Flying home from Gnomedex last night, I contemplated all the conversations and presentations. I met some amazing people and enjoyed the presentation variety. As you can imagine, not everyone necessarily felt the same way, but the great thing about blogging is that anyone who cared enough got his or her opinion out there. In spite of recent trends, I think bloggers, and anyone else involved in “web 2.0” (whatever that means), sometime undervalue what’s taking place—people who would otherwise never interact are finding each other and creating amazing communities.
Maybe it comes from my relative newness to the party, but I’m still impressed by how easy it is to write content and post it to the web. I’m even more excited by the people whose paths have crossed mine because of it. Part of me feels like it’s taken for granted, the other part wonders if I’ll reach a point where I’ll treat it with the same casualness.
One thing did seem to be missing from Gnomedex—I didn’t hear many conversations (doesn’t mean they didn’t happen) about making all the amazing things that were discussed accessible to a general audience. At times, discussions felt very inward focused. I was also amused by the surprised reactions when I shared that I didn’t live in either the Bay area or Seattle or back East. A very small number gave me the impression they weren’t sure how I expected to make a living if I didn’t relocate to one of technology’s Meccas. It was nice to change some minds. My final analysis? Gnomedex was unlike any other conference, tech or not, that I’ve attended. And I can’t wait to go back next year. Thanks again to Chris and Ponzi Pirillo for hosting an enlightening and entertaining event.
Bold Words 
Britt…Forget all those people that gave you the impression that you need to live in a hot spot like Seattle, San Francisco, or Boston to participate. On the contrary, we need progressive thinkers like you scattered all over in order to evolve the movement and push our boundaries out more. No one should be left behind because of geography, whether you are a thought leaders or a thought follower.
J.J. thanks for the feedback. I always thought the reason people got involved in tech was so they had the flexibility to experience many places throughout the world. So it stands to reason that not any one place is the only place to be. Hopefully we’ll run into each other again soon.