A series of day-long workshops around blogging and usability trends are popping up over the next two weeks in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco in the form ofWordCamps. Domestic first-time Wordpress users and experienced developers alike will be privy to conversations about monetizing blogging and managing content (not to mention the allure of microcelebrity) before similar events occur in Milan and San Paulo late this spring.

Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg says the camps, which were created using a BarCamp model and now number in the hundreds annually, are a great example of the platform’s main goal of democratizing publishing. Users from Manila to Dallas have organized their own WordCamps worldwide and pulled in local resources for co-education. Mullenweg (pictured above), who is curating the San Francisco WordCamp at the end of May, says that product innovations have come out of the get-togethers (at which he’s been asked to sign more than a few laptops and iPhones). Not bad for someone who thought he’d never leave the Lone Star State.

We’re attending the 25th Anniversary of TED, which is proving to be yet another extraordinary tour de force of mind expanding speakers and entertainers. Al Gore followed up on last year’s disturbing new environmental scientific data with some even more disturbing beta and a strong attack on “clean coal”. Bill Gates proved himself to be a genuinely humorous speaker and charmed TEDsters with his foundation’s work on Malaria and educational issues. Gates shared a couch with normally cognizant TED curator Chris Anderson, who brought further laughs as he unwittingly opened up his Apple MacBook next to the Microsoft CEO to read e-mailed questions to him.

Juan Enriquez opened up with, among other topics, an eye-opening reality check on how bad the banking situation is. The true father of the Internet (not you Al), Tim Barners-Lee spoke on the need for more raw data sharing and its ability to advance humankind and solve pressing issues. Yann Arthus-Bertrand showed beautiful film footage that highlighted the global environmental condition and made everyone pause.  “Dancing Man” Matt Harding’s (famous for dancing around the world on YouTube) got both TED locations dancing. The musical hit of the day were instrumentless hip hop artists Naturally 7, who arrived fresh from their WEF Davos appearance and blew everyone away. For those who enjoy rubbing elbows with celebrities and progressive industry leaders, there are plenty to go around here. But alas, this is a trendspotting blog, not Perez Hilton.

Boulder, CO, Day 2 SNAP Gathering: ‘Little things people can do to change the world’ was best exemplified by Paul Williams’ remarkable healthcare program in Uganda where he single-handedly eliminated childhood malaria deaths and dramatically reduced HIV infections in a small village… a bit more uplifting after yesterday’s chilling confessions by economic hit man, John Perkins. Speaking of confessions, I was perplexed and angered by activist and writer Meredith Maran’s public admission that she had falsely accused her father of molesting her as a child yet she discredited herself further by failing to articulate what her moment of enlightenment was that undid the 10 years of damage she had caused within her family. Many concurred.

Later, speeches by a not-too-bland Jeffrey Bland and others on nutrition, were a blend of fascinating and old news. The afternoon felt a bit like a corporate motivation meeting with Tori Murden, best known for rowing solo across the Atlantic and the mesmerizing John Bul Dau, one of the Sudanese ‘Lost Boys’, both rallying around the theme of not giving up in life. Other speakers varied in their abilities and topics, but a definite standout was Michael Franti of Spearhead who drew a few tears during his recount of his recent peace-seeking Baghdad and Israeli journeys. Later that night he wowed the crowd with a rocking Spearhead show, opened by notable up and coming musical artist Shawn Hlookoff. All-in-all, SNAP’s first foray to Boulder was a success. With a few tweaks and refinements it could be world-class. But I would certainly recommend it for those seeking either a liberal dose of brain exercise or ample networking opportunities in the natural, organic and alternative energy spaces. See you there in ‘09.

As an attendee and devotee of TED I was admittedly a little skeptical and thought SNAP was going to simply be a miniaturized version. Guess what … it is! But that’s not all bad actually. In fact, it’s a compliment. Mix, in a veritable who’s who of the “Organic Mafia”, a dash of some brilliant creative folks, a collection of academic thought leaders, a pinch of mainstream brand voyeurs who are diving deeper into Green-land, a teaspoon of “new economy investment bankers,” and finally some marketing agency peeps like myself and you have the makings of an interesting collection of people. I found myself inspired by Daniel Pink (always fun), Paul Stamet’s hypothesis that mushrooms could help save the world resulting in the biggest standing ovation of the day, Daniel Pinchbeck’s psychedelic discoveries and enlightened ‘neosphere’ thinking, Vanessa German’s poetic brilliance and more. So far Steve Demos’s vision of putting together a cultural elite gathering is paying off and inspiring some great conversations which went well past closing time last night at the St. Julien Hotel’s buffet. Hopefully today will deliver more of the same.

