Chris and I are headed to Boston and wanted to put a couple of events on your calendar: First stop - support our friends over at SNCR as they hold their Inaugural Research Symposium and Awards Celebration. There are a few seats left for this event and I am told if you register online at http://tinyurl.com/hqmom and use the promo code ‘NCR20′, you will save almost 20%! Then we will join our buddies at Topaz Partners who have offered to co-host the first ‘official’ meeting of Social Media Club Boston on Thursday, November 2nd from 6pm to 8:30pm. We are currently looking for a venue* in downtown Boston (Topaz is located in Woburn), so just put the date on your calendar for now and we will get an update to you shortly.

The idea is simple.

• Option #1:  You have some knowledge. You would like to share that knowledge, so you come to CNET on Tuesday, September 19th and pay it forward. You leave knowing you have done something really nice and you will win the lotto next month. (Ok, so I can't really control that, but I believe in karma so let's think positive shall we?)
• Option #2: There is something you have been yearning to learn how to do. You put your name on our website and we see if we can find someone to help you out. You go home. You play with your new mad skills. You come back to the next Rent an Expert event and teach someone else. (Show. Do. Teach.) 

I believe if you help others, good things will come back to you three fold. I believe if you let go of a little, you will gain a lot. I believe karma prevails in all situations. ——— Want to know who is testing karma tonight? Folks sharing bits of what they know at the Rent an Expert event being held at CNET’s offices in San Francisco. That’s who. These lovely people are donating their time and their expertise because they know good things come back around to those who help others succeed. As of this morning, our ‘experts’ have signed up to cover the following topics:

• Setting up a Word Press Blog - Chris Heuer, BrainJams
• Search Engine Optimization - Lawrence Coburn, RateItAll
• The Basics of Creating a Videoblog - Eddie Codel, GETV
• Smack’ ‘em (Community Building) - Jonas M Luster, Your Intarweb Going Commando
• The Secret to Kick-Ass BBQ - Eugene Eric Kim, Blue Oxen Associates
• Innovate to be great! - Cathryn Hrudicka, Creative Sage
• Publishing Globally to the Web - Arthur Law, Ion Global
• MindMapping with MindJet – Tom Blossom, MindJet
• Celestial videos/pictures for blogs, websites and sharing | A handy personal organizer - Rod Seddigh

Chris Heuer and Shel Holtz introduce the weekly New Media Release Podcast (‘NMRCast’) and explain the NMR working group; discussion of microformats and their role in the NMR; where we plan to go from here. You can download the podcast, or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).If you would like to participate in the New Media Release conversations, please join the Google group.   Thank you Shel for all of your support!

I was really excited to see that Matt Mullenweng is finally moving forward with plans to host his own unconference for users of his WordPress blogging software, but bummed when I saw the date (August 5) is the same as the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue's annual confeerence.  WordCamp should be a lot of fun and I hope to be able to find a couple slots in the schedule for my other conference where I can get over to WordCamp for a few sessions and will of course be able to make the party that night. 

I have been fortunate to spend some time talking with Matt recently, and despite my post raving about VOX the other day, I am and will continue to be a loyal WordPress user.  At the closing party of Gnomedex, we talked a bit about the power of unconferences to close the feedback loop between user and developer - how it was an authentic way to move product development forward in unexpected ways and how it ultimately leads to better relationships between a company and its customers.

Over the past six months we have learned a great deal about unconferences and the more general concept of bringing people together for conversations with their peers. We have experimented with different event formats and continue to innovate with events like our upcoming Rent an Expert on Wenesday July 19. We have affirmed our reasons for striking down the power of the podium and giving it to the people, but also have seen that there is a place for lectures and talks too – conferences can and have learned a lot from unconferences.

Ultimately, we have found that our original premise for BrainJams of connecting people from different communities to share experiences and insights is highly valuable and much needed – but the formats for facilitating these conversations are not the reason for people coming together. People come together to discuss, debate and work on shared passions – like Mashpits, Cyber Salons, Creative Commons Salons, Flickr Meetups, Third Thursday’s, Wiki Wednesday’s and Mobile Mondays. There is a common thread in these events – but it is not “Common Thread 2.0” – it is the intersection of people, technology and media – or social media as it has become popularly known.