On 2/19/07, Jay dedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > And you're missing that anyone can load up the plugin on a wordpress blog > > and start their own project on a moments notice - forget about HMWV and > the > > advocates group. Half of the point is to show that it can be done so > others > > can replicate it. > > The point of HMWV is not to be elitist...but to provide a particular filter. > let's not focus too much on technology here. > The idea is that people who donate to HMWV trust that the current > volunteers have done the research and preparation to know that the > current project is solid. > > as any HMWV volunteer knows, its not just posting a project. > Its emailing people, spreading the word, etc > (http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2007/02/19/supporting-journalism/) > I personally find that finding good well-thought out projects is the > hardest part of all.
Well put jay... I think this is what Michael Verdi was *missing* about what I was trying to say... I don't care wether HMWV is a wordpress plugin... or open source... or whatever... that isnt the damn point... the point is that we constantly need to encourage and document all forms of experimentation like this. HMWV is only the start. We need to constantly lower the barriers to involvement and encouraging ALL MANNER of experimentation. To say HMWV has *already done it* which is what Michael Verdi's defensiveness is actually saying... is to miss the point. I love HMWV... HMWV rocks! ...but there are a million different ways someone might approach this problem of encouraging crowd funding and each new experiment is going to bring new expertise to the table. That said... Jay you said... "I personally find that finding good well-thought out projects is the hardest part of all." EXACTLY! Who said all the best ideas would come to YOU!? Innovation... the great ideas... the great projects are distributed... you're structure for HMWV is not unlike a venture capitalist... and trust me the probelm is NOT that there aren't enough good projects out there... it's in FINDING them... they're not always going to come to you. So you need to encourag activity *away from the ball*. This is what I'm saying about PledgeBank. We need to decrease the time and effort between someone HAVING a great idea... like my example with WholeWheatRadio... and being able to initiate that ball rolling... Pledgebank does that. You could come up with an idea and initiate a pledge five minutes later.... yes there is MUCH more involved... OF COURSE there is... leg work is a given... and maybe PledgeBank needs many, many more mechanisms for evolving a pledge after it is intitiated... but the most important thing is to give everyday people the OPPORTUNITY... to intiate their brilliant idea.. to get started! >From there even if a vast majority of pledges fail an expertise will arise... things WILL buble up, there will be successes, best practices and experts wil arise. So... I don't give a damn about these key technical points Michael Verdi thinks I'm *missing*... I'm not missing anything important... he's missing the spirit of my point which is to move forward and ingrain concepts like crowd-sourcing, and crowd-funding into the popular psychy of america... so instead of reaching for the remote for news on Iraq they reach for a web browser.... and not only watch citizen journalism like Alive In Bagdad... not only FUND it... but realize MOST IMPORTANTLY that they can take the initiative and make NEW initiatives to either help fund, or to pick up a camera and go out their door and start their own project. "I'll donate a new video camera to this cause if someone else donates a new hard drive for this project." or "I'll drive on Saturday to Macworld to shoot it for you all if you can raise $100 to cover my gass and other costs." You get the point right? In five years time or 20 years time I love to think that people will be much more active in judicious about putting their money where there mouth is.... that we'll have great gobs of social capital within communities all across the internet and it'll be SO ingrained and instinctual that these communities will raise bits of capital all the time at a moments notice to fund not only just the covering of some event... but all manner of activity that effects them... this is what it means to "wake up" the masses... to pull them up of the couch and get them actively involved in the world they only watched on TV or bought at walmart... the camera can be an amazing tool of transformation. I'm not *missing* any particular element of HMWV... cool as it is, it is just a small stepping stone in this greater good... and I just hope we can acknolege it's successes and yes... even it's failures with a little constructive disussion.... so that we can understand ways we can improve on the model. And again... one final time, what I'm saying is opensource.. or a plugin... or whatever... the barrier to initiating a project is TOO high. We need better ways to distribute that innate creativity and good will from have money will vlog amongst people... the solution is NOT simply to "get more people to join the HMWV peer group"... or "get more people to install a wordpress plugin"... or "get more people to donate money". The SOLUTION is to figure out ways to **allow** people more **access**... to **empower** them to use their skills and creativity not just thier pocketbook.... Especially the people in this space who have inate creativity to contribute something more than just money or one of the more traditional things suggested multiple times by those at HMWV... the key is to give them the tools and encourage them to think... be creative... take ownership... be empowered.... and I don't feel very empowered by the constant suggestion that I join a advocacy board... a beuracratic entity... or install a wordpress plugin... or donate some money. Creativity and connectivity are to aspects of social capital this community has in abundance... money is NOT one of this communities top attributes. I feel empowered when someone says to me... "heh, I'll donate $50 to this cause if you can get 4 people to create banners to promote these and post them to their