N2Y3 Netsquared Conference 1st day Wrap-up

Wow, what a day! Day 1 is over and I can’t wait for day 2. The day was information packed from the get-go with Vince Stehle from Surdina giving the N2 goers the welcoming speech. That was followed by the two minute elevator pitch from each of the 21 featured projects. Micheal Metz from Cisco then welcomed us all to their top-notch facilities. Next up it was a featured project Carnival who set the stage for Nicolas Kardas from Microsoft to tell us about all the great things in their Live platform.

After lunch it was the breakout sessions that featured projects vying for the coveted #1 prize. There are many projects here this year and I invite you to review them by following the link above.

When we returned back to the hotel we were met with an amazing array of food, drink and some of the biggest players out there today. I was able to dine with Beth Kanter, Erin Denny and Houston’s Katie Laird.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more updates!

Using Flickr to Make Your Existing Community More Amazing, or to Create a New One

Gail Ann Williams is hosting an open discussion on how to use Flickr to connect users across your neighborhood and across the globe. One thing that Gail talks about is that if you use Flickr to help build your online community no matter how big or small you need to push the conversation forward. She is touching on the fact that people sit back and wait for comments on pictures that they have posted. There may be some comments that come in but you need to actively seek photos that pertain to you and your message, be it your non-profit or simply your own vanity. If you seek out like minded photographers the conversation you may engage in is priceless. This goes with anything in life, you may think that your idea or non-profit is amazing but most people won’t know that

This open discussion is honestly a great thing and I’m sure the people in attendance are already in the choir so understanding the power of Flickr is nothing new to them but If you are a non-profit and don’t know about it you really need to harness the power of this amazing site.

The latest incarnation of the Houston International Festival recently allowed a selection of Flickr photographers free access to the festival to help with the post momentum PR that most organizations don’t think about.

The powers of Flickr are too much to list here as we live blog the conference but check back in the future on some great how-to’s when it comes to free social media sites that are out there.

Gail works at Salon.com has been the director of WELL since 1998, you can follow her on Flickr as Gail.

Netsquared Meeting of the Minds, Well Some of Them

While the conference goers were having their lunch the Netsquared organizers from across North America and Ecuador met to discuss our chapters and moving forward. Not all organizers are at the conference this year but a few of us were able to put faces to emails and share stories. Netsquared stalwarts such as San Francisco, Houston and DC were there along with Seattle, the Twin Cities, Phoenix, Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles.

A lot of things were discussed in the very short time that we had but Billy Bicket threw down the gauntlet for us to step up in a big way so be on the lookout for some interesting changes in the netsquared landscape in the future! All in all it was a great meeting and I am looking forward to sidebar conversations over the next two days

pictured above are Back Row; Jennifer Sly/Twin Cities, Fresh! White/San Francisco, Katie Laird/Houston, Ivan Boothe/Philadelphia, Jean Russel/Chicago, Seth Horwitz/Philadelphia, Sarah Schacht/Seattle, Lewis Hoffman/Chicago, Michael Miranda/Chicago, Lela Prashad/Phoenix, Hatef Jamini/DC, Britt Bravo/San Francisco
Front Row; Jane Zhang/Toronto, Justin Massa/Chicago, Blair Golson/Los Angeles, Eduardo Bejar/Guayaquil Ecuador, Jason McElweenie/Houston(me)

Netsquared Conference Year 3 – N2Y3

Greetings from the Netsquared conference in Santa Clara California! The conference is in full swing with lots of great non-profits pitching their technologies. Some amazing ones so far is Know More http://knowmore.org. This is a Firefox plugin whose role ‘is to raise awareness of corporate abuse, and to serve as a catalyst for direct action against corporate power.’

Pretty impressive stuff!

There are 20 other amazing projects here at the Cisco Systems’ Vineyard Conference Center in Santa Clara and in my honest opinion there are some pretty powerful things going on here and the basis for it all is social change.

Some conference higlights so far;

Maplight.org was the big winner last year and as expected there are a lot of map mashups in contention this year. Some focus on New Orleans and others focus on your community. One lets you track Congress while another is mashup of  29 social action platforms.

One thing is for sure, its going to be a hard vote for this attendee!

NetSqaured Houston February Meetup Information

As Isaac Asimov said ‘The only constant is change’ and with that we bring you news of changes to our February Meetup. The lovely Dayna Marcum of Local Reach was our scheduled presenter in March but we decided that that is just too long of a time to hear what she has to say. So we have asked if she could present at our next meeting, February 12th 7PM and she said yes! We are very excited to have Dayna speak to us. If you are a regular NetSquared attendee I’m sure you’ve already had a chance to meet her.
I hope you join us for another great evening at the Stag’s Head Pub

For more details, see the full listing: http://netsquared.meetup.com/3/calendar/7070238/
When: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Stag's Head Pub
2128 Portsmouth St.
Houston, TX 77098
(713) 533-1199

January Net2 – Kelly McCann with the AIDS Foundation Houston

We are really excited to start the 2008 year with a wonderful guest speaker!! Kelly McCann, longtime advocate and CEO of the AIDS Foundation Houston, Inc., will be speaking about her work promoting AIDS awareness, prevention educationShe has done some amazing work, working city-wide testing campaigns through the recent Hip Hop 4 HIV ‘Know Your Status’ concert this year in Houston to travelling across the world working on global AIDS initiatives. This will be a powerful discussion, not to be missed!

A little bit about Kelly:
Kelly has over 22 years of experience in the fields of corrections, community mental health and HIV services. After working for many years for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, MHMRA of Harris County, and Montrose Counseling Center, Kelly joined the staff of AIDS Foundation Houston (AFH) in 2001 as Vice President of Community Resources.

Her focus on prevention education and continuity of care issues, especially with corrections populations, contributed to the agency?s status as a leader in the provision of services to incarcerated and recently released populations. Kelly served as Project Director for two important prison-based programs: Wall Talk, an offender peer health education program currently operating in 80 Texas prisons, and Safe Prisons, an innovative, peer-based offender sexual assault awareness program. In addition, Kelly served as an external consultant to the U.S. Surgeon General?s Call to Action on Correctional Health Care in May 2004.

Kelly was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of AFH in August 2005. Since that time, she has focused on developing closer ties with diverse population groups such as members of the gay community, politicians and policy makers, and African American church congregations. Kelly has also established priorities of testing and prevention, increasing community awareness of HIV especially among youth, and raising the profile of AIDS Foundation Houston within the city.

Let us know if you would like to come. Sign up online here

http://netsquared.meetup.com/3/calendar/6524220/