Cuban began blogging in 2004 in an effort to correct a misquote in the Dallas morning news. Since then, his blog has grown to phenomenal popularity, covering diverse topics ranging from technology to the NBA – but always written with classic Cuban honesty, and often, some Cuban sizzle (in 2006 he was fined $100,000 by the NBA for being critical of the league’s selection of playoff officials, and for including tips on how improve playoff officiating).

His keynote at Blogworld lived up to his lofty resume and kept us all both laughing and taking notes on his insights. Ill talk about a few here, but if interested someone filmed the whole thing and you can check it out here.

Mark spent a fair amount of time talking about blogger's decisions to monetize their blogs, and the effects of such on their autonomy and credibility. He argued that ads cheapen blogs by detracting focus from the content - and, you are responsible to support your advertisers.  "Personally, [said Mark] my blog has no advertising, because i want to be free to pick on everyone." In reference to bloggers who "sell themselves to an aggregator" or write on behalf of a company, Cuban advised that "it is not easy to be brutally honest when you have a boss." Well said Mark

As a caveat, however, Cuban cautioned against what he called the "FU Post."  "Blogs are forever" - whatever you post will live on for eternity, so be careful what you say.  "What you write is going to brand you for years to come.  I'm not saying muzzle yourself, but be careful."  Cuban, always self aware, ended his remarks on the subject with a reality check.  "I can say stuff - I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I can sit up here and not care. I have more money than you!"

Cuban’s keynote at Blogworld Expo was clearly the highlight of the event. In other news, Mike Arrington of Techcrunch and Om Malik failed to attend the panels where they were listed as speakers, and many fewer attendees than advertised appeared to be present. In fact, when I arrived at the event, an organizer informed me that there were 1200 people present. However, at Mark’s keynote, I counted less than 400 in the crowd. Perhaps even more interesting was that at the beginning of his speech, Mark asked for a show of hands from bloggers, corporate bloggers, and then those who were there to sell stuff to bloggers (whom he diplomatically referred to as ‘those in the business of blogging’). I’d say the breakdown was something like 30/100/everyone else. So.. blogging conference. No bloggers. Hmmm.

It was puzzling to me to understand why bloggers didn’t think it was worth there time/money to attend this event. The organizers of the conference managed to pull together a pretty impressive panel, it was in Vegas, and everyone and their mom had a booth at the tradeshow. Thoughts?

Oh and, as a side note… Mark and I are now Facebook friends. Awesome.

I was surprised to find that while attendees were interested in monetizing their blogs/podcasts, the impetus and ongoing fueling for their work was often deeply personal and even cathartic. I expected more traction around ideas about ad models but was interested to find that what people really wanted to talk about was improving lighting quality, talking about stuff the public would find useful and so on.

Podcamps are constantly happening across the country. Check out their website to find the next one in your area. Anyone and everyone is welcome, they are TOTALLY FREE, and you are guaranteed to meeting interesting, driven, knowledgeable and geeky folk – I’ve got lots of interview material and video footage so if there is interest I will post it.

Let me know if anyone has or is planning to attend one of these events, and what your thoughts are on them are. Helpful? Dull? Snazzy?

a bit about me – im a recent college grad from Dartmouth College. the big green, the college on the hill, my little home in the middle of nowhere. i loved it out there - loved school, friends, even the dreadful weather.  if you know any Dartmouth grads you’ll probably agree with me when I say that our loyalty runs deep, and the college is always in your heart and soul.  ahhh trite perhaps but true:)

i grew up in seattle so im happy to be home.  My family lives here and it holds all my childhood memories, but it is interesting to rediscover the city as a ‘grown-up’.  the bar scene is not nearly as pitiful as people complain it is, and pacific northwest restaurants are awesome. i’m a big foodie and love to eat – and am finally working on the cooking part, albeit in my tiny new apartment with limited resources.. but its something.

rando facts – love the NYT, dig technology that is intuitive, am a travelling adict and spend millions of hours on social networking sites that allow me to stay in touch with people.  i have a dog, am very interested in microfinance, and hope to drive a motorcycle some day soon.

i work at Microsoft as an enthusiast marketing manager – basically my job is to be here in Redmond and support our awesome Evangelists all over the world.  It’s a kickass job with a lot of room for growth and dreams and learnings. so far so good..

so there’s a lot of ‘firsts’ going on in my life right now. First job, first apartment, first paycheck.. and first blog.  i plan to write about my life as it is - a graduate, an employee, a 20 something, a woman, a technology enthusiast.. so as I try and get this rolling I’d love to hear your  thoughts, comments, suggestions, lash outs, high fives, virtual nods.. yeeaaaa just talk to me.

-new kid