There's a very interesting event this coming Monday May 5th in DC - Scott McNealy, co-founder and Chairman of Sun Microsystems - speaking on:

Open Source, Open Education and Eco-friendly: Can Sharing Improve Policy?

McNealy will will focus on how ideas of openness and sharing work in business -- and how they can help improve public policy and international development.

McNealy, self-anointed, champion of "sharing," is a forceful voice for open standards and open source; has funded Curriki.org, a collaborative education resources project; and recently announced Sun's OpenEco.org to help reduce greenhouse gases.

Ellen Miller, co-founder and Executive Director of the very innovative Sunlight Foundation, and Forum One's Dave Witzel will be discussants. The Center for Global Development is sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

Monday, May 5, 2008, 11:00am--12:15pm
Hilton Washington Embassy Row, Ambassador Room
2015 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.

RSVP now and come join the discussion.
http://www.cgdev.org/content/calendar/detail/15881

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.

We're running a live online interview today at 4:00 PM EST using our service, LiveInterviewsOnline! for UNDP's office in New York featuring four expert climate scientists in New Zealand. (LiveInterviewsOnline! spans the globe, saving time, money and CO2 emission!)

The topic of the interview is the use of the sophisticated modeling tool - SimCLIM - to support the Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessments relating to national climate change planning under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

SimCLIM can be used to support decision-making with its capacity to assess baseline climates and current variability and extremes. Risks can be assessed both currently and in the future. Adaptation measures can be tested for present day conditions and under future scenarios of climate change and variability and sea level rise. More info.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) co-manage the runs the "National Communications Support Programme" (NCSP). The primary objective of the NCSP is to provide technical and policy support to Parties not included in Annex I (NAI) to the for preparing their Second (or Third) National Communications (SNCs or TNCs). The NCSP is hosted by UNDP-GEF in UNDP headquarters, New York.

Joining the interview from New Zealand will be a panel of experts on the use of SimCLIM:
* Dr Richard Warrick (science and conceptual frameworks)
* Dr Peter Urich (training and technical queries)
* Dr Wei Ye (software systems design and implementation)
* Dr Yinpeng Li (impact modelling)

Join the discussion at
http://interviews.liveinterviewsonline.com/

I'm at Forum One's second annual Online Community Business Forum
this 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:

* Many of Facebook's users are young, and $1 is a small enough amount that it seems like an affordable way to give to charity. Changing the Present frames its offers in such a way that $1 also seems like it can go a long way.
* It incentivizes giving by allowing users to interact on a personal level with friends and effect positive social change with and for their friends. Giving gifts is fun (Facebook's $1 gifts remain popular even in the face of so much free competition), so it is smart to tap into that trend.
* It publicizes giving. It will be harder for people to receive a gift without returning the sentiment when it is tied to a worthy progressive cause, and the $1 price tag means nearly all of Facebook's users can afford an in kind response.

More impressions from day 2 to follow....

Technorati Tags:
OCBF2008
Online Community

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:

The Global Development Commons is an "ecosystem" of online content and services that helps the international development community make progress on important issues of human, social and economic development.

Destination: The GDC is not a web site or web property – or even a suite of web sites. It is an interconnected set of services and information/content floating among those services, made possible by the use of common standards and tools.

Ownership: The GDC is a collaborative effort of many content sources and online service providers. There is coordination to define and evangelize about common standards which make possible the GDC. But there is no “ownership” of the GDC, any more than anyone “owns” the Internet.

Etc.

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

We had a great Web Executive Seminar on February 26th about "Social Sites for Social Good" - exploring how organizations are using social media and social networking for social causes.

(The picture is from the event organized, largely using Facebook, "One Million Voices Against FARC" in Bogotá, Colombia. Feb 4, 2008. By: Alberto Acero Source: Facebook- and see news)

The slides from the session - slides+audio - are now publicly available for viewing on Forum One's event web page.

Some reflections on the session:

* Ivan Boothe, Internet strategy coordinator of the Genocide Intervention Network - talked about use of Facebook to raise visibility of GIN work.
* Qui Diaz, Ogilvy PR, and Stephanie Marshall, Director of Pandemic Communications at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services talked about HHS effort to engage flu bloggers to raise awareness of HHS efforts and messages.
* Heather Mansfield, Online community manager for Change.org, talked about some interesting ways groups are using MySpace to drive interest in their issues.
* Janice R. Nall, Director, Division of eHealth Marketing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - shared examples of how CDC is taking their messages to where the audiences are on social networks.
* Jonathon D. Colman, Associate Director, Digital Marketing at the Nature Conservancy - shared his fascinating experiences in using social media services like Digg to raise the prominence of TNC's work. (Hint - takes some diligence!)

We're interested in feedback about the presentations and the seminar - feel free to add below. Thanks!

Over at our LiveInterviewsOnline site, Jason Lefkowitz, Online Campaigns Organizer at Change to Win, just wrapped up offering some interesting answers to reader questions.

Read more to see Jason's thoughts on:

You need to figure out where those conversations are happening, and find a way to (respectfully) engage with them...

...the frustrations of e-mail as a medium...

The classic way you get stuck in this spot is to buy a proprietary tool from a vendor...

Finally there is the opinion leader strategy; this involves not building your own community, but empowering people to take your message out through their own channels....

...you need a very large and engaged user base to make these types of competitions work.

Smack the CEO Facebook game...

Read the whole interview.

An exciting grant program will award to three women-led new media projects $10,000 prizes from the New Media Women Enterpreneurs project, supported by the
McCormick Tribune Foundation. NMWE writes:

We will fund individuals who have original ideas to create new Web sites, mobile news services or other entrepreneurial initiatives that offer interactive opportunities to engage, inspire and improve news and information in a geographic community or a community of interest.

What is your juicy idea? What’s been stirring in your mind? What work do you feel compelled to do? How can you improve or redefine journalism? What new project would give people the information they need to make decisions or help make the world a better place? Whose voice isn’t being heard?

Get your good ideas in by May 1st!

The Center for Global Development ran a fun - and valuable - naming contest to find a new moniker for PEPFAR, the Bush Administration's "President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief" program, which is huge - 5-years, $15 billion. CGD ran this to come up with a new name for the important program "to better reflect the long-term nature of the challenge and broad-based support that the program will need to survive."

CGD got dozens of submissions from around the world, and put the best-and-final six entries to a vote. After some 200 votes, the winner was the "AIDS and Healthcare Leadership Program" (AIDSHELP), submitted by Nicolas Cook.

I think contests like this are very smart communications strategies. What they can do - as in this case - is come up with a pretty creative solution, engage a wide (global!) audience on the topic, and bring some good visibility to the host, like CGD!

A recent incident of mistreatment of cattle at a slaughterhouse illustrates, I think, an opportunity to use a strategy of webcams, information transparency, and public participation (i.e. crowdsourcing) to improve slaughterhouse practices.

On January 30th the Humane Society released undercover video content of "downer" dairy cows - too sick or injured to be able to walk - being mistreated to get them onto their feet and into the Hallmark Meat Packing Co (Chino, CA) slaughterhouse. "Downer" cattle are at increased risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") and other foodborne pathogens, and so the USDA regulations prevent the slaughter for human consumption of crippled cows.

The Humane Society video shows sickening treatment (cattle prods, forklifts, water hoses) of obviously injured or unhealthy animals. The video led to the "voluntary" recall of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products by Hallmark. More on the outcome of the investigation on the HSUS blog.

USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) does have inspectors and veterinarians who work on site at slaughterhouses to inspect and enforce the regulations, but in this case the video was captured by an undercover Humane Society investigator .

I think some low-cost intern