No matter what anyone says, Newsvine is not your typical social book-marking or networking site. As I discovered this weekend it is so much more.

When I first discovered Newsvine, I was quickly drawn in by the quality of news, the vigor of the community and the intelligent debate. Having been a social bookmarker for more than a year now, I can safely say that Newsvine is a great place to go for friendly banter and a discussion of the day's news – particularly some of the hottest topics. Like many other sites there is the occasional "troll" (person who seeks out a fight or bullies others online) but since the community has zero tolerance, they quickly go away.

Although I have noticed that at least one other website offers a similar level of inteligencia, the community is not nearly as vibrant. I have never been engaged – nor have I noticed – an intelligent discussion on Digg and the only networking I ever did on MySpace or Facebook was with people I already knew.

What is it about Newsvine that would make people want to meet in real life turning vitual friendships into lifelong connections? Now I’m not talking about two people who have been flirting and think they have made a love connection; no. I’m talking about people in the community wanting to actually get together with as many as they can pull together and share an entire weekend with each other.

In order to uncover this social networking mystery for myself, I decided that I had to be at Vinemeet West. I did not know what to expect but I had heard tales of drinking contests (thank God there was not one this weekend - phew!), great conversations and instant forever friendships. I saw this as an opportunity to network, possibly recruit authors for Know More Media and participate in a social experiment, the likes of which I had never seen before. 

“Hello…” I said tentatively. “I’m Kimberlee…also known as Kymlee.”

“Nice to meet you Kim,” he said warmly. “I’m Bob or lughshand as I’m known on Newsvine. Walt and Amy…er…Celestina went to find cigarettes, Martin…WinsomeCowboy…is upstairs sleeping and Myk and Sara went to buy toilet tissue.”

“Okay…”

“Don’t worry, you’re in the right place if you’re looking for Vinemeet.” I guess he sensed my apprehension. “The others should be returning shortly. No one besides me had a car, so wherever they went, they walked.”

“Okay…I guess I’ll get my stuff out of the car then…” Still a little uneasy, I retrieved my belongings and was directed to a room with four bunk beds. Once I staked out a bed, I sat at the table, set up my lap-top and used work as a buffer for my nervousness.

It wasn’t long before others began to appear from their illusive locals, and the fun began. To my surprise, my nervousness faded away with the appearance of each face, some familiar from their Newsvine profiles. Winsome who’d flown in from Hawaii, was definitely the prankster and funny man he seemed to be online – although I was slightly thrown off by the accent. A New Zealand clown living in Hawaii?

The more comfortable I got, the less I could focus on work, so I suppose it’s a good thing I wrote my Friday article before I became too distracted. The conversation began to build about books and our other collective interests…but mostly there was gossip about Calvin (an admin and the “face” of Newsvine) and Cash (a very popular Newsvine user) being “too good” to stay at the lodge with the rest of the "proletariat;" perpetuated mostly by (you guessed it) Winsome.   

Final count for attendees at Vinemeet West was 11 and that night we had a nice BBQ and had a grand time getting to know each other in person. The party lasted well into the night until we all passed out from exhaustion. Calvin was very camera aware although he somehow successfully escaped a grueling intervie. Somehow I managed to become known affectionately as the conscience of Vinemeet and Calvin's personal biographer. 

Saturday was when it really dawned on me why Vinemeet was so special and by extension Newsvine...

And tomorrow I'll tell you why...