New time, new location, new vigor — our first meetup of the Season II of the Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup went quite well last night. (We’ll be meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7 p.m. t 3 CUPS coffee bar in the West End Courtyard off West Franklin Street.) In attendance: Rob Gluck, Adam Vandenberg, Jackson Fox, Rob Zelt, Martin Johnson, Mike Habib, Corey Reece, Drew Lomax, Bret Dougherty, Henry Copeland, Brian Russell, Ruby Sinreich and Anton Zuiker. We did the usual, going around the table to introduce ourselves and mention something about our recent blogging. Martin mentioned he’d recently attended the blogging summit in Virginia showed off his new Canon Powershot SD400 and got us talking about Flickr and social software. Drew and Bret asked about the social bookmarking tool del.icio.us. Henry reported on the blogads logo competition. Then, I asked about natural disaster blogging. A few of us had blogged about Hurricane Katrina, and the Asia tsunami back in December. Brian created a podcast PSA for hurricane relief. Some of us posted political statements about the woeful lack of governmental response to Katrina’s devastation. Yet, many of us agreed that, when national or international events have the blogosphere screaming, we don’t feel we have anything to add, and so we stay silent. Which led me to ask, “But don’t bloggers have a responsibility to use their platforms to share news, links and resources?” Ruby answered that she was but one voice, but when added with all the others, the media would take notice and make an issue of the topic. That’s how political or societal change will happen, she suggested. Your thoughts on the question? Post them to the comments, please, or write on your blog and post a link in the comments. A few other items from the meeting: * Chapel Hill bloggers wanting to attend the ConvergeSouth bloggercon Oct 7 & 8 can carpool in Anton’s van. If you’re interested in the ride (and can contribute $5 for gas), see the previous post and put your name in the comments. * Henry suggested we hold a party sometime this fall, and birdwatcher Rob asked about another teach-in. If you’re willing to help plan either event, please contact Anton. * About wifi: while 3 CUPS has a no-wifi policy (part of their slow food, long conversations philosophy), they’ll provide Internet access to us during our meetings. Rob Zelt has donated a wireless router. At our future meetings, we’ll be able to have presentations and demonstrations and liveblogging. See you next on September 22 at 7 p.m.