Bill, I’ll certainly be cheering you on if you give it a shot.

Until that time though, my feeling is there has to be a bigger base to draw content from (then again the newspaper might be the best way to grow the base by reaching more people, as you pointed out). I don’t really know. As I wrote a while back:

as long as there’s paper and ink for printing, there will always be people motivated to run grassroots-type publications, hustling up advertisers and scratching content together for community newsletters and the like. Success here has as much to do with tenacity and connectedness of their [founders] as anything else.

In other words if you’ve got the will you can make it work. Obviously you’ve got generous amounts of tenacity and sociability to put together PodCamp London — so I’m in no position to doubt your ability to pull anything off!

Props for all the organizing btw. The MeetUp was great for getting my reclusive ass more locally involved. I’m definitely looking forward to more.

Bill, I’ll certainly be cheering you on if you give it a shot.

Until that time though, my feeling is there has to be a bigger base to draw content from (then again the newspaper might be the best way to grow the base by reaching more people, as you pointed out). I don’t really know. As I wrote a while back:

as long as there’s paper and ink for printing, there will always be people motivated to run grassroots-type publications, hustling up advertisers and scratching content together for community newsletters and the like. Success here has as much to do with tenacity and connectedness of their [founders] as anything else.

In other words if you’ve got the will you can make it work. Obviously you’ve got generous amounts of tenacity and sociability to put together PodCamp London — so I’m in no position to doubt your ability to pull anything off!

Props for all the organizing btw. The MeetUp was great for getting my reclusive ass more locally involved. I’m definitely looking forward to more.

The reason I’m fascinated with print stuff is because there is a lot of reach and people find something that is delivered in that form to hold far more credibility!

The reason I’m fascinated with print stuff is because there is a lot of reach and people find something that is delivered in that form to hold far more credibility!

And over the past few months I’ve really been encouraged to push more connecting events out there. When the meetup thing started it was honestly because I wanted to meet people and no one else was stepping up to the plate to do it. Same deal with PodCamp!

Oh and watch out for a lot more VERY cool Social Media Events in London. From the meetings Titus and I have had surrounding pclo in the past few weeks there is going to be a lot of tangential things coming up! Some of them are the reason I’ve been so late commenting!

And over the past few months I’ve really been encouraged to push more connecting events out there. When the meetup thing started it was honestly because I wanted to meet people and no one else was stepping up to the plate to do it. Same deal with PodCamp!

Oh and watch out for a lot more VERY cool Social Media Events in London. From the meetings Titus and I have had surrounding pclo in the past few weeks there is going to be a lot of tangential things coming up! Some of them are the reason I’ve been so late commenting!

I’m glad you mentioned having a document to refer back to; that’s a point I want to consider a little more.

I’m glad you mentioned having a document to refer back to; that’s a point I want to consider a little more.

Because I removed all of my early content from the web (for various reasons) I still have that printed copy that I can go back to , to see what was important to me on a specific day, or more importantly, I can see how my online writing/presence has progressed over the years.

Because I removed all of my early content from the web (for various reasons) I still have that printed copy that I can go back to , to see what was important to me on a specific day, or more importantly, I can see how my online writing/presence has progressed over the years.

Titus, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out from behind the scenes at PodCamp.

Kevin, thanks for providing a link to an article that contained the two links I just spent 5 minutes looking for. I thought it was different because the printing-on-backs-of-newspapers idea was new to me, but I should’ve clicked yours first (dammit!)

Printcasting looks kind of gimmicky and weak from a bloggers’ perspective (“Choose articles and a template, and you’re a publisher!”) I have doubts whether it’ll fly but I think it’s great as an example of a newspaper really starting to get outside the old box to try different business models.

As for The Printed Blog, I really don’t know. I think the way blogs are done now they won’t transcribe onto print very well… Maybe if it’s around long enough and enough bloggers really want to get into print (and so adapt their style and content accordingly) then it could evolve into something.

I agree with Phronk that the idea of being printed is cool but I’d never read blogs in print. I have a hard enough time reading magazines and books now. Maybe I would if I was retired or stuck in an elevator or something, or on a train. But I’m so used to scrolling on a screen (and usually bookmarking and cut-and-pasting and mashing-up multi-tasking as I go along) if something is available online there’s no way I’ll read it in print. Though I’m sure, as you say, some people are still hooked on print (as I was 2 years ago).

I expect, Greg, many people have enjoyed reading your printed copies but I don’t know how many would have made the leap online (they probably hoped to find copies of your next printed article!) I’d be curious to know if you ever tried researching that.

There’s a medium-for-medium thing. I don’t usually check a website when they mention it on TV or in the newspaper because once I turn on the computer I start seeing all the other options available and I end up reading emails and twittering and writing very long responses to people who commented on my blog and I forget all about the site I intended to go to.

What I’m thinking of is not something we’d expect anyone to actually read but something symbolic — a project, an accomplishment. Something that’s like a joint effort — and even if most people aren’t putting an effort into it it’s still something people identify with or aspire to (or even hate, which still accomplishes the same thing: making the community more, um, oriented around the same idea, involved in the same conversation — love it or hate it).