Echo Ditto

This post on the crazy new math of the modern era drives me crazy.

Just like I don't believe in heroes, I don't believe in genius. I believe in community.

The long tail is everywhere, even poetry. The age of the elite creator is replaced by your neighbor the poet/journalist/insert-craft-here. Is there really a problem with anyone being able to write a poem? Soon, with 3-D printing, it won't just be "media" that anyone can create. Soon it will be anything - shoes, mobile phones, vehicles. (Think I'm crazy? Read this and this and this.) And then, once anyone can create anything, brands and elite notions of excellence will be obsolete. It will all come down to relationship -- to my neighbor (physical or digital) and my neighbor's work. We will really dwell in our communities -- be they geographical or otherwise. Personal relationships will matter -- and not much else. It's a beautiful chaotic day that is arriving / has arrived. Instead of lamenting the death of something ("The loss would be incalculable"), celebrate the creation of a radical new way of organizing the world. Burn the money, and the press used to print it. This is something completely different.

It was great to welcome the Orton Family Foundation to EchoDitto recently. The Orton Family Foundation helps small cities and towns adopt land-use planning that engages a broad base of local citizens in order to maintain the ‘heart and soul’ of those communities.

Having spent several years coordinating meetings and conferences, I learned that you could significantly alter the way attendees interacted through minor tweaks to the design setup. I recall many instances where the simple act of moving a chair could either encourage group conversations, or shut it off altogether.

Over the years, I have noticed how a similar dynamic is at play through the design of our built environment - determining whether people would likely drive or walk, which side of the street they would walk on, and who they were likely meet along the way. This is very exciting and shows the ways in which creative land-use design can be used in building communities.

As people have adopted social media technologies, it has been fascinating to watch as these technologies transformed the way conferences run. Twitter hash tags allow for greater participation and collaboration. Webcasts, video sharing, picture sharing and slide sharing allow for easy, often instantaneous transmission beyond the conference room. This technology has made it so much easier to find, participate in and contribute to conferences of interest. I am excited to see these technologies harnessed to produce similar results in community planning.

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. Through various media formats, the world was able to get almost instantaneous news and images of the disaster as it was developing. Images of destruction and death poured in from media outlets telling an unbearable story of suffering and loss.

This prompted an unprecedented worldwide response in the form of organized efforts to collect funds and resources for those suffering in Haiti. Contributions have come from collective funds set up by governments, NGO's, businesses, non-profits, and even individuals. It was and is a call to action for everyone to help, in any way that they can.

Jim and Karen Ansara, clients and friends of EchoDitto, heard this call. Together they organized The Haiti Fund for Relief and Reconstruction, through The Boston Foundation. The Ansara's put up $1 million of their own money and challenged their friends, family, colleagues and fellow community members to match their contribution.

Karen found her way to help by organizing the Haiti Fund campaign. She assembled a communications team to get their cause into the media and develop a community online.

Meanwhile, Jim decided that the best way he could help out was to hitch a ride with members from Partners In Health and touchdown at ground zero. Jim landed in Haiti on January 16th without a single notion of how bad things actually were. He was shocked to find bodies piling in the streets, hospitals without electricity or water, and buildings crumbled to almost nothing. Amazingly, through all of the chaos Jim also found hope and a strong sense of community.

Jim's experiences provided a centerpiece for Karen's campaign to build a community around the Haiti Fund. His notes were made public through a blog on WordPress. This site was promoted online via twitter, email list blasts, and blogger outreach, driving thousands of people to the blog. Jim's unique coverage kept visitors coming back to his blog, and in turn, donating to the fund. It was the perfect medium to broadcast these experiences.

The blog has continued to provide a unique transparency to what the Ansara's are trying to do. Through his entries, Jim has highlighted the need for not only immediate relief, but long term dedication to reconstruction. This is something that the Haiti Fund is focused on - being in Haiti long after the dust has settled. In one of Jim's entries, he quotes Winston Churchill:

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The significance and meaning of this quote is fully realized by the disaster in Haiti and the Ansara's focus on long-term reconstruction.

On February 10, 2010 the Haiti Fund passed the million-dollar mark. With their own match, they will have over $2 million to dedicate to rebuilding infrastructure in Haiti. They are now in the planning and assessment phase of their work, reviewing specific sites and prioritizing by where the need for attention is the greatest.

You can continue to follow Jim and Karen's efforts at jiminhaiti.org. The Haiti Fund is still accepting donations.

Cross posted from Care2's Frogloop

Going to the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen (COP15) was the closest I've come to a good strong punch in the gut -- the type that makes you question much of what you once believed to be true. But it was also one of the best wake-up calls I could have asked for.

My time in Copenhagen reminded me that for all the money and good intentions in the world, we can't make a bit of difference if we don't fully appreciate, understand, and react to the political landscape we're playing in as online campaigners and strategists. That means setting aside our shiny online tools and tactics long enough to ensure that we're using them to deliver real impact.

By most accounts, "civil society" and NGOs were effectively shut out of the U.N. dialogue and process -- even as observers. These are the wonks and influencers we rely upon to represent the interests of a global citizens movement, and the people who dedicate entire careers to providing comprehensive research and intelligence to policymakers and bureaucrats. The result of this blackout? With the important exception of personal relationships that some NGO leaders and insiders had with negotiators or delegates, there seemed to be few if any clear opportunities around which campaigners could mobilize their people.

The scene outside the conference center was an eye-opening example of noble intentions stifled by a complex political landscape. A poignant case in point: two young women whose activism took the form of a hunger strike -- they hadn't eaten in more than forty days. They sought to reach decision makers through non-violent protest and presumably media attention that would embarrass or influence leaders. But to what end? While some negotiators may have heard about this Climate Justice Fast thanks to several organizations who joined in, I'd venture that not one political actor with real power had any idea about these two women and their fast.

