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Event: Scott McNealy - May 5th - Sharing as a Business Strategy for the Social SectorTuesday, April 29. 2008
Ask Your Lawmaker, Web 2.0 StyleThursday, April 24. 2008 The US election season is in full swing ("are we there yet?" plead the kids...) and one of the more interesting related online political efforts is the "Ask your Lawmaker" service of Capitol News Connection (CNCNews). We worked with CNCNews in 2007 on the strategic planning for the new service, and we also did the information architecture. What AYL provides is an online tool for people to pose questions for specific legislators, for people to vote on the questions of most interest to them, and then for AYL staff to go out and get answers to the most popular questions. Our lead Information Architect for the project, Nam-ho Park has recently blogged about the "Web 2.0" interactivity that AYL provides: What differentiates this site from the Digg's of the online world is that this site has a physical component. The CNCNews reporters actually go out and accost lawmakers in the corridors of the US Capitol, waiting for them in various strategic locations, where they know they will be passing through. It's a pretty innovative service - read more of Nam-ho's review of it.
LiveInterviewsOnline! Connecting New York, New Zealand, and the World - on Climate Change ModelingWednesday, April 23. 2008
Trends in internet and mobile users worldwideThursday, April 17. 2008 Following Joe's post about the Unite for Sight conference, I thought I'd share some statistics from a presentation I gave at our panel discussion on 'Global Health and the Internet' on Saturday. I showed three charts from December 2007 showing the status of worldwide internet users (Courtesy of www.internetworldstats.com): The charts on www.internetworldstats.com shows the total number of internet users worldwide: 1.3 billion. That number has grown by over 1/3 in the past 2 years. So this means that over 1/6th of the world is connected. Africa and the Middle East have much smaller numbers than other regions – but still they total nearly 80 million people: 71% of North Americans are connected. 4% of Africans are connected. And the percent of growth over the past 7 years has been 920% growth for the Middle East and nearly 900% in Africa. But that’s just the internet—mobile phone usage is huge in Africa and does help close this gap in connectivity significantly. Dr. Joel Selanikio of DataDyne.org provided us with some very interesting statistics on mobile phones: Approximately 82 million Africans had cell phones by 2004, and the average annual subscriber growth for Africa was 58%. (ITU 2006 Report) Mobile devices are a very relevant way to reach a lot of individuals who do not have computer access...and may not in the foreseeable future. Joel encouraged our audience to think creatively about what can be done with these mini computers that so many--even the very poor--are managing to acquire. His group is working in this area, and it is indeed something we must remember as we continue to need innovative, practical ways to include developing country audiences in our online communities, our dialogues, and our global development work. He argues that the technology is there--we just need to generate good ideas. To put it into context, look at the capacity of the very first computers released in the 1980s, vs. today's common mobile devices: Then: IBM PC (1981-1987): 4.8Mhz, 640K RAM Apple Macintosh (1984): 8Mhz, 128K RAM [Aside: My dad bought us the first Apple Macintosh in the 1980s and I remember sitting at the desk waiting for the floppy disk to churn and churn while it saved my very fancy papers--which was all it ever got used for. Talk about expensive word processing.] Now: Palm Treo 650 (2004-Present): 312MHz, 32M RAM Apple iPhone (2007-Present): 620MHz, 8 G RAM I heard recently that today's cell phones have more technical sophistication than the first space ship we sent to the moon. When we look at these numbers, Joel is right. The capacity has grown astronomically. There surely have to be creative, and perhaps life-saving widgets/tools/uses that can be devised so that the divides between us--north and south, rich and poor, educators and those who need to learn more, health care providers and patients--can slowly diminish. It's an exciting time to think about what all of this connectivity means in the global health context. Feel free to share thoughts or links!
