To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• The Rise Of Women In Tech | MBA Online – “It’s time for the old adage that women neither like nor do well in math and science be put to rest …The benefits for women who enter tech are hard to deny. They experience smaller wage gaps due to gender than women in other industries. But the relationship between women and tech companies isn’t one-sided – the companies get some nice perks, too. Companies whose boards of directors contain 3 or more female members had higher returns on sales, returns on investments and returns on equity. The infographic below delves deeper into how the phenomenon of women in tech is on the rise.”
• Social Media for Social Good [Infographic] – “In our new Social Media for Social Good infographic, we profile several successful grassroots and nonprofit campaigns, explain tactics that increase the impact of a message, and explore emerging trends in charitable giving and volunteering.”
• A new study asks: Should the nonprofit and charitable sectors engage in political activity? : Bright+3 – “Should nonprofits engage in political activity on issues that broadly impact the nonprofit sector? That’s one question posed by a new study, Beyond The Cause: The Art and Science of Advocacy, and the conclusion is, well, inconclusive. It turns out that there just isn’t much consensus across the sector on this very basic – if difficult – question.”
• It’s official: News consumption is all about social and mobile — Tech News and Analysis – “New research from the Pew Center into news consumption habits shows that the impact of mobile and social continues to grow. Almost twice as many users got news from a mobile device compared with 2010, and almost three times as many got news from a social network.” Where do you get your news?
• ROI: How Infographics Can Help Your Business [Infographic] | Social Media Today – “With the infographic craze in full-swing, you might ask: Are infographics just a pretty way of displaying data, or will they actually benefit my business? Earlier this summer we published a Sensible Social Media Checklist for Business. The first version of the infographic was published on June 15th and included Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter. The popularity of the graphic prompted us to publish a second version of the checklist to include even more social media channels – specifically Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+. The second version of our infographic went online on July 19th, and was even more successful! Hundreds of bloggers posted our checklist on their own blogs, and over 2000 people downloaded the checklist as a reference to use in their own social media strategy. To showcase our results, we decided to create an infographic to demonstrate the ROI (Return on Infographics) and results we experienced.”

Location: San Francisco, CA

Topic: Designing Online Engagement to Collaborate with Your Community

Description: You can design online engagement to unleash your evangelists. In this workshop, we’ll focus on all aspects of designing high-value, engaging, and participatory content that creates a partnership with your fans. A true evangelist is moved to create, is a seamless co-creator with your organization, and motivated spreader of content. Successful organizations intentionally design and construct multiple online channels that enable access for all fans and develop paths for relationship reciprocity and trust, fostering true evangelists.

In this session, we will discuss how co-creation unleashes online evangelists and strengthens cause centric communities, and help you to do that as well. Specifically, we will reveal the latest research about designing online engagement, highlight the connection between the theory of relationship ties and online evangelism, and offer examples of organizations with successful co-creation strategies. Towards the end of this workshop, we’ll work together to design a co-creation strategy to engage and motivate your online community and evangelists.

Related Links:

• 2012 NTC
• Session information
• Presentation slides

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril, and Potential of Networks – This new report from the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute explores engaged communities: "Ten years ago, a tiny web site asked people to volunteer to write their own encyclopedia. Today, Wikipedia is the most widely used reference work in the world. Rapid advances in digital media and technology are changing how we connect to information and each other. The way we engage in public dialogue, coordinate, solve problems—all of it is shifting. New networks are emerging everywhere. It’s exciting—and frightening. What is this new network-centric world? What does it mean for community change?"
• The US will use Twitter and Facebook to issue terror alerts – "The U.S. government is working on a new warning system to replace their oft criticized five-color coded terror index, and according to a new document obtained by The Associated Press, they're turning to Facebook and Twitter." How do your social media channels fit in your organization's emergency communications plan?
• Repair Interview: Joe Solomon of 350.org on Climate Change and Building a Movement – "Social Media Coordinator, Joe Solomon took some time to explain what 350 really means, talk about transforming community inspiration into political power, and share a story about how his work with 350.org inspired him in ways he never imagined." Check out this terrific interview with Joe – I'd love to hear your ideas, reflections and stories about how you are inspired to make change!
• Mobilizing online communities in the Face of Disaster: Tips … – "On the 12th of March, one day after the tragic earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan Ichi – Hiroyasu Ichikawa – the NetSquared Local organizer from Tokyo sent an e-mail to our NetSquared Local Organizer listserve asking for the best practices for mobilizing online communities in the time of a disaster. In the weeks that have followed, Ichi’s e-mail provoked a series of responses from all over the world. In this post, we hope to voice many of the tools, resources, and tactics that have been shared, in hopes of encouraging others around the world to get involved with the digital relief efforts."
• 6 questions to prepare you for a social media crisis – "In social media, the disasters people talk about most are fundamentally crises of public relations. These fall into two types: crises that originate in social media, and crises that originate offline. In the era of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, both types of crisis require a rapid, social media response. Looking at the most recent social media crises is one way to think about the kinds of challenges for which you need to prepare. But social media has a way of ensuring that each crisis is different from the last, so if you’re prepared to handle a YouTube meltdown, you’ll probably get served with a FourSquare nightmare. That’s why it pays to look for principles of online crisis management that will be relevant in the long run."

