At the Northern Voice blogging conference, held this weekend at UBC, I learned a lot.

Sure, I expected to come away with a new perspective and plenty of fresh ideas, the surprising thing to me is what I learned.

I attended a number of great sessions over the course of the weekend, covering a diverse range of blogging topics. For instance, on Saturday morning I attended Richard Erickson’s “Blogging 101,” not so much to learn the basics of blogging, (I like to think that I have that covered) but more importantly to hear what Richard’s ideas of the basics were, and to hear the questions being asked in the session. As someone who prides himself on opening people’s eyes to the wonder that is blogging on a regular basis, it was refreshing to see so many new bloggers thirsting for more info on how to create, promote and grow their blogs. Richard didn’t disappoint, and the crowd participation when it came to questions like “How do I get more readers?” was for me the essence of what the weekend was all about.

Photo of me with camera (and unfortunate finger position) by Kris Krug.

Sessions such as Friday’s “Photocamp” and Saturday’s “Digital Photography for the Web,” both hosted by Kris Krug were also highlights for me; learning the intricacies of my new DSLR camera and its differences from my old film shooter is a steep learning curve, and the refresher tips were a big help. As Kris pointed out, the room was filled (on both occasions) with several professional shooters, and to hear their input was infinitely helpful. Many thanks to the likes of Roland, Warwick and Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, and apologies to those I’ve left out.

Saturday morning started with a keynote by Anil Dash of Six Apart (makers of Typepad, Live Journal, Moveable Type and Vox) and he was excellent. Great use of Powerpoint, and a terrific look at blogging that was informative and relevant for all levels of the “blogerati” in attendance. Among his points that struck a cord with me was that “a date stamp is a social contract,” promising readers that the author will be there to respond to comments, and will continue to publish fresh insights.

(Photo of Anil Dash by Laughing Squid)

Amazingly, Mr. Dash has been blogging since 1999, and was uploading diary entries using Notepad and and FTP before that (He considers the advent of the permalink to be the beginning of life as a “blogger”). Simply put, his presentation was everything that a keynote for a blogging conference should be, and lunching with him and Dave Shea on Saturday was a treat.

Another great highlight for me was Dave Olsen’s “The 3 P’s of Podcasting,” as much for his presentation style as for the easy-to-absorb content. Using what was later jokingly referred to as an “underhead projecter,” he whizzed through 60 or 70 slides in a manner that was reminiscent of both Bob Dylan and a certain scene from the film Love Actually (one of Mrs. Behan’s favorites). I’ll have to find a video of Dave’s talk, as it has to be seen by all podcasters.

(Dave O preaches podcasting, photo by Robert Scales)

For me though, the most thought-provoking discussion was during Alex Waterhouse-Hayward and Darren Barefoot’s session on “Why Do We Blog?” Darren’s “tag clouds” of the responses to his survey (to which he received upwards of 1200 replies) were a real eye-opener, as I discovered that many bloggers have entirely different motivations from my own for maintaining a blog. For some it’s therapeutic; an outlet for their deepest secrets. In fact, the subject of blogging for business barely came up, and I guess in reality my motivations for blogging go much deeper than “it’s good for business;” a realization that I came to only after I heard the reasons that others have for engaging the medium.

As an example, 64-year-old Mr. Waterhouse-Hayward publishes his blog to be his legacy; a record of what he was thinking on any given day that his grandchildren can enjoy long after his passing. He cares very little about readership, and his blog is void of both comments and categories or tags. Also, he diligently posts daily, a commitment that he sees as necessary for something to be referred to as a diary (He quoted the Latin origin of the word diary as part justification for this, but I missed it) I had a chance to quiz him on the lack of categories later in the afternoon, and it seems that decision was driven more by ease-of-use for himself, and keeping his sidebar neat and clean. I told him that if I were his granddaughter, I would prefer a better index of his posts in the form of categories (What did Grandpa have to say about…) but he seemed steadfastly certain that the idea of categorizing his entries would be too stifling, and I have to respect that.

(Darren Barefoot’s slides by leftantler)

Wisely, Barefoot didn’t try to get his data to support any sweeping generalizations about blogging as medium and why we choose to do it, but rather admitted that he was no closer to answering the question than before he took the poll. For his own reasons for blogging, he cited (paraphrasing here) his desire to entertain, provoke thought and shed light on different topics for his audience; a feat that he accomplishes like clockwork with several posts a day. Roland Tanglao said it best when he quipped, “It’s working.”

It was a weekend that has really made me think hard about why I blog, and to re-evaluate some of the decisions I’ve made along the way. I can think of no better time to share some of my own reasonings than right here and now, so here goes:

• When I started, I think what I wanted was a forum to brag about all the things I had learned, especially relating to marketing, and impart that knowledge to whoever would listen. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that in this area, I’ve been fairly consistent.

