Video of the opening sessions

Here are the opening sessions on July 2, which started with  Steve Moore explaining the ideas and experience behind 2gether08, and paying tribute to those who contributed to its very rapid development over eight weeks. Steve said that he wanted the event to be substantially self organising, and developed through creative volunteering. This resulted in about the half the 400  people registered for the event contributing in some way. (read more...).

2gether @ handheld learning 2008

It was a great pleasure to be a participant at 2gether08 where I was joined by colleagues from South Thames College who were explaining and demonstrating one way in which the kinds of technology already available to young people are being used for powerful learning experiences as well as platforms for grass-roots activism. In this case they were discussing their LIFEWISE initiative where arts, dance, business studies and technology combined to raise awareness of the campaign against gun and knife crime. (read more...).

Photos from 2gether08

Here are photos from Flickr tagged 2gether08 - thanks everyone.  You can find them here. I used Flickr Slideshow Generator which seems to work OK, but other suggestions for displaying photos tagged by many different people would be welcome. Oh, and if there’s still some on your camera or phone, please upload and just tag 2gether08. (read more...).

Innovate by building on what’s there

Bill Thompson and the New Statesman New Media Awards 2008 from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Technology writer Bill Thompson, a judge in the New Statesman New Media Awards 2008,  has been involved since the awards started 10 years ago. He is well-placed to applaud both the consistent support of  NS publisher Spencer Neal, and that of competitors committed to turning ideas into action.

On this occasion Bill was standing in for Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson, who was called to a Commons vote. Earlier Tom - see interview here - had launched a competition called Show Us a Better Way offering £20,000 in prizes for projects to use government-collected data more innovatively for public services. (read more...).

Is our politics big enough to cope with the web?

One of the highlights of the first day of 2gether08 was a debated host by Matthew D’Ancona, editor of The Spectator, with guest panellists: political blogger Mick Fealty who writes as Brassneck and Slugger O’Toole; Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy; Rory Sutherland, Vice Chair Ogilvy Group; and Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety.

There’s another 20 hours or so of video recorded at 2gether08, and we’ll bring you more soon..

The great ice-cream sales experiment

Rob and Lea from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Rob Hinchcliffe of Qype.com and Lea Simpson of unchainedguide.com are passionate about promoting excellent local businesses, and believe this can be done by using digital media to influence people’s consumer habits.

At 2gether08 they carried out a mini social experiment by setting up ice cream stalls at the event. One sold very well known brands, at a reasonable price in a very prominent position. The other sold an independent make of very high quality, organic ice cream but in a slightly out-of-the-way location and at a more expensive price: on the roof. (read more...).

2gether08 - undampened, still buzzing

We may have finished 2gether08 in the wet, but there is plenty of enthusiasm for keeping the conversation going as you can see from the Twitter feed, and some blog items.  This is an update of an earlier post. On our networking site Maz Hardey says:

The best 2.0 event i have been to. And i’ve been to a diverse managerie of ideas, get togethers, mash-ups and conferences.

2Gether managed entertaining, high octane quality. And that can be a rare thing as far as Andrew Keen’s ‘cult of the amateur’ goes.

I cannot thank everyone involved with setting this up enough for letting me be part of it. And i look forward to future debates, discussions and diversions (read more...)>

Involve aims to engage millions

At 2gether08 I met up with my friend Richard Wilson, who runs the excellent participation think tank Involve. They are definitely thinking big in using new media to scale up the scope for citizen engagement. I shot this brief interview, and then asked Richard to send me some further thoughts. (read more...).

BBC adds more support for Simon’s Coca Cola Campaign

Simon Berry got a double boost at 2gether08 last week for his campaign to get Coca Cola to use their sophisticated distribution channels for rehydration salts to save children’s lives. Currently 5500 children die each day in Africa from diarrohea. (read more...).

Speed(ed) networking in the Common Room

 
2gether day 1 - in the main tent from Dan Dixon on Vimeo.

The best place to hang out during 2gether08 was the marquee (aka Common Room), where Ed Mitchell and Dan Dixon added a little networking zest with a Live Tag Surfing wall on the first day, and an invitation to muse on what’s the next big challenge on the second. (read more...).