Business Development

To coincide with my first year at the helm of Social Edge, I hired Mission Minded, a San Francisco based research firm, to conduct a survey and better understand our audience –you.

Back in September, some of you received a survey to help us understand how the Social Edge community felt the site served them: purely as inspiration or as a robust source of practical information? As community-builder or as a possible source of funding? We also wondered what changes Social Edge could reasonably make that would better serve our audience.

The results recently came in, and I am eager to share them with you –whether you already participated in the survey or would like to take this opportunity to share your opinion.

When I joined Social Edge, I thought that our online platform should become “the practical global network for social entrepreneurs.” I am proud to report that these goals, in large part, have been achieved.

• Our audience is definitely global, with only 47% of active users coming from North America (we are physically located in California but global in scope). Approximately 22% log in from Asia, 16% from Africa and 7% from Europe. You are global citizens, and we all gather on Social Edge!

• Most of you are leading (35%) and emerging (14%) social entrepreneurs. An additional 13% are staff members of social benefit enterprises, for a total of 62%. The remaining are consultants (11%), academic and students (8%), and 3% come from the funding community. There is no doubt that Social Edge is the online platform for social entrepreneurs and professionals in the field.

• You seek inspiration as well as practical “how-to” tools. Overall, you tend to prefer content from experts above content from fellow members. This is why I established from the beginning of my tenure at Social Edge a strong top-down editorial voice for the site, bringing in experts as the primary source of content.

• But Social Edge is also an online community. Member-to-member communication and interactivity are important to you. Mission Minded discovered that Social Edge users were more active than the average online community based on usability expert Jakob Nielsen’s findings: “In most online communities, 90% of members are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of members contribute a little and 1% of members account for almost all the action.” On Social Edge, 34% forward content and links to others, and 17% post comments!

Questions for the Social Edge community:

• Do you agree with these findings?

• Did we miss any important point?

• As we are about to relaunch on a new platform, what you would like to see on Social Edge 2.0?

I created a web page to show a chart that I created about 10 years ago, showing how leaders, catalysts, etc. can draw the people they know into volunteer-based t utor/mentor programs throughout a geographic area, and how such people can create on-line forums like Social Edge to share ideas, collaborate, etc.  The link is http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Presentations/Leaders/pictures_history.htm

This illustrates a role I feel the sponsors of forums like Social Edge can talk.  When I was asked why they should take this role, I said, "To whom much is given, much is expected."  Forums like Social Edge, Omidyar, and the Ohrah Winfrey Angel Network attract thousands of visitors because of the celebrity/influence of the host.

Thus, those who have been blessed to have such a position in life, have the responsibility of connecting all of the right people with each other so that more good can come from the networking that is done.

Count me in too please. 

One of the ways I describe myself is "Cawdnet convenor" - where Cawdnet is the network of people I exchange ideas with and collaborate with in various ways. The name comes from CAWD - which originally stood for the Committee for African Welfare and Development. It now stands for a registered charity.

CAWD was started by my friend the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale. I "got into all this" in the first place by helping him to write letters, make phone calls and such like - regarding the community development project that he wanted to start back home. He needed help because here in the UK his "African English" was a bit of a communication barrier.

Subsequently I've tackled all kinds of communication barriers (cultural, ICT, infrastructure challenges, etc) as I have continued working on CAWD related projects in rural Nigeria. I want to bring together the networks on the Internet and the networks in rural Nigeria, for purposes of education, friendship, understanding, collaboration, philanthropy, investment, and all aspects of development.

Another network that is important to me is one started by Andrius Kulikauskas. To oversimplify - Andrius has set up a network of networks on the Internet which he weaves together in interesting ways. (If I am lucky then someone else in his network will see this mention and add details before I have time to return to write more.).

Pam

Here in our our city of hyderabad what is happening is we are working towards forgetting that we are human beings.

We were a peaceful city & say large happy family till 1980's - systematically life is now is understood holding a cell phone,riding bikes & cars on a busy road with few flyovers built to ease the traffic & few on the way of completion - roads widened or getting widened by destroying memories of - particular tea stall or paper store or vegetable points.

In the midst of all these lands are taken over ( which otherwise fertile) replaced by concrete structures for a price - where the vegetables growing or rice/wheat will not yield the price what they got - a life time yield.

Friends, life is no more understood as an opportunity given to survive & serve & to see that generation ahead enjoys what we are able to, today.

Lot's of insecure acts causing the damage and needed intervention today is withhold what is good, reinforce habits & lifestyle which would protect tomorrow.

Values we uphold which we imbibed by our elders & the family we represent & the teachers & books, will be the foundation for better tomorrow.

I just want to end the opening note of my this posting with this observation: "the colors we see, when we look up at the sky are never harsh - all pleasant colors, no harshness at all".

I wish we take the inspiration from nature to be natural,gentle & human.

Hi to you all.

It is interesting that this topic has come up again! ... at Empowerment Gateway we are currently looking how can we facilitate access to netwoks and knowledge resources in South Africa. It is one of the projects that has been tabled for development in the new year.

Like Jeff, I use Social Edge and Omydiar as two of my many networking platforms. ... but recently we have been evaluating how could a network of networks be created? ... and we are seriously evaluating if an IT platform like ManyOne could be the answer for us with the creation of an Empowerment Gateway portal in South Africa linking to the rest of Africa.

Additionally our membership in numerous CUG's on Yahoo has also enabled us to broaden our own network. Today all the groups that we are networked to provides instant access to over 200 000 individuals worldwide. I have an advantage over most english speakers as english is my 3rd language ... with portuguese and french as principal languages.

The pronblem is mainly financial resources to support a more effective communication platform. In South Africa the cost of broadband is prohibitive in comparasion to the cost in the USA for example ... we are paying 50c a meg versus 50c a gig. ... and I am not mentioning the rest of Africa ...

As we evaluate and research this topic in the months ahead if you are interested I'll give feedback on what is happening. Regarding ideas on how to improve this process ... I am afraid that I don't have answers YET! ....

Laurinda

Charles it’s excellent that this topic has been revived. My starting suggestion is that we be precise and sure about the possibilities and limitations of a virtual community such as we have in Social Edge. This would then enable us to identify how and when to extend or draw out related ideas and activities to be developed in other ways. This could even be through other virtual communities subordinate to a central one on Social Edge.

One possibility is that we have a segmented series or hierarchy of ‘spaces’ within Social Edge. This would mean that a general discussion could be kicked off at the broadest level. Then those posters most interested (and with most to offer!) could ‘commit’ themselves to a more intensive and interactive series of exchanges and collateral dealings by joining or forming a sub-forum specific to the topic in hand. Posters would be expected to demonstrate some sort of commitment – perhaps by submitting more detail of themselves and/or their organisation or accepting the need to re-register for the sub-forum. It would be important for posters to the sub-forum to be able to demonstrate what their practical interest in the topic is, and what they specifically need to learn or can offer.

A significant drawback with web-based forums is that they tend to be (rightly) open-access and very generic, at least to start with. This can mean they tend to become much taken up by folks who have only a very generalised interest in a topic, but who nevertheless are prone to join in any discussion on any topic. This tendency can reduce the value and effectiveness of the forum for those who have a real ‘need-to-know’ or who have practical knowledge or experience to usefully exchange with other like-minded people.

In my own work in delivering real-life Open Forums on Community Regeneration around Scotland, I find that the personal or individual touch is essential. Even in these real-life situations where ‘real’ people gather together there need to be some encouragement or facilitation for person-to-person interaction to get going. It can be something as simple as going up and welcoming someone you see standing on their own and introducing them to someone else.

As you see I’m a pragmatist in these things. To work effectively, forums and networks need to offer a practical purpose, ideally with the furtherance of learning and development. We do not yet have the technology to bring about meaningful personal interaction through websites. So we need to recognise this limitation in order that we can work on the positives and develop the benefits.

The major problems with what I’m suggesting is that it might simply reduce the number of participants to any discussion – and Social Edge users might worry that it smacks of a lessening of accessibility?

