Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

TechCocktail Boston tonight

erica — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:51:59 +0000

Tonight, blog group’s time slot conflicts with Tech Cocktail Boston, which many of our members like to attend. We recommend that you take advantage of this exciting event. RSVP early because it fills up quickly!

Upcoming meetings & events:

July 31: We’ll think of something awesome.
August 7: Berkman needs the conference room so let’s plan an excursion.
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.

2008/07/17: No Meeting

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:04:46 +0000

Neither Erica nor I can be at tonight’s blog meeting. No one volunteered to organize a dinner group or alternate activity, as far as I know. It looks like you have a week off. Next week, July 24, blog group conflicts with Tech Cocktail Boston . We recommend that you take advantage of this exciting event. RSVP early because it fills up quickly!

Upcoming meetings & events:

July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
July 24: No meeting: Go to Tech Cocktail Boston instead! (It’s free, but be sure to RSVP in advance as it fills up.)
August 7: Berkman needs the conference room so let’s plan an excursion.
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.

2008/07/10 Proposed Agenda: Authenticity in Social Media

erica — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:11:47 +0000

To some of us, social media is a means of self-expression. For others, it’s a way of getting a cause or product’s message out to a wider and more engaged audience. For some of us, social media is our job as well as the place where we play. What does it mean to be authentic in today’s version of the social web?

Upcoming meetings & events:

July 16: WebNOB: for folks who build web applications, at Jillian’s in Manchester, NH, 6-8 p
July 24: No meeting: Go to Tech Cocktail Boston instead! (It’s free, but be sure to RSVP in advance as it fills up.)
July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
August 7: Berkman needs the conference room so let’s plan an excursion.
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.

Tonight: Boston Pops picnic

erica — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:50:43 +0000

Instead of a meeting, let’s gather at outside the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade (near Charles St. station) to watch the Pops rehearse their 4th of July concert. Bring your picnic blanket, your own meal, and if you like snacks to share.

The latest word is that the concert itself isn’t going to start til around 8:30, but that the earlier the better in terms of getting there.

Look for j when you arrive - Erica has had something come up and won’t be able to be there.

July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
August 7: Berkman needs the conference room so let’s plan an excursion.
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.

2008/06/26 Proposed Agenda: Surviving the Fail Whale

erica — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:43:14 +0000

Tonight, let’s talk about surviving Twitter outages - from competitors like Pownce or FriendFeed or Plurk to Summize, tweetscan, clients and any other tricks we’ve got up our collective sleeves. What do you do when a service you rely on isn’t particularly reliable? (topic at Mike Walsh’s suggestion)

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

June 28: Grassroots Use of Technology Conference in Lowell
June 28: Banditos Misteriosos scavenger hunt
June 29: DevHouse Boston 4
July 3: PICNIC: Instead of a meeting, let’s gather at 7pm outside the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade (near Charles St. station) to watch the Pops rehearse their 4th of July concert. Bring your picnic blanket, your own meal, and if you like snacks to share.
July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
August 7: Berkman needs the conference room so let’s plan an excursion.
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.

No meeting tonight, but gather for dinner

erica — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:26:53 +0000

Berkman has an event this afternoon which is ending in a reception in the conference room, so we’re not holding blog group tonight. However, if folks want to show up at Berkman at 7, catch the end of the reception, and then head out to grab dinner & socialize, let’s do that! I’ll be here, and I’ve heard from a couple other folks that they may be as well. We’ll try to update this post to show where we go for food once we leave.

Tonight’s also longtime blog group member Jared Dunn’s last Thursday in town, and I believe he’s planning to join us for dinner, so come bid him farewell as he heads out of town to pursue his LocalProgress project in his hometown in Illinois.

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

June 19: Berkman event on employee non-compete agreements & innovation (no blog group)
June 26: Blog Group: Surviving Twitter Outages: Competitors, clients & other tricks
June 28: Grassroots Use of Technology Conference in Lowell
June 28: Banditos Misteriosos scavenger hunt
June 29: DevHouse Boston 4
July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
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.

