Every month, the NetSquared community comes together offline in cities around the world at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and collaborate.  There are 6 new Net Tuesdays to introduce, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming: Abidjan, Asheville, Charleston, Hamburg, Lomé, and Nairobi!

Learn about Net Tuesdays and get local!

Welcome New Net Tuesdays!

These new Net Tuesday groups have bumped the total number of local NetSquared groups around the world over 30 – that’s a wide network of innovators and social changemakers!  We are so thrilled to have these groups coming together to work on local projects and would love to have your city start a Net Tuesday group, too!

Are you in one of these cities?  If so, connect with the local organizers to find out about the next events, how to help, and spread the word!

• Abidjan, Ivory Coast
• Asheville, South Carolina
  
• Charleston, South Carolina
  
• Hamburg, Germany
• Lomé, Togo
  
• Nairobi, Kenya

Two Net Tuesdays of Note

There are two Net Tuesday groups where the local organizers have gone above and beyond to revamp the group, get it off the ground, and really create a vibrant focal point for the local community.

Net2 Atlanta, organized by Erica Stanley, has a shiny new online space and the offline events are creating great opportunities for Atlanta community members to come together and share.  If you’re in the area, check it out!

Net2 New Orleans, organized by Jessika Rohloff and Damian Lamana, put together a sponsored trip to SXSW complete with tour bus and after party!  Their work has catalyzed the local community looking for technology and social change projects.  In New Orleans?  Check it out!

What’s Net Tuesday?

Net Tuesdays are monthly events, organized by local volunteers in over 30 cities around the world.  These events are opportunities for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and social benefit to come together, share ideas, learn from each other, and collaborate on projects.  Funders, programmers, developers, educators, nonprofit staff and government agencies are all involved.  If you want to see if your city already has a Net Tuesday, click here.  If you are interested in starting a Net Tuesday in your city, just let us know!

In April, we’ll be focused on creating and managing online campaigns. There are a lot of tools out there and only so much time… Come discuss some great examples of successful campaigns and how to build strategy and tactics for your own organization’s work.

Paul Massey and Phil Jones from the we20 campaign will be presenting on the strategy and execution of an integrated online campaign. And we’ll have a Q&A session following the presentation. As always, there will be plenty of networking, too.

Agenda:

• 5:30-6 doors open & networking
• 6 – 6:15 welcome & intros
• 6:15 – 6:45 Paul & Phil presenting about online campaigning
• 6:45 – 7:15 open Q&A
• 7:15 – 7:45 networking

See if there is a Net Tuesday in your city or find out more about starting your own!

Join the fun!

Details for the first event:

• Date: 4 November, 2008
• Time: 5:30-7:30 pm
• Topic: Head-to-head Blogging (see below)
• Location: CTT, 1 London Bridge
• Provided: Snacks and coffee/tea
• Bring: Your brain, your energy, your business cards
• RSVP: London NetSquared Group

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.

We hope to kick these monthly events off right with a great group of people, some lively presentations/conversation, and lots of networking – come join us on the 4th!

What is Net Tuesday?

Every month, social changemakers and Web innovators come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community. Net Tuesdays take place in 22 cities around the world with more cities joining in every month. Find out more and check out other Net Tuesdays here.

Join in!

Here are some simple steps to participating in London Net Tuesday:

1. Join the Meetup.com group for free, to stay up to date, network with other participants, and more!
2. Mark 4 Nov on your calendar for our first event!
3. Spread the word and invite your friends and colleagues along!

I’m so excited to be part of the London Net Tuesday and think it is really going to be something special. Nonprofits and social changemakers, see you on the 4th!

I started the meeting with a Twitter overview, as it came up in the January meeting as something people have heard about but not many had experienced. Here is the short slide show, really used as a jumping off point for conversation based on each slide (not a text-heavy person!).

My awesome co-organizer then launched from my presentation forward into a broader discussion of all the various forms of and relating to “micro-blogging” which was a great conversation, but lead into an even greater one on open source alternatives for micro-blogging and design work.

We even talked about the Net Squared Mashup Challenge as we had many questions about the challenge and what mashups were and could be. We had some great ideas for proposals (so I’ll let you know if and when those go up!). We also had with us the father of a current proposal – Howard from EcoTrust is part of the Portland Net Tuesday group and we think you all should check out the mashup proposal from EcoTrust on mapping watersheds – you can read about it here!

If you are in the Portland area, we’d love to have you join our group online to stay connected, and come meet up with us at our next meeting: March 25th at 6 pm! We have a great thing going, so far, and would love to have you on board to make it even better!

Thanks to those who came last night and created such dynamic conversations and offered experiences, ideas, and questions!