A Better World is Possible is the tag line of the US Social Forum and if it was possible to bottle the hope and determination in the rooms, or release it as a gas in the atmosphere, there's no question our world would be a better place. As I write this, I am sitting in the Media Center, a giant dining room turned into a computer lab with space for writers, folks who need tech support (from Oakland's Aspiraton Tech, of course), broadcasters and a press conference space.

Only at USSF2010, this space is open to everyone. There's no credentialing as media--I paid for my ticket--and there's no access-metering for people who want to use the space (and plug in to the hard-wired digital connections making it possible for me to upload my photos as I write this without anything choking.

The crowd around me is quiet, writing, except for the two young women seated across from me who pull out a jar of hummus, two loaves of bread and some dried fruit and proceeed to make a meal--evidence there are no rules in force about whether you can eat, either, another signal this is not a typical conference, even if the sprawling halls of COBO, the Detroit conference center housing the event, are used to holding 10,000 people at a pop.

What is exciting here is that so many of the people are engaged in social change work in their communities.  At the workshop convened by Green for All's Alli Starr, with folks from the Ella Baker Center People's Grocery, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice and the Prana Group, the crowded room was filed with folks working on green jobs, soil reclamination, establishing local grocery stories and similar projects--just like the members of the panel.

And the youth!

USSF2010 is filled with people ages 13-23 it seems, threading through the workshops and also working in the youth space. I can't be the only person who thrills when a 20 year old African-American man from Western Mass gets up and talks about soil reclamination with the same passion I hear from folks working in Oakland who are doing urban gardening--it feels so good.

I am going off to attend some sessions, but wanted to share photos from today's session and events--here's a clip from Free Speech TV of Davey D talking about local organizing and the Oscar Grant case.