Let's talk about i4SM.

i4SM is an acronym for the soon to be launched 'Institute for Social Media', backed by the City of Manchester (a place that knows a thing or two about revolutions) and the University of Manchester (a place that knows a thing or two about computing).

Institutes, universities, academia...are you still reading? Surely social media and social computing is a challenge to these long-standing centres? Or is there an opportunity to build something quite unique?

An opportunity to bring together the most exciting minds, organisations, and ideas. An opportunity to test those ideas and develop tangible, meaningful research into the impacts of social media on society, education, government and our economies? An opportunity for you to connect with others and apply those findings in your own work.

Ultimately i4SM will exist through the contributions of its members and this is where we start today. We want to hear your ideas, thoughts, and opinions. We want your constructive, or even destructive proposals on how we ditch our legacy of disengaged academic institutions and become an institute for the 21st Century.

The discussion we are proposing is to get us all thinking about how we at i4SM build an institute that will be participative not insular, active not passive and the institute that you want it to be.

In this hour we want to hear about:

- What you would see as valuable research in the field.
- Your opinions on the validity of academic insight.
- How i4SM strikes the balance between practical and academic research.

Come along and give us your views. You are the brightest minds in the field...and it is not every day you get chance to help form a new Institute.

Post Lift, the debate will progress online.