You go to the Pub and the beer flows like wine… I like that place.

I was talking to a friend the other day and was telling him about my weekend at Podcamp Boulder. His second question was, what the hell is social media? This question was harder to answer than I than I thought it would be. It’s a social communication format. Huh?! Was George’s answer, seems like an oxymoron. How can we really be social at our computers, sitting in a coffee shop on our laptops. George is a couple of years older than I am, he actively uses email and sms on his Blackjack. I just thought he would be up on the whole Facebook, MySpace thing. He had heard of them and he didn’t know “social media”. This is a new concept for a lot of people I guess. Perhaps those of us deeply entrenched in it just take it for granted that all the people around us are hip on the interwebs thing.

To think we are so social on computers. It used to be people would go out with friends to meet other friends. Is Facebook turning into the modern day water tower? Is such a bad thing. To keep your anonymity in the information age could be a daunting task, but I think some people are managing to pull that off. I guess it would be easier on some sites that others. I guess I in the information age this is going to get more and more difficult for people to pull off.

So far nobody on the street recognizes me from this little blog… =)

As most of my friends know, I went to the Czech Republic for a few weeks to hang out with Daniela and Jitka. I had such a wonderful time there, the people, the food, the beer were so awesome. I went to places where the meeting of an American is a rare event. That was a spectacular feeling, people were as curious about me as I was about them.

We as Americans don’t often experience such a dramatic cuture shock, as I it did on this trip. I can’t wait to do it again. The most important thing I learned was, the people in Czech Republic are just like us. They have the same desires and problems that Americans do. It was great to see that for myself.

Czech Republic is a photographer’s dream come true. Even in the winter, there is something beautiful to photograph. I took a thousand or so pictures and I had to edit down to about 200 pictures. I broke the pictures into eight seperate gallerys. You navigate through the pictures and then you can navigate through each page. Just follow the links.

http://tcphotographic.com/go/media/cz/index.html

Podcamp Boulder. I must say was quite fun to attend. I have never been to anything like this before. I would definitely go to something like that again. It was great fun being exposed to new stuff, and then participate in discussions that actually incite more thought. I was lucky that I was able to check it out, there were a lot of smart and creative people there.

The discussions ranged from audio podcasting, writing, etiquette, technology, twitter and so much more than I could possibly list. Oh I almost forgot, there was also the Thriller dance lessons. Good stuff all around.

Thanks to Flying Dog. Josh brought beer.

Jeremy did a great job putting the “un-conference” together.

Also see “http://www.rockyradar.com/2009/01/26/boulder-podcamp-a-thrilling-debut/“ for a good run-down on the haps of the weekend.

The event seemed to be a little subdued considering we were in a pub. Sadly I can’t drink a beer yet. I’m off to work in few minutes..