I was just checking out the list of confirmed presenters for net2. Although I'm anxious to see an actual agenda, I'm really excited to see the diversity of speakers. I think it's both smart and brave of Compumentor to put folks like Howard Rheingold, Joan Blades, and Mark Pincus in a room together.

It's smart because every industry can learn something useful from other industries. And even though "For Profit" may be dirty words in our sector, there are things that we can and should be adopting. Not just the technology itself either. We should be learning from business processes, PR strategies, and the visions that are out there. Take what works, apply our values, and see them work in our sector. I also think the opposite is true - that the For Profit entities in the room have a lot to learn from how we "do business."

It's brave because I know there's so much resistance to this very idea. Guy Kawasaki got off the chart evaluations for his keynote at the NTC, but the most common critical comment was that he was from out of the sector, so it was hard to relate to him. Which I get - I just wish that we as a sector were more open to hearing ideas from everywhere, not just each other.