I’ve been privileged to help organize Seattle Mind Camp over the past couple of years. One of the main reasons that project started was to bring the Seattle tech community together, to create more opportunities for interaction among local entrepreneurs and other passionate technologists. Events like Ignite Seattle, Biznik, and Lunch 2.0, have helped strengthen this sense of community over the past few years.

But in addition to these well-publicized events, there are dozens of other meetups, workshops, and gatherings going on in our fair city. Despite the appearance of services such as Eventful and Upcoming, there is still no single place on the web where you can discover all these smaller gatherings. That’s why I’m pleased to announce a new blog:

Meet at the Pig, a Seattle events blog for geeks, techies, hackers, and makers.

Meet at the Pig is the brainchild and passion of Justin Martenstein, and I’m happy that he asked me to help work on the site. Each week, we’ll track meetups, workshops, lunches, conferences, and other events of interest to the local geek community. We’ll add as many events as we can to Upcoming, and then highlight some of the more interesting events on the main page of Meet at the Pig.

The title of the blog comes from the brass pig at Pike Market, a popular landmark that’s often used as a gathering point for groups heading out to some downtown restaurant, bar, or event. Eventually, we hope that Meet at the Pig will be the one place on the web where Seattle-area geeks gather to find out what’s happening. Hope you’ll join us there.

Meet at the Pig is a Seattle events blog for geeks, techies, hackers, and makers. Justin Martenstein and I track local meetups, workshops, lunches, conferences, and other events of interest to the local geek community. We post as many events as we can at Upcoming, and then highlight some of the more interesting events on the main page.

Here’s something to look forward to after Gnomedex: an interactive workshop titled, “Humanity 2.0 -where the tech are we going and do we want to go there?” The workshop takes place on Orcas Island on September 9th. The description on the host’s site, Spark Northwest, says:

As technology permeates our daily lives, it helps, and it hurts. How does our increasing use and dependence on tools such as email, cell phones, iPods, or social networking sites effect our desire for human fulfillment and spiritual transformation? We don’t know… Seriously, we don’t. Do you?

In an age of dizzying technological innovation, one rarely has the time to stop and reflect on these changes. It’s clear that our technologies are getting faster, more powerful and more ubiquitous. However, what’s not so clear is: Does the added value outweigh the often unnoticed costs? Isn’t that an important question?

It is an important question, I think, and one that isn’t explored nearly enough. I’m glad to see someone giving a forum to this issue that promises to be both fun and productive.

My buddy Leif Hansen is the owner of Spark Northwest and the workshop’s co-organizer. I’ve found Leif to be passionate, smart, and thoughtful, so I’m sure there will be some stimulating and thought-provoking discussion at Humanity 2.0. At the very least, it’s an excuse to visit Orcas Island for the weekend. That’s never bad.

Check out all the details at Spark Northwest.

This is my brother, Scott. My brother rocks.

My brother has been a loyal, enthusiastic, and productive employee of Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena for years. He built important chunks of the software that lets the robots exploring our solar system and scientists here on earth talk to each other. He’s currently the lead driver of the Mars rovers.

However, Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 says that my brother has to let “any investigator” at “any federal agency” have access to “any information” about him that they deem the slightest bit interesting. If he doesn’t consent to this egregious violation of his civil liberties, he’ll lose his job.

So, he’s organized HSPD12JPL.org in order to fight back.

I don’t have the words to express how infuriating this situation is. Suffice it to say that I’m as pissed off at this stupid directive as I am proud of my little brother. And that’s saying something.

Do me a favor, would you? Just click to watch this short video, and maybe read a little bit at HSPD12JPL.org, just so you know what’s going on. And then ask yourself: do you want NASA and other publicly funded institutions to lose some of the top engineers and scientists in the world on account of some tinpot dictator with delusions of grandeur? If not, then you know what to do.

Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel had a very interesting discussion earlier on whether “social media” is the proper term for the whole big kettle containing blogging, podcasting, etc.

I sure wish I could point you to it so that you could read it yourself. Unfortunately, their discussion was on Twitter, and unless you were subscribed to both fellows’ Twitter streams, you might have missed it.

Fortunately, I was subscribed to both Robert and Steve, so I could follow the conversation. But what if I was only subscribed to Robert? Here’s what I might have read:

• @steverubel: most online media is now two-way at least in part. Agreed. about 6 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to steverubel
• @steverubel: a better example would be my Kyte.tv channel where you can leave your own video as part of my channel. about 6 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to steverubel
• PodTech is different from TV because you can leave comments and interact with the media. about 6 hours ago from twitterrific
• @steverubel: so you think online media should just be shortened to “media?” I’m not so sure. I like “social” because it still connotes 2 way about 6 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to steverubel
• @steverubel: he’s a fake blogger who got caught. about 6 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to steverubel
• @steverubel: what would you suggest using instead of “social media?” about 6 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to steverubel

Oh, did I mention you need to read it bottom-to-top?

