I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours on Wednesday in the company of Steve Moore, David Wilcox, Paul Birch, Graham Brown-Martin and Safiya Ahmed to learn more about the upcoming 2gether08 festival.

As I said to Steve and David on Wednesday, 2gether is one of those ideas that when you hear about it you think, “Wow, so simple. Why hasn’t it been done before?”. But, really it is a great idea - get the technology guys together with people who have ideas to make a positive social impact and see what happens in the gaps. Maybe, just maybe, the technology can help the social initiative?

Obviously, the social angle of 2gether08 slots right in with the aims of i4SM. That’s why we’re planning to be there in some capacity. This has yet to be finalised, but we’re definitely excited by the opportunity to talk about i4SM with a wider audience who will no doubt have some great thoughts on how i4SM can be relevant to them.

I’ll keep you posted on what we’ll be up to down there. For now, you can listen to yours truly…captured by David Wilcox talking about i4SM. Mark July 2nd and 3rd in your diaries - if you are able to make it Rochelle School, Shoreditch on those days, I’m sure you’ll find it a stimulating diversion from your normal Wednesday and Thursday!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend. I’ll be in France that week.

-pc.

Well, it may seem that there is little activity around i4SM at the moment, but I can assure you that that isn’t true. we’re like ducks on the pond…serene on the surface but furious activity under the surface.

We expect to be making more information available very soon, so keep posted.

In the meantime, if you are in the Manchester area, you may be interested in this event that is coming up soon:

In Conversation - Steven Broomhead and Professor Peter Kawalek

“The North west has so much to offer and also so much to gain by being the centre of the quest for new thinking, new experience and new practice in social media.

The region has been at the heart of media innovation and social change for over 200 years. Today and in the future, the North west is aiming to stimulate imaginative new ideas about urban life, social regeneration and sustainability.

Steven Broomhead is a key player in this agenda. Peter kawalek is one of the UK’s leading academics in the field. Together, they will present a stimulating and entertaining conversation.”

The event is being run by the Centre for Local Governance at the University of Manchester and will take place at 1pm on June 24th, 2008.

If you would like to attend please register here. For further information, please contact Jez Lloyd at CfLG.

-pc.

Welcome to i4SM.

We are the Institute for Social Media and we are based in Manchester. As a collaborative effort between Manchester Business School and Manchester Digital Development Agency, we are uniquely positioned to bring world class research and thinking to the social media domain.

You can read more about us by clicking the link on the left, or by taking a look at our research blogs.

i4SM is a work in progress, but it will evolve how you want it to. By engaging with us you can help shape the research and development of social media to the ends that you believe to be important.

This is why we are different. We want you to help us build our research base and make it relevant to you.

Contact us.