Witnessing these hungry women muster the energy to speak each syllable filled me with an overwhelming sense of despair and frustration. With all of the technology and social networks and organizing talent I know we have in the world, this was the best we could do?

I'm not just talking about individual activists like the hunger strikers. The majority of international and national NGOs that I saw asked members to do little more than sign online petitions or follow dispatches / updates from Copenhagen. 1Sky and 350.org upped the ante by asking members to pick up the phone and light up the switchboards of world leaders, and the Energy Action Coalition invited its young members to stage sit-ins at local Senate offices.

Unfortunately, there's little if any evidence that President Obama ever saw or heard the phone calls or the thousands of Americans on the internet asking him to stand strong on emissions targets or financing options. Or, likewise, that any negotiator was moved by a list of 15 Million global citizens -- of 6 Billion -- ready for a "fair, ambitious, and binding" climate deal. (The 15 Million names were delivered to Yvo de Boer, who leads the U.N. process -- not to the countries or negotiators holding up progress.)

We need to refocus. It's incumbent upon all of us to avoid getting so caught up in the art and craft of our online engagement and online campaigning work that we're blinded to the reality of the people we're trying to influence -- or the landscape in which we're operating.

Let me be clear. Organizations, NGOs, and the climate movement played valuable roles in the climate talks.
The TckTckTck global alliance facilitated critical and unprecedented message coordination, collaboration, and information sharing through its open campaign structure. And I highly recommend Phil Aroneanu's post on the impact the [growing] global climate movement had on altering the narrative in Copenhagen "even though we ended up with a 0 from our leaders."

But from a public engagement and campaigning perspective, what could we have done differently to leverage the force of a broad citizens movement in a way that could effectively influence a small number of policy makers?

Let's stop declaring victory in our online campaigns while we lose the very battles that many of these campaigns and their sponsoring organizations are setup to fight. My colleague Allyson Kapin compiled a wonderful list of some of the most innovative online campaigns of 2009 here at Frogloop (and we cataloged a few of our own here) -- but at what point will we stop calling campaigns successful if they wowed us with cool tech or participation numbers but failed to move the needle? What role are these campaigns playing in bringing the change we seek?

Increasingly the metrics we use to gauge success online will need to incorporate or connect to overall impact. Total eyeballs or unique visits to a campaign site will only matter insomuch as that's an audience of eyeballs that a decision-maker is truly concerned about pleasing.

I've started an initial list of what's needed to be an effective campaigner these days -- what's missing?

• Ability to process relevant information and intelligence quickly (difficult at COP15)
• Access to political strategy or strategists who can parse that intelligence into a series of leverage points, key actors, and most importantly, opportunities for influencing the next step or outcome (sorely lacking among NGOs at COP15)
• Fresh tactics for engaging members and constituents in online campaigns that target those key actors and take advantage of those leverage points effectively
• Ability to do all of this at the pace of the internet, without short-circuiting the process.

The question for us all, though spurred on by Copenhagen, stands independent: How can we ensure that our actions and our campaigns are influencing the right actors at the right time? I fear that the rapid-fire pace of our new media world is increasingly short-circuiting essential strategic targeting and planning work -- thereby pressuring campaigners, bloggers, and even internet directors to confuse quality for quantity, activity for results. It's clear that we need to spend more time ensuring that our shiny online tools line up with strong political strategy.

In 2008 Google launched the first Android smartphone, taking a bold step away from the safe and wonderful world of the ‘web’ into the universe of making ‘real things.’ I admit to being a little confounded by this move at the time, feeling that perhaps the masters of the internet were straying from their core business: online search.

The launch of the Nexus One in 2010, along with the surging popularity of the iPhone and other smartphones, made clear that Google’s original move was less about the devices, as it was about accelerating the adoption of internet portability. The smartphones served mostly as delivery devices; untethering the internet from the constraints of a desk or a lap – and placing it firmly in the palm of your hand! This is a profound shift. A shift that serves a dual role of opening up an exciting new ‘internet economy,’ at the same time deepening and enriching the online social networks that form the bedrock of effective social media campaigns.

Having the ‘internet in the palm of your hands’ is a giant step forward. It means that your social networks are ever-present. Whether it’s a fellow employee in the next booth, a neighbor, grandma in another state, your alumni association or an organization doing good work on your behalf in another country – they are always within reach. In your palm, pocket or pocket book.

For the hard-nosed who forgo flowery language for the stubborn bottom line, the measure of the burgeoning ‘portable internet economy’ is perhaps best assessed by the market valuation of these mobile internet delivery devices:

• On the day of the Nexus One’s launch, Google’s market cap rose by a staggering $12 bill and it’s total lifetime valuation stands at $20bill

• The iPhone accounts for around 50% of a apple’s market cap of around $200bill

While these figures price in hardware it’s clear that the bulk of that value derives from the ‘portable internet economy’ that these devices deliver.

Time for part two of my series on iPhone development basics (you can find part one on the EchoDitto Labs blog). Last time, I gave some tips on writing settings to a binary file using Apple's Foundation Library. This time I'll show you how to retrieve those settings -- either from a cached version of the property list or from the filesystem itself. As with the first article, let's dive in head first with some code.

First of all, you'll want to add a static NSDictionary member to your settings data controller class for storing the cached settings.

In your .h file:

NSDictionary *cachedSettings;
@property(nonatomic, retain) NSDictionary *cachedSettings;

In your .m file:

static NSDictionary *cachedSettings;
@synthesize cachedSettings;

Here's the loadSettings function. As you can see, I've implemented it as a class method -- there's really no reason to treat your settings data controller as anything other than a singleton with some class methods. Some argue against using singletons in Objective C. In most cases, I could be persuaded to agree; however, app-wide settings don't really make any sense implemented as anything except as global variables, and singletons are essentially the OOP equivalent of globals. I'd love if someone wanted to discuss this in a comment thread, however.

