Maybe We're *ALL* Doing it Wrong

The first of three reasons that I decided to present at PodCamp 2010 was the desire to be part of the solution: part of the effort to make the Nashville Camp events as great as I believe they can be.

This sounds a little Hug-centric for someone like me, but it is born out of the observation that they’re good events, but not great ones. And I don’t mean to belittle the enormous effort put into the events by the volunteers, I was a volunteer for BarCamp 09, I know there’s a lot more work involved than one might speculate.

The reason I think they’re not great–yet–is this: We’re missing the Really Really Big Ideas®.

As Hugh Macleod (of Gaping Void fame) says in his fantastic article, random thoughts on being an entrepreneur:

Products are idea amplifiers. The molecules and/or bytes are secondary.

Which is to say, if all we do in the Nashville Tech Community is talk about how to make websites, debate the best publishing platforms, and analyze content strategy, we’ll never bring our game to the next level.

If we don’t have killer ideas, it doesn’t matter how many drupal developers, social media consultants or iPhone developers we have.

We’re off to a decent start. God knows there are smarter people with better ideas that I have around, but what makes a great Tech Community is that we all participate in the conversation.

So again, maybe what I’m doing will help. And next, I’ll talk a little about fear.