I was recently invited to a social media gathering in Ottawa. In fact, I received two invitations from the host within ninety minutes of each other; one from Meetup.com, the other from Facebook.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe I can attend the event. Nevertheless, I checked both sites to gauge response and determine if there is any consistency to the responses between the sites. I noticed that Meetup.com indicates 6 confirmations, 4 maybes and 1 regret, and Facebook indicates 17 confirmations, 41 maybes and 55 regrets.

While I appreciate the need to cater to the ‘online styles’ of all invitees, I wonder about the fractured nature of our online reservation systems. I realize that we cannot dictate the online habits of the members of the community, yet I wonder about the administrative efforts imposed on event organizers to promote their events and manage communications with the participants.

If we can get the physical location, date and time figured out for the real-life interaction, can we not do the same for the way we coordinate ourselves in the online world?