Most notable, perhaps, is Malaria No More, a popular nonprofit that supplies bed nets in malaria zones. Its goal is to end deaths from malaria, a target it sees fast approaching.

The charity has announced plans to close in 2015, but it is keeping its options open in the unlikely event that advances against malaria are reversed.

“We never planned to be around forever,” said Scott Case, a co-founder of Priceline and vice chairman of Malaria No More. “We have thought of this more as a project than as an institution-building exercise, and the project is nearing its completion.”

So far, the number of organizations opting to go out of business for mission-related reasons is too small to call a trend. It is still far more common for a nonprofit to close its doors because of financial pressure, which is increasing as governments continue to pare their budgets and donors maintain tight grips on their giving. [Read the full article.]

Whether I’m talking about Community-Driven Social Impact or community organizing, whether it’s focused on a hyper-local community project or global-reaching movement building, it’s always the same for me: our goals need to be focused on a change, not on ensuring that we keep our jobs. Many colleagues, both in the UK and the US, have also been talking about this for years – sometimes referring to it as a plague in our sector, others seeing it as an affect of nonprofits operating more like businesses.

Two years ago, Hildy Gottlieb published her book, The Pollyanna Principles, and with it she helped bring together many people who were talking about and working on this same topic, even if they didn’t realize it. I reviewed her book in the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog and I’m still excited for the opportunities the sector has as Hildy explains them:

We have a huge opportunity before us to remodel our social benefit organization structure. There is so much talk both online and offline, from inside organizations and from outside, that “nonprofits are broken.” We’ve done step 1: admitted that we have a problem. Now, what?  Well, as Hildy explains, we need to start driving our work with our vision of how we want the world to be, instead of what the problems are before us. [Read the full post.]

Changing the world, regardless of the cause, community or organization we identify with, requires a vision that drives us to actually make that change – work with others, don’t recreate the wheel, create opportunities for engagement that are larger than our organization.

But, it isn’t just Malaria No More, and it isn’t just those organizations and communities in The Pollyanna Principles. I know there are so many organizations, campaigns, and community groups making real change now. I hope that they can create a path for others to follow, an open book that others can learn from, and an open door for others to join them.

Get The Pollyanna Principles!

Hildy is celebrating the two-year anniversary of The Pollyanna Principles with a discount – and if you don’t already have the book, I recommend you get it:

• Get a discount on the book
• Read the first 4 chapters for free
• Learn more about the book

—–

I recently posted about Jumo with reflections, notes from my experience using the new platform, and questions – this post has also generated a great deal of valuable conversation in the comments (over 70 thoughtful comments so far). One response on twitter from my great friend and colleague, Joe Solomon, has stuck with me and kept me thinking: “You can’t create new game-changing start-ups for social change anymore. You have to co-create them.” And I really couldn’t agree more!

3 Core Elements to Co-Creation for Change

Co-creation is, like many other things, a word rising in standing on the buzzword list. In this case, for this conversation, co-creation is used generally to touch on issues of access and engagement, and collaboration. In each element below, it’s framed slightly differently to match the context, but is always centered on the need, as Joe shared above, to operate outside of silos.

I’ve tried to keep the 3 Elements below to brief conversation starters as I think they all could go on into lengthy pieces on their own. I hope you’ll join the conversation with your feedback and comments about each one, and share additional elements and reflections on co-creation!

