Blog Day sharing

BlogDay posting instructions:

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2008 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

Blog 1: 6footsix
This gem of a blog is by Colleen Smith, a beach volley player in CA. Her height is as exceptional as her being. In her blog, she asks how she can use her visibility to bring awareness to green issues. She is especially interested in engaging with kids in fun, playful, and powerful ways that motivate change.

Blog 2: BubbleGeneration
Wild card insightful man says things both brilliant and a bit disturbing. Never expect him to say what everyone else says. He marks his own territory effectively, directly, and swiftly. I sense that he is deeply moved to push our world to a better more thrivable space. He also blogs through Harvard Biz blogs.

Blog 3: MoveSmart
The organization putting up this blog is working toward better technology for residential integration. Justin, the founder, has a deep understanding of the issues at hand, a great grasp of the possibilities of technology, and a profound commitment to a better world. I love conversing with him, and I love reading what he is thinking about.

Blog 4: Unimaginable Inscape
A poetic sensibility + lit crit “reading” ability + history studies ability to contextualize = an ability to convey a compelling, situated story. Which Jo directs to landscape where she reads the world through the accidental “art” around us all. Sublime.

Blog 5: Do Good Well
Of course I love a person who has an asset mapping background and talks about doing good and philanthropy and Africa. He taglines it: best practices and beyond for citizen-led global social change. Indeed.

There are dozens more I enjoy, but these strike me as the ones that have yet to make the blogroll–but really deserve to be there. Will update. Thanks for the inspiration, information, and insights!

Unposted comment about nonprofit 20

I submitted this to a blog asking where nonprofits were doing social networking and knowledge management. Specifically he was asking why foundations are not supporting social networks and knowledge networks. My comment was not posted–and when I went to check another comment had been posted (so he does post comments).  Thus I am sharing it with you here.

This is what I wrote:
I imagine connec+ipedia might be closest to what you describe. www.connectipedia.org (uses wagn–a wiki-style database) by Meyer Memorial Trust, focuses on Oregon now, but it is open to any and all.

www.wiserearth.org (created by Paul Hawken – see Blessed Unrest)

and for social entrepreneurs:

changemakers.net (Ashoka)
socialedge (Skoll Foundation)
We used to have Omidyar.net as an online community (Omidyar Network)

For local community leaders anywhere in the world who may or may not have nonprofits but are very grassroots, we are working on revising software for Catcomm.org, a tech awards finalist.

There is also Change.org and dozens of other online communities for social good that try to help people exchange knowledge, make connections, and champion organizations.

Via microblogging, things like nonprofit pulse pulling together nonprofit microblogs.

For nonprofits interested in social media and technology, there is NetSquared (a project of techsoup) and NTEN.

Can you explain clearly how your vision goes beyond these–because I think there is something to evolve here. And I am very interested in helping make that happen.

There are around 1.5 million nonprofits. I believe that stat is the US alone. Then include foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations, socially responsible companies, etc. The potential audience is gigantic, diverse, and most of it significantly underfunded.

Thanks for sharing.

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Relationship building

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 – 7 – 5 Adventure Part 1

I set out with the intention of seeing 14 people in 7 days and 5 cities. Unfortunately, I drove.

The adventure began when the service engine light came on just as I was heading out of Chicago. A quick look at the owner’s manual reassured me that it might not be a critical failure, so I drove on. Wanting all the good luck the universe might offer, I paid for the family behind me at the first toll booth I came to. Minutes later, an old client called to ask me to do some work. That was great to hear, but I worried my good karma wasn’t going to help the car now. Silly me for not being specific about my needs.

The drive to DC is not short. A good 11 hours spent talking on the phone, singing along to my favorite female divas, and trying to keep up with the usual internet flow. The route is nearly all toll roads. Incredibly expensive. But maybe it should be for all the carbon emissions. When I discovered that my fuel cap was not on appropriately, I assumed that was the reason for the light going off (according to the manual, that was a reasonable cause). Toll roads are not very pleasant ways of seeing the country. You can’t get off the road for fun distractions.

I am a lifelong cross-country driver (please forgive the carbon emissions). I used to stop only when the car needed refueling. Bathroom break, refuel me, and jump back in for the next stretch (which could be 6 hours). This trip I tried to stop every half tank. I have played math games about traveling ever since I was a kid. So I burn up mental energy calculating time and distance to major cities and final destinations–and breaks. Though this exercise, I have figured out lots of things about reading interstates.

For example: How do they number exits? By mile markers. Exit # – current mile marker = distance to go.
A few states do not do this–and on some roads on the east coast, they will indicate the old number. One system –I think it was the New Jersey Turnpike, numbers theirs consecutively. It can be rather frustrating to find out that exit 10 is NOT 10 miles up the road nor at mile 10, but instead is 10 toll road exits further. Vastly different when calculating distance and time!

I am a terribly impatient person. Horribly. And my mother seems to have broken me of most external indications of this. I have to keep my brain busy. So calculations amuse me. Soaking in what nature I can get across vistas of concrete also keeps me at peace. The light penetrating the forest and reflecting in dancing waves off the outermost leaves. Hawks circling. The vast range of domiciles one can view from concrete interstates. The rains which come slower of faster when in a car depending on which direction you are going in a storm. So much external information to soak up while moving.

I am a compulsive reader. In the shower, I read the shampoo bottle. At breakfast, I read the cereal box. I am not sure any of this registers in my head consciously. Surely little of it sticks. But in my usual compulsive reading way, I felt compelled to read a sign at a rest stop in Pennsylvania explaining wind power and the wind farms in view from that location. MMmm, good, very good. I thought to take a picture. But like photographing redwoods, windmills just don’t really show scale in a landscape very well. You have to stand next to one. Wind-farms are like giant flower gardens.

Hours later, stomach grumbling, I got lost 3 times on my way into Washington DC. Thankfully my patient host guided me in. The final minutes were marked by my name being called as I approached an intersection. Really?

PART 2, where I actually get to PEOPLE I saw, coming soon….

Rebuild

Absolutely brilliant article by my new Chicago pal, Jo. Not only does she write in a way that explains why things are the way they are, but she does it in an elegant and engaging fashion.

“The nation’s skeleton is as fragile as the candy-cane bones sucked down to threads on Cinco de Mayo.”

Gorgeous! Scary. Informative.