Sydney Twitter Meetups and Gilmore’s Law
Mark Pesce cites Gilmore’s Law as
“The net regards censorship as a failure, and routes around it.”
Gilmore’s law could be abstracted to other areas too, when a roadblock is put up in front of us, we will try to work a way around it to still acheive what we want to…
This seems to be what is happening in the Sydney Twitter community at the moment. It’s interesting to note that there are a number of successful Sydney Twitter meetup events happening, regardless of not being promoted on the @STUB twitter account or the STUB blog.
Some examples are:
- STUB Pub Trivia - a very successful evening this week attended by a number of Sydney Twitter People
- STUB goes to the Dogs
- STUB Christmas in the Park
- TED Talks Sydney
- A Think and a Drink
(allthough the last two are not listed as STUB events, they are aimed at Sydney Twitter Peeps).
Now wouldn’t it be nice if events like this could be advertised on the STUB twitterstream and the STUB blog by the people organising them - eg a tweet from @STUB could say “STUB event: @XXXX is organising YYYY See blog for details”. Because this is not an option to Sydney Twitterer’s (because it’s not a “sanctioned” STUB event), people are routing around the issue and using Upcoming, Facebook and other methods to get their message out.
Why is it such an issue? Why can’t everyone promote events for the Sydney Twitter community on the STUB twitter feed and the STUB blog? Having all these events promoted through differnet sites just dilutes the message and means that some people may feel left out if they are not actively searching on upcoming or following the right people or joining the right groups on facebook.
One of our commenters @wheelyweb said “Theoretically [a Sydney Twitter Meetup] could be every night, announced by anyone, located anywhere, but is that a STUB or simply someone tweeting a desire to meet with others in a very Twitter-like way”. Thanks for the excellent and well thought out comment @wheelyweb. Yes what you have described is exactly what a STUB is; Over the year and a bit that STUB has been going, however, different names have evolved for different meetups.
According to the general understanding of the current STUB “rules” (although there are no written rules, which is good), a STUB is only allowed to be called a STUB if it is officially sanctioned by @STUB and has a sponsor. A Mini STUB is an event that someone organises from their own account and invites other twitterer’s to. A Micro STUB is a gathering of around 3-4 Sydney twitterers and a Nano STUB is a gathering of around 2 Sydney twitterers. (There is also a MeTUB, that existed way before the #TUBWARS of 2008). Why can’t we just call a STUB a STUB and get on with it!
FUSTUB is not about naming names or pointing fingers (sorry @wheelyweb), it is only about pointing out the issues and letting the Sydney Twitter people decide. We just want the ability for Sydney Twitter People to be able to promote their event via the excellent, well publicised, well run @STUB twitter account and Blog.
So that’s where FUSTUB steps in to fill the void. Think of FUSTUB as your STUB event advertising agency. FUSTUB is not about organising events or holding separate events to STUB, it is about helping you promote the events that you want to run for the Sydney Twitter Community. So please email fustub@gmail.com to have your events promoted on twitter via the @FUSTUB account and on the blog.
We look forward to promoting events for all Sydney Twitter people over the coming months and especially through this upcoming silly season.
We hope you enjoy this cartoon as we think it very much says what FUSTUB is all about. (HT @mossyblog)
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)
Wow, what a difference 24hours makes in Twitterland!
Wow, we have really started some discussion in Twitterland so it seems… with the plethora of new *TUB’s forming today and following people and the #tubwars even trending on Twitter Search.
So now it’s time to explain about why FUSTUB was created. Our ultimate goal is to have only one Sydney Twitter Underground Brigade… currently that’s called STUB. But unfortunately, it seems that STUB is not for ALL Sydney twitterer’s and yes, a few Ego’s have gotten in the way.
We, as Sydney twitterer’s ourselves want to have a STUB that anyone can organise, a STUB that can be sponsored by anyone for any reason (gee, if someone wants to put a couple of hundred bucks on the bar for people to enjoy, why not!), and a STUB that doesn’t have any restrictions on what size or what venue it’s at before it can be called a STUB, and even a STUB where non techies feel welcome also?
We would like your support. Please tweet to let the rest of the twitter community know that you want only one STUB also, and that you want to hold a STUB how, when and where you want to.
In the words of @aDB today “Time to get over all this silliness, I suggest renaissanceTUB to start over. #tubwars“. What an insightful tweet!.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)Welcome to Free Underground STUB
Welcome to Free Underground STUB. Free Underground STUB (or FUSTUB for short) is a STUB you are having when you are not having a STUB! FUSTUB is Free as in speech, but the beer/wine/<insert drink of choice here> isn’t free - it’s BYO. FUSTUB is about you, members of the community being able to organise and hold a STUB, a mini STUB, a micro STUB, or even a nano STUB* when ever and wherever you like. It’s a social thing, driven by the people of the Sydney twitter scene, for the people of the Sydney twitter scene.
You can organise a FUSTUB yourself, run it yourself, and even get sponsors yourself if you find someone willing to pay for the beer/wine/<insert drink of choice here>.
Sponsorship of a FUSTUB is only about supporting the Sydney twitter scene, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not about branding or ownership, it’s about supporting the community only.
FUSTUB is an undeground community driven group committed to ensure that STUB stays free for the Sydney Twitter community. So lets join together as a community, work together & support our intererst in all the things we love about being a Sydney based Twitter user!
Because FUSTUB is your STUB, you can post your own details about the FUSTUB to the FUSTUB Twitter account or this blog. Just send the details of your event to fustub at gmail dot com and the secret squirrels will post your event info on the blog and the twitter account.
*Note: There is no definition of what constitutes a Mini FUSTUB, Micro FUSTUB or Nano FUSTUB - the rules are only the rules you as members of the Sydney Twitter Community want to make up - No one person or group controls FUSTUB - you make FUSTUB what you want it to be.
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