UPDATE: We are looking for larger venues that will donate their space for FREE community events like this one. We hit capacity for this Ignite/LA due to unprecedented demand – please contact one of the organizers if you know of a centrally located space in Los Angeles. We would like to continue to provide this as a FREE community event! Thank you.

Ignite Global: What is Ignite?

Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global—Ignite is all of these and more. It’s a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global Ignite network, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city.  And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world.

—-

PAST EVENT:

Ignite/LA

Monday, June 7, 2010 7:30pm ↔ COME EARLY!  When capacity reached it’s “one out / one in”
V Lounge, Santa Monica
Free http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/ — REGISTER SOON, space is limited! LINE-UP LIST ONLY avail now w/Eventbrite link.

5 Minutes.  20 Slides.  15 Seconds per Slide.

Los Angeles: 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.

Speakers on June 7:

** Directed Evolution // Frances Arnold, Caltech Prof: Wikipedia Entry

** Another Earth // Amir Give’on, NASA JPL

** Write How To Make The Best Of Living In A War Zone // Liz Grover, Writer/Filmmaker

** How to Stop Killer Robots from Destroying the Human Race // Brady Brim-DeForest, CEO Tubefilter

** Financing the Future // Glenn Yago, Exec Dir of Financial Research, Milken Institute

** An Amazing History of Awesome Stuff Underground // Molly Steenson, Design Researcher

** Asking a girl out with PPT // Jason Porath, Professional Effects Artist and Technical Director

** Mechanical Olympics // Xtine Burrough, Media Artist & Asst Prof CSU Fullerton

** Human Performance and Transformation // Dave Logan, Thought Leader, Author, Consultant, & Assoc Prof USC Marshall

** Seduction // Felice Dunas, Executive Coach, Author, and Vitality Expert

** Meditation and Consciousness // Pedram Shojai, Taoist & Qi Gong master, Wellness Expert

** Collaborative Production // Sheila Hardy, Filmmaker / Eve’s Lime

** Teaching Kids Programming // Lynn Langit, Microsoft Evangelist / Digigirls

** The Internet in China // Christine Lu, CEO, Affinity China

** Free Broadband // John Ayers , OpenNeighborhoods

**Bringing Your Story to Life in 3D Animation // M Eastling, Rex Ray Films

Previous Ignite/LA talks can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/iGNiTelosangeles#p/u including:
- The Making of the Ok Go Rube Goldberg machine
- Tech & Humanitarianism: Crisis Commons
- The Future of Money

also see http://igniteshow.com/ for many great Ignite presentations from around the world.

Details &  Schedule
———————

The event is FREE.  We’re hosting it at V Lounge on June 7:

-> 7:30pm Hang out, V lounge will have drink specials

-> 8:30pm-9:45 Ignite talks

-> Feel free to hang out afterwards

While the event is free, you are responsible for paying for your own food/drinks from V Lounge if you want ‘em.  There is a decent amount of street parking in the neighborhood if you’re early. V Lounge has valet; we haven’t finalized, but believe they may be able to get us a discounted rate.

V Lounge
2020 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5608

Please register at http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/

Organizers and Sponsors
———————
This event was organized by Dan Gould (@dgould), Michael Liskin (@rhetor), Heathervescent (@heathervescent), and SocialAnimal.tv.

Co-sponsor Social Animal (http://socialanimal.tv) is managing production–and will put the talks on the YouTube.

Follow Us
———————
Twitter https://twitter.com/Ignite2LA

Ignite/LA Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300099460918

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/IgniteLA

Thanks,
The Ignite/LA crew

Ignite Los Angeles is part of Global Ignite Week

Ignite Los Angeles during Global Ignite week happened on March 1st, 2010.

This Ignite/LA included the following speakers; We (the organizers) would like to thank them for their huge contribution to the community: Eric Gradman, Adam Sadowsky, Mike Flynn, Chad Catacchio, Chris Spurgeon, Kasey McMahon, Lisa Remington, Sekou Andrews, Dena Plotkin, Kurt Daradics, Karen North, and Jenny Funkmeyer

Thank you to @TechFrog and @curiousjosh for their photo contributions! And thank you to my fellow co-organizers and our sponsors and event staff.

Adam Sadowsky’s talk on the (Global Ignite Show) on how they made the Rube Goldberg machine for the OK GO video has already surpassed 42,000 views on YouTube by May 2010 and is a behind-the-scenes look at an Internet hit of a video!

Kurt Daradics was featured on the Los Angeles Ignite Show and our other speakers’ videos are up on the Los Angeles Ignite channel (click their name above) and may soon be featured on one of the shows.

Here is the original 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, academia, art, green/sustainability, entertainment, 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

you can check out the recordings on http://ignite.oreilly.com/show/

Details & Schedule
———————

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.

This event is co-sponsored by USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities (@APOCusc), http://www.AnnenbergOnlineCommunities.com. Co-sponsor Social Animal (http://socialanimal.tv) is managing production–and will put the talks on the YouTube.

