Community Mobilization

Geo-tagging and Photo Sharing

One of the next evolutions in photo sharing and blogging is automatic geo-tagging. The NY Times technology reporter David Pogue looks at very cool memory card that places geographic information onto the photos you take with your digital camera. The Eye-Fi memory card uses a new technology called WiPS, short for WiFi Positioning system.

A company called Skyhook employed drivers to drive all over the nation capturing home and business based WiFi network signals and attached GPS positions to each of the network addresses. Eye-Fi detects those home network signals and then associated them with GPS coordinates so that you can get geographical information based on the WiFi networks you are close to. It is position accurate within about 10 feet. Great information especially since it gets loaded onto photo sharing spaces like Flickr.

Like other geo tagging projects (Yellow arrow) this evolution is going to build information in the Metaverse. Form a marketing perspective when you combine information tagging and geo-tagging you get to see a more holistic understanding of personal experience to place and events. It is unique view that conveys genuine honesty beyond what you can obtain from a focus group.

Text messages and Philanthropy

The first time I saw txt messaging and fund raising it was back in 2005 around the Tsunami relief efforts. I do not remember the amount of money raised or the methodology through which they raised it (direct billing or carrier collected). Recently I have been reading information on the Chronicle of Philanthropy site regarding the advances by Mobile Giving Foundation and how they worked with the United Way on their Super Bowl campaign, which raised about $10,000.

The statistics are pretty clear that the mobile device is going to be the 1st piece of computing technology for an overwhelming percentage of the population of this planet. Our friend Katrin Verclas from Mobile Active.org has really embraced this idea with their efforts to turn the mobile phone into a change agent through awareness, education and activism.

One Man Non Profits - V Getting the Momentum

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.

One Man Non Profits IV - Direct Restricted Resources

Restricted gifts are a unique topic in our business. Imagine buying a tank of gasoline and saying that you want your profits only to go towards green energy research, or buying a T-shirt and insisting that your portion of profits only go towards subsidized medical coverage for the employees. In non profits restricted gifts work just like that and they can be very effective.

In the realm of the one man philanthropy there is an opportunity to direct donations  towards a single cause or program. A very recent example of this is MalariaEngage.org that requests $10 donations and then affords donors the option to fund  seven projects  recommended by Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research. Once those have been funded, MalariaEngage.org will look to support new projects across developing countries.

In creating an inexpensive platform MalariaEngage.org can send the sum of its donations to support research. Other organizations are not so lucky, in that they have developed numerous patient support, advocacy, education, and outreach programs that really do help people but require staff to organize and run.  It is not unfathomable that organizations could build micro campaigns around restricted donations to mission critical services. Matching donors to what they are passionate about almost always results in better connection and affinity with the organization, and really makes donors feel like they can see their impact on specific programs. This innate need to feel like you are making a difference is what drove the entrepreneurial philanthropists to create their own activities in the first place.

Vote for ACS in the Mashup Challenge

The American Cancer Society is a finalist in the NetSquared Mashup challenge. We would really appreciate your vote. It is a bit of a process to vote but I can assure you that it is worth it 100%! Thank you for your support.
1. You must register with NetSquared's site to vote. NetSquared is cool so it's a good idea anyway.

2. Once you've logged in go to the bottom of the page where you'll see the PROJECTS tab. Click on the N2Y3 Mashups Challenge Project Gallery Link.

3. You'll end up at the project gallery which has a big tag cloud in the section "Explore Project Ideas By Cause Area." Click on Health in the tag cloud.

4. You'll end up on the Health section. Go down the bottom of the page and click "page 2."

5. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page. We're "US Cancer Data and Care Disparities Map." (Right below the SexINFO project proposal. Ya can't miss it.)

6. In the light green field at the top of the proposal space click "Add to my ballot." That gives you a chance to vote for it at the end.

7. You must vote for 4 more. It won't let you confirm your ballot if there is less than five projects on it. Just go to others and follow the same process to get them on your ballot.

8. In the upper right-hand column you'll see the your list of ballot items growing. When you've got 5 or more you can check the "vote" link at the bottom of your list.

9. The ballot list comes up with check-boxes to the left of each project name. Click the check boxes and click "submit" at the bottom.

10. You're done. Next time you log in you won't be able to generate a ballot. But do read some of the other proposals. There are some pretty interesting ones.

Social Network and Your Brand

Steve Ganz, Sushi and Robots Boagworld, Ordered List,

Part of the challenge is social networks is perception and how your avatar is perceived. There is value in having a persistent avatar – but make sure it is the correct avatar picture. Commenting can positively impact your personal brand. Volume and content are key in others perception of you. Commit over the long term. Be honest, consistent and represent yourself as you are and maintain attitude across the board. Take inventory of what is out there on the web about you. Making comments on the internet is open, public, and permanent.

The development of social relationships and damage control is all part of existing in fast moving arena of online media and space. Relationships move quickly and missteps are amplified. Retaliations and flame wars are counterproductive and reflect poorly on you for engaging in the behavior. Take disagreements offline and treat the other person publicly with respect.

SXSW Schedule released

SXSW released their schedule recently and I am happy to tell everyone that we will be presenting Monday afternoon at 3:30. I am overly excited about the panel we have put together with speakers from the March of Dimes, National Geographic, and the American Cancer Society. It is going to be exceptionally interesting and entertaining, focusing in on where are we as organizations supposed to go to attract and retain volunteers. The Future of Volunteers; Adapt or Die!

Mashups Move Mainstream

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.

Value Networks

There is an interesting post on Managing the Value Network that looks at the difference between flat organization structures and value networks (those implicit networks where the work really happens). It is a different perspective than the academic analytics that I went through last week at INSNA.

Teen Communication Modality - A Look Forward

They say you can take a good guess about the future by looking at those who will be in charge then, and if that holds the Pew study on Teens and Social Media is pretty  telling. It focuses on the fact that social media gained a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media. the study found that 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online such as artwork, photos stories, or videos. They are creating a culture and location of sharing work unlike anything mass media could ever have dreamed.

Even more telling is that girls (who we knew communicated more than boys) are taking it online too. Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. And the most interesting statistic to me is HOW the teens are communicating when they communicate. Social portals and networks WAY out pace face to face (duh - we have global friendships now) but face to face is higher than e-mail. The killer app is dying! Amazing. Asked about the communication they have every day with their friends, the multi-channel teens say:

70% talk daily with friends on a cell phone
60% send text messages daily
54% instant message
47% send messages daily over social network sites
46% talk to friends on a landline phone
35% spend time with friends in person daily
22% send email every day to friends