+ (NSDictionary *)loadSettings
{
if (cachedSettings == nil) {
NSArray *dirArray = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,
NSUserDomainMask,
YES);

NSString *path = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/settings.bin", [dirArray objectAtIndex:0]];
NSData *settings = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];

if (settings != nil) {
NSDictionary *dict = (NSDictionary *)[NSPropertyListSerialization
propertyListFromData:settings
mutabilityOption:0
format:nil
errorDescription:nil];

if (dict == nil)
NSLog(@"Error in loadSettings");

cachedSettings = [dict copy];

return dict;
}

return nil;
}
else {
return cachedSettings;
}
}

The outermost if block is the heart of our caching. Essentially, if cachedSettings contains data, loadSettings simply returns that data. Otherwise, it loads data out of the filesystem in a pattern much like the save function. Again, NSData does the file I/O for us. Cocoa is made of magic pixie dust. If the file read goes well, we unserialize the binary data stream into an NSDictionary and return that dictionary.

Next, let's revisit the save function I provided last time -- albeit with a minor modification to accommodate for caching.

+ (BOOL) saveSettings:(NSString *)username password:(NSString *)password
{
NSArray *dirArray = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,
NSUserDomainMask,
YES);

NSString *path = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/settings.bin", [dirArray objectAtIndex:0]];
NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:username, @"username", password, @"password", nil];

if (cachedSettings != nil) [cachedSettings release];
cachedSettings = [dict copy];

NSData *data = [NSPropertyListSerialization dataFromPropertyList:dict format:NSPropertyListBinaryFormat_v1_0 errorDescription:nil];

if (data == nil) {
NSLog(@"Error in SettingsDataController saveSettings");
return NO;
}

NSLog(@"Writing to path: %@", path);

if ([data writeToFile:path options:NSAtomicWrite error:nil] == NO) {
NSLog(@"writeToFile error");
return NO;
}

NSLog(@"writeToFile success");
return YES;
}

Notice lines 4 and 5 of saveSettings:password:.

if (cachedSettings != nil) [cachedSettings release];
cachedSettings = [dict copy];

All we're doing here is checking if a cached version of the settings NSDictionary exists. If so, we release that memory and then copy in the new version that was saved to disk. By copying in a cached version during the save process, we prevent ever having to read from disk more than once. This is, of course, not much of a performance boost for anything we're doing with our Drupal/iPhone integration project, but it's still a best practice, and it's easy and quick enough to implement that there's no good excuse for omitting it.

You could presumably simply set the cachedSettings pointer to the NSDictionary object, rather than memcpying it over. That would probably align better with best practices. I'm still trying to nail down exactly how to retain and release variables in Objective C, however, and I went with the copy because I was more interested in building out new functionality than debugging BAD_ACCESS errors. Again, I'd love a little discussion in a comment thread below.

First, let me say how excited I am to be a Ditto! After a few years working in this field, I am thrilled to be a part of this great team doing great work.

Now a little about myself. For the last three years, I lived in Salt Lake City working for an organization called DharmaTech that provides technology solutions to nonprofit organizations. At DharmaTech, I served as the project manager, consultant, trainer, architect, and resident hip-hop and baseball expert. The nonprofit technology field is a perfect fit for me because I previously lived in Las Vegas working as a community organizer, where I led campaigns to stop the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump and continued nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site. My work at EchoDitto allows me to continue my passion of strengthening the connection between social change and technology.

In my new position I will serve as a project manager responsible for making sure our projects are successful at delivering powerful web solutions to our clients. I look forward to this new experience along with learning the ins and outs of Boston! If you need to reach me, feel free to email me at tony@echoditto.com

The news about Apple's new tablet, the iPad, is only just minutes old at this point, and yet I feel compelled to write this blog post. Let me first be clear that I am (hopefully obviously) a big fan of new and exciting technology. I have an iPhone and love it, and I'm looking forward to trying out the ...iPad (it hurts me to even type the name).

But I have to ask, in regards to the name iPad... are there ANY women working at Apple?? I took an informal poll a few days ago when rumors were surfacing about the possible name for Apple's new product. When I asked my friends what they thought of the name, most men didn't think twice. But my female friends, well:

"There's clearly not a single female on that team"
"It kinda reminds me of iPeed."
"Like... a tampon?"

And after today's announcement, a coworker said "the bigger version is going to be called the iMaxiPad." Who knows, maybe one day it'll have wings.

Come on, Steve, for someone so smart... you really didn't think this one through. I get it - I get that there's alliteration with the names iPod iPhone and iPad. Wow. Someone call up Dr. Seuss. Write a kids book. But don't name your new great invention after what 50% of the population will associate with menstruating.

I know in the long run it won't affect the success of this device, and it probably won't prevent me from buying one. But I just want to hear from some women who work at Apple. Did anyone really think naming it iPad was a good idea?

Cynicism is for cowards.

Someone I don’t even know very well recently challenged me to name three leaders who were true to “public service”, suggesting there weren’t any and that “those who might have the ability and resources to "change our world" put their professional and personal agendas before the need of those they might help, and therefore the world is screwed and there is no reason for anyone to think they can make a difference.”

Cynicism is a form of fear.  You've got to have personal courage – among other things, the courage to believe that your actions will make a difference, even if you cannot see or measure that difference, even if that difference does not come to fruition in your own lifetime.

But in trying to name some “heroes” of public service, I balked. I don't like the idea of heroes.  None of us are heroes.  A couple weeks ago I watched on Netflix Streaming a documentary about Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi-hunter, called "I Have Never Forgotten You". To me, the most intense part was in the last two minutes, when he is very old, in his 90s, and receiving another award, and he starts to cry and he tells the crowd -- don't give me this award. Don't make me special.  I am not hero.  We all carry this responsibility. And if you make me a hero, and you don't carry this responsibility as yours but make it a hero's responsibility -- then this will happen again.

We are each called to our own kind of service. I believe this.  We may ignore service to our neighbor, to our fellow men and women, but we are each called to it -- it's part of the human experience, to help each other.  Every society, every culture, every tradition, every history on earth has it.  So if we each carry some responsibility -- well, then it's up to us.