Look, here’s what I suggest you do so that it makes sense: open up Scoble’s Twitter feed, open a new tab in your browser, and then open up Rubel’s Twitter feed. Start with about the 6th Twit down for Rubel, about the 7th Twit down on the second page for Scoble, and switch tabs until you’ve read their back-and-forth.

Of course, that assumes that you read this pretty soon after I post it. If it’s a few days later, or a few months later, I’m not sure what to tell you. Just keep scrolling through the Twitter pages until you find something that seems like it matches up, maybe?

Scoble also had a nice rant earlier. I can’t point you to it. Let me go copy and paste it for you. Okay, first I go to Scoble’s Twitter feed, let’s see… starts on the 4th page in. So here’s the first part…

• arikb: yeah, email still has SOME value. But going down all the time. I far prefer people not send me private notes. Scalable communication. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• PR people are the worst in the email regard. Speaker planners are close. I don’t answer a lot of my email anymore. If I did, I’d never do. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• It’s amazing that in this age of Twitter that people still send email. I hate email. I hate direct Tweets. I hate Facebook messages. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific

The bulk of the rant from the 3rd page…

• @hardaway: Facebook messages are still private. I answer my public “wall” posts first. Public first, private second. That way I get scale. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to hardaway
• @jaxn: very few people call me on my phone. I guess that hasn’t yet turned into a problem. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to jaxn
• @ChrisDoelle: 10 tweets comes because you all keep talking back to me. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to ChrisDoelle
• @webword: Mike Arrington is a hard guy to get ahold of, especially when he’s digging through 100 new hot companies. But he watches Twitter. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to webword
• @dharrels called me a “tool.” OK wiseguy. You want to answer my email? I didn’t think so. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to dharrels
• @maceo87: you miss the point. Email is not as good a communication style as the others. Email sucks BECAUSE it is not in public. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to maceo87
• @tildesley: not really. I can consume and answer Twitters much easier than email. And if I don’t catch them you can help answer too!! Scale! about 12 hours ago from web in reply to tildesley
• @pinkfu is complaining that I mashed a blog post into several Twitters. Heheh. Guilty as charged. about 12 hours ago from web in reply to pinkfu
• @Tildesley: I don’t want to converse with most of the world. There’s no way I can do that. So, the subset on Twitter sounds just fine! about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to tildesley
• @loiclemeur: Twitter has a page called “replies.” I use it often. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to loiclemeur
• Basically this is my gesture to the world: I am not answering my email and I’m not going to start. I’m overloaded. Tweet me. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• @nikf: if I answer a question in public space it is answered for everyone. I bias toward public conversation first. That’s why email sucks. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to nikf
• @tildesley: the best way to get ahold of me? Blogg comments. Twitter. Pownce. Kyte. Facebook. Phone (my number is always public). about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to tildesley
• @jeffledoux: Twitter IS better than IM already. Far better. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to jeffledoux
• If I want to get a hold of Mike Arrington, for instance, i know that writing a Tweet about him will get his attention far faster than email. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• @dweezel: that’s the whole point. Most of my email does NOT need to be private. It’s far better to do most communication out in public. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to dweezel
• Or people asking me to blog. Very low quality stuff. If PR people were forced to do their work in public their entire method would change. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• @jasonw22: yeah. I’d never get anything done if I answered my email. Most of it is people asking me to speak. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to jasonw22
• If something really needs to be private than email is great. But most of my email doesn’t need to be private. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific
• I always answer things in public space first. Why? Because those communications scale. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific

...and it finally wraps up on the 2nd page:

• OK, start quiet mode. I’m not ignoring anyone, just gonna quiet down cause I know when I through 20 tweets I piss people off. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific


• @seekground: but the advantage of public messages is even if I ignore you others can answer your questions. A lot of my email is tech suppor about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to seekground


• Translation to the past 20 tweets: I need an assistant to answer my email. Outsource what you hate. I hate email. about 12 hours ago from web

There. Is that readable? You did read each bit bottom to top this time, right?

So, of course the point of all of this is that the value of this kind of conversation is negative, as far as I’m concerned. It isn’t findable, it isn’t shareable, and if you’re not following a Twitter stream all day, it isn’t coherent. It frustrates the heck out of me that I can’t easily capture cool stuff that people say in Twitter and share it with others. There’s a lot of value in Twitter, but as things stand today, its value isn’t as a publishing platform.

I know Robert’s point is about using Twitter as a public alternative to email, but even so, I don’t see how it’s a useful alternative if people need to keep asking the same questions over and over because there’s no way for them to find where it is you answered the question the first time.

I like Twitter. A lot. But it’s a walled garden. It is not a substitute for an open conversation. And it concerns me that smart people and leaders in the blogosphere are increasingly turning to Facebook and Twitter and other closed communication silos in order to express themselves.