Join us in the BlogTogether chat room to discuss our February events and meetups.

Here’s a suggested plan for the Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup in February: My wife’s law school schedule has her away Thursday evenings and me with my children, so Wednesday’s are best for me to schedule meetups. Any objections to changing our meetup schedule to the first and third Wednesdays of each month, starting at 6:30pm? Meeting at Milltown bar and restaurant in Carrboro (across from Cat’s Cradle, with free wifi)? If you’d like to help us organize these meetups (on Wednesdays or another day), please volunteer to coordinate a meetup at least once a month. We’ll strive for a good mix of informal conversation with planned discussion topics and demonstrations. Let us know what you want to explore at our meetups this spring. Please also join me in this chat room, http://zuiker.campfirenow.com/8d2c8, this Wednesday at 8pm to discuss BlogTogether meetups and events. And, I’d like to plan a Chapel Hill Bloggers bowling outing for Wed, Feb 14th at Mardi Gras lanes in Chapel Hill (they have free wifi, too). Let me know if you’d like to join me for that. So, meet me: * Wed, Jan 31 at 8pm in the BlogTogether chat room * Wed, Feb 7 at 6:30pm at Milltown. * Wed, Feb 14 at 6pm at Mardi Gras lanes. * Wed, Feb 21 at 6:30pm at Milltown.

Feedback forms for Saturday’s NC Science Blogging Conference are starting to come in, and they’re uniformly full of praise for how well organized the event was (regardless of the coffee snafu). The feedback also includes some great ideas for improving the conference for next year. I’m proud of what we accomplished at the conference — this event truly exemplified the BlogTogether goal of bringing people face-to-face with each other to share their experiences and insights about using weblogs. So let me publicly praise all the individuals and organizations that came to together to make this a successfull event: Bora Zivkovic was the inspiration for the conference (as he recounts here), and his prolific blogging and linking helped us blanket the blogosphere with news about the conference. Brian Russell lent his considerable IT and conference organization experiences (he did PodcasterCon last year) — he repeatedly warned me about the need to make the wifi sign-up process as crystal clear as possible; that’s one detail I let slip too long. Paul Jones backstopped us all the way, and knew just the levers to pull for reserving the hall, the tables, the trashcans and quite a few other important details. Bora, Brian and Paul are perfect teammates. Tom Linden lent his early support, and Neil Caudle gave us our first cash donation. Hunt Willard, Janet Stemwedel, Rosalind Reid and Jean-Claude Bradley signed on early to be discussion leaders (and were perfect when they addressed us). Adnaan Wasey, Troy Livingston and Brad Herring filled out the program nicely; each also helped us get excellent materials for the grab bag of science swag. Rob Gluck, Elizabeth Borkowski, Igor Zbitnoff and David Kroll showed their support with cash donations. When I asked them on the eve of the conference if they would bring tea or apples or bananas, Lorraine Cramer, Josh Staiger and Dave Johnson readily agreed. Rob Zelt ferried the cinnamon rolls from Weaver Street Market. Will Raymond and Burt Humburg showed up early on Saturday and took charge of the registration process, efficiently handing out grab bags and t-shirts. Seed Media Group, Blogads, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, JMP Software, BlogBurst and the Museum of Life and Science made important cash donations without which our shoestring budget wouldn’t have been able to stretch so far. Our grab bag of science swag was very popular. RTI International rushed to print tote bags for us, and Natural History found extra bags when our registration list topped 150. These organizations donated thousands of dollars of science literature for the grab bags: * Seed Magazine * American Scientist * Nature * The Lancet * The Scientist * Endeavors * Natural History * The Nation’s Health * HarperCollins * NC Science & Math Education Center * NewsHour with Jim Lehreron Science * Oak Ridge National Laboratory * Public Library of Science Katie Jamison of Lulu inspired Bora to the Herculean task of pulling together an anthology of the best science blogging and generously offered to comp copies to all of the anthology contributors. And, a bevy of bloggers have contributed their thoughts, observations and insights.. If I’ve missed anyone, know that I’m deeply appreciative of all you contributed. I’ll try my best to remember over the next few days and add you to this list. Finally, my thanks to the software vendors that provided these excellent tools with which we virtually planned this conference: * Stikipad * Wufoo * Gmail * Blinksale * Campfire

Friends and fellow bloggers, As you know, this weekend is the NC Science Blogging Conference. Almost all the details are done, and now we need to call on you to help in any way you can. First opportunity: this Thursday afternoon, from 2-4pm at the Health Sciences Library third floor computer lab, we’ll have a full skills session, 30 people wanting to learn how to blog. Bora and Brian and I will be there to lead them through the steps, but we could use some others to give personal tutoring. Second opportunity: this Thursday evening, from 6-8pm at my home in Durham, we’ll be stuffing the grab bags of science swag. I’ll provide pizza and good Cleveland beer (gold-medal-winning stuff from Great Lakes Brewery), and Anna and Malia will provide the entertainment — they’re keen on ballet these days. Third opportunity: if you’re coming to the conference (gotta be registered, and we have only a few seats left), let me know if you can be up early to help direct people from the parking lots to Murphey Hall. We’ll also need help at the registration table, and someone to oversee the coffee and rolls. Fourth opportunity: mingle with the crowd, explain the BlogTogether group (umbrella group of bloggers from across the region that get together for in-person meetings, social events and tutoring sessions), and help our out-of-town visitors feel welcome and comfortable. A few other ways to help will no doubt come to me and Bora in the next few days. Please let me know if you can help in any way. Thanks, and see you Saturday.

The NC Science Blogging Conference is in less than two weeks, and Bora and I are talking every night now to make sure all the details are covered. We have more than 125 people registered, and the mix of people is impressive! January 20th should prove to be a fruitful day of discussions. We’ll need your help to pull off this event. Rob Gluck generously pitched in a cash donation the other night. You can donate, too.. Or, donate supplies: we’ll need bottled water, juices, cups, napkins, cookies and brownies and other treats, trash bags, name tags, pencils and markers, poster board, volunteer drivers, and anything else you can think of to make this a successful conference.