Last night's Social Tech Brewing social was lots of fun.
(Notice how lazy I getabout linking? ;) )

• Phillip Smith arrived shortly after I did. He told me about CopyCamp, a copyright and art get-together on September 28, 29, 30. All sorts of luminaries! Lawrence Lessig, Cory Doctorow, Michael Geist… Awesome lineup. I totally have to be there and blog it.
• Jason Doucette came next. Phillip asked him if he was into podcasting, and it turned out that Jason podcasts for the Toronto Vegetarian Association, which is at 17 Baldwin St. I should take a look at that. Phillip is vegetarian, and I'm a semi-vegetarian-wannabe. (I want to learn how to cook vegetarian food!) TVA's attendance has been dropping off, but their podcasts attract attention from people from other cities. Their podcasts are generally 20 minutes long.
• Phillip Smith knows about a progressive podcast host / aggregator which might be interested in the vegetarian podcasts. Other interesting links: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com , http://www.veganporn.com ,
• Liam O'Doherty of avoid.net came too. He mentioned the Personal Propaganda Kit (T-shirts, stickers, etc) tie-in with avoid.net. He's partnering up with OCAD people to produce that, I think.
• Phillip recommended a few books: Ingenuity Gap, The Upside of Down.
• We also chatted about ideas for a Toronto wiki, something to collect information about Toronto. Interestingly, Rob Hyndman owns the domain. Good model – Davis wiki. (Hey, Himy would be a great fit for a project like that. He'd fill it with so many interesting stories!)
• Colin McGregor mentioned a group called Serial Diners. They're making their way through a phonebook of restaurants, and currently at K.
• Judy Chicago is with Women's Space.
• Gabe Sawhney's into the memory project and T.Ode.
• Jonathan found Social Tech Brewing through upcoming.org, as did Jason and Gabriel. So did I, for that matter.
• Introductions: Tempted to have “Hello, my URL is…” nametags. Reprogrammable nametags also sound interesting, as suggested by Colin.
• Jonathan's involved with Habitat for Humanity, which is somewhat interested in moving to open source.
• Introductions protocol idea: three words / tagline, name. Putting the description before the name makes it easier for people to hear interesting things and pay extra attention.
• Social Tech Brewing modeled on501c tech clubs, nonprofits.
• New network: Mobile Mondays.
• Jane attended DrupalCamp and is with DigitalEve, which is based in Lawrence West
• Chatted about Linux Caffe and social spaces. Seattle has free wireless in cafes, even to the point of having tables for two with outlets. People addicted. Some cafes turn off internet during weekends…
• Net neutrality
• Gabe mentioned that Dory of Wireless Toronto and a few other people are working on “Turn off the internet day”.
• Jonathan's into $100 laptop, too. Pays attention to news.
• Chatted about gender segregation in bars, funny anecdote from Judy: “Don't be scared.”
• Phillip described freegeek, an open non-profit computer part reclamation thing that's now self-funding. Break computers apart into components for melting into gold, assemble computers from working parts, keep one.
• Toronto Hydro goings-on

Updates:

• Rob Hyndman says: By the way, I do own the domain for toronto wiki – because when I saw the story about the David wiki I immediately reserved the domain and pinged David Crow and told him he *had* to do it, and that I would contribute (domain, etc.). But David had seen it to and had already started!! http://to.ron.to/toronto/show/HomePage
• Check out Rob Hyndman‘s post: http://www.robhyndman.com/2006/06/02/a-wiki-for-toronto/
• Also, Jason Banico pledged to contribute to Asiarati, a knowledgebase for Asian countries. He's looking for other people to contribute, too. I want a wiki!