NurtureGirl

Subversive Giving September 26, 2008

Of course activists have long given their time and money to causes, but this sort of activism I have not seen before. This kind–the kind where people contribute to a cause, planned parenthood, in the name of a political personality so that this personality would be blanketed in the usual “a contribution has been made in your name” letters. What an interesting way to take advantage of the system!

First, you must understand how much I truly and deeply appreciate subversion. Then you might benefit from knowing that planned parenthood is very good at overwhelming donors with materials and requests, which is why I stopped giving to them (paper is such a waste of resources). Third, I really prize innovation and creative thinking.

So I am totally celebrating this unusual form of philanthropy. Reminds me a bit of shareholder activism. Bravo. Now, my friends, how can we continue to evolve practices like this to fuel our purpose?

Bravo.

Here is the letter, borrowed from What’s Sarah Thinking blog.

Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card. I suggest you use Sarah Palin’s home address, which is:

Sarah Palin
PO Box 21
Wasilla, AK

PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate–Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular “Donate Online”

Convergence Colliding in Chicago September 17, 2008

Chicago New Media Summit concluded tonight. I didn’t attend. At first I was excited by the great idea of rallying around Chicago’s talented new media folks and pushing us toward the leading edge. Worthwhile endeavor. But as the waves of email blasts announcing presenters rolled on and the fees got discounted (but not within range of many nonprofit and grassroots activists), I started to get more and more uncomfortable. I just wasn’t feeling an authentic connection.

Tonight the event concluded. And in my inbox is another email blast celebrating…and announcing some next steps. Here is what I posted in a comment on my profile page:

1. A microsoft event? I predict Chicago will not be the center of innovation, geekiness, and cool media, should this be focused on Microsoft. See bubblgeneration blog last couple years for ideas on what sort of companies and their models which could support this sort of “convergence” here.
2. Moving to a microsoft platform? Please don’t move me over. Why oh why would you move a community?
3. Talent, ideas, and code? Collide? What happened to people. New media is in huge part social media. People. I do not aspire to think of myself as a “talent” to be commodified. I am a social creature yearning for connection and thriving by sharing ideas, sparked by the synchronicities common to a flourishing community.
4. And what does all this have to do with the Chicago bid for the olympics? Do I need to behind that to be here? Seems like a pretty big agenda to not be supper-de-dupper clear about it.
5. I do appreciate the notice about fees and our grassroots friends in our latest email blast. Thanks for coming around to our value (after the fact).

Entering Social Spaces Online

Seems like each week there are new social media spaces to join and participate in. And lots of people help others learn and adopt online social practices. Each space has its own nuance on social practices. There are general rules of thumb, sure. But each site - even a cluster within a site - is specific in the way it encourages flows of connection and information, and thus which practices are encouraged. So how do you know what to do where?

I see lots of do and don’t lists, and they are great. Very helpful if you want a rulebook to follow. But if you want to learn the skill of adapting as you enter spaces, the work you do needs to go deeper into your practice. What questions should you ask yourself when joining and contributing to online social spaces?

Be strategic. Social media is a huge flow of information and people often very loosely knit together. What do you want to foster? Disregard fads of tools and spaces. What you do with your extremely precious time needs to be purposeful. Do you want: friends, information, a thriving network to use as a resource, marketing your [fill in the blank]? How will you know when you have that? How will you maintain it over time? Social spaces online just like physical social spaces require your attention to stay alive and flourishing.

Listen. Like I shared above, each space has its own social norms. Yes, there are general rules, but if you lurk before blasting posts, you can get a sense of how often to post, ways to appreciate others, ways to find interesting people and ideas, ways to avoid trouble, what puts people off… How do people behave in this space using this tool? What best practices can you collect? Sense into what is working for you in other people’s social practice. What gets you engaged there? How can you offer or connect, mirroring what worked for you?

Applaud. In speech we often give praise or acknowledgment with our faces. We nod or even just keep eye-contact. There are zillions of body clues. And they don’t show online. At all. Not even with emoticons. How can you show you are listening? How can you show that you are giving your attention to someone or something? How can you show you are a contributor? How can you help others shine? Where can you quickly, easily, and usefully connect people, ideas, and resources? If the general principle of social relations is truly get what you give, then what are you giving?

What questions wander through your mind when you are visiting new online social spaces?
What really irritates you as a social practice?
How do you quickly and easily sense a spammer, a connector, a maven, an influencer?

Your answers help you figure how how you want to be online. And they create an opportunity for you to be genuine in your practice.

