Social Blend co-host CGT2099 in his own words

Catch the Brainwaves is our ongoing series of interviews with a variety of folks participating in blogging and social media. I ask them ten questions and they respond with their brilliant answers and insights! Today is the final installment of our four part series of Q&A sessions with the co-hosts of the rockin’ podcast Social Blend, featuring CGT2099 aka Greg Davies.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin!

1. Can you tell us the origin of your username (CGT2099)?

Wow. What an opener. I’ll give you the abridged version. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, back when GeoCities was rockin’ the Internet like it was 1996, my old username was ChefGreg’sTruk (how I came to get THAT username is a story in and of itself as well, but we’ll keep this interview PG-13…). That nick was also how my site, The-TrukstoP.com, also got its name - it was originally called ChefGreg’sTrukstoP way back when. At any rate, around the turn of the century, I felt a change was needed. I condensed it to cGt, and added the number 2099, which was in tribute to the old Marvel Comics series of characters set in the year 2099.

2. What’s the biggest change that you faced in moving from Australia to the United States?

I don’t know - missing Vegemite, maybe? Actually, in all seriousness, the true answer is less of a cultural one than you may believe. In 2006, I lost my mother to cancer, and although I was fortunate enough to be back by her side in Australia when it happened; the leadup to her passing was an incredible difficult phase in my life. It was a nightmare knowing I was on the other side of the planet when she was facing that for 2 years before she died. My mother was, and still is, my best friend - and losing your best friend to a loss such as this is the biggest and most challenging change that ANYONE could face.

3. Please give kudos or otherwise recognize someone in social media who doesn’t get enough credit for their work.

My call would be for Mark Carras, the metalhead behind RockMyMonkey.com and HeavyAsHell.com. Mark’s worked hard at promoting heavy metal music via social media, and hosts a really great podcast called Saturday Night Monkey with Calinazaret and DarkNemesis. I’ve been a metalhead for years, and to me, it’s fantastic to see someone like Mark “carry the flag into battle” for the metal movement into the realm of social media sites.

4. Any regrets (ever) about leaving Digg?

None. But remember, I didn’t leave. I was shown the door. Apparently Kevin Rose doesn’t like it if you post a nipple and it hits front page.

5. Lightsabers: one blade or two?

Two single bladed lightsabers, both red. Ninjas and pirates would never have a chance facing off with that on Universal Day of the Jedi.

6. What do you see in the near future (next six months) for Mixx?

More substantial growth beyond previous expectations. At the beginning of the year, I truly believed that 2008 would be Mixx’s year, and it seems to be going well so far. Somebody posted a graph of traffic stats the other day showing that Mixx’s traffic had exceeded that of Reddit’s. The biggest credit behind all of this growth truly is the Mixx Community - particularly the early adopters… they are a dedicated bunch, that’s for sure.

7. Can you briefly tell us the story of how and why the Social Blend podcast was created?

Brian Hill (Bdog2g2), Jay Fowler (SilentJay74), and myself saw a void that needed to be filled. We believed that Mixx needed some kind of fan based podcast; something that would tie in well with MixxingBowl.com, but at the same time help in promoting Mixx. We weren’t sure HOW it was going to happen, but started planning not long after my ban from Digg. At the beginning of 2008, we had a solid idea of where we wanted to go with it, and lo and behold here we are 6 months on. The greatest thing so far for SB is that we never expected such strong support from Mixx, which has been great. The cooperation and collaboration with other podcasts has also been outstanding as well - in fact, it spawned a new mini-podcast called The Round Up hosted by Andy Sorcini (MrBabyMan) and myself.

8. How challenging is it to work on a podcast when none of you are in the same location?

Not as challenging as you would believe. The Internet makes a lot of things possible. Sometimes, when we’ve had a large number of co-hosts and/or we’ve had special guests on, scheduling a single time when everyone is available can be tough, but we always get through it.

9. Pretend that the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

Call the National Weather Service and find out where the nearest tornadic storm is. Get in my car, grab my digital camera, and go storm chasing.

10. Any final thoughts for our readers?

Yes. “Social Media” is a myth. It’s just a buzz word like “Web 2.0″ and “Semantic Web”. Let’s call it by it’s real name: The Internet.