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Social media are best when they pull people together for face-to-face events. Charlotte has a good one - and a free one - coming up this weekend: BarCamp Charlotte 2. Organizers and fans say the "unconference" has a loose format that allows the expertise of participants to take center stage.
Oh, and there's free food, free drinks, free T-shirts, free coffee cups and a fire dancer.
It happens Saturday at Area 15, a big, artsy space at Davidson and 15th streets near uptown. Participants will pitch their ideas for workshops on online topics, and the best (as decided by the group) will be plugged into the schedule. (There's also a pre-party the night before.)
CLT Blog editor Justin Ruckman, one of the organizers, says, "We can talk about whatever people want to, and that makes it very relevant. Everyone's on equal footing. Usually organizers of a conference line up the speakers and contact everyone behind the scenes.
"In this way, if you've got something you want to talk about, and people think it's a good topic, you can do that," Ruckman said. "There's not the pretense of 'I'm the expert, and you're the listener.'"
BarCamps are held around the country with this same format. The word "bar" does not refer to libation that the events inspire, but to a term that is used as a placeholder in computer programming.
Among the topics likely to come up will be search engine optimization, or how to make your site prominent on Google and other search engines. SEO specialist Fred Sexton of www.mouseandman.com says the "unconference" is important because it shows "we're more than a banking town. That the city as a whole is more recognized as a tech leader."
Last year's BarCamp Charlotte also looked at how to make money online, and at social media.
For more, see @barcampclt on Twitter or go to http://barcampcharlotte.orgcharlotte.org.
Numbers that matter
Gave a talk Wednesday night at CPCC on "Social Media: The Truth Behind The Hype." Here are two nuggets from it:
The number Facebook doesn't want you to look at: 300 million. That's the Giant Peephole's revenue in dollars in 2008 and it is expected to be up big this year. Considering Facebook has more than 300 million users worldwide, and is the site where Americans spend the most time online, that's not exactly great.
The number Twitter doesn't want you to look at: 1.8 million. That's the number of power users on Twitter who produce an estimated 90 percent of the tweets, or messages on the micro-blogging site.
Panthers on iPhone
Does The Observer really have a Panthers iPhone app? We do. Check it out at www.charlotteobserver.com/panthers09 . You want to get it at the iTunes Store now, so when everyone's partying after the Panthers' Super Bowl win (someday), you can say, "I got mine way back in..."
Jeff Elder writes about Charlotte's online communities. Follow his blog, atcharlotte.blogspot.com.
