Britt Bravo is on a much-deserved vacation, so I'm stepping in for her to keep news and information about the social change web coming your way!

July 18 - 20th saw the convergence of many thousands of women (and men) in San Francisco for the annual BlogHer conference. BlogHer, as you probably know, provides "opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment."

If you have an event or conference that you think would be of interest to the NetSquared Community, email us at net2@techsoup.org, or post about it yourself on the NetSquared Community Blog (posting guidelines and instructions are available on our Share page).

Here are a few we thought might interest you:

Greetings from the Lisbon Poets Hostel in Portugal. I will make this post quick, since I´m terribly confused by the punctuation on this keyboard, and should probably rest before my presentation tomorrow, but I want to share my experiences today, while they´re still fresh in my mind.

The NetSquared, Cisco and the other sponsors put on a great event. Here are some of the folks I worked with at the registration table in the morning.

Jayson Fagar & Colleen Nagle, NetSquared staffers, at the registration table.

Just finished volunteering. In time to hear the opening speaker. Now we get to hear a 2 minute blurb from each of the featured non profits. The first one was about "micro" volunteering. Definitely want to check that one out.

I am excited to be at the NetSquared conference alongside several other non-profits actively using virtual worlds in their work. Global Kids ( http://olp.globalkids.org ) have a number of interesting virtual world and transmedia projects that I look forward to presenting to folks on Wednesday, along with my colleagues. And I can't want to hear about the other mash-up projects being proposed by others and meet other non-profit and tech industry folks interested in the social media space.

Now it's after midnight and I should get some rest before tomorrow's activities begin.

Hello Fellow NetSquaredians,

Looking forward to the conference to start tomorrow morning. Some of my interests include technology, sociology, volunteering and project management. I think I can work all of those into play tomorrow.

Everyone's introductions sound impressive and accomplished so I'm looking forward to meeting folks in person.

I'm not with any company or organization. I'll be a free agent.

The registration and hotel booking deadlines for the 2008 NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) are coming up quickly so register and book your hotel room today!

N2Y3 will be held at Cisco Systems' Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California on May 27 and 28 (just after Memorial Day). Cisco Systems has been our generous host for the previous two NetSquared Conferences.

{Cross posted in various forms at Vancouver Drupal Camp Group, Urban Vancouver and Now Public - please spread the word}

First there was an idea, then we chose a date (May 9-10), set up a relevant Drupal Group, now there is a location (SFU Wosk Centre and Workspace) and finally a Drupal Camp Vancouver website.

Indeed, the rag-tag band of volunteers is steadily working to wrangle Drupal Camp Vancouver into a knowledge-sharing fest of unparalleled fun and untold benefits.

Consider this notice that DrupalCampVancouver.org is alive and slowly percolating up with the relevant details and useful information including Sponsor info (and checklist), Volunteer info (and organizer props), and the important Call for Speakers.

Registration will open this week so keep your eyes open for details to be among the chosen.

For those who don't know, Drupal is an open source Content Management System which powers many of your other favorite community driven sites like Now Public, Net Squared and Urban Vancouver plus activist minded projects like desmogblog, happyfrog.ca and many many more.

How can you help?

Great question! 'Tis a busy time for all (including many involved with Open Web this week) so volunteers are important to spread the work around. Big thanks to those who've signed on so far. Have a bit of time? Then consider signing up by Contacting the organizers to help out (no big deal eh) and see ya at DrupalCampVancouver.org.

We've opened registration for the 2008 NetSquared Conference (N2Y3). The Conference will be held at Cisco Systems' Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California on May 27 and 28 (just after Memorial Day). Cisco Systems has been our generous host for the previous two NetSquared Conferences.

Conference attendees will help to develop and release the mashups proposed by the 21 Featured Projects that the Net2 Community chose during the NetSquared Mashup Challenge: