Said Ned, "We're Ahead!"
Steemfest, woah!
I've been to a lot of blogging conferences. Today we're partying like it's 2005. A very similar vibe to the second Les Blogs conferene in Paris when blogging itself was mature enough to attract a bunch of smart people from all over the world (and we ran the backchannel in IRC as Twitter hadn't been born) and the excitement of the open web was still visceral. Now many of us have been through the thrill of writing straight onto the internet and then seen it steadily centralised and siloed back into corporate control. There are people here who have seen this technology/community centralisation cycle a few times now. There are also people for whome this is a first taste of real free speech on the internet.
@Ned's keynote phrase was "We're ahead!" - it does feel like this. The technology and the community are both maturing. The two tracks from today confirm this. First up, in parallel, were sessions on scaling Steem and using our power to subvert the power of the State. Lots of other crypto projects are either vaporware or they're just really early stage ideas for long-term infrastructure.
I've been blogging on the Steem blockchain for more than a year now. I'm a seasoned early adopter, so I'm happy with some rough edges that might turn others off. Yes, some of the interface software is clunky. Yes I'm comfortable enough with messing around with public/private key pairs and understanding how to keep my account safe. Yes there are some crazy people blogging here and some spammers who are just out to earn as much as they can for as little input as possible. But there's also that special thing. That thing I had when I read the Cluetrain Manifesto and then first got replies to my comments on other people's blogs; when I got comments from people on my own blog and on my first stumbling attempts at podcasts (thirteen years ago!); that thing when Twitter got started, that thing when we had seesmic - it's real people saying what they think, being themselves and responding truthfully and humanly in their own voices.
It's great to be back in a conference setting that really feels like it's opening up new areas of activity and interest. And we're having the blog/twitter meeting in real life thing where you only know people from their avatars and suddenly there they are in the flesh. As @steevc said it's like you walk into a room and there are all these people you know from telly - and they know you!
Steemit is made of people. The web is made of people. Imperfect, messy, learning something new everyday, trying our best, people. I love being part of this community. So many warm hugs. So many smiles of recognition. So many gestures (kind ones) towards the ukulele. There's a lot of love here. A strong feeling for the power that exists between us. If you're not here already, come and join in, the water's lovely.
So cool. I'm excited for you and all you'll bring to the platform, fueled even further by SteemFest. Thanks for documenting your findings there, so we can share in your delight and insight!
Nice post! What will happening, if someone resteem your post?
Yes I felt the same :) Lots of lovely messy people and love 😍
Would love to see some video of the conference and what is in store for steemit as we continue to roll forward for those who could not make it. 2018 is going to become very competitive I feel in terms of social networks like steemit.
https://steemit.com/steemfest/@roelandp/service-announcement-steemfest-livestreams has links to the livestreams for both rooms over both days. I haven't reviewed them, but there should be some good stuff in there already.
Thank you for the optimistic spin....there is a lot of negativity around here of late with the price of STEEM heading down. Overall, I am very optimistic about this platform and do agree with @ned, this blockchain is ahead of others. There is a lot of activity taking place here on a daily basis.
One of the things I am most excited about is Zappl. Yes it too has its rough edges that need to be worked out but I am optimistic that can really draw a lot of people away from Twitter.
Well, I remember writing "The party's over" last year sometime when the price of STEEM went to 10c. But it was an important lesson to me to stop worrying about what it's worth today and just keep contributing to the network. Whether it's back down there or $1 or $100 a year from now, I'll still be getting paid more for blogging here than I have ever made on Facebook :)
No truer words were said. I wise we could put that at the top of every page on this site. It really nails the essence of what this is all about.
That said, I think the price will be up substantially a year from now. @ned seems to have some big plans and things are going with the development team.
I would say this thing will take off in the next 6 months.
thanks. I think our experience so far shows up how poorly many of us actually understand "contributing" to any network. If we can get another order of magnitude rise in the price by next Steemfest I will be smiling :)
Yes very true....I do not think most have a long term view on here or realize what consistent action means. To make something like this grow requires the participation of tens of thousands of people...maybe even hundreds of thousands. I believe the steem blockchain will get there and steemit being a bit part of that. However, it isnt going to happen by Thanksgiving.
We simply need to make this thing so big that people keep running into it no matter where they go on the web. Google, for all their ills, will pic up on the posts and have them in their search. It all will come to fruition....
Thanks for your comments.
good to know we are growing well compared to others, seem like you guys are having fun great job though
It may surprise you, but I am not here to do that. Even if I would be here to do such a grande thing, I would vastly prefer to empower people because
No, it doesn't surprise me. I'm glad to hear that you're here and sticking to what it is that you want to do. More power to you!
That's the beauty of the platform, some people can use it to subvert the power of the State, you can use it to empower people. We're all doing our thing, live and let live.
Believing in something definitely pays you back! Steemit Rocks!
I really wish i was going to steemfest. I will be there next year for sure! Have fun there @lloyddavis and say hi to @ned from me 😉
I'm sure you'd love it here. Of course I'll pass on your regards to @ned and Mr @luzcypher with whom I just shared a bus ride home :)
Aye! Steemfest2 looks and sounds like so much fun. Your write-up got me all pumped... I can feel the steem optimism and energy even from all the way over here in North Carolina.
It's great, I feel very fortunate to live only a 3 hour flight away. It's such a privilege to get to meet people in this way. I sat chatting with @luzcypher on the bus back to the hotel tonight and he said he'd been asked by some locals "What is this Steem Fest? Why are all these people so happy?" - because it's true, everyone here has something to offer and something in this thing that's set them alight. I won't be surprised if in the future people will be amazed and look back fondly on the days when it was "only" 300 people :) Next time, dear fellow, next time!
There is something about this system and I think its because it's breaking new ground and opening up new opportunities for us all :)