Jeff Pulver’s 140 Conferences are growing. He has held these conferences in all the popular American spots such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco but he’s also had them in the Midwest, is working on one in Canada and has gathered people in London, Israel and other interesting pockets of the world.

Where there’s passion, an interest in a conversation about social media and people doing remarkable things, Jeff will find them.

One of the things he is exceptionally good at, is curating an incredible mix of people who have a lot to say and operate from the heart, but may not necessarily have anything else in common.

Where else can you go to a technology or social media event or any event for that matter and hear an ex-convict, a Graffiti artist, Craig Newmark, a cop, a school teacher, a dating coach, a major Fortune 500 brand strategist, AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong, The Today Show’s Ann Curry and Sesame Street’s chief social media guru all on the same stage within the same day?

Tear Down Those Walls:

On the first day, betaworks CEO John Borthwick (@Borthwick) talked about fragmentation, which he says is not just happening across the web but also at the network level as well. “This is the area that is concerning me most,” he said. “Facebook feels like the old early days of AOL – they’re a citizen of the Internet and yet they own and control too much. They need to integrate more with the web.”

He thinks we need to see companies and creators embrace the Internet much more than what we’re seeing today.  “The network is important,” he says and ends his talk with a few words for Mr. Zuckerberg: “Tear down that wall.”

Curation:

Curation continues to be a strong topic of discussion and its relevance and need is only growing more critical as the amount of data coming our way continues to explode.

Curation is so important because we’re trying to combine and recombine things to make sense of things. We need to be able to move and transition data seamlessly across devices. Refer to Steve Rosenbaum's talk on the need for clarity above and beyond more information and data. Human curators are a big part of the upcoming revolution. Video clip here.

Do You Have a Revolution?

“What’s your revolution?” Ja-Nae Duane aka The Sun Queen (on Twitter), asked the audience and added, “why aren’t we highlighting the social good more than we do?”

She shared a handful of amazing stories which have come out of Detroit and Dallas among other places. As the founder of Wild Women Entrepreneurs, she is passionate about accelerating women’s growth and personal revolutions.

Listen to this video on why she started her “movement.” And check out a webdoc created on her raison d'etre during the 140 Conference here.

Jeff Jarvis' talk: Tweeties have attacked the sanctity of the article. See webdoc here.

Below is a smattering of photos I shot during the speaker talks, the networking breaks and the after parties:

Dan Gillmor on life and ethics in "new media…" Refer to a webdoc that includes links, tweets and information about his book.

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley

The Webdoc team rocks it in the demo room. Check out their webdocs of the conference here.

AOL's Tim Armstrong talks about community and the importance of connection, social media input and regional/local content (Hatch.com).

Jeffrey Hayzlett in his normal charismatic self.

Sesame Street's Dan Lewis on how and why Sesame Street "tweets":

NPR's Andy Carvin

Craig Newmark talked about leaving your mark online by contributing and giving.

The Today Show's Ann Curry gets "very inspirational" during her 10 minute turned 20 minute talk. Love htat sixties style flower-child dress: she just makes it work.

Mashable's Adam Ostrow interviews Foursquare's Dennis Crowley

There's a singalong in honor of Jeff Pulver at the end of day two at the funky venue 92nd Y on the upper East Side.

New York Times Jennifer Preston interviews NPR's Carvin

Webdoc's Vincent Borel and Stelio Tzonis with Magnify's Steve Rosenbaum and his new book: Curation Nation

Paintings created on-site, proceeds of which go to breast cancer — announced by Jeffrey Hayzlett on-site. For more information, check out Gaby (aka @Gaby407) and be sure not to miss Toronto cop Scott Mill's story (aka @GraffitiBMXCop). See webdoc for more information which includes links, videos, photos and more. His story includes work with graffiti artists Kedre Browne (@BubzArt) and Jessey Pacho (@ArtOfPhade). Their message will inspire the lives of many young people around the world and provide proof that graffiti can paint a positive message, not a negative one. Nicholas Maharaj aka @Twittnick is also a “student” of Mills.