One other practical suggestion then; we could make even more use Social Edge to better involve ourselves as to what ‘real-time’ events will be taking place in the medium to longer term future around the world and that involve our own organisations and communities. This would offer possibilities of Social edge posters being able to link up with one another and realising scope for meeting up ‘real-time’ at these events. Each of us could even undertake to let Social Edge have early-knowledge of any events of activities in the longer-term future that our organisations or communities will be engaged on.

 our network aims to make travel guides to world change as popular as a local publications as hotel guides or sports leagues were in the 20th century

 for 23 years now we have forecast that certain sustainability crises will be irreversible by about 2015 unless entrepreneurial citizen networks get connected up from the grassroots in ways that neither global corporations nor national governments can by themselves

some ideas on how to do this are here a b  c d  but the fun is seeing which city group will take the lead on which crisis and how we can vote around the world for those change projects we trust most for their practicality, replicability, urgency

if at a time when the UK government publishes the Stern report that we are so far down the vicious spiral of climate that we need to invest 1% of GDP to save 20% people all around the net cannot take another look at other spirals that have not been addressed locally with urgent worldwide attention ,then we may well have missed the last call to use social networks to value sustainability.

 Sustainability crises are rooted in compound future consequences and it is clear that the maths that values corporations and governments still (6 years after Brookings and Georgetown first released unseen wealth research) systematically excludes compound future integrity, which is why the people will have to take the lead in reorgansing systematically

chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk

In my previuos post I just posted what is happening in my city & my expectation how we should keep getting inspired by nature.

I eagerly waited for response & then I see people crossing my post & continue dialogue with charles - I said to myself, surya you are no ghost - Iam with my all sweat & blood physically present while posting - then I checked again what charles said in his openeing remark -

 " How can we get to know one another better?

How can we maximize our group potential?

Recognizing one another, feeling kinship, coming back often enough to notice the odd request for help or mention of a solution and, yes, make the connection that’s more than just words, or ideas even -- it’s a network in action, a college of the inspirational and the inspired, meeting, questioning, responding, acting, collaborating, thanking. A network of purpose?????????????????":

I would have just appreciated my limitation of understanding this event or give me space to warm up - I see lot's of seniors with tons & tons of knowledge or keying their knowkedge, while a person with limited knowledge like me is trying to understand and trying to explain the context I am representing.

If network of purpose has to evolve into be more human or say we like to bring in life to beautiful world of connectivity for promotion of larger good, we need to be higly inclusive & process oriented.

My words if they are making any 'sense' do respond beforing jumping over my post.

-surya.

First, Charles' thread says: "I’ll throw in the bright thoughts and even brighter questions that my networks propose, if you’ll throw in yours." A thread cannot do multiple things without getting lost. Until people who design virtual communities recognise this pattern rule of open space, we will never get anywhere.

What Charles or thread designers could do (because they have powrer to create new threads) to develop this threads convergent invitation is to list at the top of this thread those purposes that people brought that they are prepared to give their own threads and continual awareness to. Of course this should involve a relationship commitment on all sides which might include:

the purpose network proposer agrees she or he will always come back and answer on purpose conversations; that the purpose stated is indeed the deepest one of their network of conversation for many years to come; there are also other criteria which could be developed over time like in Surya's case if another city comes with the same problem, how will he make that citizen group as much as a part of the we are losing human being initiative as the hyderabad 

I have met social edge's virtual community failure to develop around core missions over time in about 50 virtual comunities over the last 12 years including several that Charles also knows. I am interested in solutions that experience of such multiple failure to support doing of systematic chnage brings. My friends and I do have also 2 prototypes in test

First is clubofcity which now includes clubofhyderabad . For 3 years I moderated the section of the European Union knowledgeboard.com on emotional intelligence. I found that naturally enough people wanted to talk about crises (and actionable learnings) in their own locality as well as communally whether people worldwide in other localities had similar experiences or collaboration soultions. I started threads within knowledgeboard by country, and every time anyone in my inbox mentioned a local crisis or emergent project/solution network, I pasted it into the country concerened. I did all of this as a volunteer.  I invited local people to add comments. Most lurked even though the country threads became some of the best browsed. I was then accused by the administrators of knowledgeboard of creating too many threads that were more like "newsletters from me" because I was the main one putting content in ver months or even years in spite of this being pasted through what local observers from many communities had sent me. So I started collaboration knowledge city blogs around http://clubofcity.blogspot.com/ of which there are now over 100. Ideally local people take control of editing the whole sity blog once they see it has momentum. Surya is welcome to be main editor of http://clubofhyderabad.blogspot.com/ if he sends me an external email to chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk because blogger needs an external mail to invite moderators

Youth Guides needed to community tools like linkedin, BBCactionNet, yahoogroups, Zaadz -   
a ClubofCity ad

However as I track citizen problems, which future historian networks have been learning how to do worldwide and locally deep for 23 years, we see sustainability clusters crises like climate, wars, poverty compounding such urgency all around the world that (as our senior economics editor first forecast in a death of distnace history of 1984) we have in all likelihood less than 9 years left to turn them round before it wil be impossible to turn round sustainability. Climate is only the first of many which we have finally got national governments confessing to: UK HM treasury invest 15 of the UK's whole exconomy in a opposite way to save 20% of the whole economy( to have any collaboration permission to save 100% of world). So at a macro (local to global systematic level of integrity) I am now most energetically interested in mapping what sustainability crisis issues do peoples recognise as need world changers travel guides to because if we don't turn systems around at every micro, inter and macro level by 2015 we never will.

A change world travel guide has these features be it a printed brochure, a pdf, a thread within a social community,...:

It agrees a deadline for "turning round" the world change- which all involved with the emergiung world citizen network will have cooperatively failed if start of sytsem turn round is not achived

It votes for projects or other leaders who anyone who supports the guide's local to change world vision need to know of first both because there is an entrepreneurially proven project and it is replicable and whomever coordinates the project wants to open source wherever interlocally relevant. Several thousand Londoners are committed to making change world guides more and more popular until we become an olympic city in 2012 and have the stage to hand out whatever best world citizen travel guides have cooperatively been banked by then. So are there other cities anywhere that want to cooperate around making change world travel gudies as popular as guides to hotels or spectaor sports. Sustainability or not of the human race is ultilmately a media and learing crisis. As Gandhi said when he founded the univestity of ahmedabad in 1920 : knolwedge is that which liberates us. Problem is those who make a business case for knowledge management are propagating exactly the opposite knowledge (Soros' age of fallibility if you wish). What a leading knowledge guru in Japan calls learning slavery. For this reason, the first print world changers guide I am microfinacing is on learning and the core world chnagers featured have lifeteime experiences of Gandhi and Montessori. We're looking for others to feature particulary a practitioner of Brazilian Freire would be nice

chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk worldcitizen.tv

• 
  
  Pamela, it’s a pleasure as always to read you here, and you open up the issue of bandwidth in a way that’s so to speak “prior” to the first of my two keys, the choice of software. I was taking a certain amount of bandwidth for granted, thinking of how some conferencing software is simpler / more intuitive / more helpful than others, and how the choice of software is often made by people who aren’t thinking in terms of facilitating conversation and conviviality.
  
  And that’s important because, counter-intuitively perhaps, conviviality – and a sense of belonging – is the environment in which networking thrives. In Knowledge Management terms, it’s the tacit knowledge shared at the water cooler rather than the overt knowledge available in job descriptions and manuals that’s most important to an organization’s flow -- Etienne Wenger, I think, would call it a matter of “conversation”. It’s when we’re informal and friendly that we convey our most significant knowledge, and we only convey it to those with whom we feel a sense of kinship, of community, of trust.
  
  Etienne Wenger on Communities of Practice:
  
  http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
  
• 
  
  Paradoxically, that’s what Surya Prakash was calling for when he noted that his post had been “skipped” by following posters – he was basically expressing the wish that we who read and post should do so “as if” this were a conversation rather than a series of vaguely related monologues.
  
  Surya, I’d suggest we all need to know that in online conversations such as this one, the fact that someone follows a particular post with another post that doesn’t relate to it doesn’t mean the first post hasn’t been read or appreciated – sometimes a post is simply too rich for an easy reply to be possible, sometimes the reader who would most like to reply has an important task to perform, and bu the time she returns to your post the conversation has already moved on…
  
  But we’d all also do well to note SP’s point too, I suggest, and to try to acknowledge each other even when diverging from recently raised topics. One of the functions of this kind of software seems to be to allow the braiding of several distinct but related conversations into one rich, polyphonic thread.
  
  And the acknowledgments are the aspects of our messages which build, little by little, the sense of kinship and trust that in turn builds a resource into a vibrant community…
  
  In which the networking is richer and more enduring.
  
