Fili’s world

The Israeli blogference was a 2 day conference about the local and international blogging world. I arrived late at the end of the 2nd day with my personal Taiwanese blog-expert. I didn’t attend any of the seminars and presentations, but still - here are some quick notes about the short time I was there:

• More people know me than I thought - I’m an Israeli blogosphere anonymous, and yet - somehow - people seemed to know who I am, or at least know some of my Israeli online activities. As I was talking to people, someone would pass by and the person I would talk to would say - "hey, you know fiLi, right?" to which some would respond with a "yes"/"ofcourse"/"sure"/"who doesn’t?" (?!).
  Starting a conversation with some I got an opening sentence of "Oh! you’re fiLi! Great, the guy/gal from this-and-that-blog/this-and-that-site/this-and-that newspaper was looking for you". Looking for me?! (?!)
• Blogger news is viral - Furthermore, it’s shocking how fast news spreads. Some of those who met me started off by congratulating me on going to Taiwan, and none of them read this blog. At some point somebody who I still have no clue as to who she was came by and said - "you don’t know me and it’s not important, but I just had to come by and wish you a good trip to Taiwan". (?!)
• A LOT of people are interested in China and the Chinese market - Throughout the past year I’ve been offered to help promote over 10 Israeli start-ups to the Chinese market/language. (?!)Folks assume I know something about China or the Chinese market. It always overwhelms me what a big buzzword the Chinese market is in the Israeli IT market without anybody knowing anything about it, especially for those who are starting off and dreaming of the big bucks. I’ve probably been a fool to deny some of the offers made, and there’ll be more mistakes to come, but I have a hard time relating to the "I’m not sure how and what but I’ll give it a try" startups - as brilliant as they may be.
• People in reality are not always what you expect - It was the first time for me to meet (almost) all of the people there after only knowing them through the Internet. I guess that like in online dating sites - no one was anything like what I expected, but not in a bad way. It took me a while to get over the weird feeling of actually seeing people that I never really expected to meet in person.
• I’m not a good PR person - I adore and envy people who are shameless in their self-promotion. In the Israeli culture (and I’m guessing - the Chinese/Taiwanese) - it works. I can’t explain why, but I’m not a good online activities PR person, still thinking it’s all just a small game. I was amazed to learn of people who are earning major money and reputation for things I do regularly. It makes one think …
• I’m not sure where this is going - This small event made me rethink what I do online and why I do it. Does my online identity say something about me? do I care about what I do? is it important? is it for myself or is it for others? is there a balance? what is all this for? and most important - do I really enjoy doing it?