Ann Curry in a moment of blissful expression as she gets authentic with the audience.

Bombshell coach Gigi Belmonico on the Bombshell factor and not letting Twitter become a "popularity contest." See webdoc on her work here.

Disclosure: I have provided some consulting to Webdoc who was one of the 140Conf sponsors.

Sesame Street presented at the 140 Conference in New York last week, giving the audience a taste of why they tweet, what they tweet and how their community differs from engagement to watching behavior. They sometimes have Sesame Street characters tweet using the characters personalities to draw long-time fans in. Below is a video clip I took of the presentation.

Here is a colorful Webdoc taken that paints a picture of the Sesame Street story while incorporating a nice thumbs up for the 140 Conference through inclusion of a tweet they did about the event on-site. The above video could have easily been incorporated in this Webdoc or any other content the Sesame Street team wanted to include to share an angle or tailor a story.

Disclosure: I provide some consulting to the Webdoc team.

The 140 Conference in New York last week ends with music and singing at the 92nd Y…a kudos to Jeff Pulver and his fabulous team for yet another great event.

Craig Newmark tells the 140Conf crowd in New York to make your mark online by contributing and giving where and whenever you can. Below is a video of his talk.

Says Craig, “Press should be the immune system of democracy.” By contrast to a solo video, here is a Webdoc created during his talk which incorporates photos, tweets and a simple survey, all of which only took a few minutes to create and a couple of button clicks to embed this here, as easy as embedding a YouTube video via HTML code. The same video could have been included in the webdoc as well for added richness and diversity.

Disclosure: I provide some consulting to the Webdoc team.

Dan Gillmor spoke on life and ethics in new media at 140Conf in New York this past week. Below is a clip of his talk.

The below webdoc combines Dan’s tweets, insights, his Twitter handle, a testimonial by Craig Newmark for his book and a video. Any kind of media or content can be added to this Webdoc to create a unique visual experience for your community.

Disclosure: I provide some consulting to Webdoc.

Below is a video clip I shot of Steve Rosenbaum’s presentation at 140 Conference in New York last week. The topic? A hot one. Curation of course. Have a listen.

Says Steve: “In a noisy world, people hunger for not more info, but less. They hunger for clarity!” Curation — human curation brings that clarity. Below is a Webdoc created after his presentation which combines the video which I shot above as well as some background on Steve @magnify and his latest book: Curation Nation. It only took a couple of minutes to create and demonstrates how you can share a much richer experience of his talk by combining video with something else all in the same place. You embed the webdoc in the same way you do a YouTube video simply by copying and pasting the HTML code into your blog post.

Jeffrey Hayzlett spreads the word on a $1 million campaign kicked off by an oilman wanting to donate money to breast cancer. Below is his talk at 140Conf talking about the initiative and how you can get involved.

Additionally, check out this Webdoc showing works of artist @gaby407: paintings he created will be part of an art auction, proceeds of which go to the fight for breast cancer.

Entertainer and magician, or whatever you prefer to call him, Israeli Lior Suchard showed up in Los Angeles in early June to entertain at the annual Israel Conference, now in its third year. He calls himself a supernatural mentalist, a word I happen to gravitate to…perhaps its my obsession with where the brain meets the mind and where both of them struggle with meeting the heart.

In Lior’s presentations, he delves into your innermost thoughts, reading minds and coming up with numbers, names and thoughts before you say them aloud. Below is a two-part video I shot on-site.

Below is a little history and the story behind Steamboat Ed and his Aetheric Musical Machine. Ed and friends were at the annual Maker Faire in May. Instruments emitting fire are not new adn have been made for over a century. They are, however, uncommon. Calliope #4 is a Pyrophone since it’s not intended for team, but for air or propane. With propane, the whistles emit FIRE, when tooting, hence the “pyrophone.’

His whistles are Helmholz resonators, chosen because he discovered an excellent tutorial describing them. His whistles are activated with solenoid valves that he found on eBay. More in the short video below.

Here are some photos of his work in action.

Below is some video that I shot at this year’s Maker Faire held in mid-May, broken down into Part I and Part II.