Social Media Club New York, 5/31
June 1, 2007 by Howard Greenstein
Last night’s Social Media Club meeting in New York hosted Craig Newmark of Craig’s List. The 65 or so attendees saw Craig speak of the list, building online community, and his other interests in philanthropy (see Craigslist Foundation) and journalism that takes on powerful interests. He mentioned politics several times, and specifically called out Tech President as one of the things he had an interest in supporting. (disclosure: I know the folks who run that site for years.) Since I was moderating I did not take good notes so here is a roundup from others:
Donna Bogatin of ZDNet wrote up her take on the meeting.
Attendee Allen Stern of Center Networks blogged the discussion and also has an audio recording of the Social Media Club meeting (MP3, about 1 hr, 20MB) for those who missed the meeting.
Over on PRBlog News, Mark Rose has his take on the meeting including a poor photo of yours truly and some cynical takes on Craig and some of the discussion.
Jeffrey Keefer also blogged it.
Send more blog posts or links to me, or leave them in the comments.
One item that came up was organizing the NY chapter and volunteers. See the NY Wiki Page for more on that. Those interested in the NY mailing list can find a link here.
Thanks to Craig for attending. A special note of thanks to Steve Eisenberg of the Client Service Network, who went above and beyond the call of duty to get food and drink to the meeting. Thanks to Laurence Koret of Starlight Media for helping out and thanks to David Bradfield and Fleishman-Hillard for hosting. UPDATE: Also, thanks to Laura Allen from 15 Second pitch for being our ‘check in person’ and to Frank Casale from the Outsourcing Institute for answering the door over and over again!
Interesting presentation last night. I think the most interesting line from Craig all night was his calling Gutenberg the “inventor of the Internet” and Martin Luther “the first blogger.” His tongue was only partly in his cheek; I think he was making a serious - and good - point. More in my blog at http://lbsrambles.typepad.com/lbs_rambles/2007/06/everything_old_.html
Hey Howard I thought that was a good picture of you. Strong chin, nice smile. I am not part of the Nikon D80 giveaway so I have to make do with a cheapo Canon PowerShot. Did not think it was cynical post on Craig - in fact he cited it in his blog as a good roundup of his talk. But I do have some tough follow-up questions for him based on subsequent comments posted on PRBlogNews. I concur with Craig’s message - speak truth to power. What’s next for NY Social Media club?
Some ideas for NY Social Media Club:
Hold the meeting outside, in a ‘creative’ space (park, museum, cloisters, Howard’s mansion). Break out of the big PR agency windowless conference room meeting space. Let’s breathe (that New York air!)
Break into ‘communities of interest’ as we did at the last meeting and develop intellectual areas we want to explore. Allow time for real discussion.
Produce research, findings, survey results on social media/new media that we can use to analyze trends, impacts - and yes, promotion and marketing. Use social media for social media research.
Have moderators for web-based (bulletin board, threaded discussion, blog, wiki, something) ‘communities of interest’ – use social media tools to stimulate discussion.
Let the group self-organize according to previously mentioned pursuits.
Part of the agenda of Social Media Club should be to involve members in social media experimentation to further understanding of technology and skills involved in social media.
Another suggestion:
Skip the speakers through the summer = let’s just meet and get to know each other and see how smart we can be about self-organizing. Start up with speakers again after Labor Day.