New Pet Project

Hey Guys,

I got inspired to create a buddhist startup (more or less) by Rohan's talk at Buddhist Geeks 2011. After a lot of time discussing ideas and such, I figured I may as well do something instead of just talking about it. Here's the result: http://sitwithme.ning.com/

My main goal is to help meditators connect to each other, so the site is basically a social network. You can create groups to help manage and promote local sitting groups. You can post events. You can look for other practitioners in your area or wherever. There's also a forum and I'm working on getting some basic resources up (meditation instructions, mindfulness, etc.)

It's pretty close to done so I'm slowly inviting people in. If you have some time, please check it out, kick the tires, see if you find it useful. I'd love any feedback you have!

That looks interesting Eran! It is indeed a challenge to find people to practice with who have a similar approach. I'll sign on and take a look at it.

I can see something like this, if it takes off (and I hope it will of course), helping to further change the culture of "practice."

Really, up till now, if one wanted to find and relate to and get together with, other practioners, one had to connect somehow with a group, a temple, and organization of some kind (SFZC, Spirit Rock, IMS, other Zen groups) and try to find places to practice and people to practice with through them.

With this, I could see people creating groups on their own (flesh and blood or just online) that grow and get developed through "social networking" without the hierarchy of an existing institution or teacher(s). who knows what that would look like, exactly, but it would certainly be different, and, it is certainly inevitable.

That is an interesting point, Mike. I haven't really thought of what would come out of the self-organizing nature of social networks in this case. One of the most interesting things to me about putting something online, is seeing what people make of it, how it evolves and what creative uses of it evolve that were never foreseen by the designers. If this is the start of Buddhism 2.0, I'm all for it

BTW, I'll be gone on retreat for the next week but by all means, keep playing with the site, invite your friends, see how it's useful for you.