• 
  
  Chris Macrae calls us to action. I’m a wordsmith myself by trade, that is (somewhat paradoxically) my action, but his point is well taken.
  
  Chris, I don’t actually have the capacity to start threads here. I get invited to suggest topics for events fairly frequently, but that’s a bit different. My focus here in initiating this particular event was on what can be done to turn a resource into a community, but you take it further in the direction of action points, just as Pam brings up the brandwidth issue, Dan points to a wider network of networks with his post entitled Social Edge as a connector, not the main meeting place, and Jeff points us to the need for a certain context within government for success to be possible. And then there is Edward, who wrote:
  We do not yet have the technology to bring about meaningful personal interaction through websites.
  I believe we do, and how to do it is a large part of what I was hoping to get to here -- and in a later post, I'll tell a couple of stories about how erich the connections formed online can be.
  
  Each of these directions in turn could be the jumping off point for a single event of this kind, and the presence of all of them in this one thread suggests that our topic is a very live wire indeed, with far more “in” it than I originally hoped or imagined. I trust we will do our best to develop each strand in turn, while also weaving the beginnings of that net of regard and trust that’s my own “key” to this business.
  
  Enough for now,
  
  My regards to each of you, more to follow as your various and significant suggestions continue to bubble in the rich brew of this item…
  
  Charles

I have spent the past 20 years looking and trying various network platforms. Going back to the days of BBS's. Have run various projects as a means to establish a virtual community.

One of the things that I have learn is that you need to integrate a human interface if you are going to have sustainable impact. You need to provide access to the "connectivity poor" through affordable portals .

There is a need for multiple entry points into the network and multiple knowledge resources portals. The system needs to be intelligent enough to be able to automatically link "same topic" discussions even if they are happening across various discussion groups ... you need a network of netowrks intelligently linked but with an human interface at grass route level to support and assist information and knowledge dissemination, encourage debates and innovative though processes ...

... and I can go on and on ...

This is part of the final research that we are in the process of conducting at present.

I like to share these initial thoughts -

When you want a topic of this nature & intent to be infused with energy, then you need to have lot's of patience, in one word we need to underline the word PURPOSE & thus accept the fact it's highly process oriented.

I keep looking at the process of deciding to bear a child to bringinging up the child to be responsible & purposeful.

As huge responsibility lies in every couple  who decide to have an unprotective sex that their lies a possibility of becoming pregnant & one should own the responsibility of continuing & giving life and add purpose to it.

Here I am quoting this example of Life - because I see lot's of gap in understanding this that " when you have ability to create then you have the responsibility of giving appropriate direction".

Please see my earlier posts in the social edge where I  mentioned from the inception of social edge that " How I see life", at times I did share my personal tragedies & dilemma's.

Social edge is home for me & at times I become demanding, please accept that, child in me is who prompts me to demand - I miss each one of you who feel for the society and I feel social edge is all about being HUMAN & that's the purpose.

-surya.

If this virtual community box has no way that its moderators can create league tables of all time contributions (urgent projects, deep questions, whatever) across conversations either in dedicated threads or a community-wide newsletter -then I don't believe this has been designed as a powerful resource for activating community

I find it odd that we seldom see the people who actualy designed the toolbox answering this sort of usability question 

(Incidentally, there are ways eg a weblog dedicated to cataloguing - to patch the missing facilities but these still require moderators agreeing to repeatedly publicise eg the external bookmark that is used to catalogue projects ) or a link designed into the top page

I strongly believe that people who are spending substantial amounts of time in virtual community spaces with the intent of connecting social projects/needs should start to pool/syndicated no-cost ads. These ads could look very much like the google box ads you see for example in weblogs. However people can agree to insert them appropiately wherever html access includes simple tables.

Its important that the social advertiser has a bookmark to click to and is intent to greet any serious people who are drawn by the ad for a similar project or conversation. A few mock-up ads are here I agree the topic Surya is talking about is important and a crisis in many places. Does he wish to moderate a conversation on this over the coming months? If so we can co-create an ad once where know where his discussion group is bookmarked. I believe one of my all time social heroes lives in his vicinity so there is quite a lot of related social gravity. In principle I am prepared to take one ad per person who wants to try this around socila crisis issues. I am working in various networeks concerned with travel guides to world change in any virtual and print media. Having a catalogue of ads people want displayed because they represent a long-term entrepreneurial make a difference focus is a natural resource for our genres to help promote.

chris macrae info@worldcitizen.tv

The fact that we're each in the same on line forum may mean were achieving the purpose Charles had in starting this thread. We're getting to know each other better.

I'm not sure about everyone else who post messages in forums like this or Omidyar, or everyone who write blogs, but I lead a small non profit and spend most of my waking hours trying to find a way to keep it funded, and achiveing its purpose. Finding extra time to spend digging through the deep thoughts posted on some of these forums is almost impossible.

• 
  
  There are people I seldom if ever see here any more, whose presence I sorely miss.

One young black kid in South Africa aged about 8 or 9 was sitting with his mother on the "stoop" outside his house in a South African shanty-town, when a white priest walked by and doffed his hat to the boy's mother. The boy could hardly grasp how this had happened -- his mother was a black woman, as one might say, "of no account". But the priest in question was Fr. Huddleston, and it was a natural courtesy for him to lift his hat in greeting a lady... The young boy never quite recovered from this encounter: we know him now as Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu.

Another young black kid, Hugh, aged 12 or 13, fell ill and was taken to hospital, where Trevor Huddleston visited him. Trevor asked him what he would like more than anything in this world, what would so thrill and please him that he would have the greatest possible motive for getting himself out of the hospital and back to school. Hugh said, "a trumpet, Father", so Trevor got hold of a trumpet to give to the boy -- now known the world over as the internationally renowned jazz trumpeter, Hugh Masekela.

Jeff.Mowatt,Dan,chrismacrae &Charles - I read through each of your mails so many times - 

And I see & understand that they are so many different approaches for similar situations & networks would attend to the purpose.

I just like to quote this dilemma - My wife being gyenocologist is able to address the issue of infertility and bring in life to those families who are longing to have children & I being part of implementation of Child Care Protection Act 2000 (Govt.,of India) am responsible for taking care of children who are destituted for various reasons are given direction with provision of safe environment to continue their life till they attain 18years of age.

So while we lead our life I see that we have the responsibility of understanding,reflecting, on what is going on with life in the area we represent and thus develop, borrow & or just observe to help ourselves to move forward.

I see reflections by seniors such as Charles, experiences shared by Dan, knowledge of various methods suggested by chrismacare & Jeff,  along with words of WORDSWORTH shared are deffinete inputs for me, here I like to end using the words of Charles -

" it's the presence of so many "transmitters" gathered here that makes this place, for me, such a compelling online context to return to".

I would recommend that Surya goes to http://www.ashoka.org/ and goes through the catalogue of social entrepreneurs in India which is where Ashoka started social entrepreneurship's edge nearly 30 year ago. I believe many do work relevant to his or his wife's vocation. What I dont know is whether they network as a group yet. If they do, they should let Surya and his wife join their knowhow flows; if they don't perhaps that's the first network of purpose Surya can build out from. If that makes sense but for some reason there are inertias in getting India's child-nurturing entrepreneurs on the same map, tell me and I will go pay Bill Drayton a visit down in Arlington. I enjoy the cure of publishing whether network maps connect or are full of holes!

I have just come across perhaps the most purposeful message a summit of 100000 people has ever issued; world social forum kenya 2007 has announced its about: 

 which world do you want to live in 

• B) where profit matters most?
• A) where life matters most?

see the 3 minute invitation video link at http://futurehistorian.tv/_wsn/page8.html 

I'm working on helping to propagate the WSF ad in simplest ways that any forum can include, but  help is always inspiring if this message is one your social networks want to interconnect to chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk http://futurehistorian.tv/

Incidentally , Peter Eigen of Transparency International and ashoka's Global Academy forecast last year that Jamuary 2007 would be one year from our last chance deadline for starting to end corruption everywhere. So for our amazing human race, Kenya is probably the final crossroads for all networks of purpose to do with human sustainability. It is not just Gore's and Skoll's climate crisis' inconvenient truth where we at the precipice (or final tipping point) of dare we get hi-trust and deep purpose interconnected.