On & Offline Engagement

Online is great for organizing. Whether you’re using social networks, or other shared spaces online, the social web is where you can find others, figure out the actions you want to take, spread news and information, promote the actions, and even stream media/data while taking the action. But the action, the real social change, is offline. There’s a great post on the Case Foundation blog that covers some great examples and shares, “Although activism may not look the same, it’s no question from these examples that social media and social networks can be used to motivate the masses into action, whether it be physical or monetary.”

The key is making the connection.

First, ensuring that there are opportunities to engage and participate both on and offline (especially in the promoting and sharing) can increase participation and ultimately feet in the streets. Most organizations, campaigns, and even companies get this and are trying to make toolkits, letters, and even posters than be shared at events or via Twitter, wherever people are.

Secondly, co-creation of a new organization, a new campaign, or a new tool can’t happen if the links between on and offline aren’t clear – if someone shows up in person to an event or planning meeting, they need to know where they can continue engaging online before the next offline event takes place. And the same goes for those who may be following or actively inputting to your work via the web – they should know how to join you, or join with other members, offline to continue building.

For & Non Profit Inclusion

Making social change is not reliant on a tax exempt status. Platforms that put change in front of donations enable co-creation of both impact and of other new organizations or tools.  Co-creation, at least in my opinion, works best when there’s possibility for all kinds of organizations, groups or individuals to collaborate; and, likewise, when there are options for different funding streams, even when funding isn’t defined by $.

When we (those working in the nonprofit sector) presuppose that only those with the “nonprofit” status are eligible for investing in a better future, we do all of our communities a disservice. If we really want to change the world, and if we believe there are some for-profit groups that need to change in order for our vision of the future to be realized, then let’s invite them to the table, to take a stake in change, and to co-create a path towards that vision.

Organization & Individual Changemakers

Co-creating new tools, campaigns, organizations or opportunities for social change requires certain opportunities: to be able to form teams, a place/way to showcase ideas, creating a shared vision, and opportunity to communicate across the group/network. Having an organization isn’t a requirement for participation in any of those. It should not matter whether I work for a nonprofit, or if I work at all.  If I have an idea to change the world, I should be just as welcome and have equal access to the spaces where I can share the idea and find others to help me make it come to life.

But, that’s just what I think – how do you feel?  Looking forward to your ideas!

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Social Networking Sites Move Into Charity World – NYTimes.com – "Crowdrise, Jumo, Causecast, Causes on Facebook and others try to use social networking and crowdsourcing to build interest in charities and causes, and to help them attract donations. … But to many in the nonprofit world, the value of the sites remains to be seen. For one thing, they hand partial control over charity brand names and trademarks to users who are often unknown to the nonprofit groups they support. And virtually all of them ask users to pay to donate."
• Target community for best return on social media efforts – My recent interview with the Nonprofit Business Advisor is out! I talked with Kelly Sullivan about some of the most common mistakes or myths nonprofits have about social media, as well as opportunities to get started strategically. Would love to hear your thoughts and additional pointers you share with nonprofit leaders looking to dive into social media!
• An Important New Foundation Blog | Tactical Philanthropy – Great post from Sean about a new blog from the Peery Foundation. Does your organization have a blog? I'm interested in what you think about the reflections Sean shares and what you've learned from running your blog. "The reason I’m excited about the Peery Foundation blog is because I think that Dave and Jessamyn get that social media is best understood as a conversation and a conversation is most interesting when you focus on listening and learning. They’re even willing to take listening to extremes, such as this recent post by Jessamyn in which she attempts to crowdsource her own annual review by asking readers who she has interacted with to give her feedback on how she’s doing. While she offers the option of emailing her the response, she encourages people to post their feedback as a public comment."
• Get Your Group On: Introducing Posterous Groups – The Official Posterous Posterous – "Today we’re announcing Posterous Groups, a new service for communicating privately with your friends, family and colleagues." I use Posterous for my personal blog and have found it to be a easy platform – curious if others are using it for their organization or community group and if the groups feature is something you'd like to try!
• Yes, Finds Pew Study, People Will (and Do) Pay For Digital Content – "For a long time – right or wrong – content on the Internet has been synonymous with "free." Free music. Free videos. Free access to your local newspaper. Free blogs. And so some have worried that people might be reluctant to actually spend money to buy digital content if they can already find it (or something similar) online without having to pay. But a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project should assuage some of those fears. In fact, almost two-thirds of Internet users have paid for digital content."

