In a few minutes, I’ll start liveblogging a panel on Organizing for Change on the Social Web here at the National Conference on Media Reform.

Here are the panelists:

Craig Newmark of Craigslist
Ruby Sinreich of Lotus Media
Chris Raab of AfroNetizen
Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance

Deanna Zandt of Alternet is moderating.

Join me below the fold at 5:30 EST for the liveblog.

5:30 - All of the panelists have taken their seats and are being mic’d up. Looks like we’ll be underway shortly.

5:35 - Deanna is surveying the crowd, asking how many people have used Wiki’s, social networks, etc. Incredible over have of the 100+ people in the room have edited Wikipedia.

5:40 - Deanna: “If you don’t take anything else away from what I tell you, please participate. Contribute your knowledge.”

5:41 - Deanna is now introducing the panelists, Ruby is up first.

5:42 - On the screen: “Myspace and Facebook didn’t invent social networks”

5:43 - Ruby: “We all are born with social networks.” She’s referring to families, college roommates, colleagues and friends. Jokes that she knows people who know John Edwards, though he isn’t an active part of her social network.

5:44 - We already have social marketing too, such as when we suggest a movie to a friend or invite them to a protest.

5:45 - Ruby: “We are all media now. We don’t have to rely on big organizations telling us what to do.”

5:45 - On the screen: What makes networks into “swarms?”

5:46 - She is explaining how blogswarms occur organically, nobody is taking marching orders. It happens in a “somewhat leaderless” fashion.

5:47 - She refers to web 2.0 as “Network-centric advocacy”

5:48 - Aspects of effective networks:
Trusted Relationships - Having social ties based on trust. For organizations, professional ties.
Common Story - This can be a shared experience, a shared perspective or a common language on a specific subject area.
Dense Communication Grid - If you think of a network of streets, and how a redundant network routes traffic effectively, as opposed to a cul de sac which can be blocked off very easily. It’s about having many ways to connect.
Sharing Culture - Information, knowledge, training, or a space. Creative Commons is a great example of this. - Do you know you are part of these networks? This knowledge is an essential part of belonging to a network.

http://lotusmedia.org/5things for the full presentation.

5:51 - Craig is up now.

5:52 - The site operates on the principle that you treat people how you want to be treated. “People are overwhelmingly trustworthy and good.”

5:53 - He really enjoys this quote from Victor Hugo: “There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

5:54 - Credits Gutenberg with inventing the Internet and Martin Luther with creating the first killer app.

5:55 - “The Internet is a tool which is open to all of us. It’s everyone’s printing press.”

5:55 - Craig cites Obama and Ron Paul of examples of people who understand how to use the Internet.

5:56 - Craig mentions Donors Choose, which sounds like a site for crowdsourcing donations for community projects.

5:56 - He is getting in on microfinance he says, may create his own Marshall Plan. Unfortunately, he didn’t explain this.

5:57 - Craig is done for now, Andrew is next.

5:57 - Andrew starts by mentioning that he gets almost everything from Craigslist, including a girlfriend once.

6:00 - He is beginning to explain what the Harry Potter Alliance is about. People realize that “they are not perfectly normal, thank you very much.” He’s losing me a bit here, since I haven’t read the books. It seems like the idea is that there are major parallels between the Harry Potter books and our current political landscape.

6:02 - “Remember that story about the runaway bride? For those who don’t remember, she was the bride who ran away.” That story received 50 times more news coverage than the Darfur Crisis in June 2005.

6:03 - He is explaining how he built his site by forming alliances with a band called Harry and the Potters. He is playing a song now: “It’d be nice to get some real news today… They’re not telling the truth… Here’s what we can do….”

6:06 - I wasn’t to keen on this, having not read the books, but I’ve got to hand it to Andrew. It seems like his method of using the popularity of Harry Potter to generate interest in activism has really struck a chord. It’s now been picked up by the “real media”, “whatever the hell that is” as Andrew says.

6:07 - Andrew: “Find out where the energy is and shift that energy” to something more worthwhile. He

6:07 - Chris is up now, this should be good.

6:08 - He is starting out by asking people to realize that his name is misspelled in the conference program.

6:09 - “Many of us are part of communities we aren’t even aware of”

6:10 - “Language is power.” Compliments Craig on his story about the evolution of the Internet and blogging.

