I had a great time at Balticon, but still seem a bit tired from all the fun. It was my first time attending this Science Fiction Con and I look forward to returning in future years. The panels I spoke on were the Parsec Awards and Copyright and Social Media.

The Parsec panel was great for explaining the awards process and answering questions. The face to face interaction made me realize I have only started to do the outreach to educate people on the Parsecs and it's a segment that has been neglected in the past because most of our efforts were directed at working on the program itself. Through the conversations I had in Baltimore there are a number improvements for the 2010 awards I want to see implemented, that's right, we haven't had this year's awards and I have a To Do list for next year.

The Copyright and Social Media panel turned out very informative for attendees. Thomas Gideon did a great job leading the panel, while I tried to check the assumptions and make sure that while we used terms we that were commonplace to us, the audience understood their meaning. I have to agree with Thomas post that it could have been a much longer panel and we wouldn't have probably answered all the questions. More material next year I suppose.

It was a great practice for public speaking which frankly I have not done enough of lately and so the next time I have an opportunity to participate in such discussions I won't hesitate to jump onboard.

Last and most important was the side conversations, frankly that is usually the best part of such events. The chance to connect online names with faces and hangout with old friends. A few times I stopped myself looked around the room and just amazed at the people I was able to hangout with, it's a new age of digital storytelling and these are the first generation of this movement, an exciting and unique time. I can't wait until next year.

Another year, another Parsec Awards a lot of hard work to recognize all the hard work the Speculative Fiction podcasting authors put into their craft. So stop in if you have a favorite podcast and help them get the recognition they deserve.

Today the Craft Brewing industry is meeting in Boston, you can follow the events if you search #cbc09. More than 200 breweries have jumped on to Twitter at last count. Neal Stewart of Flying Dog Brewery just posted "I feel safe in saying that there isn't another industry that has embraced twitter as much as CRAFT beer" and frankly he's right. But why?

I think part of it is because Twitter works best when it's from passionate people, something brewers have in spades. It shows in most of their tweets as well.

Second it's permission based, you only hear about those beers/breweries you have an interest in. It means if you are following @21Amendment you probably care about what is going on there. It allows them to connect with their customers on a very personal level.

Last it's a medium that doesn't take a large amount of effort for positive results back. A blog post takes some time and thought, maybe even some research. Having a conversation through twitter is far less demanding and means you can engage it while doing other work.

It does have it's challenges I recently spoke with a brewer who was unsure how much exactly he should post on Twitter. Should he post OGs, strike temperatures and other brewing data or was it overkill? I gave my opinion, but obviously there is no right or wrong answer. In the end if it's done with the same love he puts into his beer I think he'll have the right answer.

I went to the TriangleTweetup Thursday, it was a good time, but it reminded me of echos of the past. Specifically the First Tuesday events I used to attend in DC years ago. The crowd was a mix of technical literate people looking to network on a weeknight, add a bit of corporate shwag and free give-aways, finally a mix of short presentations. What bothered me by this analogy was that those events were powered by Dot Com Boom dollars, not people which this event seemed more based so perhaps the same rules will not apply. That said the whole concept is based on Twitter a company that has not managed to find a profitable business model yet makes my whole point a bit ironic but I am aware.

Last week's event was very successful, so much so that I think it's nearly getting to the size where it may stand in the way of it's future success. I stood in the area between the two rooms and the side room was so loud that after the first few presentations I couldn't hear a thing. I know I wasn't the only one. Likewise in a crowd of 100 people how do you know who you want to meet? Or how can you focus those conversations? Those are the points I'd like to cover.

First in regards of the excessive noise I am assuming Edge Office would like to continue to support these events. The key may be muffling the sound from the open sections between the rooms, perhaps seeing if some cloth banners could help. It may even be possible to get them sponsored by someone. Second, the live twitter stream should be projected on to the wall in the room so that the people there can see it. I know I tweeted about them being noisy, if enough people do perhaps some self-policing would occur. I could even see a function in having the live twitter stream being projected in all the rooms that way it could be a conversational back channel to let people in other rooms what interesting thing is going on in your room. There is a technology hurdle there obviously since I am talking about 4-6 projection screens but it might be possible.