Ben Kaufman wants you to work for him. And you. And you. And all those people in that building next to you. We told you about his ever morphing business of crowdsourced product development called Kluster. Now it has landed on something new: Knewsroom, a user powered daily news feed. Of course, Kaufman doesn’t expect you to power his enterprise for nothing. That’s why every day, if you’ve submitted or bet correctly on the winning stories, you get cash. It’s kind of like a headline horse race, and you’re the one feeding the pony anabolic steroids. No, wait. It’s kind of like CNN meets American Idol. Well, it’s not quite that either. Here, Ben can explain it better. Oh, and he’s also throwing a party with Mashable at Webster Hall on Friday. Just tell him we sent you. When that doesn’t work, pay for a ticket.

When I started this blog, I never imagined in only a few short years I would be able to surround myself with an incredible, talented, and diverse team. Today, I’m extremely proud to introduce a new Editor to the site, Jonathan Stern.

So, who is he? Jonathan is a native Bostonian, but around the age of five his parents thought it would be funny to transplant him to Florida, where he’d spend his formative years rooting for the Red Sox, drinking Miller High Life, and dreaming of that day he’d get back to the Northeast and write for Rolling Stone. Only one of those things happened, and for the past six years he’s written for no less than a dozen high-profile publications including: the Phoenix, Stuff, Penthouse, People.com, House and Garden, Golf for Women, Lucky, and ACCESS (DirecTV’s subscriber magazine). As the new Editorial Director of JoshSpear.com, he thinks that he can settle down and become a one blog kinda guy. We’re pumped to have him on board. Welcome Jonathan!

Many of you have probably noticed the posts by our latest contributor and new hand-on-deck here at JoshSpear.com, Heather Snodgrass. Born in Mackay, North Queensland, Australia (G’day, Mate), Heather moved to NYC in December ‘05, after four years in San Diego, to pursue a writing career. After stints at a few NYC gossip/media blogs, we’re glad to have her officially on board here. She’s a sucker for smart tech boys, gadgetry, cheese, and Brooklyn (even with all the strollers). When she’s not blogging here, you can find her bartending in Park Slope — go ask for a Speartini. Keep your eyes peeled for her witty posts, fantastic finds and occasional jaded humor. And yes boys, she is single…but don’t bother asking here, this is not a dating site.

We’ve been dreaming about creating a place where our users could come to submit things they find inspiring on their own for other readers to see. Thanks to a bit of brainstorming, inspiration from our friends over at Notcot.org and what ended up being a collaboration with the fine team at Kohler, our Design Showcase was born.

Please stop by and feel free to upload images and a bit of text of things YOU, the reader, like. It might be new artists or inventions, design from a foreign place, new music, food or fashion– we can’t wait to see what you find! Also be sure to browse the already existing entries and give your thumbs up to things you like. This is a major new feature here at JoshSpear.com, and we’re excited to hear your feedback! Go!

I love learning new words. Today I learned that a Dandy is “a man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop.” Online boutique New Dandyism addresses men’s fashion from the perspective that there has been a new cultural resurgence of dandyism. For them, the term metrosexual doesn’t cut it anymore– men these days truly have an appreciation for fashion as reflected in the astute modern interpretations of classical looks we’ve seen recently. Although their offerings are quite slim at this point, they’re selling some choice clothes (e.g. Loomstate Jeans and the new Rittenhouse line). New Dandyism is based in Norwood, Massachusetts, but hopefully that fact is immaterial to you, because they offer free shipping on everything if you’re in the contiguous U.S. or Canada. They also help us understand up and coming brands with informative interviews and posts to their blog.

