Attention, Why People Share, Models, Africa, Social Entrepreneurship

[Leila Kaas]

>
> Nonprofit Online News: http://news.gilbert.org/
> Nonprofit Online Classifieds: http://classifieds.nonprofitnews.org/
> Weekly Edition for Tuesday, November 24, 2009
>
>
> ++ Contents:
>
> Section One: Special Notices
> - Tips for Managing Your Subscription
> - Publications For Sale
>
> Section Two: News & Resources
> - Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of
> Information through Social Media
> - In Social Enterprise Force Yourself to be an Entrepreneur First
> - Timbuktu Chronicles: Social Entrepreneurship and
> Sustainability in Africa
> - New Business Models for News Organizations
> - David Bornstein's FAQ is a Social Entrepreneurship Primer
> - The Side-Effect Principle: How Stakeholders Share Information
> as a Result of Other Goals
> - Building Your Online List Seminar Moved to January 13, 2010
>
> Section Three: Copyright
>
> Section Four: Subscription Information
>
>
>
> ++ Section One: Special Notices:
>
> + Tips for Managing Your Subscription
>
> Do you ever see an online resource or article that would be
> perfect for Nonprofit Online News? Send us news tips: http://
> gilbert.forms.soceco.org/292462/19/c0ad65fa9e82/217531
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>
> + Publications For Sale:
>
> The Guide to Nonprofit Email: Essential Strategies, Practices,
> and Resources
> http://news.gilbert.org/pub/gne
>
> View All Available Publications:
> http://www.nonprofitnews.org/pub/
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>
>
> ++ Section Two: News & Resources:
>
> + Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information
> through Social Media
>
> I am a complete and utter fan boy when it comes to the work of
> Danah Boyd. She is a systems thinker, par excellence. She doesn't
> shy away from the issues most people seem to avoid, like class,
> race, gender, and power. She is relentless in both her relevance
> and her rigor. These qualities are evident in her recent Web 2.0
> Expo talk entitled "Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow
> of Information through Social Media". I particularly like the four
> core issues she has parsed out as the current challenges of
> networks and society: (1) The disruption we are undergoing is not
> inherently democratic. What do we do about that? (2) People seek
> out content that stimulates them. When you think of this the way
> you might think about food or drugs, you can see how this might be
> problematic. (3) Homophily rules. "Prejudice, intolerance, bigotry,
> and power are all baked into our networks." (4) Power isn't
> necessarily moving to the creators of content. "What's emerging is
> not inheren
> tly the power of the creators, but the power of the modern day
> information brokers."
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7180/292462/rms
>
>
> + In Social Enterprise Force Yourself to be an Entrepreneur First
>
> Although I am critical of the notion that civil society must
> only learn from business and not the other way around, I do like
> many of the ideas and much of the spirit in Peter Haas' piece In
> Social Enterprise Force Yourself to be an Entrepreneur First.
> Although he says "don't be a nonprofit" (although the corporate
> nonprofit model is troublesome to me, I frankly can't agree with
> that as a rule), his other nine "rules" are worth our attention:
> (1) Don't start a new organization. (2) Clearly define what you do
> and stick with it. (3) Clearly define your budgets and cash flow,
> and track your variance. (4) It costs more than you expect. Get
> more than you need. (5) Get legal and stay legal. (6) Pay yourself
> and your staff from the beginning. (7) Communicate openly with your
> staff and board and have clear roles and responsibilities. (8)
> Treat both constituents and donors as customers. (What about
> treating them as citizens?) (9) Play nice with others.
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7179/292462/rms
>
>
> + Timbuktu Chronicles: Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
> in Africa
>
> I was going to pick a particular post from Emeka Okafor's
> Timbuktu Chronicles, but I concluded that it's more compelling to
> recommend his entire blog. He writes short, inviting posts that are
> dense with intriguing links and quotations from a fabulous range of
> sources. His focus is Africa, but with an emphasis on social
> entrepreneurship and sustainability. There are plenty of feel-good
> fluff blogs about Africa, but this isn't one of them. The news,
> resources and, most of all, the commentary, offer critical thinking
> and genuine depth.
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7178/292462/rms
>
>
> + New Business Models for News Organizations
>
> The most prominent methods of large scale project planning in
> civil society embrace the notions of "theories of change" and
> "logic models". I have often hoped that there would be forums for
> such models to be shared, tested, and developed within communities
> of practice and there are people who are trying to make that
> happen. Here is a fantastic example of exactly that sort of forum:
> The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism has developed several New
> Business Models for News Organizations, which they are inviting
> people to dive into. Most significantly, they are offering the
> models for download in formats that permit tweaking their
> assumptions. This is precisely the strength of the practice of
> modeling and it's a thrill to see it used in a practitioner setting
> (albeit from an academic institution more used to the notion of
> peer review). Some of the interesting models to study include:
> Hyperlocal & Ecosystem Frameworks, something they are calling New
> News Organizations, several
> Not-for-Profit models, and a couple of Paid Content models. I
> encourage everyone who is even remotely in the information business
> (nonprofit or otherwise) to engage with this material, along with
> the thinking and practices that are reflected in this forum.
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7177/292462/rms
>
>
> + David Bornstein's FAQ is a Social Entrepreneurship Primer
>
> Rarely have I read a more interesting FAQ than the one found on
> David Bornstein's Stories of Change blog. I'm not sure if these
> really are frequently asked questions on the topic of "social
> entrepreneurship", but it hardly matters. These are great questions
> and even better answers. I'll give you the former here to induce
> you to read the latter: What is a social entrepreneur? Where did
> this new wave of social entrepreneurship come from? Why has it
> found a place in the 21st century? Why are these ideas so
> successful? Are there commonalities between these social
> entrepreneurs despite their obvious differences? So many
> governments are failing to implement change where social
> entrepreneurs are flourishing. How do you explain this phenomenon?
> How did you select the social entrepreneurs in How to Change the
> World? What were you aiming to profile (in your book)? Many of your
> social entrepreneurs are fellows of the organization Ashoka:
> Innovators for the Public. What was it about A
> shoka that captured your interest? What do you see as the most
> important aspect of these social entrepreneurs? How should budding
> social entrepreneurs go about implementing their ideas? Do you
> envision social entrepreneurship reaching a saturation point? Can
> anyone change the world?
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7176/292462/rms
>
>
> + The Side-Effect Principle: How Stakeholders Share Information as
> a Result of Other Goals
>
> By and large, people don't share information online simply for
> the purpose of sharing. They do it for their own reasons. I'll be
> teaching a workshop next week on stakeholder-generated content and
> this will be one of the key strategic insights. See what you think
> of The Side-Effect Principle: How Stakeholders Share Information as
> a Result of Other Goals.
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7175/292462/rms
>
>
> + Building Your Online List Seminar Moved to January 13, 2010
>
> For the first time in years, I double-booked myself for teaching
> an online seminar. (I'll be at a public interest gathering in
> Aspen, CO in December.) Because there is a lot of value in the live
> versions of our seminars, we rescheduled this one: Building Your
> Online List: A High Integrity Model for Reaching Large Numbers on
> the Internet. It will now be held on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010,
> making it the first workshop of the new year for us. See you there!
>
> http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/7173/292462/rms
>
>
>
> ++ Copyright:
>
> Nonprofit Online News is a service of The Gilbert Center. The
> opinions and observations are those of Michael Gilbert and the
> authors. Copyright 1997 - 2009. All rights reserved.
>
>
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