Finding your way in 100, First Tuesday gave you a name tag with a color based on your work place. I forget the exact break down but I was in the other category because of working in the government at the time. It was handy though because you could in a glance see what sector people worked within. I am not sure how you would break it down at a tweetup because I saw programmers, news media, marketing, authors and publishers so a diverse base was represented. Perhaps 4-5 categories with a color based sticker for their niche.

Last to help direct conversations Edge Office had a number of smaller rooms, perhaps designating the rooms to specific topics. The topic rooms could change based on each tweetup. Perhaps one event could focus on different platforms for social media as example podcasting, blogging, etc. The next event might focus more on application based topics. You could always have the main room be general topic based conversations, but this might help people focus on something that they may enjoy.

While I don't doubt the sincerity by the organizers or the attendees, large event size may be a challenge to continuing a meaningful conversation. People don't scale. But if people can be helped by the organizers into finding the conversations they want to have, I can see these events having a value in the future.

I didn't make the GABF this last week and that is where the most interesting things in beer were happening. So I like most beergeeks I spent some time watching online. For the five people who don't know the GABF is the Great American Beer Festival. It is an event to celebrate craft beer hosted by the Brewers Association. This is the 27th year of the festival with 2052 beers from 432 breweries (thanks William for the numbers). The GABF is held in October each year in Denver, Colorado. Perhaps next year I'll get to join in the fun.

As someone at home watching the web as the festival unfold it seemed that Twitter and the new technologies brought the festival to us more than year's past. The Brewing Network once again did a fine job of live broadcasts, but twitpixs, small handheld cameras, and blogs gave us a more personal feel of the festival.

Twitter while sweeping the web of late also was sweeping the GABF. I was constantly seeing updates from various attendees at the festival. You knew who was at the Flying Dog booth or heard about a great beer that someone was pouring.

I think the difference this year was Web 2.0 started to impact GABF and by extension craft beer. Ultimately, it is the perfect marketing tool for craft brewers looking for a way to connect with beer drinkers. Two reasons it's low cost and when someone subscribes to Flying Dog's twitter stream it's because they are really interested in what the brewery is doing.

But just like craft beer it has to be done right. It can't be done in marketing speak, but in a real voice when it works it shows, also when it doesn't work. Web folk, especially those who have been following the Cluetrain ideas, have always looked for real world examples to show the market. I think that craft brewing may provide the first regular case studies of it's implementation as an industry.

They make a quality specialized product that makes an emotional connection with it's customer base. You have to love the product to get involved, you might subscribe to a feed because someone is going to give away a free trip, but you stay if they offering a compelling story that you are interested in hearing.

A prime example is the Tour de Fat by New Belgium. It became a tradition in Flagstaff not just because of the beer, but because of the fun people had with the beer. The bike rides, the crazy festival spirit, it all came together. As Hugh MacLeod would say it's a social object.

The more I think about this today, the more clear it is to me, that the latest web technologies are the future of craft beer's success. Not in the bits, but in the stories those bits will carry. The InBev-AB deal may have some folks worried, but as I watched the GABF this year I realized the future is bright.

Cheers!

Friends and family have been sending me links to Beer Menus. It is a great mashup of beer and google maps technology. The only shame at this point is that it is limited to only New York City. But you have to start somewhere and for all the bars it's a great place to focus the idea, work out the bugs, then move to a larger scale. I suspect keeping the lists current as they scale will be the issue. There is a lot of data and updates necessary. In time I could see bars keeping a RSS list of beers that auto-updates their personal listing and while the technology exists I suspect it's still a few years from becoming common place. It's a site worth watching as a beer geek to see how it progresses, it certainly will be a handy tool in urban areas.