Unfortunately, none of the JoshSpear.com crew made it to Coachella this year to see the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and Amy Winehouse (above). And from what I’ve seen from the coverage of the festival, which went on this past weekend, we really missed out. There’s just something about great music in the warm desert sun that strikes my fancy. Because my friends who did make it were too dehydrated to remember the experience, I’ve been leaning on Pitchfork to give me the lowdown. They had Amy Phillips and Daphne Carr there to cover the shows live. Now after the fact, they have an awesome re-cap posted, so you – like me – can live vicariously.

Blackbird is not only a great menswear boutique to visit, but it also understands that many fashion buffs aren’t able to make the trip to Seattle to see the store for themselves. Don’t get me wrong, you should do your best to be there in person, but if that’s simply not an option, Blackbird meets us halfway with a constantly updated blog, showcasing some of their most coveted inventory, drastically discounted sale items, notable local events, and other tidbits of interesting info. And what’s more, they’ll ship “anywhere the law will let them” so you can get your paws on the goods. Browsing their blog archives, it was nice to see some great close-up shots of some difficult-to-find items (I want I want gimme gimme gear), including these Friend or Foe Jazz T’s that just seem to be flying off the shelves everywhere– I believe Mr. Spear referred to them as “the perfect t-shirt” actually.

I think by now everyone has probably noticed the incredible coverage coming out of Sao Paulo from our newest on-the-ground correspondent and site contributor, Phuong-Cac. Phuong-Cac Nguyen is a Los Angeles transplant currently calling dynamic Sao Paulo, Brazil, her new home. She began her writing career at the Los Angeles Times reporting on arts and leisure, and later moved on to a staff editorial position at URB magazine. Then, after a stint as managing editor and long-term gigs as writer and editor for marketing projects for Nokia and Pacific Sunwear, Phuong-Cac decided she needed to move not just out of publishing but out of the country to maintain her sanity. Now she spends her days writing for blogs such as JoshSpear.com, discovering the multitude of things the city has to offer, learning to be a pedestrian and launching her SISU line of jewelry. She misses Vietnamese food. Keep your eyes peeled for more posts from her every week– and a very warm welcome to the team Phuong-Cac!

There’s something about this Jason Calcanis interview of Ted Murphy (founder of PayPerPost) that makes us cringe. The very idea of masking paid product placements as genuine blog posts flies squarely in the face of what we as writers and you as readers enjoy about the blog experience. What’s more, this cryptic and deceptive practice threatens the blogospehere as a whole. It’s already starting to make readers nervous– we can sense it. Murphy can twist words and definitions around, argue ‘efficient market outcome,’ ‘personal empowerment,’ etc. to justify what they do, but be sure they’ll never make believers out of us. As a reflection of our love for the unadulterated blogosphere, and as a gesture of respect to all of our readers, we promise to remain transparent (i.e. if we ever have a financial connection to the subject of a post, we’ll disclose it) and continue with the level of integrity upon which we’ve always prided ourselves. The last thing we want to do is fall on this slippery slope toward the fall of the blogs– it saddens, upsets and infuriates us.

After much encouragement, longtime friend and colleague Alan Graham finally launched a blog! It’s officially titled MedHed– and it’s really solid. MedHed (or Media Head) is a daily digest of great design for everyday usage. Alan not only writes about services and products he loves (we know that job well)– but he also write about ones he’s been using for more than just a few days. He’s after great design you’ll want in your life forever. Check out the reviews and fun tests with Bodum Glassware and Global Knives. Also be sure to signup for the MedHed list for a chance to win free products he reviews daily. Congratulations Alan, we’re all reading!

If you’re a regular reader of the Wired blogs (like I am), you may have noticed the series of redesigns throughout the past few weeks on Wired.com. A site redesign is a big decision for a widely read blog (or family of blogs) to make. You want to keep moving forward with creative and user-friedly additions, but you don’t want to alienate your readership by trying to get too fancy or by adding extraneous features. Looks like Wired is bouncing back from a recent redesign that provoked some pretty “frank reader reviews.” Some of the highlights of their most recent redesign from their first redesign: A ‘River of News‘ aggregator; tabs for most e-mailed stories and real time updates to the web’s hottest links from Reddit; and variable headline font sizes so you can distinguish ‘big news’ from, well, ‘news.’ I think they’ve improved on their old design with some thoughtful, intuitive additions. What do you think?