I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s Social Media Club meeting here in San Francisco. Raines Cohen will be leading a conversation around the topic he just wrote about on DailyKos:

“how do blogs, vlogs, petitions, podcasts, bulletin boards, email lists and forwards, chat, Content-Management Systems (CMS), and even Twitter help us communicate, organize, inspire, and fight rumor, despair, and malicious campaigns.”

Saving the Earth through Social Media: Blogging the Global Climate Crisis

From my perspective, this is a very interesting opportunity to discuss how people participating in the Global Climate debate engage with each other. Which tools they are using and why? To better understand from practical examples how social media tools are being used by passionate people, in a debate on an issue that affects us all.

Given that this is San Francisco, I think it is important to note here that we are trying to focus on how respectful disagreement is handled, and how flat out untruths are spun by people on all sides of the issue to the detriment of everyone else involved. The point is not to engage in the debate around Climate Change, but to focus on new ways that people connect with each other around shared interests and how those people communicate and collaborate with each other in that context.

There is a lot to be learned by all…

San Francisco Leadership Team

With all of the travel and other commitments, I am finding it difficult to put enough attention into getting this together in the way I would like each month. So I am hoping a few of you might consider joining the local leadership team for San Francisco. This will help to ensure the key pieces come together each month for a great conversation and we can also find ways to work together and support our community. Immediately following the San Francisco discussion in San Francisco, we will meet briefly to discuss and plan for next months discussion and review other logistics. Please comment here if you are interested.

Silicon Valley Group Starts!

I am really greateful for the support of Meredith Smith from NBC11 and Mike McGrath of Tacit Partners in getting Silicon Valley started. Meredith has been working hard at trying to put something real together for different types of media producers to come together and talk with each other. She really ‘gets it’ and I have been very happy to have been working with her on this. Mike popped up out of thin air it seems, with a lot of great insights on what is happening today and a wealth of experience in technology driven media innovation.

This sort of event is right in line with our thinking about how we all have something to learn from each other - the people I have spoken with at NBC sincerely want to be part of the conversation, to listen and learn, and to share what they know so we can all produce better quality media. From my perspective this is a great opportunity for a serious discussion between traditional and citizen journalists, as well as the media technologists of the Valley. I hope you will join us for a great evening - the first event will be a World Cafe at the NBC11 Studios in San Jose discussing “The Future of Local News”. Due to the format, there is a limited number of seats - see the Silicon Valley page and register at EventBrite to attend. We will also be meeting briefly after this event to talk about the next Silicon Valley conversation topic and to see what we might be able to do to support the needs of the community.

If this topic is interesting to you, you are probably interested in hearing Dan Gilmore and JD Lassica speak this Wednesday in Palo Alto on “Citizen Media“. We are very forunate to have some of the brightest thinkers around on this important topic - I hope to see you there.

MeshWalk!!!

If you are in the mood for inspiration tomorrow, join up with our friend’s Pascale Diaine of Orange and Shannon Clark of Never Eat Lunch Alone for Mobile Meshwalk. This is a great way to have fun, while exploring the city and talking with some really smart folks. When I helped Shannon with his first MeshWalk in Seattle, great podcasts and exceptional insights were found, along with some great friendships amongst us all (special props out to Dallas’ own Giovanni Galluci who has recently decided not to blog (text) any longer).