Yesterday, I went to SocialDevCampChicago with the goal to learn more about social media, network with people involved in the area and to have a good time. All goals accomplished. I didn’t attend as many presentations as I would have liked. I was just too busy talking to people, eating, volunteering, socializing, networking and preparing my own presentation. I managed to talk to or at least catch a glimpse of one or two people from StartUpWeekend, Ann Arbor. It was interesting to catch up and see where one of those startups was in terms of development. Some of them presentations were supposed to have been fantastic including Lindsey LaVine’s Legal Considerations for Social Media and Saper Law Offices’s Legal Considerations Part II. Legal Liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Communications Decency Act.
I did my own presentation with Jean Pickering of The Tektite Group, LLC on wikis. We both showed up early. Jean provided some food. I was volunteering to help man the registration table. I asked her if she was presenting. She said some one was already presenting on her topic. What topic? Wikis. I said that was mine and asked if she wanted to co-present with me. She said yes. That was fantastic for me as I had never done an unconference before and the unconference was PowerPoint presentation heavy. We found some time, put together a basic PowerPoint. I’ve got to give Jean credit for doing an excellent job at dealing with my nervousness in preparing.
Jean’s perspective was really welcome. She comes at wikis from the perspective of non-profits and businesses needing a website or an on-line presence. I come at wikis from a large wiki perspective, from a fandom perspective with the thought of communities being at the forefront. Different perspectives were helpful. Our presentation covered what wikis are, why use wikis, how you use wikis and where you can find wiki software. We tried to build in a lot of interaction with the audience. Overall, I was really happy with how things went. I think we gave a fairly good idea about the benefits of wikis and some resources for wiki people.
At the end, I gave out a handout with wiki resources on it. Putting those here as I think they’re worth sharing again.
Wikis: How to and why to!
Wiki Community
Wiki Conferences and Meetups
- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19643859842 – WikiWednesday, Chicago – August 13, 2008
Wiki Hosts
Wiki Support
Overall, I really loved SocialDevCampChicago. I hope there are more events like it in Chicago. I think it could be improved in the future by having smaller groups to present to; a lecture hall with seats for two hundred when you have 30 people in the room isn’t ideal. The time for presentations could also be a bit longer; a half hour just didn’t seem to give enough time to cover some topics. Those problems seem small and easily fixable if this event was to be held again. And I really do hope that there is another event like this again happening again soon in the city.
Next time, I’ll also figure out public transport, stay the whole time and not be scared of traffic. 
