Check out Jason Powell’s recent post about Eric Busby of Saddleback speaking at Microsoft’s Tech Ed. I commented and shared one of my own Eric Busby stories.

My friend Jennie Ver Steeg is Director of Online Libraries for Career Education Corp. She asked me to post the following in case any of you out there are looking for consulting opportunities.

I am in the process of gathering prospective Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for the various courses in the Network Administration, Management, and/or Design field. Prospective SMEs will be contracted to help on coursework and will be working with instructional designers to develop appropriate course materials.

Prospective SMEs are required to have at least a Masters Degree in the appropriate field with at least five years real world experience. Potential SMEs must also be used to working under aggressive deadlines and take feedback well. SMEs will ideally also have previous experience in teaching, training, or developing coursework. This is a short-term (8 week), part time contract. Please contact Brandon Morrison at bmorrison@careeredonline.com.

Dave Winer, the father of blogging and RSS, says that blogs are not primarily a means of conversation. Rather, they’re primarily about sharing your thoughts and things you’ve discovered. Search engines (and I would add hyperlinks and RSS) then connect your blogged ideas to others who are thinking about/struggling with similar issues. In Dave’s words, “I blog to share discoveries, large and small, mundane and profound and everything inbetween.” He doesn’t feel it’s his job as a blogger to write things that provoke a reaction.

I really like this idea that bloggers should share what’s on their minds, without concern about whether it will get others talking or draw attention and traffic. Having said that, I still think blogs are a means of public conversation. It’s simply a different kind of conversation. It’s a distributed, asynchronous conversation in which many people are talking at once and many people are listening at once. Blogs are about “shared discovery,” as Dave put it, and conversation. These two different ways of thinking about blogging are not at odds. If you’re thinking that “conversation” means comments and reactions to a post, then your view of the term “conversation” is too limited.

As I’ve said before, I like blogging much better than forums because they’re driven by the blogger’s creativity, writing ability, and personality. Unlike forums, they’re not dependent on achieving a critical mass of community in which some people pose questions or make comments and then others react. And blog posts do contribute to the public conversation whether or not anyone reacts or comments.

Saturday rally at the ampitheater

My son, Robbie (center with hat), chillin’ at the rally

My daughter, Beth, with the trip mascot, “Super Turtle”

4000 youth rockin’ out

Our youth (in green) rockin’ out with the other 4000

Joe White preaching at Sunday morning worship