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:

http://bit.ly/IgniteLA

We are trying to mix all sorts of topics, so tell us what you’re up to that’s interesting.

****REGISTER EARLY AND GET FREE VALET****
———————
http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/ (official RSVPs here please)

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5401445/CA/Los-Angeles/Ignite-LA/Cinespace/ (tell your friends here please)

Follow Us
———————

Twitter hashtag: #igniteLA

Twitter username: @Ignite2LA

Ignite/LA Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300099460918

Thanks,
Michael (@rhetor), Dan (@dgould), Heather (@heathervescent), and Matthew

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.

follow @oppgreen for official updates and live tweets, also:

@rhetor (me), @EcoTuesday, @pinkyracr, @mcpolls, @ecochickie, @ecofabulous
@greenbusinesses,@organicmania,@sustainablemnds, @YourDailyThread,
@purelightled, @emgollie, @Soaptopia, @TheVectorGroup,@brandonthebuck,
@fayfeeney, @tinochow, @greennurture, @squorange, @envisiongood,
@triplepundit, @Diva_Divine, @ChivasSkinCare, @pdmaLA, @ReelGreenMedia

And for the full Twitter Live Feed of the hashtag #og09: http://bit.ly/og09search

(or you could use http://www.Monitter.com but it’s slow today)

For the Opportunity Green Tweeting archive: click this Twapperkeeper

Please check out the OppGreen Livebloggers of the conference (official):

excerpts:

Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard and Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios discuss the importance of storytelling when building your brand. Being authentic, speaking to the core truths and showing the connections were all themes they expounded upon.  Leonard and Sachs emphasized that you should not just throw around statistics because that shuts people down – particularly applicable when conveying environmental information.  Connecting the dots between statistics and the story behind the numbers is important because it is easy to get bogged down by the details and forget to emphasize how it applies to daily life and emotion. (Justine Suh)

Hopenhagen is: “The hope that in Copenhagen this December – during the United Nations Climate Change Conference – we can build a better future for our planet and a more sustainable way of life (Gaia Dempsey)

I think I speak for everyone in the Covell Center main ballroom when I say Chris Jordan’s photos of the remains of sea birds, killed by the plastic they unwittingly ate, were arresting. Saddening. Maddening. And hopefully, inspiring. (Ben Upham)

Unofficial Livebloggers:

http://yourdailythread.com/2009/11/07/a-photographic-journey-shines-a-light-on-the-pacific-plastic-problem-at-opportunity-green-2009/

http://www.greenwala.com/community/blogs/all/3167-Opportunity-Green-09-day-1?f=true

http://www.greenmaven.com/blog/opportunity-green-conference-this-weekend-in-los-angeles/

Tino Chow’s picture slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23015148@N02/sets/72157622754824674/show/

http://www.tinochow.com/blog/2009/11/hopenhagenorg/

http://www.core77.com/blog/events/opportunity_green_conference_first_impressions_15136.asp

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/11/hopenhagen-the-ultimate-cause-marketing-campaign/

http://thegraffik.co.cc/opportunity-green-conference-first-impressions.htm

http://greennurture.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/day-ii-at-opportunity-green/

earlier:

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/11/bamboo-utencils-kor-water/

http://greennurture.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/live-from-opportunity-green-at-ucla/

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/11/annie_leonards.html

http://heartofgreen.typepad.com/heart_of_green/2009/10/opportunity-green-2009.html

http://buildaroo.com/news/article/industry-leaders-launch-new-companies-and-products-at-opportunity-green-conference/

Twitter Hashtag is #og09

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.

This year includes an action research project called Flocking To Seattle, spearheaded by a workgroup that includes graduate student Anna Russell. Their project mission:

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!

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

Moira Nordholt's Tweetuplift December 2008

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.

Moira’s Twitter handle is @feelgoodguru. Among those who helped were @invisiblepeople, @vaguelyartistic, @AlexisNeely (who brought multiple family members and had been looking for such an opportunity when she saw the tweet), @JackiePeters, and @ronproulx. Re-tweets came from @rhetor (me), @lizstrauss, @perrybelcher, @scobleizer, @heathermilligan, @HarpArora, @Andrewjustin, @cfl_homeless, @nakisnakis, @linnetwoods, @Peppersantblai, @lovemorenow, @mrken777, @amoyal, @mandamin, @bcross, and @LAist. You can check out Moira’s recap of the event here. And the Laist post here. Bottom line: They handed out food and 100 scores of ponchos to some very cold and hungry individuals, and by doing so they made a difference in people’s lives.