Our culture is obsessed with heroes -- not only with heroes, but with celebrity, and the lines are getting very blurry, and that's bad for everybody.  I really believe that service, public service, needs to be a deep part of our lives -- and the only way to get there is to live it, to look for your own public service, your own generosity and your own responsibility.  And for me, public service is tied intimately to the idea of change: we need to change this world we live in, to make it a better place.

Change requires struggle.  We forget this.  Change in this day and age is accomplished primarily by money changing hands; you go from walkman to CDs to iPods to iPhones in just a few short years and all it costs is money.  We elected a president who urged change by entering our credit card number and clicking. At this time last year, we could not help but feel giddy with the change that was upon us – Barack Obama as the President of the United States! Consequently, when epochal change on an issue as fundamental to our very breathing as climate change fails to materialize in the face of what feels like broad global public consensus, it feels like defeat.

I’m amazed to read about artists like Picasso or Thelonious Monk, who managed to imagine an art beyond the present, seeing beyond their contemporaries and the traditions of the past, striving for something new.  Activists for social change do something similar: through an act of imagination, they see a new world, a brighter future, and then struggle to take us there.  But in this day and age it’s easy to leave imagination behind, indulging in the insanity of our media-saturated world obsessed with every incremental step forward, each new version release.

The start of a new year is a good time to amp up the imagination and decide what kind of world we really want to live in. I am reminded of the tenacity of activists of earlier eras, who imagined a world and then struggled to bring it into being – even when the struggle was apparently fruitless for lifetimes.  We all have our heroes, people we look to for inspiration in our movement-building; one of mine is Ammon Hennacy, a self-described Catholic Anarchist. If that description doesn’t pique your curiosity, I don’t know what will.

The networked nature of the modern world offers new opportunities for movement-building – for bringing the imagined brighter future into reality – but at the same time it seems to threaten the act of imagination with the amount of noise it introduces into our lives.  The struggle is to find ourselves, to take personal courage to heart, to seek out stark beauty.  That’s what work is.

My favorite quote for almost twenty years is from an HG Wells novel (from a book, incidentally, that was given to me by 10th grade Geometry teacher -- now that's Public Service!):
But in these plethoric times when there is too much coarse stuff for everybody and the struggle for life takes the form of competitive advertisement and the effort to fill your neighbor's eye, there is no urgent demand either for personal courage, sound nerves or stark beauty, and we find ourselves by accident.
HG Wells wrote that in 1909 in the novel Tono-Bungay, 100 years ago.  Today I saw a Teddy Roosevelt quote from the same era that could have been written this morning, it so perfectly described our current political dynamic.  My point is that this is our world and it is what we make of it -- and people haven't changed that much. It's up to each of us. What kind of world do you want to live in? Go make that world.

Go ahead, be cynical and let fear rule your life.  I've got (stuff) to do, worlds to change, and it's fun, so I’ll see you later.

Back in November I wrote about a new client of EchoDitto's, Stefany Shaheen, and her blog focused on what it's like to parent a child with diabetes.

Today Stefany encouraged her readers, and I encourage you, to help bring diabetes supplies to Haiti. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has committed to raising money for diabetes supplies for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. So far, they've delivered.

You can donate here: http://www.idf.org/donate-idf-diabetes-trust-fund-haiti

I personally find it difficult, when a tragedy like this occurs, to figure out what I can do to help. Where is the right place to donate? Is "throwing money at the problem" really the right thing to do? In speaking with Stefany and reading about the IDF's efforts I realized that in the end this tragedy is too big for any individual. There is no "right way" to help. There's only your way.

For Luke Montgomery, it's traveling to Haiti to find the 13 orphans he's been helping over the past few years. For Jim Ansara it's donating and traveling to Haiti to see what he can do on the ground, and spreading the word as much as possible.

For Stefany it's writing on her blog, tweeting, and donating specifically to help those suffering from diabetes - people in need not only of food and water but insulin, clean glucose needles, and so on. If this seems right for you, I encourage you to donate as well.

Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Day. It's a national Day of Service and a time to reflect on social justice.

The crisis in Haiti brings extra focus and intensity to the question of how we care for each other. How did one of the world’s poorest countries struggle to survive just miles off the coast of Florida? Why does it require a massive earthquake for us to turn our attention to Haiti?

King wrote, "Every man [and woman] must decide whether he [or she] will walk in the creative light of altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's persistent and most urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'"

We have been inspired by our friend and fellow technology geek Luke Montgomery. Three years ago, Luke asked himself that very question. He decided to build an orphanage, brick by brick for abandoned Haitian children with HIV/AIDS. And he looked to his online community and social media to help him do it through participatory fundraising on his website, WeCanBuildAnOrphanage.com. He raised enough funds to start a successful 10-bed orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti.

Luke is on his way back to Haiti. Because the infrastructure is in such bad shape, he's planning to fly to the Dominican Republic and then make his way over a rocky and roadless mountain to get to Jacmel. He got some news this morning:

Our kids are alive but our orphanage was totally destroyed in the quake... but again, our 13 children have all survived. Somehow amidst all the death around them, these 13 orphans made it out of the rubble alive. They are now living on the street surrounded by rubble with no food, water, blankets or medicine. Many of them are HIV+. Two are handicapped and can not walk. We are rushing an emergency team to them to care for, feed and protect them. I'm leaving and will be on the ground in Haiti for as long as it takes to rebuild. We need your help. We lost everything.

