Cathy was kind (and brave) enough to dive into the subject of doing social good with social tools with the likes of J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com…, Chris Heuer from Social Media Club / Adhonicum, and yours truly from SF New Tech, on the program.
Here’s how Cathy tee’d it up:
"This week it’s a deep discussion on doing social good with social media. There has been much talk, and indeed much action, amidst the digital denizens when it comes to charitable exercises. Twestival – an event orchestrated wholly online using Twitter – has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, both for global efforts and local efforts. This, however, goes beyond that. As leaders and top participants in all of these social media platforms and technologies, there still exists a problem — we are not the majority. In spite of increasing numbers, the majority of people on this planet still do not use social media to the extent that some do – and that’s just talking about regular use. When it comes to doing social good, and by that I’m talking about more than just raising money for charity, there needs to be a distinct effort by those deeply steeped in the stuff, acting as responsible stewards of that which we promote, and find ways to engage and mobilize a better society. On this week’s show, Cathy will be joined by JR Johnson, CEO of Lunch 2.0; Myles Weissleder of SF NewTech and Chris Heuer of Ad Hocnium to talk about one effort in which they are engaged to do just this. Join us … and learn how YOU can make a difference."
As you may know, I’ve been co-producing Lunch For Good, a very cool event series with the venerable J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com… and the esteemed Chris Heuer of Social Media Club fame.
The second installment of Lunch For Good was on 10.22 and I must admit — this conversation just keeps getting better and better. Our mission with Lunch For Good #2 was to explore ways we can help evolve the notion of enticing more critical thinking online. The knee-jerk reaction to post a comment, press a button that says "like" or "dislike" (thumbs up or down), or jump into a comment thread with happenstance prose that’s far from developed, is in essence (and often in retrospect) a demonstration of poor judgment, not of good judgment. We need to dial this back and improve the processes and the triggers of how people are invited to participate in online conversations.
The Internet is (still) a wild place and people have become too accustomed to reacting flippantly to others versus engaging their mental gears and thinking through the best way to engage and respond, that all to often leads to an unavoidable minefield of tit-for-tat chatter that’s meant to pass a conversation — but fails miserably at doing so.
We have all been trained since birth to think through our actions before acting but online we tend to forget about this little life lesson and the result is not something to be proud of. The big question — and the topic of this last conversation — is how can we move away from this short-attention-span-theater type of conversation and spark more critical thinking online for the benefit of not only the conversation at-hand but to better the online environment as a place that’s truly enriching and beneficial.
There are no easy answers here. People are being coaxed to think in 140 characters or less, leaving little room for diving into critical thinking.
The 80 or so passionate folks who joined us for lunch last week– a hearty crew of community managers, journalists, online conversationalists, and the like — were really engaged in our shared quest for finding ways and means of improvement….and mind blowingly so!
I urge you to view the videos from this event to see exactly what I’m talking about: that there are small, but significant, things we can do as members of the online community at-large to move the needle towards more critical discourse in our online dealings.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple idea of action for the iteration process to begin … and with Lunch For Good #2, I must say, we made serious strides in exploring the nuances that can create a c-change in the evolution of community, dialogue and, yes, critical thinking online.
Interested in an invite to Lunch For Good #3 — the grand finale of this great series? Click here for consideration (note, as much as we’d like to accomodate all those who are interested in joining us, due to limited space, we cannot guarantee all whom apply will be invited).
For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club, and J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com, on a thought-provoking event series called "Lunch For Good" to help better understand how and why people contribute online — and how we can take steps to improve online communications and online participation to help make the world a better place. You can read more about the mission and participate in the conversation here. (You can also tune in at #lunch4good on Twitter.)
Yesterday was our first of three events and some of the most forward thinkers on the subject of online communities gathered together to discuss what it really means to be a "responsible participant" online. (See the RSVP list below.)
The event began with light networking and culminated to break out discussions and then to consensus reporting about the ramifications of what it means to participate in online communities and why there continue to be issues that surround comfort levels of participation, access to participation, etiquette, as well as problems inherent in the digital landscape that can hinder inter-personal communications.
The questions on how to ease the fears while transitioning from community participation in the real world into the online world aren’t new — but many of perspectives brought to the table yesterday were, and the conversation is just getting started.
We’ll be posting videos from the event soon and you’re encouraged to chime in with your own thoughts on these very important questions!
I’m proud to have been able to play a role in bringing such an amazing group of people together for this discussion and am looking forward to round two in late October when we’ll dive a little deeper and seek solutions to how to better spark "critical thought" online.
