We are pleased to announce Ignite Los Angeles on March 1st, 2010!
This post will be updated as the process continues. For now, here is the call to action:
————-
Ignite/LA
Monday, March 1, 2010
7pm; talks start at 7:30pm
5 Minutes. 20 Slides. 15 Seconds per Slide.
Speakers get only 5 minutes to give an amazing, inspiring talk. In LA, there are tons of different communities at the intersection of tech, art, green/sustainability, unique lifestyle design, digital/collaborative media, and social action that don’t know each other but should. Think of Ignite as a set of trailers for exciting projects people are doing that you should know about.
At other Ignites, talks have included:
- Cyborg Anthropology
- The Secret Underground World of Lego
- How to Buy a Car
- Hacking Chocolate
At the last Ignite/LA, we had talking including:
- The Future of Money
- Turning AI gurus into Comets and Star Field Explosions
- Bubble Nets among Humpback Whales
The event is FREE. We’re hosting it at Cinespace on March 1:
-> 7pm Dinner & Drinks — Cinespace has good food and plenty of drinks. Hang out with programmers, entrepreneurs, digital artists, researchers, etc
-> 7:30pm-8:45 Ignite talks
-> 9:30 Cinespace opens to the general public — you’re welcome to stay for the concert
While the event is free, you are responsible for paying for your own food/drinks from Cinespace if you want ‘em.
Cinespace
6356 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Organizers and Sponsors
———————
This event was organized by Dan Gould (@dgould), Michael Liskin (@rhetor), Heathervescent (@heathervescent), and Matt Forrest.
Ignite was started by Brady Forrest at O’Reilly. This event is part of Global Ignite Week, March 1-5. As part of Global Ignite Week, there will be Ignite events on six continents in 60 Cities with 600 Talks, encompassing 10,000+ Igniters.
Talks
———————
If you’re working on an interesting project, have an unusual skill, or
just some interest that would be fun to share with everyone, please
submit a proposal to:
Well that wraps up a meta-live-blogging blog post for another great year for Opportunity Green. Karen, Mike, and the rest of the crew did an amazing job with this conference that has made an impact for not just those in attendance but those around the world following the live blogs and twitter feed. The new products and techniques highlighted over the conference prove that sustainable + eco-friendly + saving our planet can be done in ways that provide tangible financial results. Sure Sloan/MIT told us that 70% of businesses haven’t found a business case yet for such direction– but that was framed as an opportunity, and rightly so. The imagination, entrepreneurship, and forward-thinking conversations were inspiring. We can change the way we do business in this country and in the world. We can also have an impact on our future. Take a look at the blogged content below-the-fold and you might walk away with an action-step or two. And make sure to follow Opp Green as they continue to create more opportunity for action.
There is plenty to be found via Google search, however the following represents many of those who live-blogged the conference. This post was originally a real-time growing list of live-blogging links and twitter info, meant for use during the conference itself.
I’m at the OD Network Conference in Seattle (Oct 17-21), where starting later today Organization Development practitioners will discuss the future of the field, conduct learning sessions that intend to advance the theory and practice of OD, and generally interface with each other on how to best serve their clients and employers. This may be a watershed year as there are several projects in the works that may invigorate the field with new social and collaborative online technologies such as microblogging sites (ie Twitter), social networking sites (ie. LinkedIn, Facebook), wikis, blogs, and other online interactive environments. It may take some time until the field routinely uses the most advanced online tools on client engagements (change management efforts, team-building, leadership development, etc.), but I have high hopes considering the conversations I’m already hearing.
The work of Flocking to Seattle researchers is to learn about the value of microblogging for OD practice by influencing a self organizing conversation over Twitter and initiating connections through the OD community around the events of the OD Network’s Annual Conference.
