Blogging draws all types to WordPress convention

A sea of bloggers flooded UTD the weekend of June 26 to swap ideas about new media at this year's Wordcamp Dallas event.

WordCamp is a community-organized event put together by users of WordPress, a free publishing platform for blogs and Web sites including "icanhascheeseburger", the photoblog that allows users upload funny cat pictures and the "Freakonomics" blog for the 2005 best seller by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The events are a forum for everyone from casual WordPress users to core developers to participate, share ideas and get to know one another.

The event, the second of its kind held in the Dallas area, had 17 speakers on topics ranging from podcasting to making money off blogs at the Davidson Auditorium in the School of Management.

After hosting last year's event at the Frisco City Hall council chambers, organizer and UTD alumnus John Pozadzides said UTD's involvement with the event would help promote its reputation as a leader in technology.

"Donating money (as alumni) only goes so far," he said. "The fact that we would have hundreds of bloggers here on campus meant a tremendous amount of free press for the university."

Arts professor Erica Stephens, who attended the event, would like to see UTD start planning and hosting similar meets.

"I think it's a great opportunity for the school to make claim to a certain identity," said Stephens. "UTD's been known as a science and math school. I would love for it to be known not only as a technology and emerging media school, but as the interdisciplinary school."

Pozadzides, who attended UTD in the 90s without graduating because he was "sucked into the working world for some outrageous sums of money," said he started "One Man's Blog" (onemansblog.com) in 2006 for two reasons: he wanted instant access to interesting stuff he found on the Web and he was tired of answering repetitive questions.

"I am the geekiest guy in my family and group of friends," Pozadzides said. "Everybody constantly asked my opinion about tech stuff, so I decided to start a blog to answer those questions."

According to Pozadzides, anyone can start a blog. "Passion and inspiration are the only necessary ingredients for starting a blog," he said.

The attendees did not need more motivation from Pozadzides after 16-year-old David Moyer stepped on the stage.

"I met him at the welcome meet and greet type thing thinking he tagged along with his parents," said Stephens. "And then I sat through his brilliant presentation. That was a reality check."

A high school student from Denver, Moyer flew to Dallas specifically to share his knowledge of multimedia publishing at the event. His presentation was his fourth in the last few weeks.

Moyer's interest in podcasting started with his fascination with the Internet and the realization that start up costs were low. He then founded Bitwire Media, a digital content network that produces podcasts and video shows including "WordCast" and "The Aimless Agenda Show," a podcast featuring a wide range of discussion on current events.

"Blogging enables people to communicate in ways they weren't able to," Moyer said. "It used to be that if you wanted to have a voice, you needed a journalism degree and then become a part of a big newspaper. Now you don't."

For speaker Cali Lewis, co-producer of greekbrief.tv, blogging was an avenue to have her own business. She and her husband quit their day jobs to work full-time on their video blog in 2005.

"We heard about podcasting on NPR and fell in love with the idea that anybody could talk into a microphone and have a worldwide audience without ABC, NBC or FOX," she said.

The WordCamp event drew attendees from diverse industries, ranging from technology and media circles to marketing and finance.

UTD alumnus and Bank of America executive Dan Ross said he learned a few things at the event. Ross, who does retail mortgage lending at his bank, said the event opened his eyes to ways his firm could leverage on technology in its business dealings.

"I don't so much use it (social media) in my professional work, but now I can pass tidbits of information to key people who might be able to use it," he said.

Ft. Worth, resident Devin Pike lost his job at CBS a day before the convention. He said he's now looking to start business with a friend using what he learned from the event.

As far as Moyer is concerned, the WordCamp event was important to people like Pike because it helped them gain fresh insight.

"When you are around people who think the same way you do, you get better at what you do," he said.

Moyer had no qualms teaching people twice his age about new ways of doing things.

"I am able to tell anyone about it because I know it," he said. "The fact they are learning from me, specifically, is not the issue."

Pozadzides agreed with Moyer. "The older you get, the easier it is to recognize that you can learn from anyone who has more experience at anything than you do."

At the end of the event, Pozadzides' take home message was that social media is an important source of information and a growing new field anyone can find success in, with the right strategies and networking.

"(Social media) are important from a marketing and communications aspect," he said. "Having a blog forces you to practice your writing, it helps you learn self promotion and how to get other people interested. Every one of these skills will benefit you in the long run throughout life."