day one at Blogher, sitting with the two Barbaras, listening to people talk about tagging. I’m amazed at how many people don’t really know what tagging is, but this is what this conference is for. This conference definitely has a different feel to it than many other conferences I’ve been to. Many conferences, including academic ones, have a kind of inside crowd sort of feel to them. You go to learn things but there is an understanding that you have a certain foundation going in.

Here, however, there’s an assumption that you have little to no foundation. I was talking to someone about this and we suspect that eventually, there will be tracks for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. I definitely think for technical stuff, there has to be a place where beginners feel comfortable to ask questions and to get the information they need to get started. I’ve definitely learned something from every session but I would definitely like to see some advanced sessions (hint, hint).

I’m looking forward to our session tomorrow, because I can tell you there’s a dearth of educators here. I suspect they’re hiding here somewhere. Just a brief spoiler. I’m thinking about the way I feel like a fish out of water at times in my institution while at the same time, I feel the same way in the tech world. When you tell someone here what you do, sometimes you get this look like, “okaaaay.” Or you get, “how do you monetize that?” So kind of weird. I’m looking forward to hearing what others have to say.