My summary of my time at PCB2 will have to wait in draft for a while – there’s something more pressing I want to talk about.

There’s a discussion taking place all over the web about this weekend’s decision to revoke PodCamp rule number 4. Before this, rule number 4 read: “All sessions and events must be free of charge to attend”. That rule is no more and organizers have now been presented with the option to charge a fee to attend PodCamp. There is, at the time of writing, a recommendation on the wiki that reads “sessions and events are strongly encouraged to be free to attend to allow as many people to attend as possible”, but it’s no longer enforced.

I said something on Saturday afternoon during the “PodCamp Retrospective” session which I’d like to repeat and build on here. Having been an attendee to both of Pittsburgh’s PodCamps, their PodCamp BootCamp, and PCB2, along with PAB 2007 and various one-day paid events – I can tell you that I see a clear difference between a PodCamp, and the for-paid events like PAB, or the session side of the PME (Note my exclusion of the vendor floor here).

To me, PodCamps seemed to be designed to bring new people into new media. To TEACH people what a podcast was, what blogging was, how to get your video podcast started or some basic SEO to ensure your blog didn’t get lost in the fray of the web. PodCamp, to me at least, wasn’t about the free food, or the free t-shirt, or the after-parties, or even the “fishbowl” people coming together to see each other. To me, PodCamp was about taking OUR community, and sharing it with others, to GROW the community, and bring new people in. It was the “new media school” in a day or two, and should have been used to expand the fishbowl into the aquarium. Then a pond. Then a lake. and, well, you get the idea.

We in this new media space are constantly moaning that our world seems to be tapering off. That we need to start reaching outside of the fishbowl and bring in new listeners. PodCamp IS our chance to do that. There is NO reason that Podcamp CAN’T be we, the new media community fishbowl, reaching out and teaching other what this space is. Will we be creating new content creators in the process? Sure! But there’s nothing that says that everyone who attends a PodCamp will become a content creator. And besides, what’s to say someone doesn’t come to learn some blogging tips, and walk out knowing a lot about how to LISTEN to a podcast. That’s one more content CONSUMER. Even if their blog never gets off the ground/

So, you’re asking, what about the other side?  What about it! There’s still plenty of room for “fishbowl” gatherings to occur. The PABs and PMEs and the like will still happen.We, the existing community, are still trying to better ourselves, and there’s nothing that says we have to stay still. The existing fishbowl folk are still going to group off at PodCamps, it’s human nature, but that shouldn’t be the FOCUS of the event. I don’t think I met anyone at PCB2 looking to get into this space or learn about it. They allhad a foot in it somewhere. Which was great, but didn’t make it feel ANYTHING like a podcamp to me.

So what about a fee? For a PodCamp, as I’ve defined it above, I say no. For the fishbowl events? Sure. If we went people to come to podcamps, learn about our space d then participate in it as either a content creator, or a content consumer, then we need to do as much as we can to lower the barriers. And if they go home without a free shirt, then so be it.

I’ll post more on where I think PodCamp should go tomorrow. This post was long enough.

So last night, during general conversation about how the weekend went, the topic of business cards came up and my wife begin looking through my recent additions to the ever growing collection I’m amassing. She chose 5 cards she thought were the best of the bunch and gave me a few comments on why. I’m presenting them here in alphabetical order by last name.

1. Nathan Burke of matchmine. She commented mostly on the reverse side of this card. While the front has all of the expected details, set up cleanly and neat, the back is a bright yellow colour. She was a fan of how much that yellow made it stand out.

2. Jeff Cutler of Novel Ideas. This one got points for the fill-the-background image used. It’s also set up in a way that when you turn it over, looks like the front, but reversed. It’s a neat effect that won me over when I first saw it too. She commented though, that the card was equally as effective without the back side.

3. Nico Pin of Snowy Day Design. I complimented Nico on this one, too. His card for the event was plain paper, as wide as a business card, but half as tall. In large font it read “I’m Nico” and follows with “nice to meet you : ) “. My wife was a big fan of how personable and friendly this little piece of paper was. If talking to Nico wasn’t enough to have made an impression on you, the smile on his card sure was.

4. Jeff Pulver of Pulver.com. I don’t think she had even flipped this one around – the purple business card won her over immediately. Apparently, very few people have purple business cards. She seemed to like the lack of logo and the inclusion of the connected circles in the top left.

5. Andy Stanberry of Lijit. Lijit’s large scale logo had her here. To quote (as she extended her arm as far as it would go: “Just look at it, you can still see who it is”.

6. Honourable Mention goes to Eric Skiff of Clipmarks. I’m giving Eric the HM slot as I passed her moo cards separately and treated them differently based on a personal beef. I’m not sure if all of Eric’s moo cards are the same, but I got one with a bee on it. And she liked the picture. She commented on the “generic” back side, but let it go because of the bee. I think she’s actually stealing this one from me once I get things sorted.

Just thought a view from the outside of our community might be a neat change.