So we announced Operation mainSTREAM last month with a search for non-geek contest, and y’all responded and invited some of your friends…hopefully some of them being not so geeky and online savvy.

While you’ve been doing that, I’ve been reaching out to startups all over the US about how they are planning to get more of a mainstream audience using their site or service. And when I say mainstream, I mean people aren’t your typical web user, the Anti-Scoble if you will Robert knows I love him so I can say things like that.

I talked to Evan and Biz from Twitter, Daniel from Disqus, Tim from Pandora, all of which I’ll be sharing as we go along.

The most interesting story that I wanted to share came from a sitdown I had with Pownce’s Leah Culver. We talked a little bit about what makes Pownce different and why/how someone like my mom could use it to make things easier for her or weave it into her normal non-geek web experience.

Leah and I agreed that it’s not always realistic that someone would sign up for Upcoming to share events, Twitter to share updates, Flickr to share photos, and some other unknown file sharing service to spread your friend’s indie MP3. That’s where Pownce comes in, because it does all of that. Not only that, it’s really simple to use and it’s easy to get started.

That’s the type of thing I’m looking for when I talk about mainstream. Facebook is mainstream because it sets up real life interaction and relationships. Pownce is similar. If you follow me on Pownce you can see the events I’m attending, images that I’m sharing, an mp3 I like, a link I want to share, and my micro mini status update or message. You can also see my Pownce updates on Strands!

It’s useful, it’s easy, and it’s awesome.

While the geek community always compares Pownce to Twitter and either kills it or promotes it more because of Kevin Rose’s involvement, the broader goal for anyone involved in technology is getting people outside of our normal circle using what we spend all of our time and passion on building.

Leah and her team have the right idea with Pownce. Maybe it’s not getting a mention on Techcrunch every single day, but they’re working hard on making the system stronger and easier to surf around and use, and with their AIR app…fun to interact with without having to even using your browser.

That’s mainstream.

That’s the spirit of Operation mainSTREAM, and that’s where we need everyone’s help. Stop, look and listen. Stop talking to each other, speak to some non-geek friends, look at things how they look at things, and listen to what they have to say…maybe it’s frustration or maybe they just don’t understand what you’re showing them. But listen. Spend the extra time explaining how something like Pownce can help and entertain THEM…not how you use it.

Keep up the great work! We’ll be announcing the contest winners this weekend, keep on inviting….you can still win!!!!

(photo of leah culver by brian solis)