Commerce-Cojoins-Compassion #3Cs: Green & Geekalicious Hackday Contest

Green & Geekalicious Hack Day with Chris Pirillo & Microsoft

Green & Geekalicious Hackday with Gnomedex's Chris Pirillo and Microsoft Bing's Betsy Aoki. Photography by Sally and Barry Letzer of GreenEntrepreneurs.com.

Kenji Onozawa’s (@Kenji_Onozawa) excellent interview with Eric Weaver (@Weave) on July 1, 2009, touched a theme near and dear to my heart: Trust. Eric eloquently explains how our emerging social media movement and communities can foster and rebuild trust and community bonds at a time when many have lost faith in established government and business institutions or view them warily with cynicism. The social media movement is paving the way for re-emergence of a more inclusive “complex order” after the chaotic bifurcation meltdown experienced in the financial, banking, and manufacturing sectors leaving so many shaken, jobless, and even homeless. It is not surprising in this socio and political climate of tremendous challenge and change that we should ask ourselves, “Who can I trust?”

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s forthcoming book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, also explores this timely topic. And like Eric, I have been affiliated with technology since ARPANET and have witnessed the first technology waves produced by the ME generation. It is with a degree of relief that the WE community ethos of social media is making it’s impact felt in Seattle’s technology sector.

On June 27, the Seattle technology and environmental/green scenes merged at the new Microsoft Commons on the Redmond West Campus to kickoff Green & Geekalicious Hackday co-sponsored by Gnomedex’s Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) and Microsoft’s Bing Team represented by Betsy Aoki (@BAoki).

Chris Pirillo chomps on biodegradable utensils made from potato starch at Microsoft Commons.

World changers and coding teams got together to brainstorm projects and hear presentations between techies and environmental organizations to create new kinds of web applications by using the newly launched Bing API and submit their creations to the Will Code for Green contest. This is one of the first instances of a “Compassionate Action” #3Cs initiative (Commerce-Cojoining-Compassion) bringing commerce and the public sector together for the greater good in our social media scene.

Earlier this year, Shauna Causey (@ShaunaCausey), always the cutting-edge innovator, kicked off spring by organizing Comcast Cares Day and, more recently, Pelago’s Whrrl Team sponsored Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) of Invisiblepeople.tv. Both of these efforts focused on transitional housing and homelessness in our Seattle community. Chris was on hand for all three Compassionate Action events. I have to hand it to Chris; he really steps up and lends a hand.

Thank you, Chris and LockerGnome for all that you do for the Seattle social media and Compassionate Action communities.

In honor of Chris’s Geekalicious Tea by Mighty Leaf launch, which co-sponsored Green & Geekalicious Hackday, Seattle Geisha Girl, Jennifer Thirsk, and I put together a spoof tribute (blooper reel) for Chris’s darn-tasty genmaicha tea!… We felt the spoof tribute/blooper reel is in keeping for discovering our inner geek!