Notes on BarCamp.
(Apologies to Susan Sontag.)

22 Aug
2010

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to BarCamp Seattle for the first time. That post featured my talk, “Content Lessons from Comics,” whic went from notions to presentation in 3.5 hours.

It was a rough mishmash of a few ideas that had been kicking around my head, and it was a pretty good talk under those circumstances. (I’ve heard myself quoted twice, which is delightfully odd. Once at a later session, and once by Heidi Miller.)

What would I do differently?

  • I’d lead a discussion, rather than give a presentation. One of the best sessions I went to was Kristin Marshall’s “Tits or GTFO: Women in Tech.” She threw out a few ideas and opened the floor, which spent the next half hour in lively debate.
  • Or I’d plan a presentation ahead of time. Bruce P. Henry gave my favorite session, “Why Everything Is Late: From Projects to Dinner Parties.” He had slides. Which he knew cold. Nicely done.

Either of those would’ve helped me focus more on the presentations being given — my attention span got vaster after I’d given my presentation.

  • One more thing: I’d have gone a little more basic with my presentation. If you weren’t into content as a web discipline, my talk was probably hard to follow. (One question at the end: “Won’t the people who publish those comics want to enforce their copyright?” That’s when I realized I might have gone a little too metaphorical in a literal-heavy crowd.)

You’ll likely see some of the ideas from “Content Lessons from Comics” fleshed out here in later posts. (And I’ll pretend some of the other ideas are non-canonical and never happened in the first place.)

Some of them may even crop up at Seattle InfoCamp in early October. That was another lesson learned from BarCamp: How to participate in an unconference. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll do BarCamp again — I think I’ve got about 48 weeks to decide — but I’ll definitely keep camping somewhere.

Content Lessons from Comics

18 Aug
2010

Last weekend I went to camp — BarCamp Seattle, that is. I’d never been to an unconference before. One of the rules of BarCamp: The first time you go, you have to present. So I spent the morning half paying attention to other people’s presentations while working on my own, which I wrote out by hand during lunch.

So: Not so much networking, but I did speak for 25 minutes on comics and content. Here are my notes. (Acutal words used: more.) Within the next couple of days I’ll post a more thoughtful consideration of my efforts, because the time scale — commitment to presentation in 3.75 hours — meant I didn’t think all of this through.

Hi.

I’m James Callan, a web writer and content strategist. I’m presenting because it’s my first time at BarCamp and I knew Dylan would call me out if I didn’t.

I founded and help run Content Strategy Seattle.

If you have  a website, you don’t just need content. You already have it. The question is: Is it any good? Is it as good as it could be?

First things first: What is content?

Content is more than just messaging. It’s what your website is about.
Read the rest of this entry »

Content strategy for beginners: Where do you start?

14 Dec
2009

“Do you know of any classes or anything on content strategy for beginners?” a friend of mine asked recently. “I’m interested in learning more but don’t really know where to start.”

I didn’t (and still don’t) have recommendations for classes — especially not DIY content strategy. But I was able to recommend the resources that I’ve come across in the past year. And she’s lucky — a year ago, I hadn’t heard of content strategy, so I wasn’t even able to articulate the question.

The resources I recommended:

I posed my friend’s question on Twitter, as well, where I was reminded of two more excellent resources:

If you’re still interested, find a Meetup near you. If there isn’t one, do what I did in Seattle: Start one up.

Make sure your words and your pictures work together.

8 Dec
2009

Picking on Craigslist ads: So easy even Bugs Meany could do it. So what better way to kick off my blog?

"Charming"?

"Charming"?

This ad has appeared on Craigslist several times in the last couple of weeks. It always claims that this house is charming. And it always uses this photo — the one with the prominent chain-link fence surrounding a concrete yard, some kind of forbidding sign (“NO”) juxtaposed with trash and recycle bins.

And every time I think: Charming? Seriously? I’d hesitate to deliver mail to that place.

I could blame the writer, but I’d rather blame the content strategist. They’re both the same person anyway, some Windermere agent trying to get this place rented in mid-December. “Well this place is kinda small, I guess, which means we’ll call the place ‘charming.’ And it’s a remodel, so there you go.”

What’s wrong? The words and the photos aren’t working together. They are, in fact, giving each other the hairy eyeball. The agent should invoke their inner content strategist: “We say the place is charming … but that picture says ‘forboding.’ ‘Creepy,’ even. Let’s switch it so we lead with one of the charming interior photos. Or at least let’s find a good word that’s less jarring than ‘charming.’”

Words. Photos. Harmony. (Regardless, I’m not renting that place.)

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