Branding David

I was a guest on episode 49 of the WordPress Podcast with Charles Stricklin and Jonathan Bailey. It was a lot of fun to be part of the episode, and reminded me how much I miss talking with Charles and WordPress.

Some things that were discussed include:

• WordPress 2.7 was released
• Microsoft enters the Open Source blogware world with Oxite
• New Media Expo merges with Blog World Expo
• WordPress Theme Repository purged of hundreds of themes
• Six Apart shuts down Pownce
• Dates announced for WordCamp San Francisco 2009, WordCamp Chicago 2009, WordCamp Dallas 2009 and WordCamp Columbus 2009
• WordPress.com passes the 5 million blog mark
• Media Uploader Overview
• Learning to love comment moderation
• The Many Ways to Configure Your New Dashboard
• WordPress.com Goes Gravatar Crazy
• 43 Degrees, but it’s snowing

I got to give my opinions, which hopefully people will enjoy and not disagree with too harshly. A huge thanks to Charles and Jonathan for having me on and I hope you’ll all check out the episode.

Deb Ng and I have launched a new blog that will focus in on being a Community Manager, and all that the position entails called Kommein. I was only a Community Manager for a short period of time, but I learned a great deal, and hope to provide extensive insights into ever part of working in the industry.

One of my favourite things to do is teach, and I can’t wait to see the community response over this blog. Deb Ng is currently employed as the Community Manager for Blog Talk Radio, and brings her own thoughts and insights from her active career. Together, we hope to cover ever facet of the job, and help those that are managing their own communities work more effectively.

Community management is a growing area of concern for individuals, brands and companies as they have to contend with the speed that the Internet can disseminate knowledge compared to the less connected society we lived in only one or two decades ago.

Kommein will be a blog filled with passion, advice, and insights, and I hope you’ll all check it out and let me know what you think.

It is always interesting to me how I feel when I am disconnected from the Internet. I have come to depend on it for a myriad of things, and because of this, when I am disconnected, I feel like I am missing out on so many things I usually take for granted.

I listen to music through Last.fm. I watch video podcasts and television shows on a variety of sites. I play EvE Online, an online massively multiplayer game. My entertainment is almost completely online.

I communicate through instant messaging, Skype, Twitter and my blogs. I e-mail through Gmail. My tools for communication are completely online.

I work completely online, writing blog posts, editing WordPress installations, and promoting what I have written on various social media websites. My income, which pays the mortgage, is completely online.

It leaves very little of my life that isn’t connected to the Internet in some way. Without it, I feel disconnected from my entertainment, my communication tools, and my work.

I wonder how many other people are so dependent on the Internet that they feel as I do and what that really means about society, as I am sure this will only become more common as Internet becomes more ubiquitous. How do you feel when you are disconnected from the Internet? Does it bother you at all, or do you enjoy your time offline?