Whew! Brian has spent the last 8 or so months working on PodcasterCon, and it’s finally over. The event was yesterday, and I have to say it was a resounding success by all accounts. But don’t just take my word for it, look at what all of these participants had to say (via Technorati). And see what they saw (via Flickr). It was great fun to show off Chapel Hill to all of these folks – I think at least a third of the people were from out of state!
Even though I am feeling very podcasted out, I have been enjoying reading about the experiences and reflections of the folks who were there. Although it seems that the Women in Podcasting session that I facilitated was not as well-documented as some others. I haven’t found any blog entries or photos of it yet. I learned two interesting things in this session:
- When asked why they started podcasting, quite a few women said “to spend more time with my husband.”
Many of these couples do poscasts together, a.k.a. “Couple Casts.” This idea of podcasting for the relationship struck me funny and I have been ruminating on it. I think the main reason it’s weird to me is that Brian and I aready have so many interests in common, we are more likely to have to work at finding things to not do together!
The other weird thing was that no-one said they were doing it to be closer to their “partner” or their “boyfriend,” nor god-forbid their “girlfriend,” although one did mention it as a way for having fun talking with a friend. There was a lot of diversity of many kinds at PodcasterCon, but only one queer that I know of. The crowd seemed not only disproportionately straight, but disproportionately married.
- Some people live in a fantasy world where everyone is equal and everything is fair. They call this land “The Internet” and it has a “level playing field.” In their world there is no need for something like a women podcasters guild. Too bad we don’t live there.
I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Elisabeth from PodcastingNews.com and Anne from EatFeed.com! Also, got to chat some more with Ndesanjo Macha, the Tanzanian blogger from Greensboro who writes in both English and Kiswahili.
#1 by Lisa Boyd on January 9, 2006 - 2:03 pm
Hey Ruby,
It was nice to meet you Saturday at the Women in Podcasting session. I just wanted to let you know I have posted my notes on the wiki. Please let me know if anything is wrong with them
Women in Podcasting Notes
Lisa B.
#2 by Ruby on January 9, 2006 - 3:20 pm
OMG, I just remembered that my friend Austin was there and I also discovered that this (gay) podcaster was there, so I will retract my statement about over-straight-ness.
Thanks for the notes, Lisa! To clarify, when I said it wasn’t well-documented, I meant that I didn’t see any blog entries or photos from the Women in Podcasting session, as there had been from other sessions.
#3 by ndesanjo on January 10, 2006 - 6:56 am
It was a great event. Learnt a lot. Made good contacts. And I was happy to see you and Brian again. Peace.
#4 by Lisa Boyd on January 10, 2006 - 3:02 pm
Hey Ruby
I wasn’t offended or rushed by your mention of the documentation! I was actually looking for blog entries, photos and audio – anything – from the session. I believe Martha was the one that took a lot of pictures during the session and I don’t think she’s uploaded them yet. I really hope to see more about the session 
#5 by Chewie on January 11, 2006 - 1:25 am
It was a great conference, Ruby. Congrats and thanks.
I blogged about the Women session — sort of — in a very rushed post that didn’t do it justice, but here it is.
#6 by robin on January 11, 2006 - 7:57 am
The conference was held in the building in which I work, so I saw you all there. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw you exiting the building but didn’t manage to say Hi.
I was struck by the maleness of it as well, even from my bystander’s vantage.