I really enjoyed the fourth talk of the afternoon(that I attended) with Stephen Downes. His subject, Community Blogging, was not at all what I expected. I was picturing a warm-and-fuzzy hour of group-hugging, but what we got was a cerebral workout.
[Photo originally shown here.]
Mr.Downes, "leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata," led the participants through the "Two major elements of communities," "Power Laws" and his opposition to the "Long Tail" (because he admits to being at the end of it), and the very definition of meaning (Power Point).
I was particulary intrigued by his model of the semantic social network, his Edu_RSS spec, and his opinion on Metadata.
The last item was met with some contention during the Q&A period. I think it was Mark Canter who was loudest (as he is prone to be) in defense of Tagging citing Flickr as an successful example of organic Folksonomies. I love a lively debate!
Mr. Downes' ideal (he told me he had yet to find a suitable example online) of the semantic social network was not universally accepted by those in attendence, but the seed was sown. Do yourself a favour and peruse his research. With an open mind, you will surely find something to intrigue you.