• After a few months of posting, I started to get comments, and I noticed a pattern. In most cases, I seemed to get a higher number of comments and links when I made it about me; offering my opinion on things and the occasional glimpse into my personal life. Since discovering that fact, I have tried to speak in a voice that is genuinely me, without turning the entire blog into a constant stream of narcissism. Personally, I think I talk about myself a bit too much, but perhaps the self-loathing that comes with that realization provides a bit of balance. Now that I have admitted it publicly here, I’m off the hook, right?

• Also of note: Although I am most certainly a proud Canadian (another personal fact: I have a maple leaf tattooed on my left pectoral) I chose to write all of my posts with American spellings. Almost half of my readership are from South of the border (that’s the Canadian border, my American friends) and I decided that it was best to publish with the Yank spellings of words like “colour” and “favourite,” which, as I write this, Firefox has identified as spelling errors of course.

(Sitting down to upload some shots. Photo by Jeremy Latham)

The best part about blogging for me? The comments. I love seeing my link count climb like crazy, and I monitor all of my stats quite closely, but there is simply no better metric than that of generating responses from others, and knowing that I have instigated a conversation.

In the spirit of that, I would love to hear your responses to the question “Why do We Blog?” It seems it is different for everyone and as I have just discovered, reflecting on it and putting it into words is a great exercise that only helped to reinforce my passion for this exciting and dynamic medium.

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Once again, the tags from the weekend are northernvoice for posts in Technorati, and nv07, nv2007, northernvoice and photocamp for pics. In a stroke of brilliance, the organizers have created a mashed-up feed featuring the blogs of all who attended the conference! Happy reading!

I’m sitting back at home after a long day at “Moosecamp,” day one of a two-day blogging conference here in Vancouver called Northern Voice.

Those of you who subscribe to my feed will already have seen a few of my pics trickling in throughout the day. Expect more of the same tomorrow, but I thought it would only be fair to share my observations after this first day of action.

I attended sessions all day, ranging from “Mash-ups for Non-developers” to “Photocamp.” Oh, and I got my purple t-shirt with “Bloggable” across the front. Damn, that’s clever!

(purple t-shirt photo by Kris Krug)

The first thing that always strikes me about conferences of this kind, is how I “fit in.” See, in most of the crowds I find myself in, I am a different breed; an uber-user web kid, who everyone turns to for all matters related to the in-ter-nets, and computers in general for that matter.

In a crowd like the one at Northern Voice though, I’m just a wide-eyed “noob,” all slack-jawed because I’ve just seen a live demo of feed mash-ups that never knew were possible, or because someone confirmed that it really is Robert Scoble sitting over there in the corner.

If you’re not a habitual, obsessed blogger-type like me, and you’re reading this wondering what the hell I’m talking about, then don’t give up on me just yet. My point is simply that in the world of the web, I am but a fledgling student when compared to the kind of power-users, developers, and…let’s just say it - downright A-list bloggers that tend to show up at the kinds of conferences with “camp” as a suffix.

(me scratching, as seen by Cyprien, whose NV shots are many)

The second thing that strikes me is how many familiar faces I recognize. Thanks to the presence of little 60×60 pixel avatars on many of my online haunts, I can put the face to the name for a lot of personalities in the room, even when we’ve never met. I feel like I know them, such is my familiarity with the frequency of their blog posts, or their photo feeds, or even the sound of their voice on their podcast, if that is the case. That, I don’t mind telling you, is ultra cool IMO.

Since attending Barcamp way back in August, I’ve gotten to know a few of “the people behind the blogs,” through emails, coffee meetings, lunches and various other meet-ups. In fact, Jeremy and I carpooled to UBC together, and our firms collaborate on projects as well.

I guess what I’m doing a long-winded job of saying is that the web has connected all of us in a way that was never logistically possible before, and conferences like Northern Voice were created to celebrate that fact; to organize the collective to spawn new ideas, share them, and for at least one weekend, to press actual flesh and meet the real people behind the web presence.

For this reason, I try to make a point of introducing myself to all of those people that I feel I already know. Sure, I might come off as a bit “fan boyish,” but that’s what it’s all about for me.

Strangely, I’m coming to this realization only after returning home at the end of the day (I opted not to give myself the burden of attempting a live blog this time). Thing is though, I’m back there tomorrow. So if you’re reading this and you’re attending Northern Voice this weekend, stop and say hello!

I’ll be the guy with the goofy grin and the outstretched hand, waiting to shake yours.

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I will add to this all weekend, but if you want to see a slideshow of my shots thus far, it’s here. Also, if you’re curious about all-things-Northern-Voice, the agreed upon tags are northernvoice for posts, and both northernvoice and nv07 for Flickr photos.

Blog on, Vancouver.