If folk want a community thread to continue conversing around the WSF invitaion at , one is at http://www.omidyar.net/group/community-general/news/1564/

New to this list, so please excuse if this is old hat....

"Communities of practice" offer a structural model for thinking about intentional design and cultivation of networks--specially those that emphasize action-learning.  (cf. Charles' mention in post #16 above.)

Typical success factors: active facilitation (often requires sponsorship for strategic communities); issues close to participants' personal/professional passion; and requisite mix of ways to engage.

Building on tutormentor post #18: Is the domain of this group too generic?  Need design ones on more specific topics, e.g., social entrepreneurs on topics related to China or AIDs (mentortutor's examples)?  Need do outreach to coalesce group with more specific shared interests?  Need time/funds (sponsored by self/other) to support sufficient facilitation/coordination--and perhaps travel to meet in person?  Etc.

As reference re: application in civic context (city-based multi-stakeholder coalitions on topics like reducing gun violence, sharing ideas/experience across multiple US cities), see: www.businessofgovernment.org/main/winners/ [author: Snyder]

Would be interested in hearing from those focusing on networks for cross-city collaboration on public-good issues (health, housing, education, econ. developmenjt, etc.).

- Bill

I see some hunger here to nurture specific communities of purpose around mentoring, welfare of children, etc...  Back to the basics of what it takes to nurture on-line communities - as Bill Snyder says in post 33 above - communities will flourish around a common purpose.  I think moderators are important, and if possible, some true action can result.  On zaadz.com, there are many specific "zpods" which people can join.  For example, I am a member of the "An Inconvenient Truth" pod.  Even on zaadz, I think that more work is required to get and keep people engaged. 

I would like to propose the idea of creating communities of purpose around a series of "Bigger Games".  Check out The Bigger Game Company website. 

This is a cut and paste of the Bigger Game Model, copyright and trademarked by The Bigger Game Company.

Everyone here, every social entrepreneur is playing a Bigger Game.  Many of our Bigger Games are in the same playing field, with a very similar compelling purpose.  We are all looking for ways to engage allies in "our" Bigger Game.  That where the need for communities of common purpose is really strong, and where the impact of these communities can be bold and impactful.

I am good friends with the founders of this company, and I use the model in my corporate role with internal teams.  I believe that to create a community around a compelling purpose, and then leveraging the model intentionally to discuss and clarify the hunger/need, the existing and needed allies, investments, etc... could be powerful.  I believe that overtime, the community members would be compelled to meet via phone or face to face to take the community to new levels, and real world action. 

We now have multiple cases and many webs of purposeful networks for open world citizens to connect around out of every locality http://clubofcity.blogspot.com/ ;

clean energy emerging here http://up200.tv/_wsn/page3.html

why Yunus is currently the world's most value multiplying strategist/economist http://grameen.tv/ http://brac.tv/

to improve their sustainability reputations, the smartest game the world's largest corporations can play is to partner in no loss-strategies gravitated by vital human development rights - see eg the Grameen -Danone story at the Clinton Global Initiative; if you can't find it and need to email me at chris.macrae @yahoo.co.uk http://brandchartering.blogspot.com/ http://worldclassbrands.blogspot.com/

why Bushes top-down team lost the war - which some of them have frankly admitted - ultimately how ever greatly inconvenient the power of whites in a house in DC, you need hi-trust relationships with people at localities if they are going to trust you to reconstruct their lands

indeed, all 4 of Larry Brilliant's core crises to the sustainability of the species depend integrally on the intelligence that only those at grassroots context can see and help interconnect; the folks who have not be listened to the top for years- remember Orleans; those charged to respond to levee safety preferred running arabian horse networks and wearing the smartest suits televised disasters had ever seen

link at http://guidemakers.net/ ... all our compound global sustainability crises http://changeworld.net/

 can only be resolved in time if local intelligence is integrated with those who have global budgets; tangible corruption is about bribes; intangibles corruption is what eg Exxon have done in misinforming the world as if they have all the correct knowledge;led by Branson we in the Uk we are prepared to declare legal war on Exxon; false information about sustainability of our species is the biggest weapon of mass destruction in tghe knowledge netwoking age;  why does our treasury have to spend 1% of GDP to save 20%; entirely because those partying with the non-transparent Exxon network has been spending billions of dollars on false messages; buying up any academics or politicians who needed funding however blindly they thought they were doing the patriotic thing; every country similarly afflicted should send Exxon its bills? That would bring a purposeful social  edge to  commune round, to practice across world citizen networking http://worldcitizen.tv/ - just as well  Brits also own the largest public broadcaster in the world; it is time for information that grassroots people have collected throufgh generations is fully valued insetad of externalised onto

there are mathematical and economic reasons for what I hav estated in this post that some of us clans and networks -including the guy who deputy edited The Economist over 5 deacdes who hapens to be my father - have been studying for 23 year now - the new book of maps will be published next year; the treausre trail for chnaging network economics starts with tghe original future hostory on death of distance

http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html#Anchor-Changin-27687

http://www.normanmacrae.com/intrapreneur.html

http://entrepreneurialrevolution.blogspot.com/

http://er100.blogspot.com/

http://futurehistorian.tv/

http://networkeconomics.tv/

http://www.valuetrue.com/ http://joyoftruth.com/

I hosted a conference in Chicago today. Around 100 people attended, including leaders of tutor/mentor programs, a sr. program officer of MacArthur Foundation and to Ex. Directors of small foundations, as well as many college, faith based and misc. people. The goal was collaboration and capacity building, which is the same goal I have here on Social Edge.

In the Discussion Forum of http://www.tutormentorconnection.org I'll be posting some of the questions raised today, and my hope is that people from the conference will join in. 

This will be a challenge though. In a final wrap up session of about 25 people, I asked how many have a web forum, or a blog. None did. Thus, connecting our face to face people, with our on-line people, is a mountain we must climb if we can move to a next level of collaboration and community building.

Thanks for the ideas you all are sharing.

Mapmakers can see that there is a double loop here where you are likely to be perceived as being the worst of both worlds especially if you are trying with whole sincercity to breakthrough to be linking in to the best for the world. Give me some open space to question please http://guidemakers.net http://changeworld.net http://worldcitizen.tv

q1 so how do you do? To be or not to be?? a world citizen???

After playing with networks in 1973 as a researched at the UK National Development Program for computer assited learning networks my advice :

on be the change (towards world citzineship) is know your clan, the tree you branch out of

1973 was a great time to explore learning networks because there were no big business interests telling you how. Most of what our educationalists in Leeds and other Universities found in 1973 still hasnt begun to be replayed around today's internet. That is why I agree with my father's 1984 forecasts that learning networks will be one of the great crisies that will compound sustainability or loss of futire generations http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html But I never quite understood where their whole system dna cam from

Accidentally it turn sout I can go up my family tree to just 4 people who had impacts on nearly a 100 nations; mt father who interviewwd leaders in over 30 countries over his 5 decades at The Economist; his father who was a British diplomat in 15 extra countries in the period betwen the 2 world wars who accidentally witnessed the worst government systems yet globally topped over people - Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany; a cousin whose family line is missionaries in Africa but who's reporting as war correspondent from places like Iraq. So I am interested in Be the Internationalist. I do not claim to know a lot about each culture. But I do see that bridging cultures requires a lot of trust. I can see how to rank top people in the last US administrations on cross-cultural bridging intelligence. Most are definitely in the lowest quartile compared with all 6 billion beings. But then being at the top of a superpower is the greatest system handicap you could have when a world is integrating local networks like tehre will be no tomorrow. Clinton of the white house was very median at cross-culture bridging; today at CGI he's a world benchmark for all who act for sustainability