2008/06/12 Proposed Agenda: Gadgets!

erica — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:27:10 +0000

There’s a new iphone coming up, but does it meet your needs? What about blackberries, N95s, Flip cameras, and all the other nifty gadgets folks are using to participate in social media? What do you use, what do you want, and why? What advice do you have for others considering the same tools? Are we all just too darn gadget-obsessed anyway?

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

June 18: Blown to Bits book launch
June 19: Berkman event on employee non-compete agreements & innovation (no blog group)
June 26: Blog Group: Surviving Twitter Outages: Competitors, clients & other tricks
June 28: Grassroots Use of Technology Conference in Lowell
June 28: Banditos Misteriosos scavenger hunt
June 29: DevHouse Boston 4
July 19 & 20: PodCamp Boston at Harvard Medical School
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.

2008/06/05 Proposed Agenda: Distributed Microblogging with Joe Cascio

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:18:06 +0000

Joe Cascio leads us in a discussion of distributed microblogging:

Twitter is a very popular so-called microblogging service. It allows you post short (140 characters max) messages that answer the question “What are you doing?”. These messages are broadcast to the other Twitter members that are “following” you, ie. have subscribed to your updates. And likewise, you receive all the messages from all the people you have chosen to follow. One particularly popular feature of Twitter is its ability to send and receives updates from mobile phones, Instant Messenger as well as Twitter’s web site and purpose-built UI programs like Twhirl.

But Twitter is also a proprietary “walled garden”, albeit open to anyone who wants to sign up. And it’s notoriously unreliable. In this talk we’ll discuss attempts in the developer community to decentralize and distribute Twitter using an open protocol to address the issues inherent to centralize, walled implementations. I am hoping this will lead to a wider discussion of open distributed systems and ways to preserve the social community benefits of a centralized system.

Afterward, go to a prom-themed contradance so you have something unusual to blog.

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

June 7-8: OLPC grassroots unconference
June 29: DevHouse Boston 4
July 19 & 20: PodCamp at Harvard Medical School
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.

Upcoming events & May schedule

erica — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:00:25 +0000

In the next several weeks, there are a wealth of great events of interest to blog group members. We’re making room for them by not meeting as blog group for a few weeks.

On May 29, join us at Ignite Boston 3. You need to RSVP to IgniteBoston at oreilly dot com.

We will resume meeting at Berkman on the first Thursday in June: June 5.

Of particular note, of course, is the Berkman @10 conference later this week, which several of us are attending, and BarCamp Boston 3 this weekend, which many of us are actively involved in planning.

We’ll next meet officially as blog group on June 5, when we’re scheduled to discuss Distributed Microblogging.

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

May 13: WebNOB at Jillian’s in Manchester, NH
May 15: No meeting due to the Berkman @10 conference. Hey, blog group has been around for half of Berkman’s life!
May 17 & 18: BarCamp Boston 3 - RSVP to be sure you get a t-shirt and potential other swag! Think about proposing a session!
May 22: No meeting. Recuperate from an awesome week & weekend! Upgrade your blog software! Livetweet a stroll in the park. You get the idea.
May 29: No meeting - go to Ignite Boston 3 instead! RSVPing is a very very good idea as these often fill up.
June 5: Return to meetings! We’ll be discussing Distributed Microblogging.
July 19 & 20: PodCamp at Harvard Medical School
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.

08/05/08 Proposed Agenda

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:46:29 +0000

Let’s welcome Dean Jansen from Participatory Culture Foundation on Miro Player!

We will not meet on May 15 because of the Berkman @10 conference, but we hope to see you there or at BarCamp Boston 3 on the 17 & 18.

Upcoming meetings & events of interest:

May 13: WebNOB at Jillian’s in Manchester, NH
May 15: No meeting due to the Berkman @10 conference (Register for the conference & gala now! Placing a badge on your blog gets you a $50 discount.)
May 17 & 18: BarCamp Boston 3
July 19 & 20: PodCamp at Harvard Medical School
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.