We're going to help out by renting a satellite phone for his trip. And we're inviting you to join us by spreading the word about what Luke is doing. Share this link with your personal networks online (Facebook, Twitter, Email) to help put a face on the work that needs to be done in Haiti:

http://tinyurl.com/ykt74rg

The cool part is that he's a web geek like us so he'll be blogging and sharing videos/photos so people can see exactly how donations are being spent. You can see the full story of the orphanage in Haiti here:

https://wecanbuildanorphanage.com

For years it seemed like only moments of crisis -- from natural disasters like Haiti to global warming -- could unite us and our organizations in common purpose. But the connective tissues of technology seem to be taking hold in both charitable and corporate boardrooms alike. We're seeing first-hand in our work across the climate, service, and veterans movements an unprecedented level of openness and collaboration.

Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Day, a day of national and community service to remember his legacy. After years of working with leading organizations to support service, it's a real privilege to join with them in a collaborative effort to build All for Good, a joint platform that makes service opportunities ubiquitous.

We're proud to stand with so many of our clients and partners this weekend -- Hands On Network, Do Something, Service Nation, The Huffington Post to name a few -- in inviting you to join us in celebrating King Day as a day of service. Click here to find an opportunity near you – and join us in using a day of service to reflect on Haiti and social justice:

http://www.serve.gov/mlkday

It is perhaps a testament to the fast paced, hurly burly of our times that many bright moments pass with barely a whisper. This is particularly so when such events require reflection - not lending themselves to an easy headline or front-page story.

One such moment was on Friday October 16, 2009. On this day hundreds gathered to commemorate 20 years of service achievements stemming from President H.W. Bush’s 1989 inaugural address in which he called for ‘a thousand points of light’, and the subsequent creation of the Points of Light Institute to fulfill that mission. Among those gathered, and giving the keynote address, was President Obama.

Watching these presidents, side by side one could not miss that there could be fewer studies in contrasts: one an elderly octogenarian, the other a young man not yet fifty. It was even more remarkable to ponder the divergent paths each took to the presidency and the different policies they pursued once elected. One was a virtual shoe-in having served as a vice of a beloved sitting president. The other, a young upstart, who was given little chance of winning. One a Republican, and the other a Democrat.

And yet, on this day they stood side by side, their mutual respect and admiration clear for all to see. For beyond the difference their individual stations and outlooks, one detected that there must have been a moment of recognition between them. A moment that went beyond their having pursued and attained the highest office in the land. Looking closely it became clear what it was; SERVICE! President H.W. Bush enlisted as soon as he turned 18, while almost everyone is familiar with President Obama’s story of community service.

In the keynote address, which was a moving tribute to his predecessor, President Obama said in part;
“Once you have tutored young people in a struggling neighborhood, it’s hard not to care about that ballot measure to fund their school. Once you’ve volunteered at a food-bank, it is hard not to care about poverty and unemployment. Over time the needs of the people you serve become your stake in the challenges of our time. Because, in the end, service binds us to each other, and to our community and to our country in a way that nothing else can…"

Monday January 18, 2010, is MLK Day. A day designated for service to others. We hope you will volunteer and serve in your community.

EchoDitto is proud to be a longtime partner of the HandsOn Network and the Points of Light Institute. Today we are collaborating with them, among others, in our work to grow and strengthen the open source All for Good platform of service opportunities. Check out www.serve.gov/mlkday to find volunteer opportunities in your community this weekend, including those sponsored by the HandsOn Network.

[You may have already heard from a few Dittos about this. Just in case: an update.]

Luke Montgomery, a close friend of a couple Dittos started a non-profit a few years ago called WeCanBuildAnOrphanage.com. Since it's early days, Luke has worked tirelessly to help build an orphanage in Haiti for children with AIDS. Since Tuesday's earthquake, Luke has been scrambling to get to Haiti to find out more about the status of the orphanage and of the children. Below is an update that we received this morning.

If there's anyway that you can help, please give or spread the word about:
http://EarthquakeOrphans.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Luke Montgomery
Date: Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 11:20 AM
Subject: UPDATE: Our Orphanage was Destroyed, Kids Survive

Good News!!!!

Our kids are alive but our orphanage was totally destroyed in the quake... but again, our 13 children have all survived. Somehow amidst all the death around them, these 13 orphans made it out of the rubble alive. They are now living on the street surrounded by rubble with no food, water, blankets or medicine. Many of them are HIV+. Two are handicapped and can not walk. We are rushing an emergency team to them to care for, feed and protect them. I'm leaving and will be on the ground in Haiti for as long as it takes to rebuild.

We need your help. WE LOST EVERYTHING.

Please give and spread this emergency link:
http://EarthquakeOrphans.com

I'll be updating you from Haiti with video and photos in the coming weeks.

Love,
Luke

In December of 2007, I spent 10 days in Haiti. Most of my time was spent up in the Central Plateau in a town called Thomonde, near Hinche. I spent a day or two on either end in Port-Au-Prince. I was working on a solar power project with the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, which had paired each church in Diocese with a church in Haiti. Watching the images pour in today from Haiti, my mind keeps returning to the intense ten days I spent there.

It's less than a two hour flight from Miami to Port-Au-Prince. How could one of the world's poorest countries be in the same time zone as Washington DC? I grew up around the world, in Africa and Asia, and I have seen exceptional poverty. But the gritty, intense poverty of Haiti was brutal and beyond my previous experience. The country had a hopeless, desperate feel to it -- even as the people of Haiti opened their hearts and homes to me. The generosity and spirit of the Haitian people was an inspiration and remains to this day a reminder of grace.

Even the landscape was desolate. It seemed as if every single tree had been cut down -- not so far from the truth, it turns out -- and when we attempted to visit the beach, we discovered that the deforestation had led to severe erosion that had destroyed the coral reefs.

But the most striking thing was what appeared to be an almost total absence of government. Once we left Port-Au-Prince, it was hard to discern any institutions at all -- other than the Catholic Church. Roads, banks, hospitals, courts – really any kind of systemic institutions seemed absent.

Today, watching and listening to the news of the earthquake, I feel my heart breaking for Haiti. How much more heartache does Haiti deserve? Please do what you can, and keep Haiti close to your heart.

