In my post from yesterday, I talked about why I come to conferences – to hopefully see and hear from the leaders and visionaries I would not normally get the opprotunity to see. Today I had the opportunity to be in with Will Richardson for 3 different presentations.
One of the great things about blogging is that you get to know people you have never met face-to-face. I’ve been reading Will’s blog for a couple of years now, following his path and listening to what he has to say. Today was the first time I ever saw him live, but since I’ve been reading/listening to him for a while, it was like seeing an old friend again, rather than a new face. Thanks, Will, for some great conversation and ideas.
Of the sessions he did today, the one I enjoyed most was titled “From Information Literacy to Information Leadership.” He spent time sharing how he tackles the information/learning landscape on a daily basis. He made his daily routine transparent so we could see how he learns and utilizes web 2.0 tools to locate, assess, manage, and share information. It affirmed some of the practices I have gotten into as well. One of the points he made is that in this new information landscape, it takes time to do all this reading/writing. Something has to go to make the time – for him he said reading books is one thing that is happening much less. For me at first I could not figure out what I gave up, because I do spend time reading/writing on the web now, and see its importance. But it just hit me what it was – TV. A couple of years ago my wife and I made a conscious decision to give up cable TV (but kept the cable modem…), mainly because of the ridiculous price we were paying when all we really watched was 1 or 2 channels. I totally missed that we gave it up, because the web 2.0 tools snuck right in and took the time. Much less vegging, but more rewarding use of time as far as I’m concerned.
The other thing that was great about that last session is that it helped me to clarify what I believe is the best way to approach web 2.0 with people who are new to the concept…but that’s for the next post.