Here’s the punchline regarding Twitter and this instance of flash philanthropy: Moira has only been a member of Twitter for less than a month, and she doesn’t have a vast network of friends in Los Angeles because she lives mostly in Toronto. She probably has less than 20 followers on Twitter who live in Los Angeles! She tells me:

“Twitter is a way of finding your tribe members and then taking it from there…when you tweet something you’re passionate about… it’s a great way of getting people to come out of the woodwork”

It sure is. Will we see future Tweetuplifts in all the major cities in the U.S.? I wouldn’t be surprised if we do. The “flash” in flash philanthropy can spark something far beyond the initial act, and I give a great deal of credit to the Moira Nordholts of the world. Keep flashing!

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?

For instance, do you want all your vacations and travels highlighted for all of your business contacts to see, or just some of them? More importantly, how easy will this be for the user? Many users have been mixing business with social contacts for some time now on Facebook and other OSNs, but have remained disciplined in their usage of LinkedIn. These new LinkedIn features, along with expanded LinkedIn Group capabilities, provide an opportunity to rethink that process.

It’s important that the controls keep pace with what will undoubtedly be rapid expansion of the sharing of personal information with one’s business contacts. While this collaboration can be wildly productive and transformative, we know it produces sharply unintended results. See Brian Solis’s discussion of Bono and Facebook as a reminder of the–perhaps unintended–power of the social web.

Jeremiah Owyang recently discussed LinkedIn’s bright future, especially the fact that they have secured significant funding, hence securing their ability to “go shopping” for collaborative technologies that can add features quickly to the service. Great! I agree with Owyang’s insightful conclusions; he expects LinkedIn to “offer more collaboration between colleagues and connections to happen outside of the firewall where IT doesn’t have control.” If LinkedIn learns from the past mistakes of online social networks, thereby providing detailed privacy controls as these new features are launched–not after–then we can spend more time basking in the creative potential of our newfound collaboration, and less time concerning ourselves with the unintended consequences of one-size-fits-all communication.

+++

[Here is the original LinkedIn blog post on their adding of Applications that feature Amazon (books), Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart (blogs), SlideShare (multimedia), Tripit, and WordPress (blogs) "...as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn." This is an eventual game-changer for LinkedIn.]

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

Thank you.

Haiti Before Hurricane Gustav

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.

Right now, people like Tim Street, Nicole Jordan, Peter Shankman, and Craig Newmark are sending message bursts to their followers on Twitter to publicize the NING Gustav site. I’m not sure who set it up, but kudos to that person! 

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.

Here’s what I wrote back in 2005 about the Tsunami & Wikipedia/online collaboration, as a guest blogger on the North Star Leadership Group website, at the request of Adam Carstens and John Beck:

(it can also be accessed via archives here)

October 25, 2005

Information Helps in Disaster Relief

By [Michael] Liskin 

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.

Take, for example, the East Asian Tsunami. The coordination of recovery attempts for the tsunami produced a catalytic event in that it brought forth ad-hoc efforts to repair telecommunications, help displaced people, and rebuild a stronger disaster preparedness network through the use of the newer communication technologies: blogs, wikis, and more sophisticated web sites. This has not only redefined how we deliver aid to those in need, but it has fundamentally altered the speed-of-reaction time that is expected of information organization and retrieval in times of crisis. James Robertson writes:

…As the beginnings of a massive relief effort were co-ordinated and aid began flowing into affected regions, [Peter Griffin] realised that the response lacked a vital element – information.

With Paola di Maio, Dina Mehta and a small group of internet contributors, many from tsunami-affected areas, [Peter] Griffin established SEA-EAT, the South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami weblog…

With more than two million visits since it was established this month, it has fast become the online clearinghouse for information and contact details.

This phenomenon was largely repeated during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—but this time there were too many sites. Wikipedians came to the rescue with a clearinghouse page to serve as a meta-page that collected information from all the other web pages. But you cannot just use hyperlinks and call it a day. Somebody would have to enter the data in order to make it searchable. This called for massive collaboration.

People from the U.S. and around the world changed the notion of what it means to help in times of disaster. Those that would not have had the time or resources to help out in the traditional manner were able to pitch in from the comfort of their own home. They collaborated on a master disaster database for hurricane survivors, aggregating from other sources to provide a centralized website to help families locate their loved ones and provide important news and information. Just a few hours of data entry can go a long way to help a survivor locate their family. By leveraging the networking power of the Internet, the organization emerged to replace an unprepared and malignantly incompetent FEMA.

The master database collaboration was conducted through the open, free Internet encyclopedia—Wikipedia–a collaborative tour-de-force in it’s own right. After this aggregation page on Wikipedia provided an initial departure point for those in need, Yahoo.com and other portal sites stepped in to provide other meta-resource pages that include links to such information-rich sources as CraigsList New Orleans.

In many ways the distributed meta-data entry project was an ad-hoc collaborative effort in response to a government communication preparedness failure. Citizen stepped in to help fellow citizen, in a manner and with a tone not far from that of the open-source software movement itself. To borrow slang from Malcolm Gladwell, I proclaim that the use of new information and communication technologies in epic disasters has finally tipped.