Cross-posted to Nicco.org

2010 marks the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. While it is true that the land of Mandela and Tutu continues to inspire hope and goodwill in the hearts of many, it is perhaps equally true that in the relentless swirl of global competition, the rapture that followed the end of apartheid will soon cease to be the driving force for continuing prosperity. In this brave new world where innovation provides the competitive edge, a new economy must emerge to fill that space. After all, there is no amount of hope and inspiration that can cure the pangs of an empty stomach. So as Mandela and Tutu enjoy well deserved adulation in their twilight years, it may be that the most fitting tribute to the labor of their lives is a new generation pushing on and unlocking the the barely thawed potential of freedom in a technology driven universe.

Now I would never bother two old men with talk about APIs, apps, iPhone, androids or even the new google nexus one. And, it is perhaps counter-intuitive to suggest that solutions to the myriad of issues that choke economic growth in emerging markets are to be found in hi-tech. I can only imagine what my aging grandmother in Southern Africa would say if I presented her with the latest 32Gig, 3G iPhone, souped up with all manner of apps, and said to her, "Here grandma. Now, all your problems are solved!" I know I would not want to be within arms length.

I do, however, believe that hi-tech, and particularly mobile tech, can play a significant role in addressing some of the seemingly intractable, systemic obstacles to alleviating global poverty and that South Africa can serve as a proving ground for this proposition.

I base my case on the following:

A little over a decade ago--as a logical response to a need and because of convenience, accessibility, and portability--South Africa began emphasizing cellphone connectivity over land-line connectivity. This led to rapid development of a mobile phone technological infrastructure with the result being a near 90% penetration rate. Concomitantly, the country adopted an aggressive wireless broadband policy, boosting innovation in super-fast 3G (and 4G) technology. Additionally they invested heavily in the submarine and terrestrial cable that connected the country to the global information superhighway and has a leadership stake in connecting the rest of the continent.

In 2002 the country won the bidding to host the 2010 World Cup. This stimulated massive infrastructure development, leading to a surge in technological infrastructure and other infrastructure spending.

I first connected the dots between the technological revolution and South Africa's revolution while huddled with friends on October 24, 2009 in recognition of 350.org's 'Day of Action'. We joined thousands of people in cities large and small, here in the U.S., South Africa and across the world. That moment, spent in unison with like-minded strangers around the world, represented the fusion, through technology, of atomized, isolated groups around a shared interest. It became clear to me that access to online technology could be the great leveler in opening up the innovation economy in all corners of the world.

Like the hope embodied by Mandela and Tutu, technology can be a powerful tool for mobilizing resources and effecting change.

Here in the U.S., the social media economy continues its steadfast migration to the mobile app economy. Huge investments are being made in mobile broadband, and as the apps economy continues its exponential growth to encompass such things as geospatial mapping, the new energy economy, medical apps economy: 'meaningful use/comparative effectiveness' , it is clear that the 'innovation edge' will go to those who can fuse, tech skills with broadband access and portability.

The 2010 World Cup will kick off in June of 2010. The collective attention of billions around the world will join Mandela and Tutu in rooting for teams of their preference. In that process they'll draw upon a primed wireless broadband capacity. Millions in South Africa will watch the games, some from HD televisions but many through broadband wireless, will watch from their cellphones. It is my view that a strong possibility exists for this to serve as a catalytic event, marking the convergence of a strong wireless, portable broadband capacity with the fast emerging global mobile app economy. If it happens it would serve as a powerful model for opening access to innovation economy in towns and villages all over the world. If it happens, and I think it will, I suspect it would be something that would make two old men very happy.

I've always been an advocate for making New Years Resolutions - I'm just not usually the type to actually keep them. This year, I have a few resolutions: quit smoking (which I've been trying to do for over a year now), work-out more (once I fix my injured shoulder), and get more cool stuff done at work. I find it incredibly frustrating that there is so much I want to do, but it feels like there's never enough time to do it all.

So, regarding resolution #3, I've become obsessed with not letting anything get lost in the shuffle. For me, it has become a three-step process:

1. My inbox. We all get way too much email, and it's often very difficult to manage. We hear so much about declaring inbox bankruptcy. Since EchoDitto recently switched to using Gmail (the best email system EVER), my solution is three-fold: filters, labels, and multiple inboxes. Almost every email I receive is filtered and labeled in some way. Generally, if I get an email from a specific client, I'll apply a filter (from:client@clientemail.com) that automatically labels the email "client name." If I'm constantly receiving emails sent to a group that I know I can read later, our tech team for instance, I'll apply a filter (to:group@groupemail.com) that labels it, marks it as read, and skips my Inbox (automatically archives).

So, what if I get something important that I've filtered to skip the inbox? This is where multiple inboxes comes into the equation. For me, at the LEAST, each client has its own inbox. The EchoDitto tech team also has an inbox, my bug assignments for any/all websites I'm working on have their own inbox (we use Mantis), and so on.

Finally, what I consider to be the most-helpful trick of all: I refuse to have pagination in my main Gmail inbox. I limit the number of displayed emails in my MAIN inbox (not any of the multiple ones) to 25, and every morning I spend 30min responding to emails, acting on them, or archiving them if there is no action. The only 25 emails I keep in my inbox are those I need to act on immediately. If I miss a day of going through email, I make sure to do it at least every other day. Without fail.

Also, if you know you need to act on something, but not immediately, why keep it in your inbox? This is when multiple inboxes and advanced gmail search come in handy, as well as #2. So keep reading...

PS: My Gmail ninja level? Master.

2. Paper & Pen. I've gone through so many time/task management apps - Things, Remember the Milk, etc. Usually I'll start out with an efficient and well organized list of projects and tasks, but eventually just managing the app itself becomes a daunting task, and time-consuming. So I've given up and am now doing it old-school using pen and paper. I have a notebook, and every day AFTER acting on the things I can act on immediately in my inbox, I'll date the page and write down each project I need to be working on, and list tasks for each one that need to be completed that day. For tasks that need to be completed by the end of the week, I'll asterisk. As I complete tasks, I cross them off. Asterisked tasks that don't get completed that day are re-written on the next page the next day. Sometimes a task can be as simple as: finish all Mantis items for X project that are due today.

