Maybe it's just because I've been in the dark due to the too-long MN winter, but only recently have I awakened to a flurry of activity around social media in the Twin Cities.
Just last week there was a lively Lullabot sponsored Drupal meetup last week closely followed by a reportedly rousing Minnebar un-conference.
This past Tuesday marked the inaugural meeting of Netsquared Twin Cities, a group focused on the use of social media tools to promote social change via nonprofits in the Twin Cities. Roughly 40 people attended and the ideas were flowing, energy high. The local group is an offshoot of the national Netsquared community which fosters groups around the country and sponsors a national conference (this year's occurs in a few weeks in San Jose).
This morning (Friday), a group called Social Media Breakfast Twin Cities (smbmsp) held its 3rd monthly gathering. Similar to the local Netsquared group, SMBMSP is a local version of the national Social Media Breakfast concept. About 40 attendees (some crossover from Netsquared TC). If you go to their site (link above) you can watch videos of previous month's gatherings. Today's was fully videographed (live streamed with a lively remote audience that Twittered questions and discussion points) and will be live sometime soon. A live-Twitter stream from the proceedings is archived at http://www.hashtags.org/tag/smbmsp/
The meeting started with a great introduction to the Cullect feed tool by its creator, Garrick Van Buren. The remainder of the morning comprised an interesting discussion about the nature of the social web to individuals, especially commercial bloggers and readers of the web. An interesting twist moved the discussion to the use of social media tools for non-users, specifically human rights practitioners in developing countries. Read the Twitter stream or watch the video about 1.5 hours in to glean some valuable insight and strategy points.
Wow. I'm amazed at the level of connection and its worth to the work I do and the values I espouse in my community. And the networking and brainstorming is continuing via Twitter, online blogs and emails with a group of folks I met at each meeting. Seriously, I recommend you look into these groups if you have any interest in social media and its practice (for good) in Minnesota.
-barry madore (Twitter name: @bmadder)
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