Ignite Los Angeles is part of Global Ignite Week

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:

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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

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

Details & Schedule
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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
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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
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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****
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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
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Twitter hashtag: #igniteLA

Twitter username: [not released yet]

Ignite/LA announcement Mailing List http://groups.google.com/group/ignitela

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

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

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*

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. 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 →

Recently I started working at Blankspaces. This is a coworking office environment designed for freelancers and independent professionals who work solo, but who want to do so with others in an office environment. This can be a temporary, or somewhat more permanent solution to the isolation of working from one’s home. It’s a fantastic idea that embodies the best aspects of collaborative work and the potential for cross-pollination of ideas.  The proximity encourages conversations that might only arise seldomly at a cafe or cocktail party, thereby increasing chances of serendipity in one’s business and life.

Blankspaces is the paradigmatic example of the intersection between physical and online space–they have an online community that compliments and augments the offline community. Some of my graduate school work looked at examples of synchronous and asynchronous online/offline collaboration; I’ve been looking for more examples ever since. Continue reading →