There’s an ever-burgeoning number of forums, chats, conferences, meetups destination websites, competitions, you-name-it, for dogooders.  Call us social entrepreneurs, changemakers, social innovators, nonprofiteers, the delta sector, np techies, community benefit professionals, pick your poison, there’s a growing number of places we hang out – with one another. Just yesterday I read a tweet that called the #nonprofit twitter tag a “cavernous echo chamber.”  Ouch.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love you people.  I think you’re some of the most brilliant, passionate, tireless, amazing humans I’ve ever met.  To be truthful, I’d rather hang out with you than just about anybody. And I think it’s good that we’re building such a fun, vibrant community…but not good enough.

There’s these kids sitting at the other lunch tables in our global cafeteria.  They’re jocks, geeks, artists, musicians and cheerleaders…and we need their help.  Doing good isn’t our job, it’s everyone’s.  And as long as changing the world is relegated to a sector, it will never happen.

A few weeks ago in response to a post I wrote on the cultural bias of social change competitions, Michael Lewkowitz of Igniter.com commented:

“I am painfully tired of destination [sites] for social entrepreneurs/changemakers or any other community…Changemaking needs to engage others both to make the change happen and to probe/test/evolve the venture itself.   To me, what we’re hoping for is vibrant ecosystems of changemakers from all places, backgrounds, and disciplines pushing the frontiers of the world we want. An ecosystem where its members connect, interact, and support not just the people in their circles but people they ‘bump into’ based on some ‘random’ interest and connection. This is about facilitating discovery, nurturing trust, sharing experiences, and light-weight focused request/responses.”

I think he’s right…and, online and off, I’m beginning to make it a priority to hang out with folks outside our dogooder set.  Last week, I spoke at the 140 Characters Conference in NYC.  While everyone in the room was changing the world in their own way, very, very few were in our sector.  There were social media folks, musicians, print and television journalists, scientists, fashionistas, and more.  Even on the “social media for social good” panel, I believe I was the only one who actually worked within a nonprofit or social enterprise.

As I sat there, I was reminded again that societal change is not the domain of nonprofits or social entrepreneurs; it’s created by musicians, politicians, journalists, technologists and so many others.  Here’s just four key conversations that I thought had deep significance for the social change community:

(CAUTION: F-bombs below. )

ANN CURRY | Today Show News Anchor | @AnnCurry
On empathy & telling stories that matter

The quotes below are taken from a New York Observer story about an incredibly interesting panel that included Ann Curry, Robert Scoble, and other journalists from CNN, FOX and NBC in a discussion about the evolution of journalism in the context of Twitter and social media.  You may find some of these comments in the thoroughly engaging video as well, though some of the Ann’s more salient points didn’t make it into the footage.

How can we develop audiences, cultivate care and empathy, and find alternate funding that doesn’t require public popularity so that important stories get told?

CHRISTOPHER R. WEINGARTEN | Rolling Stone Music Critic| @1000TimesYes
On the limitations of silos & crowdsourcing

What’s the appropriate role for crowdsourcing in the context of social innovation?  What ecosystems facilitate serendipitous discovery and collaboration? How can we ensure truly revolutionary, “punk rock” ideas get found, selected & funded?

WYCLEF JEAN | Musician | @wyclef
On poster children & social investment

Are we sharing stories and imagery that undermine the dignity and humanity of the very people we’re trying to serve? Are we building sympathy or empathy? How can we build partnerships between nonprofits and the corporate sector such that our successes build upon one another?

DREW OLANOFF |  Geek & GOGII Community Director | @drew
On the power of individual storytelling & fun

Drew’s engaging an incredibly diverse group of collaborators with his personal story – from coder friends, who developed his website and this cool new twitter tetris game, to musicians, who are writing a song, to businesses like FreeCreditReport.com, who partnered and donated to the cause.

Are there tools we can create that help people tell their own stories in fun, personal, engaging ways that change the world?  How can we re-humanize giving? How can we reach out in creative, compelling ways to bring a diverse group of people together around important causes and ideas?

Perhaps that question is the most important of all: how do ecosystems emerge in which conversations like these, with participants from many sectors, evolve further and lead to collaborative action and real change?  I also had the opportunity to catch up with some folks at TED while I was in New York and I shared some ideas and posed the same question for them:  how can “ideas worth spreading,” which originate from amazing people of incredibly diverse backgrounds, evolve into mass collaborative action from the top-down and the bottom-up to bring them to global scale?

The 140 Characters conference is being re-broadcast in its entirety Monday, 6/29 and Tuesday, 6/30.  I assure you there’s many other interesting conversations that may inspire ;)  Details are available at http://www.140conf.com/140conf-rebroadcast-june-29-and-june-30th.