A very interesting question came across my desk this evening ... what is the future of the Swiss Army Knife? The multi tool infamous for its utility, and all to often relegated to the pockets of boy scouts and adventurers. I took some time and really thought about what I think the SAK of the future should have, taking into the kind of SAK I am, and what I think utility is going to be for me.
Learn about my SAK below the fold.
Not many folks would argue that economies of scale are inefficient. The core purpose of economies of scale is to drive efficiency and lower cost, increasing value. But there is a point where the efficiency tramples effectiveness. I was reading a post this morning about the challenges in the publishing industry, particularly how book distribution to the non book-store outlets (grocery Stores, drug stores) became a victim of over efficiency, and lost their effectiveness.
Cory Dcotorow writes a post in Boing Boing about how super-sizing the distribution networks for these outlets has essentially squeezed profit margins for the publishers, but also led to there being homogeneous offering of about 100 titles in these outlets nationwide. Sadly, when there were smaller independent distributors serving local and regional areas there were varieties of titles peaking the interests of readers and getting them interested in reading more. Clearly, in this sense the hyper efficiency and eye towards profit margins has potentially set the industry back by crating demand for only a few select writers, not encouraging writers to expand their horizons.
One of the critical trends to marketers in mobile usage is the increase in web enabled phones, and what their users are doing with them. With the advent of mobile data transfer phones have become extensions of personal computing. A recent eMarketer.com article details the usage purpose of mobile internet on iPhones, Smart phones, and standard web enabled mobile telephones.
Of particular interest is the utilization rates that are significantly higher across the board for iPhone users. The curious question for me is, "Is it the phone, or the people?" Is there such a fundamental difference in the personalities of the individuals who buy iPhones than the rest of the smart phone audience, or is the technology just that much simpler to use that it entices people to use the net more often and for more things.
Either answer brings a lesson for awareness and marketing campaigns. If it is the people then there is a clear target audience built right into the product. Find ways to capture the high tech high propensity users and go forward with developing campaigns for them and only them via their favorite communication device - their iPhone. If the answer is it is the technology the obvious course is to identify upcoming direct competitors and link your self to those potential markets and for get about the demographic. If I had to wager a bet I'd say it is the people not the technology but only time and telephone company records will let us know for sure.
Any good sports fan or coach will tell you that the key to any game is getting and keeping the momentum. Same is true in business, and social causes. One of the reasons large philanthropies are large is that they have found ways and programs to build and maintain momentum. Nothing is perpetual and maintaining forward progress should be part of any organizations mission.
In terms of one man non profits how much momentum can one person generate. Throughout history individuals indeed have changed the world. Web based tools in this day and age are allowing entrepreneurial philanthropists to gather potential energy and release it once a critical mas has been reached. The Point is one such system. The Point is a new way of thinking about collective action. People need a way to know where their participation adds the most value. That’s what The Point offers—an environment where people are only asked to participate when their action can be combined with others to create a solution.
Utilizing online systems to gauge the potential energy for any social cause could be a valuable tool for emerging philanthropic activities. More precisely systems like the point can help identify if there is a gap with sufficient interest to create an entity to serve it. Established organizations should use this kind of a systematic approach to fill those gaps. In both cases it reduces cost as an entry barrier as well as helps set potential expectations before a program even gets underway.
On of the questions I get asked all the time is 'How do I start my own Non Profit'. I often shudder and then ask what they want to benefit, what their passion is and if their is an organization that fills that need already. The balance that we are striving for is personal connection vs. economy of scale. I'll discuss a few ways to bridge this gap in section III of this series of posts.
FUND RAISING IS NOT A ZERO SUM GAME! Each time a new organization arises to benefit a cause where another organization already exists we loose a bit in the economy of scale. We are not taking dollars away from each other, we are just spending them unnecessarily and repetitively on things that do not help our end goal. Each new organization needs a host of things to stand alone and differentiate itself from the other organizations serving the same community.
Maybe there are so many more one man philanthropies out there to day because setting one up is so much easier. We technology lets us have a virtual office on our cell phone if we want. Or maybe There are more causes that are important to more people. The bottom line is how is the money we raise actually helping move our mission?
In social service and community engagement organizations it can be as straight forward as providing food for the hungry, or shelter, or clothing or even job training. In the medical field things are not that simple.Organizations like the American Cancer Society spend substantial portions of their budget on epidemiological and scientific research. Some of the research demands significant funding to be done correctly. Small local charities may not be able to raise the money needed to fund a 30 year longitudinal study, or full scientific research project.
There has to be a better way to give people that personal I-make-a-difference feeling that all philanthropist AND concentrate the positive results of their hard work into real tangible mission moving results.
I just finished the book Microtrends and was really impressed with the diversity of examples. What really grabbed my attention in the greater sense was how easy a micro trend can bubble up from something obscure to something significant. One trend that I think the author missed was the rise of the one man non profit.
In my travels and workings I have come across a phenomenon that actually concerns me more than the economy or bad PR. it is the rise of the one man non profits and how they can impact the efforts of larger organizations. I also began to think about ways that we can empower personal engagement with philanthropy on a local scale yet retain the large scale impact. In a series of posts over the next few days I hope to explore those thoughts and not erk to many people in the process.
It would only be a matter of time before the stream of videos, the web, and jobs intersected. Videojobshop is a space where job hunters and employers alike can post resumes and request for employees. I like the idea of making the ob hunting a bit more personal and interesting beyond the stock resumes and vanilla job postings we see at online job boards like Monster and Career Builder.
In fund raising and marketing circles, pre-internet, Direct Mail was the most effective way to mass distribute information and solicit donations. Depending on the cause and the relationship management of the organization direct mail proved to be either very effective or an absolute waste of time and money. Response rates are traditionally very low (a few percent) but a new method may help drive those rates up.
Matter is taking an unconventional approach to direct marketing by sending out boxes of "interesting stuff" instead of paper. The items are carefully collected for specific audiences, and sent to consumers at no charge. Each participating company creates and contributes an item—something that explains what the company does, says something about its ideas or values. Matter is a collaboration between Artomatic and Royal Mail, and it targets consumers in the UK only. If US based companies and philanthropies adopt this method who knows what kind of interesting stuff we may get in the mail, or how much junk we will be contributing to our landfills.
IBM has been working on a Mashup system based on the Lotus notes platform. The idea is to give business people the ability to create web mashups without the need for complex API programming skills. In in sense the tool provides a lot more people the ability to mix together information sources and displays. It will be interesting to see what the display systems are beyond traditional maps, where businesses will look to add physical office locations. On a deeper note, a person could build a mashup that combines weather information with a retail management system to adjust inventories based on project weather patterns. The mashup will help drive business intelligence since it will make viewing and interpolating the data easier.
Kaneva is a new tool and system set that combines aspects of virtual world interactivity with real life social networking back end. In some circles the drive to connect the two types of interactive activity has been met with excitement and disdain. As community building tools both have their individual appeals, such as a level of anonymity in virtual avatar based communities, and a level of disclosure in social networks. The challenge is the melding of the two diametrically opposed components. I have yet to use Kaneva but will keep an eye peeled to see how it evolves. As a company it seems like the management has a tight hold on content and use which could turn off some looking to push the bounds of social acceptability, a practice not uncommon in either circle.
