Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Burton groups Catalyst conference in San Diego. I was one of the panelists in a session titled “The Practitioners Handbook: Social Software in Action” moderated by Mike Gotta. It was an opportunity to discuss my experiences with Social Software in general, as well as some of the specifics of Lotus Connections and why I am working with that platform. The panel discussion was well received with many good questions both during the panel and in conversation afterwards, but I think the entire audience was blown away by the presentation that preceded the panel given by Alan Gutierrez of Think New Orleans. Alan spent about 45 minutes showing how the citizens of New Orleans are using Web 2.0 / Social Computing tools to save / rebuild their neighborhoods post hurricane Katrina. If you want to sell the power of Social Software (not a specific product) this presentation is a perfect example as Alan showed how citizen groups used Yahoo message boards, Google Maps, Flickr and many other Web 2.0 tools available on line to share information and organize neighborhoods to look out for their own best interests in the rebuilding process. I got a lot out of my two days at the conference where I spent time mainly in sessions focused on Web 2.0 / Enterprise2.0 / Social Software, as well as a few sessions on Identity Management. While the Burton group is vendor neutral and the conference was not about a specific vendor or product, from the sessions I attended and the different individuals I spoke with I walked away feeling strongly that I am on the right path working with Lotus Connections as a key component for Social Computing. In addition to the conference I was able to see a little (very little) of San Diego, this photo was taken from the airplane on the descent in to San Diego (not a bad photo considering it was taken with an iPhone out of an airplane window) 
You can see my photos from Petco Park and the San Diego Zoo by clicking on the image below 