But as a Scot I can also discover with deep passion that free ethical markets were mapped by Adam Smith and never more systematically questioned for transparency than by the 1840s founder of The Economist James Wilson http:er100.blogspot.com . Both Adam and James would have found it funny peculiar that social entreprenurship is claimed to be a new world lens when mathematically it was far simpler in their old english frameworks; it was what they always integrated and web-logged in their maps. A map of productive and demanding human relationship systems - be this economic or social or multiplying te compound welath and health of each as win-win-win - you see does not work unless it connects people on the ground. You cannot truly audit maps from top-down governace without starting each audit with he most grounded new observations. Most Scots also were expatriated worldwide well before 1900 because the English sent up early global accounatnts to prove to Lords that sheep made better 90 day numbers than sheep. Of course tangibkle accountants spreadsheets have and always will be were extremely illiterate in terms of compound maths. Nothing much has changed to this day -has it?: the global accountants are rigged around investing in machines not people; in separating ring fences not flowing life-critical knowhow and precenting risks ahead of time even as networks as sytems*systems*systems make boudaries absolutely critical to sustainability of wholes; they have so little understanding of compound consequence maths that unlike true entrepreneurs global accounting and man consulting align with the type of top-down economist who has caused the greatest market failure ever as HM Treasury now reports the climate crisis and th need to invest 1% of DGP systamatically digferently to save 20% of GDP or 100 of the future. Quite frankly with only one of the 3 worst come ons still surviving Exxon,(Enron, Andrson) national leaders should be sending their bills to Exxon now that would be an interseting network orf purpose.

so might some of the following:

1 help Brits take over the BBC and restore it as a world service questioner for all peoples

2 add a slide to the white paper first presented Delhi 2004 at http://www.globalreconciliationnetwork.org/ on the coming wars between goodwill and badwill networks; an interesting branch in this area of research was early 2001 where the chair of the committe of Brookings and Georegtowns deepest brains on compound future welath presented the extrem risks of not understanding this to the incoming adminsitartion from texas as was givem a Texan booting; I happened to interview her the month after this happened; her compound rsik warning of unseen wealth seemed like dire spirals then; of course her research has proved to be the greatest future history system lens white houses of man has so far not chosen to see through

3 vote for the 200 people league table of most networked being best for the world http://up200.tv/ http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html#Anchor-Changin-27687 http://groups.google.com/group/maclink/about?hl=en-GB

4 make a map between to randomly take 3 : social edge, omidyar.net and Zaadz- given that the world citenry values seem to be pasionately the sam,e in all 3 od tehse paces - why no be the connection bridges; presumably becuase socila edge is most interested in channeling skoll foundation news; omidyar.net believes fairness means channeling nobody news (even though most of its members would love to know what connection can be mead with eg the 100 million dollar funding to explore microfinace at Tufts) and Zaadz boldly tries to design a new virtual community interface unlike the very clunky ones of socila edge and omidyar.net; of course it would be good to hear what I misunderstand from those who actually know why each community separates boxes instead of connecting them

5 devalue the dollar by another 100% unless politicinas agre eit is time to stop only devaluing peoples currency when corporations are more to blame; we could for example all agree that Exxon is wortless and all other oil companies are to be taxed so they never make a higher profit than say they did on inauguration day in 2001; that order of worldwide democratic decision would suitably devalue a global market sector which has taken humanity to the precipice http://sqtest.tv I agree this is a revolutionary idea but do you think something elss thah that will turn the tides of bombs for everyone - a chapter my dad as future hostorian first wrote up in 1975 as the greatest risk of America's Third Centiry as The Economst called hi survey map http://futurehostorian.tv

perhaps a topline story on Gandhi should be the bottom lines on be the change*connection; I have been reading him avidly recently but not as much as a grandson of someone who c-wrote the legalese of India's Indpendence shoudl; so far I havent found the context where he proclaimed be the chnage - please beam me up if you know; however it is clear from his writings and independent reveiws by Eisntein that he was the greatest connector of all 3 apexes of systemic entrepreneurial revolution : micro inter and macro; and alsways in that audit order at each cylce; a family story hepls to understand why; his dad's job was to do the triage at the court of a local prince; when people came demanding an audience with the prince, Mr Gamdhi would know who led each subnetwork more actively than ever the prince did; and work out whether the triage participant had a concept worth the subnetworks audience; and would otherwiose offer kindly adice on how to colaborate on an existing NoP project;

I justify inserting this here as I hope we have no more united purpose than peace and one of the prizes giftgivers to this competition is skoll in the form of some free invites to skoll 2007 world championships in Oxford

One of the simplest ways to network purpose would be if the different people social edge hires to converse connected the biggest stories social edge propagates. So a newsletter has just been sent out by skollfoundation presumably to thousands about the scandal of ever increasing cancerous chemicals in food chains. But as far as I can see there is no one-click debate and network of purpose assembling around that. Meanwhile the biggest story skoll has helped propagate in the last 2 years is climate crisis but oddly if we searched socialedge there's nowhere that a conversation is editing the progress that Inconvenient truth is waving all round the erst of the www - even as in parallel Al Gore has been taking training of 1000 people in using the slides from skolls films live in Nashville and Sydney

If tangible real estate is all about location, location, location - purposeful networks , virtual community real estates and communications are all about connection, connection, connection not authors however deeply caring or gurued who seldom if ever commune between themselves and know the future history of the biggest purposes skoll has been mediating and helping people ro participate in propaganda which maps through transparently to where each of us beings can simply see how to act on it to our hearts content

An attempt was made a while back to create a geographical connection that would show what part of the world a person was focusing his/her efforts on. I can't seem to find a link to that discussion. Charles, maybe you recall it?

Friends,

After reading Charles post where he had said -"I'm collecting ideas on what we could do at SE to facilitate networks of purpose, heightening the sense of community, etc"

I took print of the entire conversation in A4 size and placing them in two columns and reduced the font size - I got 17 pages and I started reading -

so much of openness I saw and I also saw the wealth of information & experience each is possessing and the frankness of communication and the level of compassion demonstrated was awesome.

Just I like to post what we are doing as a recap -( why I am posting here is explained at the bottom)

Couple aspiring to become pregnant are coming to our clinic > their wish is being heard and they are blessed with a child > child grows and some reason gets deviated and lands in a situation where in there is nobody to take care > with power bestowed on us in implementation of Child Care & Protection Act we are able to take care of them and give them direction > Meanwhile whoever comes for clinical help we are able to guide them and treat them, at times save lives > As women moves into her menopause we are able to back them up and improve their quality of life > People who are aged and who are residing in our area are personally taken care and we are able to meet their basic needs.

While all the above situations and interventions are going on, one thing which is standing out is our approach to food -- from production i.e. from protecting 200 farmers who produce food to attending to people who are hungry (which is done through open house) is what we are able to do.

All these activities are carried out with thorough reflection on Life, which is done under banner - Life-Dialogue

Friends,

All this work was done after founding the organisation (1999)to enquire why after 52 years of our independence we are not still able to organize.

Friends, today we reached a stage again, where land  becoming domain of few players - our farmers are committing suicides and govt,. stating farming is no more lucrative (irony here is when land being most fertile).

Friends I strongly believe what we do to our lands is what we do to ourselves - ie, you protect the land and you will be protected.

This entire dialogue when happening, here we are mute witness to the entire game.

So, what I like to impress upon is - we need lots & lots of hand holding and volunteers to understand these and they being empowered with knowledge & strength to face the consequences of acts, which will determine our very existence.

Thanks Bill for providing this information. However, when I looked at your map I saw a different version than the maps I'm using.   Visit http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/programlocator/default.asp and you can see maps of Chicago that show where poverty and poorly performing schools are concentrated. Search the Find a Program section, by zip code, and  you'll see that we provide listings for existing programs, with a Google map interface.

If Surya were listed on a Program Locator for organizations that do what his organization does, the map would show where he is in India, and might also show who else, if any, is doing the same work.

If the world organiztions were creating map directories like this, the could be drawing volunteers and resources from the rest of the world through the map and to the organizations working to end poverty. They could also be using the map to create an understanding of all of the places in the world where there is a need for service, but no programs currently serving that area.  This hopefully, would lead to a strategic increase in the distribution of programs.

Charles,

Actually, perhaps I should have used another term--yes, 4-D is difficult to imagine!  Even if it's probably what is needed to be more representative.  Okay, for an idea of how complicated the dimensions look, even as a flatland graphic, see attached slides two mini-cases.  The second frames an analysis of an initiative in the Colorado River Delta along four dimensions (as term used here): Issues (water, economy, etc.), Sectors, Change Strategies, and Places.

This is all schematic, so not nearly GIS-like regarding places, for example.  (Thanks, Tutormentor, for your reference along those lines--impressive!)  The map here is merely to suggest parameters and analysis questions relevant when cultivating a broader learning system for public-good outcomes.

As mentioned, the map is a place to start to identify players and begin process of convening those who want to weave the network to leverage complementary capabilities, relationships, etc. for shared public-good goals.  It's a kind of social network analysis with a learning-system framework embedded in it.

