Rock Stars and Magicians

I am completely addicted to Rock Star Supernova and watched this week's recorded episodes last night.  Personally, I’m rooting for Patrice Pike because I’ve seen her up close in many Austin venues and she has an incredibly powerful presence.  Her voice can get so raw and pulls from a place deep inside of her.  I’m reminded, every time I see her, that artists pull something from their souls and just give it as a gift to their audiences.  It’s really brave and revealing.

I see this same “rawness,” but in much heavier doses in Dilana.  Who would have thought that I would ever be mesmerized by a singer with so many piercings?  Lukas is another one I'm watching intently, though he is incredibly arrogant and tends to just irritate me when he's not singing.

Seeing Patrice on TV is a very different experience than seeing her live on stage.  Television is heavily edited and you have to wear clothes that make you look thinner and makeup that makes you look less authentic.  It takes a true commitment from the audience to sit there and stay inactive long enough to watch the visuals.  It made me remember the things I really appreciate about blogs, podcasts and social media.  I love the authenticity, the genuine feel, and the participation of the community.  I love the fact that I can listen to podcasts while I’m traveling to and from work or in between cities. There is a new, raw, unedited honesty about it. Welcome to Web 2.0.

Rock Stars of IT

I really appreciate the rock stars we have at BMC.  They come to work and record authentic conversations which we serve up as podcasts or reveal themselves when they jot their every day thoughts in a blog.  We don’t pay them to do this – they just have the courage and the will to participate.  We don’t edit them.  We don’t tell them to talk about one topic or another.  Our blogs on TalkBMC are self-published and our podcast questions are sometimes a surprise to people we’re interviewing.  I’ve had some interviewees try to write out a script before a podcast and actually read their answers from that, but it is so transparent.  Remember what it was like to read in front of your class in first grade?  Well, it kind of ends up sounding like that.  It’s against the grain of what social media is all about.

There are so many rock stars here that it’s difficult to talk about just one.  For podcasts, I recommend you look for the ones from Bob Beauchamp, Tom Bishop, Kia Behnia, and Peter Armstrong if you’re looking for high-level visionary stuff.  We have 10 pages of podcasts to browse now.  If you’re searching by topic (you'll see the categories on the right hand side of every podcast), you’ve got to listen to Atwell Williams or Ken Turbitt for ITIL or Fred Johannessen and Dave Wagner for virtualization.  We have a “CMDB,” “Industry Analyst,” and an “In the Mind of a CTO” podcast series.  And, we’re about to publish a “Blogger” series and an 11-part series on “ITIL Certification.”

From a blogging perspective, several people continue to passionately pour their thoughts out on paper, courageously calling for comments and counting on enthusiastic audience participation.  Steve Carl, Anne Gentle, Peter Armstrong, and John Albee have all had the top blog spot at one time or another.  The topics our bloggers discuss are entertaining, sometimes downright funny, and often extremely useful in real-life I.T. situations.

Magic Web Fairies at TalkBMC

Then, there are those behind the scenes.  Those Magic Web Fairies (as Kimberly Stone calls herself) who keep the communities running smoothly.  There is never enough credit given to magic Web fairies.  They just get it done.  And, since it is done, we just take it for granted.  Let me introduce you to a few:

There are other magicians, of course, behind the scenes.  But, that’s another blog entry.  For now, let me just salute the Rock Stars for their bravery, for “putting it out there” without any extra pay, but just for the sake of being involved.  And, to the Magic Web Fairies – thanks for making Web 2.0 possible at BMC.