It's not really news that I have been increasing my beer blogging lately and minimizing the other topics. To that end you may already noticed changes in the site, more of a new look is on the way. First off as I had mentioned Bear Droppings while a funny joke hadn't really reflected the site so a new name is selected Geistbear Brewing Blog at Geistbearbrewing.com. It still points to this subdomain, but I now have my own url. I picked Geistbear because frankly it's an online name I have gone by for a long time and it's unique to me. Look forward to more beer, homebrewing and related content in the future.

Let's talk about some beer.

it means I must be willing to go to Phoenix. Normally with the pending trip down the mountain, I'd be rounding up bloggers for a blogorama or heading to DracoVista studio. But not this time, nope this time it will be to checkout Podcamp AZ. A number of friends will be there and it looks like an interesting and unique 'unconference' or so goes the lingo. So if you have time of Saturday stop by and give it a chance yourself.

I realized I listen to too many podcasts. It's not an issue of being able to catch up with all the content, but rather I find myself with live television and audio streaming wanting to click back and catch little segments I might have missed. Something I do with podcasts all the time. I want to control the horizontal and vertical. Control over my listening and viewing content it's not an option to me anymore it's something I want always...and I suspect I am not alone.

PS - Never got around to getting a Tivo or some form of DVR, but I suspect it's only a matter of time now...

A few years back I worked for an Industry Trade Association. Frankly while I wasn't always happy at the time it was one of the best jobs I have ever had and had a lot of freedom generally. I had a great boss and learned a lot about DC politics from an 'Off the Hill' perspective. But I also learned a great deal about the way trade association politics work.

First rule of Trade Association politics is never take a public stand that directly conflicts with members. In fact, it is in part of the reason of growth of the DC trade association industry. Because when a conflict issue comes to a head between two large businesses and they are both of one association they want to take action and it won't. So they and their allies develop a new trade association to take action on the subject. Incidental I have noticed while the United Nations is not thought of as a Trade Association it fits the rules of them to a shameful degree, but that is another topic for another day.

Sadly National Association of Broadcasters of America broke the rule recently as observed by this post on Boing Boing. The only rationalization I can give is NPR and PBS dues may be very minor in comparison to other media. Frankly a point worth researching and I may add as post notes. But by breaking this rule the President and Board of National Association of Broadcasters of America will be seen as untrustworthy in DC political circles for a long, let me clarify LONG, time to come. There are basic rules to DC politics any gain over broadcast treaty internationally may cost them untold in beltway politics for a very long time. This was the dumbest move I may have ever seen in Association politics and will cost them allies in every other fight they currently have.

So to Broadcasters I say enjoy your pyrrhic victory of policy today, because it may well be mainstream media's last.

Every time Microsoft starts to do things to make then seem less evil, then almost compulsively seem to find some way to take a couple steps back. I saw it with my own dealings on the issue of privacy a few years back and now they seem to be at it again. Lately Hugh's Blue Monster campaign began to make progress that put a more human face on the company. Then Microsoft's Brad Smith and Horacio Gutierrez put the company two steps back.

I know there are people there, but honestly when see stunts like this you have to wonder if the people who have taken Hugh's message to heart have any power inside the company.

As Doc notes "If Microsoft were as smart ... it would engage the free and open source world. It would build on top of it, rather than fight it. Alas, it has given its customers a much bigger reason not to buy Microsoft stuff than not to use free and open source stuff."

Some days I think they want move beyond their evil reputation they have built up and others, like today, I wonder if they have learned anything at all.

Hugh goes to Seattle and Gates declares old advertising over the next week, coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

More seriously I doubt Bill made the statements just because of Hugh's trip but it does seem that Mircosoft is trying to move into a more interactive media and recognizing limitations of the old. Have to watch, wait and see what it means.