Community Mobilization

NetSquared - Citizen Journalism

Net Squared has put together a great opening set of panels and the this one has Ethan Zuckerman, Dan Gillmor and Eun Taek.  They are talking about the value and potential impact of user created content an the way that it can mobilize and energize a constituency.  Dan just spoke and used some very interesting examples of community and user created content and its impacts. 

Eun is talking about the explosion of Oh My News in terms of reads as well as number of reporters. The idea and concepts of the Oh My news content are totally community drive and dedicated to bringing the local sense of news and information to the local level consumers.

Ethan is talking about his involvement in the Global Voices Project. The challenge that he encountered is something very common to activists - not being closely connected to the people you are activating for. Global Voices is taking on a new way of being and a concept of 'Don't Speak - Point!' What is fantastic is he is now railing on Live 8 and the oxmoronical ideas that went into the creation of the event.  He is summing up by reviewing and predicting the nature and activity of the next billion web users. The context and the nature of the future content will be astoundingly different than the predicting that the web will be dominated by white English speaking men.

The ROI of innovation

I'm here at the Net Squared conference in

San Jose

and had a fantastic discussion last night with one of the other Katrin Verclas of the Innovation Funders Network.  We talked around the idea of measuring innovation in a nonprofit where new products and services are not sold. We were asking each other about the value of education, advocacy, and community services. Is it possible to assign a value to these kinds of activities? And moreover is it possible to assign value to a life saved? 

Part of the innovation process is measuring the success of the prototypes we fund and making sure they reached their objectives. ROI is something built into the goals of the ACS rapid prototype plan. ROI is not always a monetary metric and we strive to hold our innovators accountable for meeting the goals their prototypes seek to meet. As funders we should be the ones responsible for reviewing the initial goals so that they fall in line with the ACS mission. Institution-wide it is exciting to imagine the impact on the constituency.  

Martha Space

C-net's New.com reported last week that Martha Stewart is pursuing the development of a social network aimed at capturing her core demographic - women in their middle ages. A wise move especially if you can provide a space for users to create a real vibrant community based on cooking, and home decor.  I just hope that the brains behind this operation are aware that the true value is not in the site but in the content that is developed by the users and traded with each other.  I think the best thing that they could do is crate user submitted recipes and feature members to keep interest and interpersonal information exchange lively and the community vibrant.

Returned from vacation

I am so sorry for the lull in the posts but I was on my first real vacation in over a year.  My wife and I went on a one year Anniversary vacation to they keys.  Even after the rash of two hurricanes in 2005 they keys still look pretty good.  We were in the upper keys and you could tell where there was new construction - the docks looked and even smelled like fresh lumber and a lot of buildings had fresh paint.  On the way north back to the airport we saw numerous pockets of blue tarp roofs - areas where the insurance has yet to pay out for repairs, or where the contractors have yet to begin work from last year. There were numerous reports on the shortage of certified electricians and plumbers, all making me wonder if a new industry is afoot - dedicated disaster recovery.

SMS.ac salvation - finally!

I am on the phone with Greg the VP from SMS.AC and he is giving me some tips on how to save your phone bill from getting out of control. As a result of success some users have experienced real high TXT charges.  SMS.AC has a quality service the more I look into it, but there are some real social angst developing out there.

He tells me that if SMS.AC users go to their 'Mobile Homepage' they can reduce the number or limit the numbers of TXTs you receive.  You can even go into hiding and that prevents any TXTs from being delivered. Greg also told me that if you reply to any message service with 'Stop' it should terminate the service.  If not try using 'Stop all'. He said it will absolutely terminate SMS.AC delete your account.

He really pushed looking over the SMS.AC bill of rights and to consider the companies proposition.  I understand the business model as well as the social gaffs of a new company. You can contact SMS.ac here and they should be able to assist you in a number of languages.  I Believe that they are trying to make a difference and hope they will reply to the comments left on my other SMS.AC posts.

Metaverse Roadmap Podcast

The first installment of the Metaverse Roadmap pod-cast is up and ready for listening. This first cast is an interview with Mark Wallace and there are more to come! Thanks to John Sword for making an effort to get these together. You can get these at Metaversesessions.com

Incentivizing knowledge sharing

My friend Marshal over at the Social Software Weblog writes about a incentivizing people to share their knowledge.  Part of the program is clearly offering prizes to participants for engaging in the common task of building a knowledge base of whatever - recipes, links, hot articles ...

As a community mobilizer I am torn a bit by the premise of incentives.  Are we bribing people to be engaged or is this recognition of exceptional acts by people who are already committed to growth and spread of the knowledge?  I love the example that he sows.  The RSS Blog has a post today about his 10 favorite blogging tools, and the owner give out one free book a month to the best knowledge find.  I love the idea of a small token to turn knowledge aggregation into a fun game.  These kinds of small tokes could dive higher engagement levels if the incentive is geared towards the truly committed.

Metaverse in ZDnet

Daniel Terdiman penned a descriptive writeup of the Metaverse Roadmap Summit in yesterdays ZDnet / Cnet article titled Mapping a Path for the 3-D web. As a whole the Metaverse Roadmapping summit was really just chock full of big thinkers trying to wrap their heads around a project that will have long lasting impacts on our society in the future. A number of the participants in my groups (Mark Wallace, Esther Dyson, Betsy Book) were content to give and challenge scenarios as well as social and economic implications of the Metaverse. 

I believe that the overall creativity of the group is what will lead ASF to create an amazing document overview of the metaverse project.  As far as Esther Dyson and the Kool-Aid comment ... a number of participants were skeptical of drafting "The Official Metaverse Dictum." We were not there to offer an oracle statement with directions and ultimatums.  We were theer to think about implications, and scenatious and craft visions of what could be with the technology.

A Nation Seeking Efficiencies

BusinessWeek has an article, 'Making Every Gallon Count' in the May 8 edition on a number of companies seeking to be more efficient in order to save money - particularly on fuel.  As prices rise (and profits fall) industries that depend on fuel the most are making drastic efforts to cut fuel consumption.  American Airlines is featured by doing one of my favorite activities - asking the front line employees.  AA is removing unused food service stations and reducing the load of potable water carried in the holds, all in the name of efficiency.

If there is one positive thing about this fuel fiasco it is forcing innovative thinking in the efficiency arena. Everywhere I look I see people trying to save fuel because at $3.00+ it finally makes sense to carpool, ride public transport, or buy the compact sedan instead of the SUV. Could this turn into what the WWII effort for recycling must have looked like. Financial hardship may be the one standby that motivates community to pull together to affect change.

Metaverse Roadmap Summit

Today is day two of the Metaverse Roadmap summit and the brains are churning.  The invitee list is chock-full of A-listers in a number of different circles.  There are academics like Ted Castranova, social activists like Ethan Zuckerman and Esther Dyson, game designers like Randy Farmer and a host of others.

We are collectively engaged in a two day futuring activity in environmentally scanning and scenario building based on the next 10 years of Metaverse evolution.  The roadmap is going to be a document that we hope sets some future predictions and gives very broad guestemations of what the Metaverse could do and fulfill in the near and far future. 

By enhancing the quality of personal interactivity and making the interactions more realistic, the Metaverse my have long lasting social trend implications.  We are talking with game designers and sociologists and trying to predict these trends.  The intellectual activity is startling and the discussions are really world class.

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