Here are some resources for you that I saw on twitter today:
Top 10 Reasons Brands should Listen to Social Media
The Creation of Twitter Best Practices: Round 1

Relationship building August 27, 2008

I was writing in response to a question posed by Mark Carter on facebook this morning. He asked what does one do to build relationship after the hello.

And I wrote about authenticity and being as the crucial elements to making relationships. But this line came pouring out, and it didn’t fit the rest of my response. So I will share it with you here. Mentor those who ask questions, and fearlessly ask questions of those you want to learn from.

Questions are the root of conversation. Without them we all too often talk past each other. I was thinking, when I wrote this line about how important it is to build up, down, and across the network.

When someone asks you a question, they give you honor. Accept the question with grace, and, as possible, be helpful. Mentor those that ask questions, for the curious are great explorers. Those you help become your legacy.

Fearlessly ask questions of those you believe you can learn from. Sometimes this is a child, who can say with the greatest simplicity some of the most profound unfettered things. Sometimes this is a person of high rank and station that you have obtained access to. Be fearless in your questions. This may be the one great opportunity you have to find the answer you need right now. You do not serve yourself or the world by being fearful. This, of course, rests on the premise of good faith. Assume the best in others, and they may rise to the challenge. Give others honor by asking of them what you need, especially when it comes to knowledge or connection. Give others a gift–the opportunity to be a contribution, to serve, to be valued.

Ask questions. Offer answers. Rather than speaking into the ever-recorded infinite space of the internet, hoping someone will hear: listen, ask, respond.

Don’t finish that! April 3, 2008

I have the sense that there are lots of people doing really great work…but they want to get it to a finished point before sharing it. Really? Sure about that?

In the age of participatory, nay, collaborative culture, as soon as something is finished it can’t be collaborative. If you want other people pitching in to make an idea work, software better, or actions more impactful…don’t dictate what should happen and push out what has been finished. Open with curiosity. Share vision and motivation…share ideas as rough sketches for group discussion. Collaboration doesn’t work as well if comes off as “I made this, now will you implement it?” *

Collaboration works better as “I had an idea, what would you do…? or would you help me figure out…?” And it can really work well with a bit of acknowledgment like, “You are such a whiz kid at x, and I was working on this idea related to that….could you help me think it through?” or “You are so well connected in z neighborhood/network, I would like to vision there. How do you think that could work?” So I encourage those of us in collaboration to stop finishing things. Let documents come alive–living documents invite collaboration… Let ideas and actions live.

*This worked better in pyramidal structures where authority or perceived authority can push things to happen. In collaborative culture, work is accomplished by attraction–the pull of an idea, person, thing, or vision. And the key to get in the door of collaboration is invitation. Don’t invite people to a party that is finished.

‘Tis the Stuff Season! December 13, 2007

Which means it is an ideal time to grab a cup of tea and watch this: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Many years ago I toyed with the idea of writing a paper about how flea markets and garage sales are forms of “resistance” to consumer culture. And in a way they are, as the sites of production do not benefit from the “resale” of goods through these avenues. But still, it perpetuates the very notion of happiness through consumption that leads us toward mass consumption of anti-depressants along with all the other stuff that can never fill the void of our disconnected materialist lives.

I don’t watch tv and I avoid ads on websites, sticking to a space on the internet unmarred by flashing lights. I still consume. I am not wholly free. But I can see some lights shining. One comes from giving–when we give or act as a gift to others–all the people (giver, receiver, and observers) experience positive chemical flow in their bodies. Self-made anti-depressants. Give and get happy!

Motivating Participation September 14, 2007

Recently I was asked how to increase attendance at a gathering. I came up with a few simple questions to consider. Look at three perspectives.

1. The participants–who are they? There may be several audiences, and for each one, figure out what they want to get or are getting from the gathering.

2. Your perspective–why are you inviting them? What do you want to get from their attendance and participation? List separately for each audience group.

3. Observer perspective–what will the outcome of the gathering be? What will the world be able to see, touch, taste, smell, or feel because of the participation?

Now, what do you do with that? Use #1 to develop your strategy of attraction of participants. Use #2 to identify the proportional blend you want to have of different audience groups. Do you need idea generators? Processors to move ideas along? Finishers to put ideas into action? And #3 is useful for attracting funding and sponsorship.

