Now This is a Conference Bag! by cogdogblog
posted 22 Apr ’08, 11.38pm MDT PST on flickr
They don’t make them like the used to… most of ther bags I get at conferences end up in the filing cabinet. This heavy duty tool box was the cool giveaway at UCON97, the 1997 Macromedia Users Conference, besides the nice travel bag from the 2003 MERLOT conference, is the only one I have every kept.
In the 1990s, my multimedia work revolved around Director. I actually scammed my way into the 1997 Macromedia conference on a “press” pass, a claim I made based on the amount of free coverage I provided Macromedia on the old Director Web site.
And there is nary a web shred left of the old sites, as they all now point to the mothership’s mothership.
Looking back, I see that I more or less rolled a basic blog tool tool in 1997 to provide “press coverage” for the conference under the name of “Johnny Lingo”– see UCON 97 Exposed!, where I created a simple tool for several folks to post news stories and to post photos.
There’s even an entry by Marc Canter or someone posing as him.
Seriously, look at this site- its a blog software! I wrote this in 1997! I invented blogging!
I think we all rolled such scripts in 1997. We all invented blogging.
(It is an interesting characteristic – and fallacy – of our age that there must be *the* inventor of something.)
Yes indeed, it was a blog. And I wish I had been lucky enough to know you back then when I was trying to find a good way to get my Spanish composition students to share writing samples more effectively (and in a fun manner). You were defiitely ahead of the game.
Nice conference bag indeed. If conference organisers stopped handing out conference bags what would the average conference attendee prefer to receive in its place?
A 64 gig thumb drive perhaps?
Portable hard drive?
Nice pair of sunglasses?
B&O earphones?
Headset?
During the nineties I was buried in HyperCard. Those were the days.
Cheers, John
Yeah Stephen, but my old ones still exist 😉 Yours http://www.assiniboinec.mb.ca/brandon/ is BAD REQUEST
John- please dont take what I write so literally. I am sure those but ugly synthetic material bags with software logos are useful to some souls out there.
I dont want any crap as a conference attendee. What a waste of paper, plastic, etc. I want a good conference experience, not junk.
Yes, you have to use the Wayback Machine to see it. Here’s the 1996 version. And here’s a capture of the 1997 version, with weblog (lower right). 🙂
Don’t you know I am playing w/ you Stephen? You win, you blogged first 😉
But nyehhhh nyehhh mine is still on the *real* net!
Of course I know you’re playing with me.
It’s just that I’m very competitive.
That’s why I like you.
Oh you share a lot of useful information as well. Perhaps someday you will run your own weblog or two? 😉
> Perhaps someday you will run your own weblog or two?
Just like you, you mean?
I’ve considered it. 🙂 Though I would have to run a minimum of three weblogs…
That old blog should at least be worth a solid claim to the first instance of live blogging 😉 Stephen got anything like that in the way-back machine (grin).
I don;t even have to go to the Wayback Machine, it’s on my site (the nice background seems to be out of commission again though).
CADE, January 29, 1996:
http://www.downes.ca/archive/1996/isiit/cade3.htm
Coverage was posted online as the conference progressed.