For longer-term tasks, things that I can just do "eventually" I block out the last 5-10 lines at the bottom of the page and write these tasks in that block. These tasks carry over every day, and I try to cross one off a week, depending on the urgency of each task. But it's a good way of keeping them on my radar.

3. My calendar. I've found that my calendar can be more than just a place to schedule meetings. Why not block out time during the day to work on projects? 9-9:30am attack email, 9:30-9:45 update task list, and by 10am I'm hard to work on all of my projects. Normally I'll book myself through to 6 or 7pm to account for the 30-60min I've been planning, and haven't really been doing client work. I find that if I fill up my Gcal with the things I need to do that day, in blocks of 1-2 or even 3hrs, I'll actually get more done and be less prone to distraction. Setting a time limit (i.e. 1hr to fix X bug on X website), also makes me more efficient in getting that task done.

Conclusions? This all sounds like a lot of work. But there are so many benefits to this system! Once you set all of this up, you get into a rhythm and it actually doesn't involve much work to do 1, 2, and 3 on a day-to-day basis. It takes me about 15-30min to get set up every day with a list of things I need to do and when I need to do them. The other benefit is that when I go to do my Timesheet for the day, I can look both at my sent email, my task list, and my calendar, and have an extremely accurate record of how I spent my day.

Now obviously this doesn't work to perfection every day. There are distractions, there are days when ... as Forrest Gump said ... stuff just happens (he didn't say it exactly like that, but you get the idea). Sometimes you get behind. For instance, writing this blog post was not blocked out in my calendar, or on my list of to-do's for today. Whoops.

I'm curious how others do the same. Do you have a system? Are the comment text boxes on our website long enough to accommodate? If not, send me an email! My email address is my first name @echoditto.com. And if you spam me, that's okay, I've got a filter ready. From: jerk@spammyjerk.com, mark as read, send to trash. Done.

To celebrate 2009 drawing to a close, the EchoDitto team huddled 'round the fire and reminisced about the most memorable campaigns we've seen this year.

Just as we were about to start, Cristen noticed that our fire wasn't up to par, because someone (eh hem, Nicco . . .) had forgotten how to build a proper fire. As Cristen got up and reached into the fireplace, rearranging the logs into a perfect tipi, she told us about her favorite campaign this year, The Big Wild Challenge. The Big Wild is a Canadian outfitter that sets wilderness challenges (treks, spelunking trips & the like) and tracks donations to help the adventure happen. They've created a great forum for getting people outside and enjoying the big wilds. In all the jostling around, an ember shot out of the fire and landed on Bonnie's sleeve; a tendril of smoke curled up from her sweater. "Smokescreen!" she shouted. "There's this great campaign" she explained, "called Smokescreen." She patted the ember out and told us about how the game/campaign teaches people about privacy on social networking sites. Most people don't have an intrinsic knowledge about how to have a smart, safe online life; Smokescreen is an innovative way to learn about it.

All that talk about social networking reminded Michael that he hadn't tweeted yet that day, so he pulled out his phone to tell the world about Bonnie's burning sleeve. As he was tapping away, he remembered the Microsoft Outlook twitter campaign. It's great when a huge corporation launches a campaign all about listening and user feedback. Plus the little pictures are cool. JP asked about Michael's mobile coverage and went on to rave about one of the successful campaigns he's seen this year, the Verizon 3G Network.

Meanwhile, the subject of huge organizations and social media got Alan to thinking. He rocked in his chair, stared into the blazing fire, and pondered. We all got up for eggnog and gingerbread cookies, and when we returned Alan was standing on the coffee table with his arms akimbo -- "I've been thinking," he said. "And, you know what, Facebook did a great job updating their terms of service." He explained his appreciation for the way they turned it into an open forum discussion, and shared the information in terms we could all understand. Then Alan leapt from the table and got himself some eggnog. But, to our surprise, the force of his bound split the wood coffee table in two!

We decided that the most environmentally friendly thing to do was to burn the splintered table in the fireplace (instead of putting it in a landfill, you know) so we all took out our phones, complete with the highly sought-after chainsaw app, and fed the table to the fire piece by piece. It crackled and popped, filling the room with the sharp smell of hardwood. Matt stepped back, "Guys, was this really a good idea? How much CO2 does burning wood release into the atmosphere?" He went on to tell us about The 350 Campaign. As in 350 parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Scott quickly began to remove the table pieces from the fire and recommended his choice for notable 2009 campaign, Kickstarter -- a new funding platform for creative ideas and ambitious endeavors -- as a way to raise money for finding alternative uses for old tables.

JP, Joshua, Dan and Mark helped extricate the table from the fireplace while Brian, Madeleine, Bryn, Travis and Ethan supervised from their chairs. "Good work guys" yelled Madeleine, hi-fiving Bryn to her right and Travis to her left, re-injuring her shoulder in the process. Brian and Ethan tried to keep the conversation going, and asked about everyone's favorite find on the web this year. We all shouted out our favorites at once: WNYC's Radiolab--Pandora--Very Short List--Two Sentences--Brevity! Ethan raised his hands in the air, "Whoa guys, slow down," and he asked, one by one, about our favorite new technology or app of the year. Among our answers were QR code, Google goggles, the NPR iphone app, Augmented Reality, and MIT's "Sixth Sense" Digital Interface.

Now, what about the biggest fails of the year you ask? Those came up too. First, of course, there was our table burning escapade . . . but there were a few disappointing campaigns as well. Here are some that we had high hopes for, that just fell flat: GoogleWave, Windows 7 House Parties, Palm Pre, and the rockyou.com password breach. Next year guys, next year.

Happy 2010 from the smolderingly spirited EchoDitto team.

