Micro-blogging meetup in September?
Monday, August 04, 2008 by Dave Winer.
Following up on yesterday's piece about fragmentation in the micro-blogging world; on my walk yesterday I took a Steve Gillmor podcast with me, an interview with Dustin Sailings, the developer of TwitterSpy. All three of us, like Rafe Needlman at Webware, and many others, are trying to sort out the "micro-blogging" world we live in now, how we got here, and where we'll be. Is this like the first Iraq War, or the second? Is it like Instant Messaging, where interop has always been a problem, or like blogging and RSS, where it wasn't (much of) a problem. I'd say we're at an inflection point -- a lot of it depends on what people do, actually the technology doesn't seem to be the issue, it's what people and money do that will make the difference. 
That's why I suggested to Steve, on identi.ca, that maybe a micro-blogging camp-style meetup in Sept would be a good idea. I also sent an email to Rafe with the same suggestion.
We could do it in Berkeley at the Hillside Club, lots of great restaurants nearby, easy to get to from BART. Or we could do it in San Francisco, or down in the valley, or in NYC, or Montreal. I think it should be in North America since almost all the development is happening in the US and Canada.
What's cool about where we're at is that users understand what's needed this time, before the technology has arrived.
I'm anxious to hear what everyone thinks and I don't think there's any substitute for a face to face meeting.
It would be great to keep it small, but it must also be open to anyone who wants to participate. No way can this be an invite-only "Friends Of Someone" type gathering. No one must be able to say they weren't allowed to come.
Anyway that's the idea. What do you think??
Update: After saying most of the development is happening in North America word of a Japanese Twitter-like service just popped on TechMeme.
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One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web. "Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.
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Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.
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