The First Thursday Group has now moved to the Kabissa Forum in the category dadamac We are experimenting with the format. One of the problems with the one-hour meetings we used to do was finding a time that suited eveyone's time-zone, especially when the group included people from the USA, instead of just Europe and Africa.
The information above is a 2015 update, the information below was how it used to be.
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First Thursday meetings
On the First Thursday of each month I try to be online for an hour. It's a chance for friends and contacts, old and new, to drop in for a chat (a typed chat). It's very informal. People drop in as it suits them, so we don't have a set agenda. It's usually a small gathering. Usually it's people I know well, who are from varied place and backgrounds, and might not have any other opportunity to meet each other, We share what we've been doing, introduce people to each other, explore areas of overlapping interest and so on. Sometimes we settle on a specific topic to explore in detail - it all depends on who turns up. (More about First Thursdays, which have been running each month since 2007.)
How it usually works
There is no pre-registration, but the software does limit how many people can attend. So far there has always been room for everyone. If you have any problems accessing First Thursday please let me know
The online space for the group remains open all month - So if you can't make it to the "real time meeting" you can click on the link later, read what others have said, and leave a message. I visit during the month to see if any "latecomers" have called in.
Until August 2014 - thanks to Gerry Gleason and the server in his basement in Chicago - we were holding our meetings on an etherpad. When Gerry coudn't provide that any more I just met people on Facebook or Google chat on the first Thursdays, for a couple fo months, then we moved to Kabissa Forum.
No need to log in - just click the link and you will arrive at the chat
Start time 14.00 GMT. 15.00 Nigerian time. For your local time see The World Clock – Time Zone Converter http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html or World Time Buddy
http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/
Blogging about it.
I would love someone to be an "information agent" for the First Thursday Group, to review the conversation each month and blog about it. Then we'd get the unfolding stories of the people and their projects and their advice-sharing in an easy-to-read form (similar to the way we've told the unfolding story of Fantsuam Foundation thanks to weekly online typed meetings and Frances' blogs and Nikki's blogs) If you might be interested in doing this sometimes please contact me.
Meeting archives for 2014
You can see what we discussed in our meetings. In August 2014 there was a problem accessing the server. Some links below refer to archived material stored elsewhere. I'm leaving all the links in the hope that sometime the connection to the etherpad may be restored.
July 3rd 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/July-2014-First-Thursday
June 5th 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/June-2014-First-Thursday
May 1st 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/May-2014-First-Thursday
April 3rd 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/April-2014-First-Thursday
March 6th 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/March-2014-First-Thursday
First Thursday Group March 2014 - Main page at end of March 6th meeting - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wFT9Ngl8Uv_NlLd49SHgtjH63CSX-AdLimHhkohIm3M/edit
First Thursday Group March 2014 - Chat box at end of March 6th meeting - https://docs.google.com/document/d/18to8GpjQ7cmnX78EOYpKJkhMJMm4xdtEohAHlqDs5-w/edit
Meetings in 2013 and early 2014
Sadly the etherpad links below were broken during a system failure in January 2014, and subsequent upgrade. I hope to be able to restore them at some point. The links to * October 3rd on Dadamac.net and * August 1st chat archive are not broken.
February 6th 2014- partial restoration - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/p/February-2014-First-Thursday
February 6th 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/February-2014-First-Thursday
January 2nd 2014 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/January-2014-First-Thursday
December 5th - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/December-2013-First-Thursday
November 7th - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/November-2013-First-Thursday
October 3rd - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/October-2013-First-Thursday
* October 3rd on Dadamac.net - http://dadamac.net/blog/20131003/october-first-thursday-youths-livelihoods-unemployment-violence-david-and-goliath-and-
September 5th - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/September-2013-First-Thursday
August 1st http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/August-2013-First-Thursday
* August 1st chat archive - easy to read version
July 4th - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/July-2013-First-Thursday
June - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/June-2013-First-Thursday
May - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/May-2013-First-Thursday
April - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/April-2013-First-Thursday
March - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/March-2013-First-Thursday
February - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/February-2013-First-Thursday
January - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/January-2013-First-Thursday
Archive 2012, 2011and earlier
During 2012 and 2011 each meeting held on an etherpad links back to the previous two months and forward to the next one, so you can quickly find your way backwards and forwards through the year - starting in the middle:
June 2012 - http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/June-2012-First-Thursday
Earlier meetings 2007-2010 were held in the Minciu Sodas chatroom until Andrius Kulikauskas had to close it through lack of income. We moved First Thursday to Skype, as a temporary solution but it was not sufficently inclusive for our needs. Archives from before 2011 are scattered around the Internet - some easier to find than others.
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