Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

Because it’s hecka cold out and nobody really wants to stay out late, and because I am trying to shake a cold, we’re not going to meet tonight, 1/15.

We WILL be meeting next week, 1/22, for a roundtable led by our own Bill Wendell on the evolution of the real estate industry in the online era. We’ll hear from folks who went to REBarCamp last week, and discuss emerging technologies. Bill has set up a wiki with much more info:

 http://planyp.us/plans/709252100420-real…

A special visitor, Diane, hopes to learn about what other nonprofits are doing with their Web sites and that we can provide some constructive suggestions about how the Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women can harness some of the cool technology available today.

Upcoming meetings & events:

• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Let’s try for a meeting this week. Since December is often a very busy and chaotic month for many of us, let’s make this gathering the last meeting for the year. Happy (& safe) holidays!

For topics, a hodgepodge: Burning questions, sites to show off, what’s happening with the job market, and updates from anyone who attended:

• 12/6: BarCamp Manchester at the Unviersity of New Hampshire from 9:30 a to 4 p

• 12/6: LSC at MIT presents a free screening of the new animated movie Bolt followed by a lecture from one of the animators at 7 pm in Building 26 Room 100 (PS–LSC is showing Serenity on 12/10 and 12/12.)
• 12/7: DevHouse Boston 5, Betahouse, Central Square, 10 a-8 p

or any other cool events.

Upcoming meetings & events:

• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

j can’t be at Berkman Thursday night, so let’s plan not to meet.

Get your geek fix instead at:

• 12/6: BarCamp Manchester at the Unviersity of New Hampshire from 9:30 a to 4 p

• 12/6: LSC at MIT presents a free screening of the new animated movie Bolt followed by a lecture from one of the animators at 7 pm in Building 26 Room 100
• 12/7: DevHouse Boston 5, Betahouse, Central Square, 10 a-8 p

Upcoming meetings & events:

• 12/6: BarCamp Manchester
• 12/6: LSC at MIT presents a free screening of the new animated movie Bolt followed by a lecture from one of the animators at 7 pm in Building 26 Room 100
• 12/7: DevHouse Boston 5, Betahouse, Central Square, 10 a-8 p
• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Blog group will not meet on Thursday, November 20, or Thursday, November 27.

As always, suggestions for topics and speakers are welcome!

I’m still sick, and j is not available to lead this week’s meeting, so with my extreme apologies, I’m canceling blog group for this week.

However! You can still get your weekly dose of Berkman & geeky socialization, by joining the greater Berkman community Friday evening for Information Superhighway:

Harvard Free Culture and the Internet Company LLC Proudly Presents…

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY ONE
A Gathering Of Boston Tech Like It’s 1997
October 24, 2008, 8 pm – Midnight
Berkman Squared, 50 Church Street, Cambridge MA

Boston is full of cool Internet people. Why aren’t they meeting each other?

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY is Boston’s monthly party gathering hackers, activists, artists, designers, nonprofits, startups, academics and general geekery to hang out and connect with one another.

*No agenda, no networking, no presentations. Just free beverages, food, ideas and cool people.
*Best of all the price is free, like your first 1000 hours of AOL.
*Extra Beenz For Wearing Some Vintage Web 1.0 Gear

With Featured Guests and Organizations:
- Jonathan Zittrain (Berkman Center) (http://futureoftheinternet.org/) (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/>)
- Mel Chua, SJ Klein, Seth Woodworth (OLPC) (http://laptop.org/)
- Beth Coleman and Kevin Driscoll (Comparative Media Studies, MIT) (http://cms.mit.edu/)
- Nate Aune and Jon Pierce (Betahouse) (*http://tinyurl.com/42w4pt)
*- Christina Xu (MIT Media Lab, extrACT Project)
- Diana Kimball  dianakimball.com <http://dianakimball.com>)
- Steve Garfield (Boston Media Makers) (http://bostonmediamakers.wordpress.com/about/)
- The Barbarian Group (http://www.barbariangroup.com/)
- Brett Stilwell (Pecha Kucha Boston) (http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/about/)
- Alec Resnick (Nublabs) (http://www.nublabs.org/)

Apologies for the late notice, but I’m making the executive decision to cancel tonight’s meeting. We had an open agenda scheduled, and my ongoing health issues (nothing horrific!) mean I’m too tired to lead a meeting tonight. j and I are working on some good topics for future weeks, and as always welcome your suggestions!

Erica

Kristen Taylor from the Knight News Foundation will tell us about the Knight News Challenge. Below is the email she sent to the blog group discussion list with details about the meeting.

“The Knight News Challenge  http://newschallenge.org) is in the third
year of a program that gives away $5MM a year to innovative online
projects that support online news, community discourse and social
media in specific local communities.

Find out how to apply, share ideas, and talk with the Knight
Foundation Online Community Manager (Kristen) and previous News Challenge
winners from the area this Thursday.

The contest closes November 1st, and you can work through your idea
before applying in the News Challenge Garage incubator site
(http://garage.newschallenge.org).”

A special thanks to Lisa Williams for coordinating this meeting!

Upcoming meetings & events:

• Want a cool internship? Berkman is hiring!
• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Neither j nor Erica can host a meeting this week. If anyone wants to gather the group together for food or some other fun activity, either post details here and send a note to the list or get j to update the blog for you.

Upcoming meetings & events:

• Want a cool internship? Berkman is hiring! (hint, the Open House is a great way to get plugged in)
• Want a cool job? Berkman is hiring for several open employee positions.
• 10/9: j plans to lead a meeting despite it being Yom Kippur. Thoughts on a topic are welcome.
• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Jason Pramas from Open Media Boston will join us this week. About OMB:

Open Media Boston is an online media outlet dedicated to regularly publishing fair and accurate news, views, arts, and entertainment content in text, image, audio and video formats from a progressive political perspective for the Boston, Massachusetts, USA metropolitan area. We are an audience-centered publication that will constantly solicit submissions and commentary from the general public using the latest social media technology while maintaining professional journalistic standards at all times. We will always strive to balance open participation with editorial control in the service of this goal.

Upcoming meetings & events:

• Wednesday, 9/24: Berkman Open House, 7 p, 50 Church Street in Harvard Square
• Want a cool internship? Berkman is hiring! (hint, the Open House is a great way to get plugged in)
• Want a cool job? Berkman is hiring for several open employee positions.
• NO MEETING Thursday 10/2 (both Erica and j have unavoidable conflicts). j does plan to lead a meeting 10/9 (which is Yom Kippur).
• At some point, we should take advantage of Berkman’s RockBand set and have a music party in lieu of a normal meeting.
• It’s getting to be time to have another dim sum gathering, too.
• See the Berkman Calendar for other upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.