If you’ll be in San Francisco in late October and would like to be considered for an invitation to the next Lunch For Good event, please click here.
RSVP list for Lunch for Good #1
* Elizabeth Chien, Attorney, Baker and McKenzie
* Marla Schulman, Founder, DVINIDEAS
* michal strahilevitz, Professor of Marketing, Golden Gate University
* jeff weissner, Media Strategy Consultant, Self-employed
* Henry Oh, Co-Founder, Hong Kong Startup Association
* Chris Anderson, General Manager, Principal, Freshout
* Julie Greenberg, Co-founder, Jobnob
* Davin Miyoshi, CEO, MesmoTV
* Richard Ault, Founder, u8what
* Tina Liao, Media Director, Orange22
* Jon Wollenhaupt, Vice President, Excel Meetings and Events
* Katherine Webster, ceo, Storytelling Media
* Marita Roebkes, Social Media Manager, Social Media Academy
* Michelle Fairbansk, Account Executive, Brightidea.com
* Valerie kameya, Sr. Consultant, Valkra
* Dom Sagolla, Author, 140 Characters
* Maria Niles, CEO, ConsumerPop Marketing
* Rachel Weidinger, Consultant, Weidinger Consulting
* Sarah Dopp, Community Manager, Genderfork.com
* Susan Tenby, Online Community Director, TechSoup
* Violet Blue, Community Development, Swordfish Corp
* Thomas Knoll, Community Development, Swordfish Corp
* Navi Ganancial, Outreach Associate, Netroots Nation
* redg snodgrass, Vice President, Skout
* Ryan Hupfer, Communicator of Awesomeness!, HubPages
* Kenny Lauer, Executive Director, Digital Experience, George P. Johnson
* Amanda Cey, President, ABCey Events
* Jan Grotenbreg Grotenbreg, Founder, Silicon Valley Link
* Melody McCloskey, Manager, Content, Current TV
* Taylor Norrish, Founder/CEO, Govit.com
* Derek Overbey, Sr. Director of Marketing & Social Media, Roost
* Rebecca Reeve, Publicist, Rebecca Reeve
* Ben Metcalfe, Founder & Lead Consultant, Swordfish Corp
* Amy Muller, Chief Community Officer, Get Satisfaction
* Thor Muller, CTO, Get Satisfaction
* Cathy Brooks, Raconteur, Other Than That
* Jennifer Lindsay, Principal, Jennifer Lindsay Digital Consultancy
* Melissa Dodd, Marketing Director, Ask Me
* Jason Johnson, VP Marketing & Business Development, Via Licensing
* kristy graves, independent agent
* Travis Murdock, Senior Account Supervisor, Edelman
* Harry McCracken, Editor, Technologizer
* Lisa Sculati, Community/Social Media Manager, Sweden Networking Group
* Adrian Chan, owner, gravity7
* IdaRose Sylvester, Founder, Silicon Valley Link
* Tom Foremski, Editor, Silicon Valley Watcher
* Richard White, Founder, CEO, UserVoice Inc.
* Dana Oshiro, Writer, ReadWriteWeb
* Schlomo Rabinowitz, Creator, VideocampSF
* Mariva H. Aviram, writer & entrepreneur, Mariva Media
* Eric Wagner, IT Director, Kyte
* Brian Zisk, Co-Founder, Collects
* Elisa Camahort, Co-founder and COO, BlogHer
* Vinnie Lauria, co-founder, Lefora
* Paul Carr, Hack, PaulCarr.com
* Alexandros Pagidas, Founder, Idea Contest 2.0
* Caroline McCarthy, Staff Writer, CNET News
* Diane Bisgeier, Director, Product Marketing, Soar BioDynamics
* Axel Schultze, CEO, Xeequa
* Chris Heuer, Founder, Social Media Club
* Ken Yeung, Blogger/Photographer, TheLetterTwo.com
* Adina Levin, VP Products, Socialtext
* David Cohn, Founder, Spot.Us…
* Jake Saxbe, Founder, Toobla
* Pat Diven II, Founder, AddToAny
* Fredric Paul, Publisher / Editor in Chief, bMighty.com, TechWeb
* Adam Jackson, Evangelist, Self
* Melissa Cunningham, VP, Brand Marketing, Lunch
* Chia Hwu, Community Manager, 23andMe
* David Spark, Founder, Spark Media Solutions
* Tamara Mendelsohn, Community and Marketing Manager, Eventbrite
* Gil Heiman, Director of Community, Clarizen
* J.R. Johnson, Founder, Lunch.com
* Myles Weissleder, Founder, SF New Tech