Platinum Sponsor Plus Delta Consulting has chosen to launch their blog and new media campaign at the conference, while endeavoring to educate their colleagues on the importance of digital media in the field of OD. They have a strong commitment to online social and collaborative opportunities for both community interaction and to augment the effectiveness of OD interventions. I’ve recently joined the Plus Delta team and was tasked with launching the new blog and soon-to-be online social interactions. It’s been a pleasure to work with such dedicated, professional, and intelligent individuals who clearly see where the field of OD is headed. And look at this view from the offices! All of the team will be tweeting from @PlusDelta and liveblogging the conference, with special interviews scheduled. CEO Jeremy Lurey may also tweet from his personal account!
Alex Dunne, attendee, has volunteered to run the official Twitter account for the OD Network Conference: @ODNetwork, and is planning to hand out labels so attendees can add their Twitter handle to their badges. He is starting various other projects (check back here for late additions).
Jackie Alcalde Marr, Mary Ellen Kassotakis, and Arthur Jue lead a session called “Social Technologies for Communicating, Collaborating, and Connecting,” essentially teaching OD practitioners the value of social networking within OD. Their new book is called Social Media at Work.
*I will add to this post here when Flocking To Seattle shares their results*
Huge thanks to Jake McKee of Ants Eye View for directing me to this video. This shows the media-communications-digital revolution in a succinct and dramatic manner, and it’s fun to watch. Scholars of communication, media, and technology studies will get something out of this so be sure to watch it if that describes you!
I love creating panels for Jerome of BLANKSPACES and the community at large, and this was no exception: “How to be Green in LA (and beyond)” was a success because of the great people who donated their time and considerable energy. Huge kudos to the BLANKSPACES team, much gratitude to my co-moderator, Darren Moore, of Alter Eco and Ecovations, and overwhelming thanks to the panelists: Andy Sternberg of Live Earth and NetZoo.net, Siel of Green LA Girl, Tracy Hepler of Your Daily Thread, Mike Hill of The Art of Sports and Apparel, Natalie Freidberg of All Shades of Green, and Karen Solomon of Opportunity Green. Numerous audience members praised their contributions and mentioned how much they learned from these folks.
Below is the recording of the livestream of the event, covering what’s happening in LA that is eco-conscious and sustainable, what can be done locally to affect the world at large, how to reduce your carbon footprint, how to get involved and make a difference, what to do in the home or office, and green consumerism in LA and via the Internet. Free TV Show from Ustream
Since the inaugural voyage of The Schwaggin Wagon, I’ve been more aware of examples of people using the power of new media to quickly organize and mobilize individuals for brief acts of philanthropy–what I’ve called Flash Philanthropy. Now that the microblogging site, Twitter, has a larger user base, there is a greater potential for ad hoc acts of charitable mobilization that take less and less time to set in motion. Simply put: Twitter gets the word out fast when it’s time to create ad hoc groups based on a shared idea.
Back in the Spring of 2008, six of us organized the wagon project in less than 10 days, and it played out in 72 hours. A few days ago, vegan consultant and cookbook author Moira Nordholt organized her Tweetuplift in less than 48 hours and it played out in two! We used Twitter in the service of our project, whereas Moria used Twitter to organize her project in the first place. How did she gather ten people to give up their time on Christmas day (in order to hand out food and supplies to those in need)? How did she gather them in the pouring rain, with no mandate or preconceived structure, giving less than two days of lead time for anyone to alter their plans? Answer: Twitter–but not just Twitter. Specifically the fact that well-known and well-followed people chose to take up her cause and “re-tweet” her call on Twitter, meaning they re-broadcasted the call for volunteers for which Moira had originally asked. This allowed a wider audience of people to hear about the ad hoc event, and choose to take part. Continue reading →
LinkedIn has expanded the capability of their social network by adding collaborative features in the form of nine applications, such as sharing power-point presentations and your blog with one’s colleagues. This is a fantastic expansion and will allow for a richer collaborative experience with business contacts and colleagues, but…
As users we will need tighter and more flexible privacy controls. LinkedIn cannot afford to follow Facebook’s path, which was to expand communicative and collaborative features before the necessary flexibility of privacy settings was in place. Since that time, Facebook has set industry standards with regard to detailed and useful privacy controls–they deserve credit for that.