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Shareable: The Open Source Guitar – So many good pieces to think on from this post (thanks for sharing it with me, Billy!) Here's just on that's got me thinking: "We're now beginning to experience a shift from a global-objective index of needs and providers to a personal-subjective one." Check it out and let me know which ideas get you thinking, what your reactions are, and what you want to do with this concept!
• Networks and Hierarchies: A Typology of Digital Activism Today | techPresident – "A few weeks ago, powerful corporations like Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal weren't very concerned with the hacktivists and pranksters on 4chan. Now, thanks to the tactical success of Operation Payback's DDoS attacks, they are. The U.S. government also has its own problems with networked activists. After massive leaks of documents on the Iraq and Afghan wars and diplomatic cables from around the world, Wikileaks has demonstrated that it is a formidable threat to American legitimacy and power. These are but two recent examples of how decentralized digital networks can have dramatic effects on centralized hierarchies. However, these two alternative structures of human organization can interact in a variety of ways, both mutually beneficial and destructive. Below is a typology of how networks affect hierarchies in the digital world. In their interactions with hierarchies, members of networks can act in the following roles."
• Facebook Privacy for Nonprofit Organizations | Idealware – "Facebook seems to generate a lot of discussion about the way it handles privacy and security, and not without reason—personal data protection is worth some scrutiny, and Facebook has a questionable track record in this area. However, these issues don’t apply in the same way to nonprofits who have an organizational presence on Facebook. Organizational data is, by definition, far less personal than the information an individual might trust to the site, so you’re much less likely to want to keep it private. But there are other privacy concerns for nonprofits that use Facebook—even if your own privacy isn’t a big concern, it’s important to think of your constituents’ privacy. What does that mean for you? We talked to a few experts and condensed their advice into this article. We’ll take a look at the issues you most need to be concerned about one at a time."
• Teach Parents Tech – I'm having so much fun playing with this new template from Google – it filters videos and other resources and pulls them together for the person you want to help get tailored tech support. And it's fun! Check it out – anyone you want to share it with?
• eCampaigning Ideas | Advocacy Online – "This year's edition of eCampaigning Ideas includes eight great case studies put forward by groups using our software in a number of countries worldwide. Each case study includes background information about the issue and the campaign, key learnings, benchmark numbers, and outcomes. We hope you will download the file, find some useful information, and be inspired!"

Location: London, UK (via video)

Topic: Online Campaigning and Co-Creation

Description:  This Third Sector Foresight seminar, run in collaboration with Campaigning Effectiveness, will focus on how charities and community groups will be campaigning in the future. We will also consider how changing expectations of participation might affect how organisations campaign in the future, and explore how this trend links to social media use.

Related Links:

• NCVO
• Event information
• Future Focus guide: What will campaigning will be like in 5 years’ time?
• Online discussion forum
• Video interview: Role of co-creation

Social Actions Transition: Request for Letters of Interest

A short six weeks ago, Peter Deitz shared our intention to find a well-resourced and mission-aligned organization, or group of organizations, to assume ownership of Social Actions’ programs. Since then, we’ve received a number of inquiries and have had several one-on-one meetings with organizations that have an interest in carrying Social Actions forward.

We’re also seeing a range of creative proposals — for example Paul Lamb’s suggestions including stewardship by open source foundations or social entrepreneur funders, and a NetSquared-type transition campaign. See the comment thread here and add your thoughts!

As a next step in this process, we’re requesting formal Letters of Interest from those who have an interest in stewarding all or some of Social Actions’ programs. We’re posting that request here not just as an update but to encourage everyone to share it and chime in with ideas and proposals.

Get the rest of the details here.

Opportunity Alert: Four Powerful Enhancements to the Social Actions API

Social Actions has a fantastic opportunity to make four powerful enhancements to the Social Actions API in the coming weeks:

• Add the capacity for semantic analysis and weighted querying: Integrate the Zemanta API analysis, or something similar, into the Social Actions API and then fully support semantically extracted issue- and location-based querying in the Social Actions API. This feature would allow for weighted lists of topics and keywords or an emphasis parameter when external API queries are made.
  
• Provide support for knowing when actions are no longer active: Currently, the Social Actions API assigns an automated expiration date. Additional enhancements could involve supporting an expiration field in the live feed from partners and/or determining if an action has expired based on the content on the destination page.
  
• Integrate with other APIs and/or advanced feeds: The ability to make direct calls to open APIs and/or advanced feeds (provided they are available) to expand the number of data-points included in the aggregation.
  
• Add a minimum of three (hopefully more!) new sources that are specifically focused on global development-related causes.

Learn more and support this work!