Ther are two sllide illustrations in attached PP.  One at cross-city national level (3 dimensions); the other transnational (US-MX) on 4 dimenions.  See attached.  See "View/Notes Pages" under each slide for related commentary/analysis questions.

With a Web 2.0 approach to integration, this kind of entrepreneurial mash-up is certainly possible. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a Kiva + Roots of Peace + Google Maps + Flickr mash-up that let's you buy fruit from a specific farmer in Afghanistan, read about them, see where they are located and see pictures of their orchards. GlobalGiving + International Bridges To Justice that allows you to give financial aid to specific legal battles and research the issues involved. Riders for Health + Institute for OneWorld Health + Healthcare Without Harm + VillageReach working together to get the latest medicines to the most remote parts of Africa.

Makes me look at the issues of scale in a whole new light. A bunch of small organizations working together could have a greater impact than a single large organization with a limited focus. Imagine the possibilities.

I've described ways I'm using GIS to draw support to tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. Here's a link to a group using GIS to draw holiday donations to charities in upstate New York: http://www.agishost.com/givingmap/

I just feel that if we can make the data collection/mapping process easier to adopt and use in various places, we can take a huge step forward in sharing the work of increasing the number of people who use this information to make decisions on where to make donations of money or time.

Since this discussion is no longer featured on the home page, it will be more difficult to keep it going. One demonstration of how a network of purpose might work toward a shared goal is this:

At http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/egroups/egroups.htm I host a list of discussions, and I've added a section for Social Edge, and put in links to this discussion and other that I'm following.

If each of you put a reference to this discussion on your own pages, or in your blogs, visitors to  your sites can be encouraged to visit this discussion. It's simple, but if many people do this, we each contribute to a common purpose.

1. Video can deliver unique impact and reality about your work. By asking people to upload video, you avoid production costs and achieve a powerful authenticity. Your appeal to donors and funders will go up as they see and get engaged in your work and even upload videos of their own. You will build relationships with film schools, local high school and college classes where the faculty are assigning video projects, and with new foundations that found you through video.

2. Video websites appeal to young people – a source of new members and volunteers. They also showcase new talent, like the students and volunteers who upload videos and text to ThePeopleChoose.

4. The technology is widespread and the cost is low if you partner with a private sector video site – a good way to build a corporate relationship that can grows into other things.

3. Video sites can build relationships with users and commenters.

How do you do it?

1. Unless your organization has large amount of server space and bandwidth, form a partnership with a video upload company. This is a win-win for them because your members and promotion will bring more traffic to their site, increasing ad revenues, and they provide the space, upload applications and bandwidth to you at no cost.

2. Have your IT person or a contract programmer add a "new clips" section to your site's back end. This is a site which allows your staff to grab videos uploaded to your partner's site and post on you own so they open theirs, preferably in Flash.

3. Put a button or a box on your home page that asks people to upload their video and takes them to a page where they agree to your terms of service, and then sends them to a page on your partner's site that has your logo on it where they actually upload the video. Your staff then reviews it to make sure it meets your terms of service (TOS) and rules, like no profanity or copyrighted material. (In your TOS, let them keep the copyright to their videos, which they license to you at no charge – take a look at the TOS's on some of the upload sites and then have your lawyer or a volunteer attorney draft yours.)

Questions? Comments? Jump in the conversation.

Thanks Patrick for a great topic!

I am starting a new citizen sector organization (NPO, NGO) that takes rising NGO leaders from the developing world to volunteer for one year in the U.S.  Since this is a new model of international service I decided to upload a video of myself describing the organization.  It does not look as fancy as I would like, but I am pleased with the start.

See: http://www.atlascorps.org/about/where.htm

Or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeVra0s2lbY

I am using a simple logitech camera and a free windows movie maker software.  It really is easy!  I have a lot of work to go before it looks very professional.

Here is my question.  Do most people have and know how to use video cameras to post video replies?  Are there bandwidth problems with these videos?  And, is there a "best" video site to use?

Thanks!

Scott Beale, Executive Director, Atlas Service Corps

http://www.atlascorps.org  

We've had a small video program  in place for about 10 years. It's aim has been to connect innercity youth with mentors who work in the communications, video, film industries. There are many benefits from such a program and one is that the material youth create can tell of their involvement in a NPO and invite others to participate. Until YouTube there was no way to distribute the video effectively to a large audience.

We put one of our videos on YouTube recently at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuPfJcCEpsk

People who view this can see how teens are rapping their experiences and the expectations of Cabrini Connections.  This is just one of many videos that have been created over the years. You can view clips of others at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/IYP/Videos.html

One of my goals is to create a network of youth arts/video programs, using central Internet web sites as interchanges to connect viewers, volunteers and donors with hundreds of youth organizations, and using the videos created by youth and volunteers as the entertainment and advertising that draws more and more people to this sector.

In the Links SECTION of http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/ there is a sub section on arts/mentoring where people with youth video programs can submit a web link. That's the first part of our own effort to create a web library of such programs.

Patrick, thanks for an interesting conversation, Beth for the information and everyone for their feedback.

I like the idea of giving people an incentive (or at the very least directly soliciting video submissions) to get people to send in videos.  I have to imagine with the incredible popularity of blogs that video blogs and communication is going to be twice as big in the next 2 years.

We still have a long ways to go at Atlas Service Corps (http://www.atlascorps.org) but especially since we are an international nonprofit with an international audience, we are excited about the possibility that video provides.

In fact, my next initiative is to make a 90 second Atlas Corps video in Spanish and then invite people to submit videos about Atlas Corps in other languages to put online, as a solid way that demonstrates our global orientation.

Thanks!

Scott Beale

scott@atlascorps.org

http://www.atlascorps.org

Patrick, per your request here is the Spanish video.  In the coming weeks I plan to do videos in Hindi, French, Chinees and other languages (I wont do them, but people I know will).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS7j4NRGVXQ

Here is the improved English video I just made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8IDrCOLYg4

And for those who have not seen it yet, here is my organization's site:

http://www.atlascorps.org

Please feel free to share with others.

Some sites like Revver allow you the optiong of making money off of your videos. In Revver's case, for example, they insert an advertisement at the end of your video and everytime someone clicks on it you get paid (a small amount, similar to Google's Adsense).

Patrick, do you or other's have experience with this and other ways to make a profit off of video and not just use it as a communication or promotional tool?

thanks,

Paul

For those organizations interested in conducting video interviews with people in separate locations, check out Rosetimes. With only a standard video camera, a broadband connection and a VOIP tool (like Skype or Gizmo), you can create a free video interview with superb sound quality that doesn't require the interviewer or interviewee to be in the same place - they just both need to have this equipment on either end. Even better, in the final product both interviewer and interviewee appear in the same frame.

Perhaps something that Social Edge should consider using?

Cheers,

Paul

We have multilingual volunteers and staff.

In addition, our next step is to ask other volunteers to send in 90 second videos that explain Atlas Service Corps (our nonprofit) and then we will post those videos online.

thanks, scott

www.atlascorps.org

Hey there,
This has been a really useful discussion- thanks.  I am doing a fellowship whereby we spend most of the year working directly with organizations in India, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Pakistan.  One of the elements of our work is putting together a case study via video as well as a general short video of the social enterprises we are working with.  I appreciate all your ideas here.

Keely

The Acumen Fund Fellowship is very prestigious.  Congrats on the good work you must be doing!  It would be great to hear more about your experience and eventually see the video you put together. I can be reached at scott@atlascorps.org.

Sincerely,

Scott Beale

Atlas Corps

www.atlascorps.org

scott@atlascorps.org

You can spend a heck of a lot of time both searching for videos and watching them. The more so the deeper the social edge learning in our view. So we invite people to tell us their favourite social edge videos so we can list links to them in one place http://worldcitizen.tv/_wsn/page5.html 

We're interested in building sub-banks for different audiences- how for example do we convince journalists at the BBC that they should be focusing mush more on sustainability debates? Or how do we connect video and print around the idea that travel guides to sustsinability heroes need to become as popular as  to hotels if every locality and socila network is to unite and participate.

http://guidemakers.net   http://herstory.tv  http://grameen.tv

I see a great future in open cataloguing sites but leaving others to make the videos

Hey Brown, am wondering if by law, these kids are supposed to be fed in school, that's my understanding in theory within the candain law, can you move beyound the stakeholders to involving private sectors?

