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.

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.

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?

I am both excited and concerned about this merging of events. I have found the podcasting and blogging communities to not always “get along” and they seem to be at a different place when it comes to making a business from such pursuits and so I wonder how these events will be combined without ruining both experiences.

I am hopeful that I can attend BlogWorld and New Media Expo, as it is now called, and would be very honoured to speak at the event once again, but with it becoming one event, will there be tougher competition with regards to choosing speakers?

The whole community is waiting to see how this new event comes together and what it will mean for speakers, businesses and attendees.

From the Press Release:
“The lines between blogs, podcasts and videos are blurring in that content creators are using all of these tools to communicate and share information online – the message is more important than the medium,” said Tim Bourquin, founder of New Media Expo. “Given that people are mixing podcasts, video and blogs to deliver their message, it became obvious that our two events should come together and provide a single all-encompassing conference where attendees can learn all of the latest and best content creation techniques in one place.”

“As more content is being created and shared online, the market for an event like this is growing at a rapid pace,” said Rick Calvert, founder and CEO of BlogWorld Expo. “Bringing together the world’s largest podcasting event and the world’s largest blogging event creates a unique learning, networking and business environment for everyone involved in new media. Our attendees include individual and corporate content creators, new media as well as tradional media companies, entrepreneurs and enterprise-level marketing professionals.”

BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009 will feature conference tracks on everything from creating better audio content to using social networking tools to grow your brand, blog audience and nurture the relationship between content creators and their audiences, as well as companies and their customers. As in previous years, after-hours networking receptions, special events and parties will combine to make it the gathering of the year for the new media industry.

With the clamp down on venture capitalist funding, it makes this question all the more relevant to people that I know and talk to. It also made me wonder how much money it would take for me to build the business I have always wanted, and do so overnight. See, I consider myself very thrifty, but on the flip side, I understand how much time, money and passion it takes in order to build a very successful business or brand online, and how these things must be weighed, especially if you start to bring on staff to help you accomplish your goals.

What is Success?

The question that we each must ask ourselves before determining how much money we need to make, is what is success, and how much of it do we want? Many companies and individuals would list success as having millions of dollars of profit at your disposal, but I am not one of those people.

Success to me, is being able to choose when I work, while still making enough money that I can comfortably support my family and being able to enjoy the occasional purchase on a whim without worrying what that means sacrificing.

To put a dollar amount on this is rather difficult, as my life situation is still in constant flux, with my wife in University, and my personal interests for both business and hobby still being fully explored.

Is Lacking Money Holding You Back?

Another question to consider before understanding how much money would be needed to make you or your business a success includes considering the key factors. For me, money is only holding me back in that I have to dedicate time to making money that I would prefer to dedicate to new and/or exciting projects.

For many people, time is more a consideration and concern than money, as we only have so much time to spend on things, and having money would free us from having to earn a living at one job, and allow us to pursue our goals in life. Many branding experts, and successful business people won’t cover this point. They will sell you on the “just do what you love, and the money will follow” aspect that I hear preached so much, but in reality, you have to balance doing what you love with earning a living and supporting yourself and sometimes a family.

Conclusion

If you really consider these points, you would probably realize that you need less money than your imagination lead you to believe, and that your goals, while still difficult, are much more realistic and closer to reality. If you figured out that you only need enough money to support your family for a year, plus some money for a programmer or designer, that could be much easier to obtain than the millions we would all like to have.

It can be really difficult to define them sometimes, but holding your dreams, goals and aspirations close to your chest will allow you to chase after them, and hopefully reach them. I was recently asked what my goals are with regards to my career. People were assuming that I wanted to become a full time consultant like other Internet personalities try to present themselves as.

But for me, I just want to continue to learn, teach others, and give myself a variety of tasks, roles and things to do in my daily rotation, so that I keep happy, all the while keeping my family afloat by bringing in enough money that my wife can continue her University studies.

My goals are fairly simplistic on the surface, but really complex in practice. Trying to find ways to enjoy everything I do, and make enough money to keep my household afloat is difficult to do, especially during these trying times, but that is my goal, and I am going to stick with it.

I hope everyone reading this has been or will take some time to consider their goals, and work towards them. Also, make your goals known, so people don’t make assumptions that may change their perspective of you and your actions.

The ME TOO Mindset

I was recently talking to a colleague of mine, and it was said that watching the news go around about all the cuts and the horrible economy most definitely pushes out the feeling that companies should make cuts because others are. When you put massive amounts of people together, you’ll notice quite often there is a tendency to follow a leader, even if it is in the wrong direction.

Are many companies letting go of hard working people just because they have seen the news that their competitors have let go of staff? Do they see this as a way to remain competitive and bolster their revenue figures? Is this just a great excuse, so that those that do the firings don’t have to feel bad?

Again, I am not saying that there isn’t a reason to downsize, if your revenues are going south, or your cash burn rate is too high to be sustained over the long haul, but to do it without any other provocation other than your competition cutting back is ridiculous.

Companies expect their staff to work hard for them, and be loyal, and then there is a hiccup in the economy and people are being downsized like there is no tomorrow.

I really think that if most companies took a moment to pause, really analyze the situation, and take preventative measures that don’t require a loss of talent and staff, they would be able to ride out this economic storm without contributing to the negativity that is currently hanging over the new media / Internet and technology related industries.

What do you think, were all of these firings really necessary?

So, instead of trying to write an extra post in your day to make time for guest posting, I would advocate taking the time away from your own posting and dedicate it towards writing an amazing guest post.

Even if the blog isn’t bigger than yours in traffic, RSS readers, or listings in search engines, it can still provide huge benefit from being highly focused, or giving your blog the variety of links it needs to be highly recognized from search engines like Google.

Guest posting continues to be one of the ways we advance the marketing of College Crunch.

It really flipped a switch for me because when I went to Podcasters Across Borders, I was basically lynched for wanting to hear about monetization, as it was a bad word at that event.

People were focused on podcasting because they were passionate and they didn’t want anything to get in the way of that, but what they don’t realize is: monetization is just a step in building a business.

No matter how the economy is, people should want to turn their passions into their business. Some of the wealthiest people in the world were able to make that leap, and why shouldn’t podcasters? Also, the tips, tricks and ideas from last year might not be the same today, as things are always changing online.

To say talk of monetization isn’t welcome is odd, and shortsighted to me. Sure, there will always be purists out there, but I say, “build a business from your passions” and as long as monetization isn’t welcome in the conversation stream, maybe ask about “building a business” around your podcast next PodCamp.

Over the last few days, I have been thinking up more content for the Premium Partners area, which is now up to eight registered members out of a maximum of fifty. With the price going up on February 2, 2009, I recommend people get in early if they want to be grandfathered at the current pricing structure.

For those that didn’t enjoy the nextMEDIA posts, I will be getting back to regularly scheduled programming over the next few days, but for those that did enjoy nextMEDIA, I hope that you’ll continue to keep watch over this site, as I will be covering other conferences and events in the future.

Other than that, I have been staying off blogs for the last few days, and enjoying myself a little bit. I had my twenty-sixth birthday on November 14, and it wasn’t a great one. In fact, it was down right stressful and frustrating, but that was just one more reason to give myself a little time to play, watch movies, and spend time with my wonderful wife.

I hope you all stuck around, as I have some great thoughts, ideas, and actionable content filled posts lined up for December. I really appreciate everyone’s support and I want to thank you all for your patronage.