Four Fabulous Teachers - #3: Peter Corbett

2 nerds are better than 1.  And 3000+ nerds, under one roof, for one mission, is pretty much, for anyone who considers themselves a techno-vation-enthusiast, bliss.  And for anyone who can brain child the organization, development, and execution of such an event, is certainly a master teacher of community-building and driver of the peer-to-peer idea stimulation/learnings if I ever saw such a thing.  Enter Peter Corbett.

Ok, let me back up.

Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategy Labs, along with his partners in crime Frank Gruber and Jen Consalvo of Shiny Heart Ventures are putting on Digital Capital Week (DCWEEK), a 10 day festival in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital in our nation’s capital.  The goal is to bring together artists, technologists, entrepreneurs, communicators, govies, and citizens to learn from each other, meet new friends, focus on the issues in DC that can be addressed in new ways, work on projects that benefit the city and the world, and...well, for the full list, see here.  The difference with this type of forum versus other more traditional "conferences," is that this is community-driven.  Everyone can participate and contribute in an event-shaping way, and in essence, what the community puts in, the community gets out.  There is a call to host an event/session that explores a digital interest area, host a "studio tour" to show off the presenter's stuff, host a party or fundraiser for a digital cause, and create a project for execution that week.  I say it again.  What the community puts in, the community gets out.  Let's get busy nerds!

We've learned from our recent techno-driven Here Comes Everybody world, and poignantly from Clay Shirky (his quotes to follow), by making it easier for groups to self-assemble without formal management, we radically alter the "old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort."  In short, "the number and kind of things groups can get done without financial motivation or managerial oversight are growing." Umm...the event itself will prove this as to be true or not, but surely we can get a hunch just based on the interest level for this event in the last 24 hours...1000+ nerds have already signed up.

Should be interesting to see how it unfolds in June...

Here come the nerds!