Lloyd Davis has a great idea for the London Social Media Club that he is helping organise: don't just talk about it, get out and do it. In Thursday Night is Social Media Night he writes:
What I suggest is that anyone can come along at 6pm at a pre-arranged location to take pictures, make some audio or video, or just walk around town and blog about it, somewhere in London according to the following schedule:
* 1st Thursday: Photo-sharing
* 2nd Thursday: Podcasting & Audioblogging
* 3rd Thursday: Hosted Discussion & Networking
* 4th Thursday: Videoblogging
* 5th Thursday: Blogwalk
Except for the 3rd week, these will be out and about somewhere in London, maybe pub-based when weather gets rough, but dedicated to improving our social media skills by doing as much as by talking.
I'm committing to starting this on 1st March with a photo walk about in Soho, meeting at the John Snow pub in Broadwick St (bring your camera) - yes, it will be just getting dark at 6pm so the theme will be "Things you can photograph in Soho in the dark without getting arrested or your face smashed". Frankly, I'll be happy if I get just one other person to come with me, but of course, the more the merrier.
There's a club wiki and a mailing list. The idea ties in rather well with an observation from Australia, where Shawn at Anecdote muses on Walking to create community:
I just had coffee with Greg Shepherd. He coordinates the Dining and Activity Network in Melbourne. What a delightful fellow. I was asking him about which activities his social club members seem to love the most and surprisingly he said walking was best for building community. As Greg explained, walking enables a group of people to clump into small groups and talk without being forced in an intense face to face meeting. When you tire of one conversation you can easily slow or quicken your pace to join a new clump. This probably explains why the blog walks are popular.
That was certainly my experience at a London blogwalk, and last year I found a couple of people promoting photo walks for tourists. Of course, all social events produce their own anxieties. Do I need to upgrade my camera? Is my mike of suitable specification? Is just talk and text acceptable? I've do doubt Lloyd will make us all feel welcome.
Update: Lloyd's site has suffered some spam attacks and may be down.
David, thanks for your kind words. My blog is still poorly so I've switched over temporarily to perfectpath.wordpress.com
For those who are interested I've also put a FAQ up about the Photo Sharing session on 1st March on the Club wiki
Posted by: Lloyd Davis | February 22, 2007 at 03:15 PM