Phil Wolf has an informative post on the recent dinner for Dina Mehta, hosted by Stuart Henshall. Dina is a blogger and smart person who lives in India and who recently spent time in the Bay area; Stuart organized this dinner so fellow bloggers, many of whom have corresponded with her, could meet her in person, and vice versa. I was all set to go until my son had an orchestra performance that night.
Of course, since the dinner guests were bloggers, most of them wrote about the evening, so there are multiple accounts here and here .
Part of the reason I am posting about this dinner is that it underscores how blogs and social networks have affected the social fabric–Dina is active on Ryze, an online social network focused on business networking. Many of the diners–and would-be diners, like myself–“know” her from that site, as well as from her blog. The participants–most of whom had not met face to face–gathered for dinner and jumped right into what sounded like stimulating conversation. Made possible, in some ways, by the fact their thoughts and ideas are already available on the web, in their social network and blog pages.