Every month, the NetSquared Community comes together offline at Net Tuesday events around the world to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and collaborate to help the local community. Our local organizers are volunteers dedicated to helping create local opportunities for learning, sharing and using technology to make a difference.   In this Organizer Spotlight series we bring you interviews with organizers from around the world.

We're happy to introduce: Seth Horwitz!

Seth is a co-organizer of the Net Tuesday group in Philadelphia, PA.   You can check out his profile and ways to connect on the Net Tuesday Organizer Team page.   Are you in Philadelphia?   Connect to the Net Tuesday group here!

Tell us who you are in less than 140 characters:

I seek to grok factors / that'll connect the world's actors / with purpose + meaning / even when gleaning / from a hundred forty characters

How do you spend your time when you're not organizing Net Tuesdays?

I've had a long-term consulting gig with the American Friends Service Committee, a bunch of radical (in multiple senses) peace and social justice activists. I'm also working to articulate a vision for "Dissemination Station", a user-generated service to help us all most effectively select and use the most appropriate media to achieve a given purpose.

What inspired you to organize local Net Tuesday events in your community?

As noted in my bio, I've been into social networking for decades, preceding even Web 1.0 technology. But now, so much is happening so fast, it's hard to keep up. When I heard about Net Tuesdays (from, I think, a SF Net Tuesday podcast), I wanted to connect to one in Philly. When there was none, I thought the best way to get into the thick of this world was to start one.

What's the hardest part of the job?

For me, the hardest part is keeping up the momentum. More effective use of other volunteers would no doubt help.

How do you measure the success of your events?

I think of success in two ways:

1. how engaged people are during the event, and how difficult it is for them to stop chatting once it's over; and
2. how good I feel afterwards.

By these measures, most of our events so far have been successful.

Tell us about the best Net Tuesday event. What did you learn from the experience?

I really liked the "Social Web Carnival" we held in December. It was active, wild, creative and fun. I think that I want to continue to strive for that sweet spot of providing enough structure to make it easy for attendees to participate, and loose enough to encourage creative directions to emerge. I also think that one of the precious things about Philly Net Tuesday is that we've so far had a very effective mix of nonprofit/activists and techies. Each group learns from the other.

What is the local social-web-tech scene like in Philly?

There are a lot of active tech organizations and groups in Philly. But, since I'm not a hard-core techie, I'm not directly involved with most of them. But there's a tangible feeling of social/tech optimism and anticipation here. There's stuff going on both above and below the surface.

How do you envision Net Tuesday events evolving over time?

In general, or Philly in particular? In general, I hope that NT's continue to experiment and diversify. I don't think any one formula is the "right" one. AND, we need to share our stories and successes more. For Philly in particular, I'd really like to do more things to help people connect OUTSIDE of meetings. We have a Google Group, but it would be nice to have some other, purposeful social structures to help folks in the area identify and connect with one another whenever and whyever they wish.

What's your change-the-world philosophy?

Without getting religious, I think a lot about the Kabbalistic (mystical Jewish) metaphor of the "shattering of the vessels". Basically, in the beginning, the Light of Godness shattered into a gazillion shards of light. These shards are manifest in every person, every thing, every thought, every action. When we connect with another person, we connect some shards of light. When all the shards are gathered back together, the world will be perfected. I don't think of this as literally attainable, but I do believe that the only effective way to change the world is from the grassroots. And the most radical role that I think I (and we) can play is to help people to connect with one another -- particularly based upon what they find personally meaningful (where their lights are brightest.)

What music are you listening to now-a-days?

I'm a fan of classic rock (Springsteen, Clapton, the Dead, Neil Young). And I like listening to a variety of cultural genres (Celtic, pan pipes, (East) Indian ...)

Learn more:

• Find Net Tuesday in your city
• Learn more about the Net Tuesday Organizers
• Start a group in your city