Posts tagged ‘PdF’
PdF meetup: how did that go?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”. This quote is from Margaret Mead, an American anthropologist, who lived in the pre-Internet world. Now thanks to social networks, it has never been easier for people with a passion to share it with the world, gather support, and make a difference.
“How has the Internet changed your life?” was the question all participants of the 1st Worldwide Personal Democracy Meetup Day were asked. This unprecedented experiment ran for 24 hours, starting in Australia, passing through Asia and Europe and finishing in the U.S. 50 cities took part, 250 participants in total.
How has the Internet changed my life? If only for one thing, since I started blogging and tweeting I’ve met an incredible amount of people, fantastic folks who share a passion for social media and a determination to convince EU institutions to switch from the broadcast mode to the conversation mode. There is an enduring assumption that when people use social media, they live in a virtual bubble. Not true: building relationships online leads to strong relationships offline. The Internet is not disconnecting people; on the contrary it is reconnecting them. More importantly, it is connecting people across borders, something that was not possible at such a scale in the pre-Internet times.
So how did our Brussels PdF meetup go? It was spontaneous, warm and interactive. 30 people joined us, all working in or around the EU institutions, all sharing our enthusiasm for the potential of the Internet to open up the EU bubble. In terms of attendees, we were amazed to see that our Brussels meetup ranked 2nd, just after New York City, home land of the PdF, and before Washington D.C. Who would have thought? Yesterday EU geeks were at the forefront of global online democracy.
The worldwide PdF meetup was an experiment. It was exciting for us to take part and we look forward to similar experiences in the future!
UPDATE: Read the great report of the worldwide PdF meetup day written by PdF co-founder Micah Sifry. I like Joe Anthony’s suggestion for next time: have a ‘crazy idea’ theme e.g. What would you like to see happen in 5-10 years? Inspiring, isn’t it?
Laurence
1st Worldwide Personal Democracy Meetup Day – 12 July – We’re in! What about you?
Last year we blogged about our cooperation with the Personal Democracy Forum folks. As you might know, the Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) is an online community and annual conference about the impact of technology on politics, government, and democracy. Next week our PdF friends are taking things to a whole new level. This time the conference is going global. On 12 July, PdF is organising the first Worldwide Personal Democracy Meetup Day. About 50 cities all around the world will have their own PdF meetup. All will tweet throughout the day using the hashtag #PdFmeetup. Exciting, isn’t it?
Meetups are informal gatherings in essence. That’s the beauty of it. It’s about getting strangers, who don’t know each other but share common interests, to meet in real life… thanks to the Internet. Created in 2001, meetup.com was a simple but revolutionary idea. It had a key role in the unprecedented grassroots mobilisation around the 2004 Howard Dean campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination -I highly recommend Joe Trippi’s inspiring The Revolution Will Not Be Televised- as it also did in Barack Obama’s campaign.
We are of course taking part and can’t wait for D-Day! One of the spokespeople of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU will join us to discuss how they used social media during their mandate. They tweeted, blogged, reached out to bloggers, and even gave accreditations to some of them to attend EU Council meetings. How did they manage to get their hierarchy on board? What are the lessons learnt? Will this show the way to other EU institutions?
You’re welcome to join us at our offices from 6.30pm. Just register on our meetup page so we know how many people would be attending. Our Brussels meetup is now ranked 3rd place in terms of attendees, just after New York City and Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. is just a couple of attendees away… do you think you could help us reach 2nd place? How cool would that be? 
Laurence
