Show Me What You're All About

During this time of year political candidates feel like they are actually making an impact by putting a few signs around town, displaying their name and nothing else. When I see these types of signs I think what a waste of money. I don't know this person, its presumptive I would know you only by name.

Here is an example of someone who paid a large sum of money for a political sign and failed. This sign had to be 5 feet wide by 3 or 4 feet high.

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What's he running for? What does he stand for? Where can I find more information?

Opposite this sign, on the same fence, was another sign, only it speaks a different tune.

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This person has given me a couple of things, a slogan with some standard political rhetoric like leadership and change, a picture, but most important, he has his web address on the sign. Now I can look this person up on the Internet and see what he stands for and what his platform is.

If you are a political candidate and you have spent money on signs that tell me nothing you deserve to lose. People expect to be able to find you on line. They want to know what you stand for and why they should vote for you. It's not good enough anymore to just pitch your name and hope I remember you on election day, because I won't, and I hope no one else does either.

Does your personal brand make it easy for me to find you, or get to know you?

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Shiny New WordPress Embossed Moleskine

Shiny New WordPress Embossed Moleskine, originally uploaded by digitalthom.

- cameraphone upload by ShoZu

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WordCamp Utah 2008 Wrap Up

Had a great time at WordCamp Utah on Saturday. The Open Source Technology Center at Novell was great. There was plenty of water and snacks. And there were plenty of people in attendance.

I have to give thanks to Joseph Scott for pulling off such a great event.

Here are some pictures I took at WordCamp. I'm using the NextGen Gallery plug-in instead of Flickr. While I use the gallery feature to store pictures, audio and video, I didn't use it to actually show a gallery of photos.

After some struggle to get the gallery manager to work right, I think I finally have it figured out. I think the issue was more user error than application error.

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And a link to my presentation video from Ustream. Thanks to RockyMountainVoices.com and Jake Spurlock for the video.

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Night Shade Look Alike

Often when I wear this shirt, people look real hard to see if it's me. Like I'm wearing a shirt with my face on it.

No its not me. Thanks to the guys at Night Shade Books for the shirt. Got it at World Horror Con in Salt Lake City 2008.

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Mountain-Con 4 Wrap Up

Mountain-Con 4 concluded this past weekend, and I was able to attend all three days. All in all I can say it was a pretty good con. Every convention like this has its pros and "cons", and for a fledgling, read forth year, science fiction fan convention, its doing pretty good.

The Davis Convention Center was a great place to have this convention. Mainly because its built for this type of event; big rooms, large hallways, big bathrooms, close to restaurants, and most importantly, free wireless internet. Inevitably there is down time between panels or presentations, and its always fun to jump on the Internet and see whats happening.

There were plenty of things to do. Plenty of things see. Plenty of people to meet. Saturday is usually the day most people attend in their costumes. You can always count on Storm Troopers and Darth Vaders. Not so many Star Trek costumes this year. Not sure why.

Brandon Sanderson was there, the author tapped to finish Robert Jordans last book in the Wheel of Time series. That must be a daunting and stressful task. While there are always plenty of celebrity guests, I get a kick out of meeting all the lesser know, or unknown, authors and attendees. I always add to my rolodex at conventions like these. Heck, that's how I met Jeff Norris of iscifi.tv, and Paul Genesse, author of the Golden Cord.

I have to say a couple of things before I end. Basically wished for next year and beyond. I love to see the gaming room controlled better. Gamers had more space than anyone, and it was wasted. I would have like to see the dealers, more dealers, in the gamers room and move the gamers into the dealers room. Great opportunity missed to have rockin game demos, or significantly more dealers.

I would also ask to reconsider the cost of the Banquet. I would attend, but nothing is worth that kind of money except maybe my wife on a significant occasion. The event sounds fun but is out of reach for most people.

I would also hope your have secured guests for next year. You know as well as I do these people book way out. If your not first, you don't get prime guests, which draw more attendees.

Good job to everyone who volunteered. I know the amount of work that goes into putting on events. Sleep for a few days. Then get on next years event. Please.

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