Our August Philly Net Tuesday will be focused on Google+ (http://plus.google.com), the brand new social networking service from Google. We’ll start gathering at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, August 2 in the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry Street. Plus we’ll be streaming the event live (see http://phillynetsquared.org/live) and paying attention to the Twitter backchannel (using #phlnet2).

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Our August Philly Net Tuesday will be focused on Google+ (http://plus.google.com), the brand new social networking service from Google. We’ll start gathering at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, August 2 in the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry Street. Plus we’ll be streaming the event live (see http://phillynetsquared.org/live) and paying attention to the Twitter backchannel (using #phlnet2).

• What is Google+ and how does it work?
• Why is Google+ important (or not)? Will it rival/surpass Facebook?
• How can Google+ help nonprofits and social change?

We’ll start off with some demonstrations of Google+ and its features, exploring circles, sparks, huddles and hangouts. (Bring your own laptop if you can, so you can “play along”.) We’ll talk about how Google+ relates to other Google products. We’ll discuss how we can use Google+ to help our organizations and causes. And we’ll speculate about where this is all going.

This will be an INFORMAL, interactive discussion. We’ll be prepared with some basics, but we need your help by doing one or more of the following:

1. Just come (in person or online). Your presence and perspective are more important than you may realize.

2. Get your hands wet with Google+. During this beta phase, you must be invited by another user. If you don’t have somebody to invite you, please contact info@phillynetsquared.org for an invite.

3. Read up on Google+. There are lots of articles and blog posts, and more coming along every day. Here are a couple places you might want to start (the last six items were added July 28):

a. Wikipedia’s evolving article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Plus)
b. “How to Use Google Plus” from the Read WriteWeb (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_start_with_google_plus.php)
c. “What is Your Plan For Google + Experimentation and Exploration?” by Beth Kanter (http://www.bethkanter.org/google-cheat-sheets)
d. “Google+ and Nonprofits: No Worries If You Have Not Yet Been Invited!” for Nonprofit Tech 2.0 by Heather Mansfield (http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/google-and-nonprofits-no-worries-if-you-have-yet-to-be-invited)
e. “Security and Control: Early thoughts on Google+” by Amy Sample Ward (http://amysampleward.org/2011/06/30/security-and-control-early-thoughts-on-google)
f. “Charities Explore Potential of Google+ Social Network” from the Chronicle of Philanthropy (http://philanthropy.com/blogs/social-philanthropy/charities-explore-potential-of-google-social-network/28875)
g. “Ways Google+ Can Help Nature and Wildlife Lovers” from the National Wildlife Foundation (http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2011/07/ways-google-can-help-nature-and-wildlife-lovers)
h. “What Google+ Means for Political Advocacy and Campaigning: Initial Thoughts” by Colin Delany (http://www.epolitics.com/2011/06/30/what-google-means-for-political-advocacy-and-campaigning)
i. “Google+ for Crowdsourcing Crisis Information, Crisis Mapping and Disaster Response” by Patrick Meier of Ushahidi and Crisis Mappers (http://irevolution.net/2011/07/03/google-humanitarian-technology)
j. "Inside Google+ - How the Search Giant Plans to go Social" by Steven Levy for Wired (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/)
k. "Google+ Best Practices for Nonprofits" by Heather Mansfield for Nonprofit Tech 2.0 (http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/google-best-practices-for-nonprofits/)
l. "Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse" by Violet Blue for ZDNet
(http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/google-plus-deleting-accounts-en-masse-no-clear-answers/567) (Mostly, they are deleting accounts for violations of the "real name" policy -- that accounts have to be created under a person's real name.)
m. "Why it Matters: Google+ and Diversity" by Jon Pincus
(http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=2918) (Why the "real name" policy of Google, like Facebook's, has implications for activists and organizations working with communities who can't organize in the open.)
n. Beth Kanter's Google+ discussion on using Google+ for social change/activism (http://bit.ly/GooglePlusSocialChangeActivistInformation)
o. "How is Google Plus like Facebook and Twitter (Infographic)"
(http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/how-is-google-like-twitter-and-facebook-infographic_b11782)

4. Offer to help lead part of the discussion. We’d love to have people who are prepared to help lead particular parts of the discussion, perhaps around how Google+ may be used for various types of causes, how it relates to the Google for Nonprofits Program or other Google tools, how this just feeds into Google’s Evil Empire aspirations, or any other angle of interest. If you’d like to help lead some of the discussion, please contact info@phillynetsquared.org.

Google+ is new. It could be big. And we’re just learning about it. Share the learning by coming to Net Tuesday (in person or online), or perhaps by getting a little more involved as suggested above.

We gratefully acknowledge our sponsors for this event: The American Friends Service Committee (http://afsc.org) and Chevy Volt (http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/).