Tio

Briefly, my story and my need.

My story.  My name is Scott Beale and I recently left a secure and exciting job with the US State Department doing human rights work in India to start a new international nonprofit (Atlas Service Corps) that will bring rising nonprofit leaders from the developing world to volunteer for one year in the US.  This unique approach to international service provides an outstanding professional development opportunity to rising overseas nonprofit leaders, builds capacity among US nonprofit organizations and creates avenues for international cooperation.  Further, it is a sustainable, scalable program since US nonprofit organizations pay about 50% of the expenses to host a Fellow (about $16,000).

My need.  I want people to check out http://www.atlascorps.org - I am looking for host organizations in Washington, DC; feedback from thought leaders on the idea and of course, resources.  This is a revolutionary new approach that values the contributes of leaders from the global south and completes the important circle of service that the 300+ organizations like the Peace Corps have done for 45 years sending Americans overseas to volunteer.

Thanks for your interest, I look forward to reading other people's posts.

Sincerely, Scott Beale - www.atlascorps.org - scott@atlascorps.org

Let me briefly answer some of your questions and strongly encourage you all to check out www.atlascorps.org - I have my entire business plan online and a lot more info.

Tio - Uniqueness.  My research indicates that there are no other organizations in the US bringing mid career nonprofit professionals to the US to volunteer for one year at likeminded US nonprofits to learn best practices as well as share their perspectives..  There are academic programs that teach Fellows, short-term government programs, even business and religious programs.  But none in the nonprofit sector like what I am doing.  Online I outline the uniqueness and compare Atlas Corps to similiar organizations: http://www.atlascorps.org/competition.html  However, if people know of similiar programs, please check out that site and then let me know if there is something out there I have not thought of.

Kmniazi - Quality & Price. I will ensure a high quality of people working at the grassroots through a nominator network, similiar to where I used to work - Ashoka - that will guarentee outstanding candidates.  In addition, the J-1 visa and program requirements mandate that Fellows return back to their home country for at least two years before coming back to the US.  With regard to the price, the program costs me $36,000.  $16K is covered by the partner and I need to raise about $20K more for each person.  The Fellow will not be responsible for living expenses, they will receive a small but sufficient living stipend, like a Peace Corps or AmeriCorps volunteer.  They will also get their travel paid, health care, etc.

Thanks for the kind words and the interest. I welcome all feedback and encourage people to check out www.atlascorps.org and to email me at scott@atlascorps.org

I am piloting this program with nonprofit leaders from India and Colombia going to nonprofit organizations in DC and DE, so I could use leads in those areas and generally want feedback from everyone.

Take care, Scott Beale

Most stakeholders want us to offer them a perfect solution while we are determined to assist them in finding the most appropriate response that works for their community

There is probably more than one way to accomplish this successfully

Thanks Charles,

An important part of my story is the almost three years I worked at Youth Venture, essentially the youth wing of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.  While at Ashoka I learned so much from Bill Drayton and the dynamic team they have about social entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability and scalability.  Their unending emphasis on these principles and the opportunity to interact with Fellows who put those principles to use have shaped my own path as a social entrepreneur and how I have shaped Atlas Corps.  In fact, I'm honored to share that Bill Drayton and David Bornstein both agreed to be on my Senior Advisory Board.

To answer your other question about whether I think that I can eventually cover 100% of the Fellows expenses through the host organization cost share, the answer is yes.  In my opinion, these Fellows are worth $50K+, they are the best of the best, sharing their perspectives at an organization.  In the beginning the $16,000 cost share covers 40% of the cost, but over 10 years I think I can increase this to $28,000, and with economies of scale, have this cover 100% of the program expense.  This revenue stream allows Atlas Corps to expand all over the world and be completely sustainable.  More on this here: http://www.atlascorps.org/on_sustainability.html

Oh, now that I re-read your question, I think you misunderstood my post.  There is no cost to the volunteers, they are giving their time.  The cost is to the US Host Organizations (US nonprofits) who are gaining the Fellow for a year. Similiar to how most US nonprofits cost-share AmeriCorps VISTAs.

Thanks! Scott Beale, http://www.atlascorps.org

I'm honored to share that Bill Drayton and David Bornstein both agreed to be on my Senior Advisory Board.

Charles, thanks for hosting this discussion

My Story: I have led the Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993 and a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program since 1974. The goal is to connect workplace volunteers with inner city kids in structured programs that offer a wide range of learning and enrichment as part of an effort to help kids move to jobs and careers. I host a variety of forums that enable people to connect with each others, and with ideas that they can use. My aim in participating in Social Edge is to find others who share the same goal, and who will work together to increase the involvement of business, and business resources in helping kids from poverty neighborhoods in many cities be part of structured, long-term programs.

Value of Social Edge: I've been invited to host two discussion on Social Edge this year and hope to do more in the future. On Nov. 30 I'm hosting a one day event in Chicago, which I describe at http://www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com/. If any readers can participate either by coming to Chicago, or by hosting on-line disucssions in December, or by helping me find others who can participate, I'd like to hear from you.

You can read more about my efforts at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/

Thanks Kmniazi,

Regarding how we will find Atlas Corps Fellows.  In the beginning we will rely on a nomination process because it is starting as a small program and we have limited resources and reach.  Further, we have associations with Ashoka, USAID, the US Embassy and other networks of NGO leaders in Colombia and India.  We wont reach everyone, but we will reach a lot.  Over time we will open up the application process.

And regarding asking the Fellows to volunteer - absolutely.  They will be volunteering their time at the Host Organization, and they will also be spending time studying best practices in the US.  In addition, they will be asked to do a team service project and get involved in the community.

Finally, regarding connecting with people on SE.  I am pretty new to SE, find some conversations better than others. I am here to get feedback on my idea and hope to meet people in the process.  We'll see ...

Thanks,

Scott Beale - scott@atlascorps.org - http://www.atlascorps.org  

Generating interest / participation among people is an issue facing all online communities

Any ideas, about how I can take full advantage of SE and contribute to SE in a meaningful way?

Good question - "how strong does an organization have to be, for it to be able to "lose" one of its best for a year"

Atlas Corps is recruiting rising leaders who have 4-8 years of experience, ideally mid career professionals, #2s or #3s in an organization.  We do not want to take Executive Directors and we do not want to take recent students either.  We want people who when they leave the organziation will not fall apart (e.g. Exec. Dir) but have been around long enough they have a lot to share too.

It may be the case that when these rising leaders come to the US they need to leave their jobs and be replaced by someone else.  That is ok, the Fellow will know this in advance and get a financial award when they return home to help with the transition to a new job.  Larger organizations may be able to hold positions open, smaller organizations will not.

The key point is that while these fellows will miss one of year of service to their country they will come back 20%, 30% of 50% better at what they do (although this is difficult to measure, we will try).  So, after 2, 3 or 5 years they will have made up for lost time and be able to spread their knowledge to others.

This aspect of the model was developed by NGO leaders in India who thought the benefits of the program far outweighed the logistical, short term challenges.

Thanks! Scott http://www.atlascorps.org - scott@atlascorps.org

Atlas Corps is recruiting rising leaders who have 4-8 years of experience, ideally mid career professionals, #2s or #3s in an organization. We do not want to take Executive Directors and we do not want to take recent students either. We want people who when they leave the organziation will not fall apart (e.g. Exec. Dir) but have been around long enough they have a lot to share too.

they will come back 20%, 30% of 50% better at what they do (although this is difficult to measure, we will try)

Thanks Carlos,

We could raise the $1.2 Million/year and design systems(assembly,delivery) to produce and deliver 30,000/day but we believe that we would be perpetuating the problem of child hunger. It isn't about feeding 30,000 kids through an agency lunch program - it is about changing attitudes around the issue and raising community-based solutions to the problem.In Calgary it is wrong that there are starving children in Sudan but it is bad that kids in Calgary are hungry. We need to raise awareness about this situation and that it is wrong. It is the small thinking of service provision without solutions that ends up managing issues and everytime we manage an issue (hunger, homelessness, health ...) we disempower, create dependence and entitlment and unfortunately support an organizational focus ( where the organization must survive). Harsh as it sounds, I am willing to not feed every child to ensure that in the future hungry children won't exist.

Kamran - Thanks for the feedback, I will check out www.aidworkers.net. I think the US Embassy has a pretty extensive network in India, but it is larger in some countries than others.

