Platforms' principles & procedures draft
Christine Egger
I've just posted a first draft of what will evolve into our Principles
and Procedures for engaging with social action platforms. It feels
very sparse -- lots of opportunities to make the language more robust,
and it's intentionally limited for now to our engagement with
platforms *only* as their data is contributing to the search interface
and open API -- but it's a place to start and I'll be devoting much of
the next couple of weeks to responding to your feedback/edits and
making improvements to it.
http://groups.google.com/group/social-actions/web/social-actions-principles-procedures-for-platforms-participation
You'll see that the language has been influenced by the conversation
that took place in another thread about whether to charge fees to
platforms that "participate." For what it's worth, I thoroughly agreed
with where that conversation went, and if we're not charging fees, it
seems we simply have the option of subscribing or not subscribing to
any applicable RSS feed out there, and we don't need any kind of
contract with the platforms to confirm their willingness to pay us.
Where we could formalize the relationship with the platform -- and I
think it'd be good to do that, as a gesture of what we're bringing to
the sector -- is with some kind of "endorsement" to Social Actions and
the mission/meaning behind the search interface and open API, similar
perhaps to the endorsement solicited to ePhilanthropy's Code of Ethics
(http://www.ephilanthropy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ethics). (Any
other examples I should draw from, if we go in that direction?)
And of course there'd be lots to do on our end to encourage and
support RSS feed development and enrichment (more nuanced data sets
from platforms, tons of fun layers of data folded in from third party
developers, etc.).
So looking forward to everyone's ideas on how to strengthen what's
been started here ~
Christine
Christine Egger
Have an idea to share and thought I'd place it here, to centralize a
"relationship with platforms" discussion.
Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting a picture of how many
platforms there are, their types, philanthropic niche, stages of
development, etc. I've identified 63 platforms so far and sense that
there are many, many more.
Until recently I imagined that the Social Actions site would continue
to list only those platforms that were participating in the search
interface/open API, but I'm wondering if a better model would be to
share/promote the knowledge base that we're developing about the
entire platform community directly on the website, as it evolves.
We'd provide their name, a link to their URL, and a note that says
they're actions are aggregated into the open API or that they don't
yet have a feed. When the feed is available and we're subscribing,
we'd include them in a "welcome our newly-participating platforms"
announcement.
The goal I'm working towards is to 1) promote how much Social Actions
knows about how large and rich and diverse this community is, 2)
encourage platforms to publicly endorse us, and benefit from our PR,
even as their RSS feeds are being developed, 3) create a kind of peer
pressure to develop RSS feeds of actionable opportunities we can
subscribe to. If we presented this beautifully/colorfully/creatively,
it would also promote the platform sector as a whole by providing a
single place to see all of the platforms in various stages of
development.
I thought at first of requiring the platform to endorse Social
Actions, as proposed above, in order to be listed on the site. But I
think it might be better to list every one, and let users decide
whether they want to click through to (or include in their search
selections) a platform that hasn't endorsed us.
As always, looking forward to this group's feedback...
Christine
Peter Deitz
Thanks for this first step at principles and procedures document. I'm
definitely on board with the idea that platforms would formally endorse
this document (inclusive of the language we link to on other codes of
ethics documents, like the e-philanthropy document and maybe a data
portability document).
This endorsement would replace a contract. The platform would be asked
to list up to three official contacts, whose name would be appear along
with the endorsement. Our "meet the platforms" section will indicate
whether a platform is a) participating in the aggregation; and b)
endorsing the Social Actions principles and procedures.
Additional steps to get platforms involved as partners in our project:
invitations to present their work in live online/offline events;
invitations to participate in the Social Action Platforms group on our
blog; requests to promote work we are doing that features their actions;
period 1-on-1 conversations; invitations to participate in collaborative
initiatives (like the development and promotion of a micro-format for
social action).
I'll work on the draft of the principles and procedures at some point
today or tomorrow. I know you have your hands full with shooting out
the initial introductory emails to platform reps. Thank you for taking
some time to get the principles and procedures conversation started.
All the best,
peter
Peter Deitz
I'm fully on board with all of your ideas. Sounds like we'll need to
revamp the Meet the Platforms section as part of the summer overhaul.
I'll add this to our todo list on Basecamp. Forgot to mention to the
rest of the group: Joe, Christine, Eric (developer on Social Actions
labs) I have been coordinating our work through a Basecamp account and
sharing/managing contacts through a Highrise account. I'll share the
feeds from these accounts when they are fully configured.
All the best,
Peter
Christine Egger
I've just posted a significantly revised "principles and procedures
for the platforms" document.
http://groups.google.com/group/social-actions/web/social-actions-principles-procedures-for-platforms-participation?hl=en
Actually, it's so revised it needs a new name...
Building on the thought process described earlier in this thread, and
from some brainstorming with Peter, the goal for this document is
currently to provide a simple, print-on-one-sheet-of-paper document
that platforms would have the option of "signing" to show that they
share a commitment to what Social Actions stands for, accept our
privacy policy and a code of ethics, share our commitment to providing
information about themselves and their campaigns openly and "richly",
and understand that we have the right to refuse or ignore their
endorsement.
This version borrows some language from the organizational plan, but
in what I hope is simpler language. Really want this to be intuitive
and clear, so a platform can quickly say "yup, I'm on board with all
of that" or "no, this isn't something we're OK with."
Christine
Christine Egger
to more accurately reflect its purpose, and a paragraph at the start
that explains what that purpose is.
Keep the revisions/feedback/questions coming on the text *and* purpose
description!
http://groups.google.com/group/social-actions/web/social-actions-principles-procedures-for-platforms-participation?hl=en
Christine