Unite for Sight Conference highlightsThursday, April 17. 2008
Online Community Strategies: Day 1 from the Online Community Business ForumTuesday, April 15. 2008 I'm at Forum One's second annual Online Community Business Forumthis Monday and Tuesday. Our Bill Johnston and Jim Cashel have put together a great selection of smart speakers and attendees, an invitation-only gathering of about 70 people from community software businesses, media properties, investors, businesses using online community for customer service or building market presence, and others. I've heard more than a few people say this is one of the best conferences they have been to in a long time, because of the caliber of the people and the level of discussion about online community strategy and business models. And spending a few days enjoying Santa Fe (and eating various green chili dishes!), is a treat.  Photo by jwoodphoto.A few impressions from Monday, day 1: Twitter: I've been slow to understand the use and value of Twitter (see Wikipedia explanation of this "social media and microblogging service".) So it was illuminating to hear Shara Karasic (http://twitter.com/sharakarasic) of Work.com talk over dinner about how she has used Twitter to build a following of people interested in her work and ideas, and which she then uses to disseminate "breaking" news of a new event, report, product or offering. A light bulb went off in my thick head that, among other things, Twitter is "just" another effective dissemination channel to quickly get out news. Read more of Shana's thinking about twittering for business on work.com. [Event live blogging versus twittering? Great blog reflections by Thomas Kriese of Omidyar about "Better Way to Broadcast Live"] Virtual worlds? I am just starting to understand virtual worlds... but interesting discussion about the worth of virtual worlds and virtual goods - ie a virtual single stem rose - $10 on "HotorNot" web site. My first thought was who/how/why, but then - people buy lots of things as gifts for people which may have little value because of the intention effect (my theory)! But then I found myself thinking - someone must be using virtual goods for donations, for philanthropy (ie rather than a virtual rose for $10, why not $10 to AWF.org and a virtual elephant trumpet?) I found the answer quickly - Change the Present does this: The Changing the Present app allows users to give "meaningful gifts" that contribute $1 each to a progressive cause. The idea could resonate with Facebook's users for a number of reasons: More impressions from day 2 to follow.... Technorati Tags: OCBF2008 Online Community
Play a New Online Interactive Game & Send a Bed Net to AfricaTuesday, April 15. 2008
---------------- Hi, I’d like to share with you something I’ve been working a lot on and am very excited about - a new interactive game (hopefully you will tell a friend or two about), Deliver the Net, that our Nothing But Nets campaign has made to educate people about malaria. The game is part of the lead-up to World Malaria Day on April 25. Those who play the game and sign up will have a$10 life-saving bed net sent to Africa by Nothing But Nets on their behalf. You may know that malaria kills more than a million African children a year – a child every 30 seconds – and costs African economies over $12 billion. We’ve already helped cover seven African nations, including Zimbabwe and Mali, and we have our sights set on more. I hope you’ll be willing to help us get the message out and take advantage of the generous donor who will send a $10 bed net for every signature. Thanks and I hope you enjoy the game! Shannon Raybold Internet Director P.S. If you are interested in seeing downloadable banners and a widget for the game to see http://nothingbutnets.net/its-easy-to-help/banners/.
Interview: MySpace for Nonprofit OrganizationsWednesday, April 9. 2008
I hosted a live online interview with Heather Mansfield earlier today. During a live interview, we take questions from whomever wishes to submit them. Heather is an expert on how nonprofit organizations can use MySpace to spread their message and recruit supporters. Here is the transcript of the interview.
Also, here are the slides from her recent presentation at our Web Executive Seminar at the National Press Club: Coming up tomorrow, April 10: A live interview with John Sebes on open source voting systems.
Global Development Commons: Wiki Launched to Shape the DiscussionMonday, April 7. 2008 Forum One Communications has launched a wiki (at www.developmentcommons.org) as a space for collaboration to define and start work on the Global Development Commons (GDC). The concept of the GDC is for a space / infrastructure / system to enable the virtual and physical sharing of information among people around the world working in international development. The GDC concept was first discussed, as far as we can tell, in 2007 by US Agency for International Development's Administrator Henrietta Fore, and is outlined on a USAID web page. USAID deserves a lot of credit for promoting the concept of the GDC. At the same time, for the GDC to take root and succeed, it cannot be an initiative launched (primarily) by USAID. The GDC is going to need to have the participation of a wide array of groups apart from USAID - NGOs, multi-lateral organizations, international organizations, non-US government donors, technology businesses, academic institutions, and others. So, we've set up and are hosting this wiki as a neutral space for any players in the development sector to share ideas about what the GDC could become and how it can grow. We outline on the wiki some initial thoughts on the structure and approach for the GDC, and other "commons" efforts. Excerpt from wiki:
Our ideas on the wiki are still developing, and we are eager to have others contribute! Please register and add your own ideas. And if you want to blog about this - use the tags gdc and devcommons Technorati Tags: Global Development Commons GDC DevCommons |
This is a letter from an acquaintance of mine, Shannon Raybold, from the UN Foundation, that I thought I'd share: