The Scholarly Kitchen

Geoff Bilder and I spoke together at a session about the brave new world of publishing models today. It was my first time speaking with Geoff, which was a lot of fun. And the session went well, from what I heard.

From behind the microphone, there were some interesting things occurring to me. First, we need more power outlets! Laptops were running on empty, iPhones were exhausted, and portable recorders were about out of juice. Whoever solves the battery life problem for computing devices will be the next billionaire. In our current battery-constrained lives, being close to an outlet was primo seating. The number of people using Twitter, blogging, and otherwise occupying themselves on computers in this and other sessions today was noteworthy.

Second, we need lavalier microphones. Both Geoff and I like to pace when we talk and fire slides in sync with our thoughts. Being bound to wired hand mikes made us feel awkwardly Vegas and cheesy. But we muddled through.

In our session, the moderator introduced a special hashtag (#brave) to track questions about the talks. More than 170 tweets were made from the session. Only a small percentage were questions.

Judging from the questions and discussions in and after the session, I think the session gave some people new perspectives on their daily challenges, which is precisely what meetings like this are good at doing. You’re supposed to recharge your batteries here, right?

Another observation is that the SSP has a great membership base that’s growing in diversity. I see many people I know, but more young, early career, and international members are attending. That’s great to see, a good sign for the long-term vitality of the organization.

It was a great session. Geoff’s presentation was amusing, challenging, and irreverent — in other words, perfect. Mine went by in a blur of declaratives and lists with a few salient examples. Listening to Geoff afterwards helped me recharge, as well.

Fun, and a great crowd with strong positive energy!