Net2 Cambridge

NetsquaredI had a lovely time on Saturday at Barcamb, a techie unconference in Cambridge. Quite a bit techier, actually, than I’m used to – but that offered a different perspective on things, which was rather nice.

It also meant catching up with some friends, like Mark Cheverton, Matt Wood and Simon Jones – and bumping into new people, like Barcamb organisers Vero Pepperell and Lee Theobold and cool hacker types like Gareth Rushgrove.

Another one of those new people was Claire Sale, who works for NetSquared, the rather cool US-based organisation that “enables social benefit organisations to leverage the tools of the social web”. That makes her a colleague of the marvellously energetic Amy Sample Ward, which is a jolly good thing.

One of the things Amy has been doing in London is setting up a NetSquared network, where “Social changemakers and technological forerunners come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, [and] build new relationships”. Claire is hoping to get something similar going in Cambridge.

There is already a Meetup page setup, where people interested in attending, and maybe helping out, can get together and get stuff done. I’m guessing this will take a similar form to the London group – let’s just get people in a room together first, and then worry about what we should be doing.

Net2Camb seems a decent tag to apply to blog stuff, tweets and other online material to track activity and conversations.

The first London Net Tuesday!

Amy Sample Ward has already arranged the first meeting of the London Net Tuesday group, which you can find out all about at Meetup.com. For the pathologically click-lazy, it’s on November 4th at the Charity Technology Trust.

Here’s the official announcement on NetSquared.

It looks like it is going to be a really fun event, with the focus of the first meet being blogging:

The 4 Nov. event topic is blogging. But not just some folks talking about blogging who already use it, or only want to talk about their own blog. This is going to be a bit more fun: we will have a select group ‘representing’ their preferred blogging platform go head-to-head over the capabilities, functionality, and general goodness of their chosen platform. This way we can hear the ins and outs of platforms in a way we may not usually experience. This discussion will be followed by a conversation with questions and answers about the various ways nonprofit organizations can introduce and utilize blogs to connect with communities.

A good time is guaranteed for all!