Note: The preceding was a fictional account. No tables were harmed during the writing of this post.

Timeplots recently released its first project, A Visual History of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nicco asked me to say a few words about why I chose to do it.

The answer takes a bit. My interest in information graphics goes back a long way - at least as far as a class I took as an undergraduate at Yale with Edward Tufte, who many will recognize for his fine self-published series of books on the visual display of information. (See edwardtufte.com, for example). Since that time, as a hobby, I've been collecting data graphics across a wide variety of topics - if you visit my office at NGP Software, the company I founded in 1997, you can see quite a number of such posters on the walls, and there are more stacked in map drawers. Anyway

Over the years there have been quite a number of projects of that sort that I wanted to tackle, but always my main occupation got in the way. (www.ngpsoftware.com) But early this year, when Stu Trevelyan assumed the CEO role at NGP, I've had some time to try my hand at a few of my own.

I picked the Supreme Court as the first in a series focusing on political institutions. I enjoy learning about new subjects , collecting data, and the challenge of developing a visualization of which I can be proud, and which I hope that those who follow the subject intensely would want to own for themselves. Collaborations is part and parcel of the project -- I have been able to work with very knowledgeable people - as I did with the Supreme Court poster, where we spoke with a number of eminent political scientists and lawyers with expertise in constitutional law.

If you have even a passing interest in the Supreme Court, you should check out the poster - www.timeplots.com/scotus -- it is designed to give each Justice his or her spot in history, to chart history of the partisan balance on the Court, to place many landmark cases in context, and to help demonstrate each president's relative impact on the Court.

If you find this interesting, pick one up. It takes awhile to get to know, but repays your interest, I believe. I welcome any suggestions or ideas.

Nathaniel Pearlman
President
Timeplots, LLC

It's pretty tough to get people motivated enough to actually do something these days.

We are dealing with increasingly savvy audiences, with more options, and less time to commit significant effort, to actively contribute to good causes.

Good online/offline campaigns rely on strong organizing, clear message, and recognizable outcomes. In addition, a successful campaign needs an inspirational way to motivate people to participate and engage. So how do we begin this process?

We know that community generated activity builds stronger bonds with a brand or campaign - having a hand in the creation of something makes people more likely to invest in its ongoing success. A community of actively engaged individuals are also much more likely to participate in collaborative myth creation, spread your message by word of mouth, and act as ambassadors, or brand evangelists.

How do we get peoples attention and motivate them to actively do something to participate in a good cause?

The following is a handful of ways commonly used to motivate us to engage with campaigns:

Boo! Arrgh! Use fear to scare people into action
Fear is often used to motivate engagement - particularly around issues of safety, health and your responsibilities to your loved ones.

Nice Booty Reward and incentivize through prizes or material gain
Pay to engage - prizes don't necessarily have to be cash value - they can be things that your target audience will value.

Game On Encourage competition
Engage that latent competitive drive: award points, challenge people to compete for a high score. Chore Wars is a great example of using a points system to get people more engaged in doing unappealing household chores. (I have long envisioned a challenge that pits homes/dorms/companies monitoring their energy consumption against each other in a game of conservation. Anyone want to build it with me??)

Stroke that Ego Spotlight talent and reward effort with praise and profile
We all like to get praised. And increasingly, online recognition can be turned into power and opportunity. If members of your community are participating for recognition, make sure there are good opportunities for them to build profile and portfolio.

Fun is Good(!) Make it more fun to do good stuff
Why not helping people feel good about doing good. It is important to be respectful of sensitive issues, but it is also important to let people enjoy themselves.

A great example of fun at work is RockCorps - a day of service working for a good cause, performed with friends, that earns you a concert ticket to an exclusive show. This is a winning model for engagement - By giving young people a way to feel like they are doing a good deed by hanging out with friends, and get rewarded for a day of service. The new initiative from Disney - Give Day Get a Disney Day - follows a similar model.

Power Hungry Offer opportunities to lead and organize
A recent McKinsey Quarterly survey has found that as companies tighten their belts and reduce fiscal rewards, employees can be motivated, sometime more effectively, by offering greater leadership opportunities, praise and direct attention. In online and offline organizing, the opportunity to lead a house party, or run a local event can be a great motivator.

We're all Dumb and Lazy Make the default option the best one
Make the lazy option the best option. Nudge highlights the little things we can do to change peoples behavior for the better. Instead of asking people to decide to opt IN, make your preferred option a decision to opt OUT and watch how many more people commit.

In Sympathy Put your audience in the shoes of those in need
Build empathy with your audience, tell emotional stories that people can relate to.

The Velvet Rope Get a glimpse behind the curtain
Nothing builds demand like limited supply. Exclusivity, VIP, invite only. Does anyone still need a Google Wave invitation?

Edutainment Teach through storytelling
Participant Media is a production company that makes great movies. Most people know them for their multi award winning films like the Soloist or the Kite Runner. Less people are aware of the huge social undertakings that go on behind the scenes of every film. Each one of their films becomes a vehicle to educate and engage the broader cinema going public in a range of issues explored through their stories. Eg. The Soloist launched a mental health campaign. By using popular cinema to tell well crafted and engaging stories, they are able to educate a broader audience of engaged individuals.

We're all in This Together Feel part of something bigger than yourself
Provide ways for people to collaborate and own a little piece of a bigger whole. Initiatives like seti or carrot mob rely on people working together to create something as a community. When there is a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for success - be it a community like The High Line, open source software, or a collaborative story - we rely on each others singular strengths to support the cohesion of the whole.

Good campaigning, advertising and engagement will use a combination of these techniques to entice, incentivize and engage people to participate.

Obviously, the core of a good social media campaign is based in a deep understanding and affinity with the issues at hand, the message, and the action required. Knowing the issue, the message, and the actionable ask will determine the most appropriate way to engage an audience to participate.

What other techniques are used to engage people in issues?
What are some other good examples of campaigns that use a combination of these techniques?