Charles - I appreciate your feedback on ideal candidates and I like the concept of "Return on Humanity" very much.  Since this is our innaugural year we are going to take great care in finding the perfect candidates and I am sure we will learn a lot in the process.

Take care,

Scott Beale / http://www.atlascorps.org / scott@atlascorps.org

We believe that we would be perpetuating the problem of child hunger

It isn't about feeding 30,000 kids through an agency lunch program - it is about changing attitudes

Harsh as it sounds, I am willing to not feed every child to ensure that in the future hungry children won't exist.

how do we encourage candid opinions in an online world? you dont express candid opinions in the offline world, unless you have learned to trust people.

Charles,

I'm in full agreement with you on the use of forums like this to expand your personal network and build trust and awareness essential for organizations to grow. At http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2006/10/nobel-prize-giraffes-and-tutormentor.html I illustrate this concept and show how I'm connecting with others who want to create a better world.  By making time every week to add to conversations in a variety of related places, I'm connecting people who don't know each other, with me, and with people I know, who are represented as Links or participants in forums I host in Chicago, or on my own web site.

It takes time to make this work. And it takes luck.  If you don't invest the time, it's not likely you'll have the luck.

Thanks Kamran and Charles,

Kamran - I am focusing on the UN Millennium Development Goals, generally hunger, poverty, gender equity, health (AIDS), environment, etc.  I would consider an NGO leader who works on entrepreneurial issues or micro-fiance to be addressing poverty and would qualify.

But let me clarify, this is NOT simply about teaching NGO leaders overseas best practices from America, it is also about teaching US nonprofits perspectives from aboad.

I am starting with India and Colombia because these are countries where I have lived and worked, eventually we will be around the world, including Pakistan.

Thanks!

Scott Beale - http://www.atlascorps.org - scott@atlascorps.org

If I am to overcome my narrow interests, I would like to say, we should network, for the larger benefit of deprived communities, the worldover.

I feel, there is so much of talk and very little action. We need to transform the world and transform quickly. We need to bring order in a seemingly chaotic world. How do we go about it, to bring about the required change in the mindset of people?

I come from a country of over 130 million people. Our problem is not lack of resources but lack of focused and foresighted leadership both at the vertical and horizontal levels. People are just too shortsighted.

I am serious about helping my country Nigeria make progress but this cannot happen in isolation. I have not really started any crusades yet, but I would be delighted to have someone share his experience in social engineering at national level. Is there someone from Singapore in here?

Thanks Charles I really appreciate your true spirit in taking positively my criticism.

Yes. I have achieved some success thro' networking in India and globally. I am the proud recipient of the Manthan Award 2006 instituted by Manthan Award and American India Foundation, under the WSIS / UN for creating India' best e-Content in the category 'e-Inclusion & Livlihood' (www.manthanaward.com). I am attaching the details of the award, for instant reading.

Transparency & Accountability Network (http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com) is a loose knit, not-for-proft, global consortium of social activists, coming together to transform the world, to create a Community Centric Sustainable Model, using Transparency and Accountability as the basic premise. 

TrAcNet was co-founded by me with Peter Burgess in New York and the active support of many volunteers like Tod Bruning from Texas (Volunteer Sri Lanka), Joy & Jeff of the One Village Foundation, John Dada of Fantsuam, Nigeria, Prof. Lutfor Rehman, Executive Director of Adavnced Association for IT in Bagladesh, Evgeny Tyrtyshny of Kazhakhistan, and many others around the globe. We have achieved reasonable success in changing the mindset of people around the globe.

I am an active member of many national and global forums such as UNDP Solution Exchange - Decentralization Community, AIDS-Beyond-Borders, One World South Asia, e-Civicus, Grassroots-Caucus, South-Asia-IT, Bytes For All Groups, ICT4D, Drum Beat Chat of Comminit, ekduniya-gender, Development Gateway, Open knowledge Network, etc., irrespective of regional, linguistic, religious, gender, literacy and other divides. I promote positive use of ICT to transform communities the worldover among Christians, Hindus, Muslims in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East, etc.

A post I made in "Middle East North Africa (MENA) Community Empowerment Community of Practice (CoP)" <">mena-cen@dgroups.org> has been quoted by Reza Sheikh <grezasheikh@yahoo.com>Reza Shiekh, as follows:

"Kris called for “…a new world order…free of social, cultural, spiritual, ethical, ecological, economic, ... poverty….where no individual, family, community,
society need live in fear or danger of annihilation - self created or forced from outside…neither capitalist nor communist nor socialist…(rather)…"TRANSPAREN<WBR>TIST(TM)", for all round peace and prosperity….where every activity of every
individual and organization is transparent and accountable to the whole world. Where we need fear none and hide none.” His noble plea was indeed quite
inspirational, one which I read out loud for my children".

My e-Governance initiatives in india have helped to transform the life of common citizens and empowered them, introduced transparency and accountability, created a level playing field, minimised corruption, alleviate poverty and help achieve UN MDGs.

I am not trying to blow my trumpets or promote myself. I am sure most of you have more honours to your credit and truly silence speaks more than words.

You invited me to speak up about my successes. Just an example of how true networking can transform communities and society the worldover.

Thanks Charles once again. I am available for rendering any service to any member of Social Edge.

Some details of how we have helped Govt. organizations transform themselves to render better service to citizens using a e-Governance tool called 'e-Admn', a web enabled, platform neutral solution, with local language interface is attached.

The Village Knowledge Centres / Common Service Centres, combined with the State Wide Area Network and the existing / proposed Panchayat / Block / District / State / National Level infrastructure

The ideas Krishnan shared are big ideas, of what governments might do. The ideas I propose are also big ideas, but what individuals and private sector organizations might do.

I've put a variety of links on http://tutormentorconnection.org that illustrate how some people are creating visual diagrams of complex problems. Charles added a few links to that list last year.  If one thinks of a blueprint for a tall building, each page of the blueprint shows what needs to be done, and the various sub contractors who need to do specific jobs in specific ways.

If one thinks of a blueprint when talking about ending poverty in just one neighborhood, or one village, many different actions, with many different sub contractors, would need to be involved over a period of many years. Each one needs to be paid, or the job does not get completed.  If you're the leader of India, the US, or any other country, you're problem is to end poverty in thousands of locations, not just one or two.

Thus, getting government to implement these big ideas in ways that distribute attention and resources to all of the various people who need to be involved in ending poverty in many different places is a huge job. For those who make this vision their life work and passion, I give you my best wishes.

I approach this from the opposite end.  I feel that getting workplace adults involved with inner city kids is a way to expand the social network for the kids and their families (Read the report, titled The Essential Supports for School Improvement, published by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago:  http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?_id=86 

It is also a way to build a personal connection and understanding of the challenges these kids face among people who don't live in poverty, but need to act more generously and strategically if we're to be more successful in drawing needed resources to all of the organizations on a neighborh's bluepring for ending poverty.

What I do is only one strategy by one small organization.  By sharing what I do in forums like this and via a web site, I enable anyone else in the world to borrow from this idea, or to contribute to it.  In the LINKS section of my web site I provide links to more than 1000 other organizations, and I organize these in categories. If I had the graphics ability, I'd show the relationship of these ideas, the same way an archetect shows the relationship of sub contractors on each page of a blueprint.

In doing this, I provide a wider range of ideas that anyone else can draw from. As these ideas duplicate in multiple cities, we grow from being one small organization, to being many small organizations.  As this grows we become a more powerfull voice for innovation and change.

At the grassroots level we are not restricted by bureacracy and politics. We can do whatever we feel needs to be done, just like any entrepreneur who sees a problem or an opportunity, and tries to fill it with a product or service.  Thus, we have more flexibility to innovate solutions to problems that governments will struggle to solve for many years into the future.

I think we can meet in the middle. As the ideas of grassroots groups gain traction and prove to be viable, some governmens may adopt them as their own tops down strategy, or may move to take roles that make it easier for the grass roots ideas to reach a nation wide scale.

My post is too long. Krishnan's was too long. Until we find ways to use pictures and blueprints to communicate complex ideas, we won't have enough people who read, understand and respond to what we're all saying.

If through this network, and others, I can find visual communicators who are looking for an idea to communicate, we can work to find better ways to communicate the ideas were talking about.  That's one of the reasons I keep coming back. It's a way we can connect.

1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).