Incentives, and this is just a starter list, might be:
# association (other people to connect with–especially face to face if they know each other virtually)
# reputation (most active in the field or other recognition of effort is honored)
# growth (learn something)
# inspiration (this is usually why a well-regarded speaker works)
# challenge (opportunity to collaborate on something vital)
# recognition (building their own visibility–like getting acknowledged for doing a cool video etc)
# play (to laugh and be creative)
# delight (good food, good sensate experience)
# narrative (fits into their story of who they are and why they do what they do)
# contribution (opportunity to give to the group)
# influence (able to change others or environment)
# stuff (things people can take with them and help develop branding and identity)

I strongly encourage visual mapping to show the relationships between people and between motivations/incentives and people.

Once you are clear about who to invite and why (for them, for you, and for others), then develop your message to each audience considering the benefit they receive for attending and participating. Then, also, consider what that benefit gets for them. Does it save them time or money? Does it develop their reputation or acknowledge them? Consider Maslow’s hierarchy. What core need is met?

There is much more depth to this than I can address in a single blog post, but this gets us off to a good start. What would you add to the incentives? Are there other valuable perspectives to consider? Is there a good way to create a matrix for organizing the information? What visual techniques would reveal the most useful information?

CatComm Badge August 24, 2007

I have long been a supporter of Catcomm, whether that has meant contributing funds, volunteering on the development advisory board, or discussing how to scale out the work.

I think Catalytic Communities is a vital part of how communities can share the solutions that they themselves generate with others in other communities worldwide. Peer to peer network of self-development solutions.

See Catalytic Communities to discover for yourself how the community solutions database can serve you, explore to uncover stories of community success, and find out who is involved.

Catalytic Communities (CatComm) develops, inspires and empowers communities worldwide to generate and share their own local solutions. Imagine a world where community-generated solutions are just a mouse-click away, where anyone, anywhere, confronting a local problem, can find the inspiration and tools they need to implement the solution, learning from their peers.

In the News

Catalytic Communities Awarded Prestigious Tech Museum Award

“Catalytic Communities represents the ‘best of the best’ technologists whose innovations benefit humanity, and we are thrilled to welcome them into our community of Tech Laureates,” said Amanda Reilly from The Tech Museum of Innovation. “We aim to raise public awareness on how technology can significantly alleviate many of the critical issues facing our planet and champion those innovators who are leveraging technology to provide resolution to both local and global problems.”

To learn more visit http://www.techawards.org

Catalytic Communities (CatComm) is a 501[c][3] not-for-profit organization with an affiliate office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

All over the place and focus August 14, 2007

I suppose to some people my interests appear to be all over the place: philanthropy, currencies, technology, visualization, mapping, marketing, coaching, leadership, process arts, community development, art, creativity, and some other issues too like globalization, the bottom of the pyramid, social entrepreneurship, etc. And most of these areas I have enough understanding to listen and ask good questions…but not enough to debate academically on the finer points or the history. Coaching might be the exception. Maybe. I am not a specialist. And some say it is a world where we ought to be specialized. I don’t know about that. I think it is a world where we ought to connect and have engaging conversations.

Sometimes, in our lives, we find the varied paths we lead all connecting down the road somewhere. All this leads together…

How? Field building. I will post soon a longer explanation of field building, along with some tidbits of conversation and great links for those who are interested. For now, let me simply explain that field building is the conscious collective development of a network of purpose (both the nodes and the space between the nodes). And I see this as being critical for our evolution. We need to adapt to survive and for the planet to survive. We need to understand our world in more useful and appropriate ways. And all these interests of mine lead back to the many tools, processes, and systems that play a role in field building. An example–Social Network Analysis is an emerging field…It is defining itself, the practices, examining what distinctions are valuable and which are not. It changes how organizations work, and values human connection. It requires message management for maintaining a cohesive set of meaningful terms. It requires leadership to grow the edges and community to build the depths. It takes funding and marketing to keep thriving. It takes mapping and visualization to track and analyze itself. Other examples are Digital Media and Education, Currencies/Flows, and Thrivability (next evolution of sustainability). Sometimes fields are in transition too, like the work we are doing in Philanthropy to democratize giving, promote giving while living, encourage micro-philanthropy, etc.

We need to change our world, to understand it in new ways, to work in new ways. I see my work as building fields that help with that process. And why? It comes back to my core purpose–to help people transform their lives and live with passionate purpose.

Kimberly Olson and good copy for a writer’s website August 13, 2007

My cousin Kim, always an inspiration and mentor to me, put up a website recently. Beautiful, clean, great copy (of course). I really like her naming of pages and how she positions things so clearly.

I must find the time to read some of these articles…

Kimberly Olson.

I also love that she highlights that she is a 1% for the planet alliance member. Awesome Kim.

Now I better get mine revised!