Community Mobilization

Ourstory

My old buddy Andy Hallidy has an amazing project going on called OurStory.com. I know that I have pointed to this before but here is a video demonstration of Ourstory and it is really moving. My favorite part of the system is that comments can be uploaded via a reply e-mail. I not only enjoy the very intimate nature of the system but also think it is a great way to encourage us as an inputer to catalog the most important events of our life in a bit more detail thank photos that end up in plastic bags, and old albums that sit in the basement.

Network Analysis Map of Science

There is a simple Map of Science that I saw this morning and just have to comment on. It is based off of scientific article citations and the individual disciplines are color coded. The network structure is not all the surprising. Frankly it is explains why we are lagging in the development of the Grand Unified Theory of Science. Disciplines keep in their own silos and never venture out into cross-discipline work.

This too can be deadly in  working environment. If specific communities are isolated and never have th opportunity to learn about the organization as a whole you develop a gaping structural hole right in the middle of the office per say. More importantly with the loss of a few key people entire sections become completely cut off from the rest of the organization.

ACS and Flickr

My friend David asked me to post this for all to see.
Or maybe your just a closet photo buff like I am. Either way our American Cancer Society volunteers have found quite the cool photo sharing place online. It's called Flickr.

And on Flickr our Relay For Life volunteers have created their own little corner called the Relay For Life Photo Pool. So far this online photo pool has 89 members and over 2,000 photos from all over the country.

If you would like to contribute your photos to this pool it's a simple process.

1. Visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/relay_for_life/
2. Sign in with your Flickr account or Join Flickr if your not a member (it's free)
3. Upload your favorite RFL photos to your own account
4. Then visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/relay_for_life/ again and hit the join button
5. Then go to a photo you want to contribute and hit "Send to Group"

In the meantime you can check out some of my Central Texas Relay Photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/relayforlife/sets/

SLCC Registration Now Open

I know that you have been waiting too long for this. Registration is now open. Please share the great news with everyone you know. We do have limited space and want to make sure you get a ticket so register today.

http://www.SLConvention.org/register/

The hotel room block is now open as well. The Hotel phone number is 1-312-922-4400. The group code when you call is 'Second Life Community Convention'. Brilliant hu? The rate is $159.00 for a single and $179.00 for a double room plus tax.  They will charge a deposit of one night in advance. It will be returned if you cancel at least 3 days before the event ... for any reason! There is also a designated number of hotel rooms blocked out so reserve now to secure the lower group rate.

SXSW Report Card released

The 2007 SXSW report card (participant reviews of event sessions) were released today and I am so proud that our panel on Disruptive Technology in the Nonprofits Sector received a 4.19 our of 5.00. We were one of the higher rated panels and it is all due to the great presenters. Hates off to Keith, Erin, and David!

WKRP DVD Release Event Party Downtown

WRKP In Cincinnati DVD release has been on the back boiler because FOX is has been unwilling to spend great amounts of money to relicense the entire soundtrack for the DVD release. Wired wrote in 2005 that WRKP would neve be released .... ever due to the copyright and licensing issues. In a cheap end-around Fox replaced all of the great classic rock tracks with what can only be described as elevator music. This is a perfect case of how Copyright laws as they stand desperately need to be updated.

The DVD release is today and the city of Cincinnati is celebrating. Yes, celebrating with a huge sing along in downtown. At noon dozens, maybe hundreds, possibly thousands of Cincinnatians will stream to Fountain Square in down town to join Bootsy Collins in a resounding chorus of the original theme song ... no doubt violating some standing licensing and copyright. We will all be summarily hauled off in paddy wagons and charged $1.25 fines for the violation. I will post pictures following the mass hysteria later this afternoon.

Starting an E-Social Network Analysis

There is a real solid blog post on Leveraging Knowledge that is a Q&A regarding initiating an E-SNA. The author is responding to some of the more central questions regarding executing an analysis and the responses are thoughtful and informing. Verna Allee is a veteran of the E-SNA / ONA / Value Network field. Her insight and responses outline some of the more useful insights one can gain and she even gives a bit of case related experience.

Crowdsourcing Illness

I just saw an amazing website called whoissick.org. The system essentially allows anyone to upload, using their cellphone, information about their illness anonymously. Whoisisck.org has a few major categories and I believe that it is meant to track flu and cold outbreaks in certain areas. The one thing I do not like is the meter that shows number of illnesses in the last 8 weeks. As more people learn about this more will post and we will see an artificial jump in number o reports. Once there is a stable user base the  numbers will be accurate. I think if there is a sufficient adoption you could have on heck of an epidemiological tool. Moreover a real powerful product delivery / placement tool. If you see a jump in cough and muscle ache make sure you are distributing extra Tamiflu and cough medicine to that locale's pharmacy.

Digital Now

I rally enjoyed Digital Now and I am so sorry that it has taken me a week to get this review up here. I had the absolute pleasure of having lunch with Bill Strathmann, CEO of Network For Good right before his panel. I was planning on attending it anyway but that was the deal-sealer. He did a superb job of showing how NFG is leveling the playing field and opening up the donation channels to every 501.C.3. The widget technology of Six Degrees is the exact breed of tool that can empower the long tail and really create the capacity for even the smallest of charities to raise money. I especially love how they use Guidestar to vet their organizations.

In the afternoon I jumped around between sessions. It was clearly not a typical practice in this crowd as I saw few, if any people leave and enter sessions. The session on MyGoodwill was amazing. The premise is that it is an information and training portal for Goodwill to use in delivering job skill training.   The technical implementation was cool but the methodology and their approach was something special. It reinforces the idea that technology is really secondary behind design and methodology.

The session on Developing an E-Strategy was fairly cursory, and I did not stay terribly long. I think it was critical information for so,me people in the room to her. The emphasis was that random technology implementation will yield random results. Some of the people in the room had just heard about a number of technologies in previous session and needed to hear that strategic implementation is easier on the budget as well as on constituents.

The next day Patty Glodman from March of Dimes, Jenny Levine from American Library Association and I presented on Org 2.0. We talked about the various implementation methods and tools that we are employing and spoke to the success and challenges we are facing. I think it was exceptional how we all three outlined our expectations of the technology before we implemented. Nothing is more critical than knowing what you want to get out of the tech. Between us we covered pretty much all of the web 2.0 things from wiki to virtual worlds, to home brew videos and so much more. We fielded a bunch of questions and got to meet a folks afterwards. I think the key message we delivered was that the coming tech wave will give individuals almost the exact same capacity as the large organizations ... so how do you work in that new reality?

Domystuff.com - outsourcing chores

Domystuff.com is an open marketplace for people who need chores done, and people willing to do them. The marketplace is as simple and straight forward as it gets. The three steps are:
1. List your daily tasks you need help with
2. Assistants bid on the tasks
3. You pick your assistant
The glory is that you can fin help for a number of different specialities in one place. I am not sure if it will ever replace full on services such as lawn care, or a landscaper, or a baby sitting service but it sure may be a gateway to a permanent handyman, or weekend house cleaner.