This past weekend, I attended PodCamp Boston 3. This was my first PodCamp (read my guest post on MediaBullseye for a wrap up of “PodCamp Boston – The Newbie Perspective“), so there was a lot to take in.
One thing that I was surprised by was that everyone there, from hosts Chris Brogan and Christopher S Penn, to presenters like Mike Langford and Leslie Poston, to the hundreds of attendees, was that no one portrayed themselves as the utmost expert on any given subject. There were even jokes and questions. What, exactly, makes on a Social Media Expert?
Then, on Sunday, during last break between sessions, Loic Lemeur texts in a tweet:
“An expert is someone that knows more and more about less and less.”
From 3,000 miles away (roughly the same, whether he’s in San Fransisco or Paris) Loic’s simple phrase summed up the overlying them of the weekend: Social Media is changing and growing so fast, that to call yourself an expert is to begin limiting yourself.
At the PodCamp wrap up at the end of Sunday, Chris Brogan asked us what we learned. I rose my hand and spoke up. “Everything I know fits on a thumbtack.” This was not to minimize what I know about Social Media, but to highlight fact that there is so much to learn. It’s a daunting task, but it’s one I’m up to.
Are you?
p.s. – I’m working on compiling my extensive list of PodCamp tweets into an organized list. I’ll have that up once it’s ready.