blogs".. I feel empowered when when someone says.. I'll donate $500 dollars to this cause if 50 others will donate $10" .... or "I'll donate a dollar for everyone who puts this banner on their blog sidebar." Most of all... and this is the KEY and central point... I feel impowered when *I* can make these rules and shape this game... this is social capital... it's taking posesion, taking the intiative, taking ownership and responsibility as YOU see fit... on your own terms... by guidlines you create... and it's the ability to have a creative idea and follow through on it... it's the sport and the fun it it! Yes... fun is what I aim for ideally. So... in summary... I'm picking a fite with michael verdi... because I love him... but he's getting me riled because HE'S MISSING THE POINT! :) Nothing personal Verdi... just using the inherent conflict to illustrate my point... I'm a highly creative debater (b.s.er) ... and I take the initiative that way. :) I've been following projects like playpump.org and there's this great group called KickStart in San Francisco who makes a $30 thing called a hip pump. People DO NOT need to be lead.. they don't need MORE structure... they need to be ENCOURAGED or EMPOWERED to do the things that come naturally. They need simple, practical, tools. For inspiration go wikipedia Kickstart... it's the same concept... to stimulate and empower individual entrepreneurship... wether that be in the vlogosphere or south africa it's still the same way. In this group we have a tremendous amount of creativity and connectivity... two extremely awesome atributes of our vloglandia culture. These attributes of social capital make this a playground rife for awesome experiments like HMWV and OTHERS. How can we use those atributes... encourage them... clearly it appears to me that HMWV is could be doing even MORE awesomerer... in that it could encourage people to give MORE than just money... which lets face it... is NOT one of our KEY attributes in this space because we're SCRAPERS... so HWMV could appeal to our best atributes... collectively our our ability to think creatively... and to use our connectivity... and our voice... our voice through video and the vast social networks to our advantage. So... will these ideas I'm talking about with PledgeBank work? Are the too unstructured? Do they go to far in the opposite direction from HMWV? I don't know... but I can ABSOLUTELY see that there must be something to them because PledgeBank is really starting to take off... so there must be something there.... Maybe pledgebank needs a little bit more structure... more tailoring... or maybe we just need one or two key people on this group who are working with HMWV and are REALLY interested in the latest HMWV proeject to instead of donating a big chunk of change... ie. SpinXpress / Outhink... or Podtech... or Blip... or whomever is donating that seeder money... to instead do what's called hedging... and creat a new *social contract*... over on pledge bank... that says.... ok... "I'll give $250 if five other people give $50 or more".... or ... I'll pay $5 to the latest HMWV project for everyone who blogs about it." Just think about it... I think I've made my point. The space between the crowd (social capital) and the financing (economic capital) is not TOUGH BALLS... it's in fact an endless UNIVERSE of possibilities to be explored that is just opening it's doors to us. We have to be willing to challenge it and explore it, and indeed we can because we've got a highly creative group of people here... and we just might find we can turn this new space into a playground... which is my dream... that fundraising can not only be sustainable... but actually a FUN part of the process for everyone involved. Think of it as micro-financing... sort of like micro-lending which you can read oodles about on wikipedia and elseware. Besides... I'm sick of installing wordpress plugins... I keep trying but they just won't work on my damn blogger.com blog... maybe someone can help me out with that sometime. ;) Damn open source. Oh! One last thing. Kickstart! They make the hippump. They ARE in San Francisco... the unofficial capital of our geek vlogiverse.... If any of you vloggers... and expecially you Podtecher's ... would go over and interview them for me I'd appreciate it. They do fit right in with the whole Podtech podcast thing I listen to everyday... and maybe audio podcast is best... but also they fit in with the stuff Rynanne and Jay are doing .... the sustainability thing. Anyway, surely someone can go over there and make an nice interview or two with them and produce an audio or video podcast of it. They were featured at TED this year... I'd gladly pay you, except I'm not a rich man... so maybe a Podtech'er will take the initiative... get paid by podtech to do it... and actually have fun and make money doing it. A win for all. I'll gladly start a pledge on PledgeBank... to volunteer all my time and research (as a consultant)... for free no less. :) Kickstart rules... there hippump sells for about $30 in africa and can irrigate hundreds of dollars worth of crops each season. So far they've sold more than 60,000 of them. There focus as their name implies is to kickstart entrepreneurialism... which... when you think about it is VERY much in parrellel to what we're talking about in this very thread. Simple... beautiful... low level... entreprenurialism. > Devlon created Pledge Drive because at the time we weren't cool with > the current crop of funding sites. they've mushroomed now... > Pledge Drive also doesnt take any cut of the donated money. It's just > a direct link between creator and donor. A glorified paypal button. > > If anyone would like to help us find and promote ambitious > videoblogging projects...you can volunteer your time and "social > capital" here: > http://hmwv.pbwiki.com/Advocates One question, is there a mailing list. Time is not the problem... attention is. If I can't subscribe anyware to get the regular emails and participate in the discussion it's already failed me. Peace, -Mike mefeedia.com mmeiser.com/blog > Jay > > -- > Here I am.... > http://jaydedman.com > > > > Yahoo! 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