6:11 - He is explaining how his family has run an African American newspaper in Baltimore for 5 generations. He founded Afro.com in 1994. Wow, way ahead of the game there.

6:12 - “50 years ago or so, it was a lynchable offense to be caught with my family’s newspaper.” He compares individuals sharing hard to find newspapers with social networking.

6:13 - “I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have a significant amount of social capital.” He calls it digital capital in the web 2.0 world. Items on our resume open doors for us, they are forms of social capital we have to be explicit about.

6:15 - “I know a lot of people who work harder than I do that don’t get the credit, they don’t get the social capital.”

6:16 - “Some networks are more validated because of their founders and who advocates for them.”

6:17 - “We all have access to these tools… but within these contexts, there are people who have closer access to power.”

6:18 - Deanna is now questioning the panel.

6:18 - “I want to see one specific instance of tangible social change that was accomplished with social networking tools.”

6:22 - Andrew: “What does the phrase ‘never again’ even mean?” It is happening again in Darfur. He is weaving an interesting story about Darfur, and explaining a website that collected signatures to prosecute war criminals. 2000 signatures in 24 hours by using social networking tools. Raised $6,000 for women in Darfur.

6:23 - Craig: “The best example is the Obama campaign, coming out of nowhere and getting things done.”

6:27 - Ruby cites the progressive blogosphere’s reaction to to Sinclaire Broadcasting Group’s smear movie attacking John Kerry. “Using blogs like Daily Kos and others, the meme spread all over the place.” The campaign targeted Sinclaire’s advertisers, using a shared database. In the end, Sinclair lost enough advertisers that they pulled the documentary.

6:28 - Chris cites the Save the Internet coalition, and explains the basics of net neutrality.

6:29 - Deanna wonders how women’s lives are changing because of social networks.

6:30 - Craig: “We need to break out of the echo chamber. We’ve got to get the attention of tens of millions on people, rather than hundreds of thousands.”

Craig: “I’m working with IAVA to start pushing a new GI bill.” “We need to appeal to a much bigger audience, preaching to the choir ain’t that productive.”

6:31 - Chris: “There is a subset of all communities that yearns to get beyond corporate media.”

6:33 - Questions from the audience will begin shortly.

6:34: - But first, Deanna wants to know what the panelists think the next big thing is.

6:34: - Chris: Schmap.com - A widget that automatically updates state poll information on a map.

6:34: - Craig: “I figure the kids are now using Twitter. It may be a model for a lot of things that are happening.” Add him, username craignewmark.

6:35: Ruby: Second Life. She is explaining the basics of what the site is about. There may be new uses for second life, but I’d say it’s more of a recent big thing than the “next” big thing.

6:37: magicalactsofkindness.com - highlights good deeds people do, crowdsourced.

6:40: Questions, 15 second limit, must be a question. Good Call, Deanna. That is often a problem.

6:40: “Designers produce things without uses, content producers don’t have distribution.” “How do we bring these people together?”

Ruby: “The Internet, that’s how they find each other.”

Deanna: Drupal, Float Left, Drupal Chicks. A few websites where different communities are connecting. She’s now explaining what Drupal is.

6:43: “There is a wealth of information in the minds of people who aren’t tech savvy. Is there a way for a youth-oriented site to inspire people to bridge this gap?”

Ruby: “People need a reason to be online. I know a lot of older people who are online.” She is explaining how it is natural for young people to be online. She brought her grandmother online so they could email each other.

6:45: Chris: I got my mother to start using text messages four years ago. “Mom, don’t you hate when dad would call you and have nothing to say?” “She’s been using text messaging ever since. Try family reunions to start the generational dialogue.”

6:48: The questions are rambling a bit, so I’m going to paraphrase.

Very similar to the last question, “How can old people learn about Craigslist?”

6:50: Someone in the audience is suggesting community technology centers, ctcnet.org.

6:54: “Where is Craigslist going in the future?”

Craig - “We do one thing well, we don’t want to screw it up.” More cities, better at fighting spam. Doesn’t want to make any major changes.

6:56 - “How can we bring online behavior offline? Or how can social networking improve people’s lives?” Ruby is explaining how relationships are forged and strengthened online. This makes people get along much better in person, or can at least.

6:59: - “Is Internet addiction a problem?”

Deanna - “No.”

It’s pretty unfortunate that we had to end on a question that is irrelevant to the panel. Regardless, I enjoyed it and I hope you did too.