Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:39 am Post subject: Meetup Groups
Would it be possible to have a forum designated for posting local groups forming and meeting? We are working on a local group of folks who understand that the times they are a changin' and who want ot get togather to learn useful skills and form cooperative groups to better ride out the times ahead. It would be useful to have a section where those who have groups and those who seek groups could get togather. I have looked around and I havent seen any parts that seem best for this.
Function 1: Host.
This is hosting the meeting software, which enables peakniks to meet virtually online so that they can then discuss how to meet and what to do in reality in their city. I liked the www.oilawareness.meetup.com software as it had lots of meeting suggestions and venues (but later found restaurants a really bad place to hold peak oil meetings because of noise issues). However, the software most of us use works pretty well for this function as well… the www.phpbb.com software that you use here at www.peakoil.com is great (and FREE!).
Hosting is more than a little dedicated subject thread somewhere, it is enabling a community to come together and discuss all manner of local issues and strategies. I really think the local city peak oil campaigners need a dedicated subdomain or website identity for their group, to enable easy discussion, easy meeting, and a sense of loyalty to local campaigning.
Function 2: Worldwide Directory
There is no point hosting a group without an easy to access Worldwide Directory! It's the Worldwide Directory for the peak oil world that I am mainly writing about.
Sydney Peak Oil started on meetup.com. At first it was people visiting the site, posting a small comment, but missing each other by a month or two. No one chatted. No conversations were responded to. It was as if they were logging in and finding out, "No one is home."
So, totally new to peak oil as I was at the time and totally desperate to get it out there, I logged in as Organizer for Sydney. I determined that I was going to welcome every peaknik that dropped by that group. You know what? It worked. 6 months later we were presenting peak oil to the NSW Upper House minority parties, and it made a brief appearance in the NSW Upper House parliament the next day.
Why? Was it because we had the strictest set of criteria for a member to join? Or was it because we had the most thorough mission statement? Did we sell 20 different kinds of peak oil books at our site? Did we have the latest, hottest expert on peak oil in our group?
Nah! We had none of that.
We are just concerned citizens that got together. Once we got together we were able to use one another's contacts and talents for peak oil awareness.
My concern is that Peakniks are not getting together, the whole thing has slowed right down. Meetup are charging and “newbie” campaigners like myself would find $9 a month utterly intimidating because “What if no one bothers to join my group? Who am I to log in as leader anyway? I’d better not do it… it’s too arrogant.”
New groups are not forming as a result. There were over 200 groups worldwide before meetup started charging, and now there is only 40 something. If you look at the meetup world map at www.oilawareness.meetup.com/about
Australian groups are all wiped because no one could be bothered to log in and pay $9 per month for the "privilege" of using meetup.
Instead, our group started because Ian McPherson, being a graphic designer, had some server space. He paid 2 months equivalent worth of "meetup fee" but instead of going to meetup, the $18 went to securing our our own domain name of www.sydneypeakoil.com for 2 years!
Then Ian used his work server and setup the www.phpbb.com software… and now we’ve got our own dedicated website... and even had national exposure for our group “brand” on our trendy youth station, JJJ. The radio host, Steve Kinnane, actually said our website name on a respected national youth radio station, a sub-group of the ABC!
So my criteria for a successful peak oil group website would be:-
1/ Really easy to use. I like phpbb.com shareware software.
2/ Free to new members.
3/ VERY EASY TO FIND in a Worldwide Directory.
Large letters “FIND YOUR LOCAL PEAK OIL GROUP HERE” would advertise the Worldwide Directory to all peak oil newcomers across ALL major peak oil websites. They would see it on the home page of almost every peak oil site.
Then newcomers could know exactly where to click so that they could quickly and easily find their local group! As far as I can tell, the essentials for a database would be searching by Country, State, City, Group Name, Group Website, etc.
4/ No conditions!
I would not "test" newcomers to peak oil before they could meet other peakniks. I would not demand that they were against Nuclear power, for example, before they could log in and meet their local peakniks. If they are even remotely sane, and remotely concerned about campaigning for peak oil awareness, I want them!
After we had been to a meeting together I might tell them my concerns with nuclear power later on, over a cuppa after a meeting. But I would not prevent membership because of this. I would not demand a “more informed” environmental perspective before they could join my group. Not only might you lose a potentially great campaigner, but you might also confirm to some newcomers that peak oil is leftie tree hugging hippie crap, when we all know it is hard core science.
5/ Attractive.
I hate email lists... and I love cool forums with smilies and graphics and the one discussion thread running all the way down the page, in order, and all the other whiz bang special effects. It makes it so much easier to get the vibe of what people are saying. Some like email lists, but I wonder how they function when the group hits larger numbers like you have here at www.peakoil.com . Also, sensible forums like yours (and ours at Sydney) allow moderators to be appointed for certain tasks and certain subjects… without having to scan through 400 emails a day and try and pick the relevant things to moderate.
6/ Inclusive in Worldwide Directory database.
Having said that, there are a few Australian email forums and a Worldwide Directory should include them as well. Not everybody has access to cheap server space, or knows how to host a group, or set up a domain name.
So they could and SHOULD start their town or city’s group by logging into Yahoo Groups or Google Groups (who has any comments to make about preferences or dislikes between these two email list groups?). They would then announce their group to a Worldwide Directory so that their local city peakniks know where to look. As their group grew, net savy people might buy the domain name and create their own version of a "www.sydneypeakoil.com" group.
(BTW, while as a graphic designer I love creativity there is also something to be said for standard generic group names. Imagine if you could check almost any city in the world by just typing newyorkpeakoil and hitting enter!? .com is the default for browsers.... imagine typing "your city"peakoil... hitting enter, and finding your local group.)
So, who is going to set up a system where peakniks can log in and leave their group information in a database? My poor old eclipse server is not cut out for that. Let's get this world movement MOVING! Can someone set up a GOOD Worldwide Directory database that tells new peakniks, definitively, if there is a group in their town?
In the meantime, Sydney Peak Oil has the beginnings of a very BASIC Worldwide Directory forming in the manner of a simple alphabetical list. You can see it on our forum home page.
http://www.sydneypeakoil.com
Whatever happens, it would be great if the future Worldwide Directory was heavily advertised on all the major peak oil sites, so that a new universal peaknik owned group system emerged.
I understand www.postcarbon.org are heading in this direction… and maybe they will be the first peakniks to run both the:-
1/ Web group hosting and the
2/ Worldwide Directory in an inclusive, non discriminating way.
Let’s hope so. _________________ www.eclipsenow.blogspot.com
Free peak oil posters to download, print out, and put up at your local shops and library.
Last edited by eclipse on Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:11 am; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:59 pm Post subject: Re: Meetup Groups
Board Kiosk _________________ A Saudi saying, "My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel."
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