Some of whom I met, and some who I observed. All were interesting in their own ways.

1. Mike Arrington doesn’t want to be thought of as a guru — he wants to be first to report things. Being outrageous helps him, but why are you paying attention to him or what he’s saying? He’s not a guru or anything.

2. Tom Williams and Austin Hill *are* inspiring.

3. Loren Feldman is a funny guy and has a uniquely sharp talent of cutting through the BS in a funny way. That’s valuable. And funny. But I mentioned that already, didn’t I?

4. Paul Sullivan is a smart guy who knows a lot about journalism — and who is as enthusiastic as hell about it for being in the business as long as he has.

5. Steve Herrman has never been to Toronto or Canada until Mesh. I hope he had a good time. ;)

6. Ethan Kaplan is wicked smart. The way that he talks so smartly and so abstractly about — let’s face it, pirated music — makes it sound like thesis material. And it probably is for someone somewhere.

7. Richard Edelman, in spite of the Wal-mart fiasco, seemed really genuine about a desire for transparency and authenticity in public relations — in a this-guy-isn’t-faking-it kind of way. I mean it.

8. Jim Buckmaster only had one thing to say: “we do what the users want”. In spite of the wonder that is Craigslist, there wasn’t a lot of sophistication to his message. On the other hand, is that any surprise from someone described as a social anarchist or a communist?

9. Jeff Howe seems like a cool dude, and whose message about crowdsourcing was interesting and important: crowdsourcing is good for filtering. Not so much for certain kinds of content creation — like journalism.

10. Will Pate, in spite of his youthful looks, knows a hella lot about creating and maintaining community. How old is this guy anyway? :)

11. Lionel Menchaca was so down-to-earth and self-effacing about Dell’s community initiatives its a wonder that he’s a face of Dell. But he is. Which is amazing.

12. Ted Murphy isn’t the most evil man in the world, and PayPerPost isn’t. Well, probably isn’t. But he’s actually a pretty personable dude who really believes in what he does.

13. Mike Masnick is also wicked smart. I’m not sure who would win in a face off between him and Ethan Kaplan, but one thing’s for sure: *my* brain would explode.

More:

• Tom Williams — there are limits social networking and the desire for control, even when its well intentioned, over the people who use social networks. The power is recognizing that people need to, and have to be allowed to, be free.
• Question: “How do you help marginalized people take advantage of these tools when they aren’t in the position to have access to these tools?” \
  • Tom Williams – part of the solution is understanding the problem, but also opening up the communication architecture, whether it be blogging or not.
• Question: “If you give kids technology without instruction [didn’t catch the rest]”
  •  Austin Hill — Just because its online doesn’t mean its Good. There are costs, dangers, and risks associated with it. Education plays a huge role in all of this and understanding what is Good and what is Bad.
• Question: “Building a social network around a cause, but the moment that it becomes a financial transaction everything changes“.
  • Tom Williams – 100% of the credit card costs go to the causes to that they’ve been directed towards — and ad revenues help make it that 100%. Skepticism around good intent is cultivated when the conversation strays from what is empowered, what the results are, and what the ultimate return on that good action.
• Question: “How much should charities put towards social media?”
  • Tom Williams – Make the people who are passionate the people the evangelists for your cause as a way to implement social media.
  • Austin Hill – You have to give people activities that they actually want to do. Mobilizing ordinary people requires giving a sense of reward in every day things. And doing it with everyone else creates a sense that you’re doing something bigger than yourself.
• Austin Hill: As an example, he described creating a widget that turns off your PC / screensaver, and broadcast your efforts to everyone; teams can compete around the world to, essentially, save energy and power. Its a powerful way to manage power consumption (can’t remember the name of the startup).
• Tom Williams: The best change happens when we turn our screens off. ;)
• Question: “Do traditional charities see you as a threat?”
  • Tom Williams – Those who think that they own the relationship will probably feel threatened.
• Question: “Can you change the world and still make a buck?”
  • Austin Hill — everyone should read David Bornstein’s “How to Change The World”. Lots of examples around the world of social entrepreneurs, using capitalism and enterprise to do affect great work.
  • Tom Williams — GiveMeaning.com is trying to pioneer a means to create establish real reputations so that people can separate signal from noise with respect to conversations
• Austin Hill — Gave some publicity to Standout Jobs. ;)
• Question: “Any examples for bridging local and world wide charity?”
  • Tom Williams – The power is in the inspiration we can be to each other.
• Rob Hyndman — wanted to highlight CodeForGood.com … a content which allows teams to compete building a site for charities in just 24h.

More:

• Tom Williams — “How do I, as an organization, inspire others?” User generated media, whether through blogs or video has immense power.
• “How can you mobilize social media tools towards something positive?”
  • Austin Hill — Its difficult. Treesforlife.com is a good example of startups blending technology. Its important to “put the fun in functionality” — and its the importance of some fun social activity, even if its the result of a gift economy, which will mobilize action rather than just whipping out your credit card.
• Tom Williams — “We live in an ego casting world“. The challenge with social media is that it is so ephemeral .. if you don’t like it you can leave. It can also allow for an easier level of disconnect. “Web3.0 will facilitate a deeper conversation” or discussion, whereas Web2.0 encourages *a* conversation.
• “Doing Good … is this another channel in the Attention Economy? Is it fair to talk about it this way?”
  • Austin Hill — The popularity of news is in depressing news, but there is an economy for “feel good”media, and ABC need to own it with Home Makeover Extreme. Tom Williams: his own work shows and proves that there is a need and want towards fulfilling news.
• Tom Williams — GiveMeaning.com has some great projects, including live blogging about their positives and their struggles with a group of students who traveled to Ecuador — initially just to deliver soccerballs.
• “One of the challenges with traditional giving is getting people to act. Does social media help you reach that point?”
  • Austin Hill — There is a disconnect between what they say and what they do, and environmentalism, for example, is no different. Transforming ideas into action can happen more quickly, but the power isn’t in marketers who co-opt causes for their own needs — but in every day things that make a difference with every day people.

This keynote was hosted by Rob Hyndman, and was about Philanthropy 2.0.

• Tom Williams was at one point Apple’s youngest employee at 15 years old; pioneered the online music industry, and in 2004 launched givingmeaning.com to mobilize energy for positive social change
• Austin Hill has been founding companies for 15 years, such as zeroknowledge, now radiopoint.
• On describing the transition between for profit and philanthropy:  TW, describes living the Gordon Gecko life and having a middle life crisis at 21 years old; discussed his indulgences, such as writing a book, and running into an epiphany with a local teen being killed … and running into a gap between wanting to do something and not having the tools to do it
• Tom Williams wants to be a “bum”. ;)
• Austin: ZeroKnowledge, the first forway into social technology, in an effort to change the way that privacy would work; radiopoint emerged out of the dot crisis profitable.  His epiphany had to deal with his brother dying of cancer, only 19 at the time.  At the TED conference, he began to think about the collective action on the Internet — and the empowering them with tools to do it.  His new startup allows people to do that in a real way, but also in a fun way.
• Was “saving the world” a common theme?  Tom Williams discussed a deep imperative — a need to do something for the sake of doing that thing, rather than profits, in the pre dot com boom.  Because the tools are easy, where is the vision?  Where is the passion?  TW: “charity is the most selfish thing in the world — we do it to feel good”.
• “What was meaning like in Web1.0?” Austin Hill — saw activism online from a privacy point of view, and historically its not a new meme.  There is a Maslow’s hierarchy of Broadband … where access is at the bottom, but privacy is next — and at the top is connectivity; the power of human agency starts to set in because the tools are easy and they exist.