Full Circle Associates

Last weekend at Blogher I spent a lot of time thinking about identity and voice and how these new media impact our voices and identities. What happens when you put your life online in an online community or blog? What happens when all of a sudden you are audio or video recorded and you know that material might make it on the web. How does that change our communication? How does that change us?

Ponzi was one of the audio bloggers at Blogher, moving at the speed of sound to capture parts of the conference for sharing beyond the walls and time of the conference. She talks about the experience here, Post Podcasting Protest and explores the reactions she got and questions she now has. She asks some great ones:

"1.)Did my microphone and recorder changed peoples responses?And, if so in what ways?

2.)If I were in the audience and blurted my questions outloud (like so many do) would it still be considered 'taking over the session and being rather intrusive' or is just amplified because of the mic in hand?

3.) Just because I'm holding a mic do I have to submissively and unobtrusively record the speaker and audience interaction?

4.) If I choose to hold a mic again does that mean I have to forfeit my place to ask questions of the speakers who speak into my mic in order to please those who do not hold the mic?

These questions all sound the same or at least very close in symmetry, don't you agree?

I'm reminded of the opportunity of a facilitator in a F2F gathering to wield or yield power -- and the potential for abuse. What happens when the facilitator starts commenting and getting more "airtime" because they are at the front of the room? Should they? Some say they should be neutral. How might this apply to pod and video casters? Do they have an a priori right to lead the questioning in a session? Or should they simply capture what others ask and answer? I don't know. I'm curious.

What I sensed for Ponzi is that the possession of the mic offers a new type of power and the concurrent questions about how to responsibly wield it. Not only does this affect the moment in a session, but the receptivity in future situations of those who might find themselves behind the mic.

Mic as power. Interesting, eh? Blog as power? Could be. One's voice is amplified out in a new way. People pay attention in ways you never expect. I get a compliment on someone else's blog that blows me away. Scoble takes a week off, tired of comment flame. Dooce appears shy in the rays of adulation heaped on her at Blogher. I feel different when a mic is put in front of me in a session where I was raising a question (and, truth told, I walked in late after the podcasting agreements were tendered.) Will I censor my words a bit knowing they will be recorded? Possibly. That may be a good thing. But the point is, it changes me in that moment.

Technology is not neutral. Our application of it is not neutral. We hold the responsibility to think about how we yield this new power. That means trying new things. Making missteps. Remixing our approach. Ponzi is ready for that because she blogged about it right afterwards, right back out to the world, fearlessly. That's fantastic. She writes:

Damn, it sure is hard to try new things. Why is it that people are creatures of habit, why is change so hard to accept? I ask because I too fight this urge of sameness. The very comfort I seek at times smothers me and yet I cling to it. Do you?

My fight is with the majority. Somehow I seem to always prefer the space in the minority. Today that means siding with the individual podcaster. The one who isn't afraid of changing the rules, or making them up as they go along. This means I'm part of the quiet revolution. You know the one - 'shhhhhhhhh' convergence. I'm a journalist, not a perfect one, not a paid one, not like the one on your local news. There are no fine and fancy suits, no stylists or corporate lawyers - or bullshit and redtape. I'm just some woman with a microphone and a question that happens to be 'do you mind if I podcast this?'

Before you say 'Yes, please do or No, I don't mind.' Either let me know your thoughts as they arise and participate with me in this new dance or discreetly decline my invitation.

Let's dance!

blogher, podcasting, power, technology