As a member of the baby boom generation, my media of choice in my young adulthood was Big Black CDs (as my grandaughter calls them), Movies and Television pretty much in that order.  All of these are one way communications devices and, until about 30 years ago, they were highly controlled and, for the most part, rock solid money makers.  We(the U.S.A) even made most of the devices used for play back.  In those days we had a commerical for a manufacturer, I believe it was Zenith, that stated “The Quality goes in before the name goes on” 

Last weekend, I attended WordCamp in San Francisco.  It was a conference for users of WordPress, the software that drives this Blog.  While I went to learn more about the WordPress platform, I also went to observe Social Mediators in action.  And in the latter I received the bulk of my education.

Observation 1:  80-90% of the 400+ users and dozen or so presenters in attendance were using Apple computers.

Observation 2: 50-60% of the audience had their computers on and connected through the auditorium’s wireless network.  Apparently FREE WIFI, up most of the time, is EXPECTED for this type of  conference.

Observation 3: Those connected were literally all a “Twitter” throughout every presentation. In other words, they were constantly passing 140 character electronic notes during class.

Observation 4: The presentations were, for the most part, very enlightening.  However, those things that I found of keen interest,( like how to optimize your Blog for Search Engines), were allocated less time than those subjects that seemed to be of little interest to anyone, (like how to swtich to WordPress from some other Blog software). Though I am sure the 10 or so folks who weren’t already using WordPress appreciated the information.

Observation 5: Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress was much more engaging, entertaining and insightful than he was when I saw him at Blog World 2007.

Observation 6: Even free California Barbecue contains nothing to write about…The cornbread was pretty good though.

Observation 7: To this Social Media market, it is more important to get an idea out there, than it is to make sure it works correctly for everyone that embraces it.

Observation 8: PC users can do everything MAC users can do, but it’s just not cool.

Observation 9: The conference cost ONLY $20 and included a WordCamp T-shirt, Lunch, free WiFi and a chance to attend any 12 of the 24 sessions available.  This IS EXTREMELY COOL.

And from these observations comes the primary lesson of the weekend: 
Brand Quality is not the principal concern of Social Mediators.  It’s the Brand itself. 
And while the Brand has to deliver some reasonable INITIAL level of whiz-bang-imaginative-utility, once it’s embraced, the Qoolity goes in AFTER the name goes on.