As LinkedIn rolls out these new features, what will they do to expand controls for grouping one’s contacts, especially insofar as each contact can see one’s particular usage of an application? How will they create finer gradations of privacy within the applications? Continue reading →
The Obama Campaign has made voter registration easy
When I created a yahoo group in 2003 to encourage discussion on how to make voting and voter registration easier in the U.S., I would have stopped in my tracks if VoteForChange.com [could have] existed. Chris Hughes and the gang in the New Media team of the Obama campaign have hit this one out of the park, and there’s precious time left to get the word out about this site. Now it’s 2008 and we have all kinds of social media and online networking tools to make sure people who would vote for Obama actually do vote.
Obama needs registrations from the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina. Most of these states have an October 6th registration deadline, so if you are to write a blog post or tweet about this site, or perhaps send the link to the people you know in those states, now is the time to do so. Ask them to share this site with the younger people in their lives. Share it on the OSNs like Facebook and MySpace, and share it with those who are on university campuses. Above all, if you’re reading this and you’re one of those Web 2.0 folks who has a vast online network of connections or blog subscribers, please take the time to explain to them that their act of sharing can make a big difference in this election.
I don’t have to take up any more space writing on why this is important. You already know why. Now just please spread the link, and be persuasive: VoteForChange.com
UPDATE: See Gustav Wiki for clearinghouse of info on Gustav.
The folks who post on Twitter have sprung into action over Hurricane Gustav and New Orleans. They’ve publicized that an ad hoc social network using the popular NING white-label software has been created to help those affected by the storm to connect and help one another. Perhaps Twitter, with it’s up-to-the-minute capabilities, will supercharge information flow about the online tools that worked back in 2005: A Wikipedia page, repurposing Craig’s List (with Craig Newmark’s blessing of course), and good old cell phone technology. All these were examples of social and collaborative technologies being used or re-used to assist with the humanitarian efforts of relief agencies, or simply to help one person assist another directly.
UPDATE: Andy Carvin set up the NING site (@acarvin on Twitter) at the suggestion of Wayne Sutton, who is also active in these efforts. Thanks to @jazzychad on Twitter for compiling a Hurricane Gustav Twitter Tracker to help us follow the updates, which will, in turn, help the helpers to get the word out in other ways (many of those affected do not use Twitter). Andy Carvin has also lead the way for a wiki page of Gustav Twitter resources; read his blog post about all this for even more resources, like the Gustav Wiki, fashioned after the Katrina wiki.
The current U.S. citizenry is often called apathetic and cynical. Yet I suggest that we are witnessing a surge of ad-hoc opportunities for those in our nation—and the world—who have always wanted to get involved in direct social or political action but lacked the knowledge, the time or the proximity to do much good. Continue reading →
FreeBirthdayTreats.com is a great example of a niche website that has maximal utility with minimal complication. I call sites like these Nichepedias — they have a very useful database for a very specific action or set of knowledge. The question is, how long do such sites exist before they are gobbled up by the larger compendiums of niche information? What meta-database of niche database sites is currently in greatest use? The birthday treat niche is not important enough for Mahalo and not a google-friendly search; you have to think up a question before you can search for it.
Much is made of social media and its collaborative and informational benefits. I love talking about the wisdom of the crowds and any form of collective intelligence online. But there are times where the objective is too niche for the crowd to care much about it, like where to go for a free birthday ice cream. Then again, what would this website look like if it were turbocharged by the community-at-large? Perhaps we just mash it up with Yelp and Google Maps and call it day? Continue reading →
There will soon be a split. Other blog (under development) will become the main blog here (so don't worry about RSS, etc.) This will remain in one form or another...
@mayhemstudios You DO realize that I meant wht I said in persn. I WILL b rec u 4 twittr case studies 4 social science academic researchers http://www.twitter.com/rhetor
LA friends: ping me if you've cancelled your #SXSW trip. Something is happening Friday night. DM, email, text, phone...yes, new friends too http://www.twitter.com/rhetor
