This March, I visited South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive for the first time. I spoke, met a ton of people and had an awesome time. I’m already thinking about next year (the dates have already been set: March 13 through 17). I’ve decided that I’d like to try to get on at least one panel. It’s definitely not too early to be thinking about it – they start accepting ideas on June 2 and close on July 11, so we’re not that far away.

I’m talking with Jonathan Bailey of PlagiarismToday about doing something, but I am also talking with Martin Reed of CommunitySpark about putting a panel together, as well. He’s aiming to come to SXSW next year and we share a lot of similar knowledge and experience. I think it’d be great. So, we agreed that we’d put it out their to our blog readers to see what ideas they might have for a panel. What do you think? What would you like us to talk about? It should be community/forums related.

Please let us know what thoughts you might have. Thanks!

Edit: Martin has a post up now, as well.

I’m looking for some feedback on an idea that I am kicking around. It was inspired by Darren Rowse’s improptu live chat sessions on Ustream.tv. He appears through streaming video while people in the room chat and ask him questions. I was thinking that I could do something like that here, periodically.

I could have a channel on Ustream.tv and then, at a set time, could host an event on the site where I was on camera (I just bought myself a nice, new webcam) and then anyone in the room could ask their community/forums management related questions and I’d do my best to answer them. Would you be interested in it?

I appreciate any feedback.

I’m back from SXSW. I’ll have a community related recap of my time there (as well as a more detailed recap) soon. Suffice to say, it went well and I had a lot of fun. Good to be back, though!

Through March 14, posting figures to be light (perhaps, there will not be any posts) as I will be attending South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive in Austin, Texas. As I posted about earlier, I have a book reading for my upcoming book, “Managing Online Forums” on the Day Stage at the Austin Convention Center on March 11 at 11:00 AM. So, if you happen to be attending – please stop by.

I’ll be around, but I am guessing that I will not find much time to post. I apologize, in advance, for this slow time.

Thank you for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.

Hello and welcome to ManagingCommunities.com.

What is it? Well, my name is Patrick O’Keefe. I’m a writer, web developer and community administrator who has been professionally developing websites since 1998 and managing online communities since 2000. Beyond just being the administrator, however, I’ve spent substantial amounts of time contributing to communities from all angles, as a member, staff member and owner.

I founded and own the iFroggy Network, an online network of websites featuring several communities, including SportsForums.net, KarateForums.com, phpBBHacks.com, DeveloperCube, CommunityAdmins.com, PhotoshopForums.com and BadBoyForums.com.

I’ve been managing communities since 2000. It’s something that I’m passionate about and I’ve been wanting to share random thoughts, knowledge and experiences on the subject in a specialized blog for some time. I’m the author of a new book called “Managing Online Forums” and with that coming out in April, I felt that now was the perfect time to start blogging on the subject.

The blog will definitely be random thoughts. It won’t have any kind of set style or format at the start. If I have to ban someone on a given day, I may talk about that. If I had a noteworthy troublemaker or a great experience, I may talk about that. And, hopefully, if anyone contacts me with questions, I can answer those in entries, as well. I’m looking forward to sharing my day to day experiences as a community administrator and I hope that I am able to help some people, in the process.

Thank you for reading and for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.