Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Every year many of the world's top leaders attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss how to make the world a better place.

Through YouTube they are asking people to submit a video answering The Davos Question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

Then, starting January 1st, watch and rank others' ideas. The highest-rated videos will be screened in Davos (January 23-27), where world leaders will watch your videos and make responses of their own. Your idea could be the start of something big.

I put this video together yesterday in about 10 minutes...

Last comment added: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:22:53 PST

Comment 1 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Wonderful clip Mark - you've inspired me!

Comment 2 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Thnx for the kind words Jon.

We'll see if we can get some voting done for the video starting 1/1/08 and keep our fingers crossed.

Comment 3 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh snap, baby!!!

It's 11:15am on Saturday morning here and the first conversation I had today was with one of my friends (Emma) who ranted her exasperation for 15 minutes on this topic before I got a word in!!

She now has a second friend who - with a fist full of dollars - has taken off from Europe to do "good things" in Africa .... in isolation from other almost identical programs (that partnered up, could achieve so much more just with the savings on two lots of admin. costs alone) and with no real measurable plan for future assessment of outcomes, cost-efficiency or community satisfaction/participation. (to name but a few desirable markers)

"Evangelical, Personal Mission-driven madness" was Miss Em's spin (actually it had extra words but I think Ned has a G rating so I've left them out .... plus she was very cross & uncharacteristically un-generous & harsh in assessment!!!)

Once the "debriefing" bit FINALLY finished (!) we actually managed to have a great conversation that covered so many interconnecting variables.

Maybe it's because of the way we both work (different fields but both with tight reportage/accountability & quality outcome frameworks here in Australia) and maybe it's because we've had similar experiences working away from home - consciously choosing to employ these frameworks when we didn't HAVE TO ... not sure ... but we both kept coming back to the increasingly pressing need for independent & transparent assessment and monitoring of NPO/NGO practices. (the HOW part of the What and When)

Mark - the video is great and it's a message that needs to be pushed ... let the voting begin!!

Comment 4 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

A little (well, okay a lot) long...but this thread (and reading a book about Room to Read gave me the idea add the info below to my sig file. Which now looks a little something like...

N: Mark Grimes
P: 503-502-0185
E: mark.grimes@ned.com
W: http://www.ned.com/
C: <Ned> - a better world, every day
A: 4888 NW Bethany Blvd, K5-222 Portland, OR 97229

2007 Ned Accomplishments & Milestones
59 microloans: http://www.kiva.org/lender/neddotcom 
64 better world videos: http://www.youtube.com/neddotcom
345 members: http://www.ned.com/

2008 Ned Goals & Deliverables
1,000,000 web site page views monthly
1,000 registered ned.com members
500 Better World Island monthly project revenue
150 microloans
25 good quality inbound web site links
10 ongoing monthly ned.com sponsors
7 new videos at neddotcom YouTube channel
6 <Ned> projects anywhere in the world
3 microfinance workshop sessions in Portland
2 events where five or more Ned members meet FTF
2 <Ned> thriving real world locations
2 or more totally unexpected spectacular things

Comment 5 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Nice start! :)

Comment 6 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Here's a few extra links that might be of interest:

Comment 7 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

>>Ned has a G rating<<

BTW, I think when needed, Ned can go all the way to NC-17

Comment 8 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Invited this gentlemen to Ned. Seems like a Nedster kind of guy.

Comment 9 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark Grimes said:

.... Seems like a Nedster kind of guy.

I think you are spot on, Mark!

Comment 10 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark, I love your video!

As usual, I'll go off-topic.

Today I was reading William Easterly via PSD Blog. How The Millennium Development Goals Are Unfair To Africa (PDF)--it's worth reading. The short version: everybody involved with the MDG campaign routinely says Africa will miss all the MDGs. Easterly says--I'm paraphrasing--What's with that?

Easterly sees no particular reason to paint an unfairly bleak picture of Africa. He writes:

[I]t seems undesirable to exaggerate the "Africa as failure" image which in turn exaggerates the role of "the West as Savior" for Africa (as the MDG campaign often played out in practice).

Nicholas Kristof review of Easterly's The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good provides a longer version of Mark's succinct point in the video about the need for real measures of accomplishment.

I know Mark, Gayle and good ole Bill Easterly are saying something very wise and something those at Davos should hear about metrics. But I'm such a contrarian. When I read Gayle's: "Evangelical, Personal Mission-driven madness" I thought, oh yeah, that's me--without fists full of money of course.

Certainly I'll vote for your video, Mark, because I do think you're right and it is brilliant. I don't have a clue how to make a video anyway. But this business of "the West as Savior" and the missionary zeal, seems no simple matter, and it's driving me off point.

Over the holiday visiting I've heard, for lack of a better way to say it, the "the Pandora's box" argument against the Internet. Caution is reasonable, but I'm afraid the box is already open. The Internet is a many-to-many medium. One of the consequences is that people everywhere can mean something important to people anywhere. I'm not talking about all people, I mean person to person conversations.

Most of us probably have had someone try to convert us, and it's much more awkward when it's someone close to us instead of a stranger. In fair percentage of time people close give-up or scale way back on conversion related activities with people they're close to, like family members. The reason, it seems to me, is when you're close it's really important to be open to being changed by the other. And the conversion "isms" just aren't flexible enough for the normal give and take.

Sometimes "Evangelical, Personal Mission-driven madness" is just madness, but sometimes despite ourselves it leads to genuine dialog and real caring. The metrics on this sort of engagement are tricky, but I sincerely believe the dialog, the conversations, the sharing of love one to another is essential.

I noticed Christina Jordan's Facebook blurb today is:

Christina is really really full and happy her Ugandan inlaws liked the American food!

I think of a hand full of examples right off the top of my head of Nedheads and the ways we are changed by our relationships; like what the inlaws think. These sorts of things are so important and yet so hard to measure.

Mark, your "one thing" Realize that all these "one things" are connected is brilliant. The proposal for measurable results reported on by outside third parties is indisputably a good idea. I want very much for the people at Davos to see your message.

My worry is that metrics can harden positions and even act as an impediment to a sort of skepticism which allows openings to a clearer view. The sort of skepticism William Easterly provides in his Millennium Goals paper, for example. Or for the intrepid link clickers the sort of skepticism that Amartya Sen offers in his review of Easterly's book.

I take my "Evangelical, Personal Mission-driven madness" with a good dose of salt. I think all missionaries should! That goes for the Davos attendees too, so I can't help but wish they'd experience a few moments of doubt about what it means to be a missionary: for them to imagine for just a few moments how others in the world might rightly be wary of the gifts they are bearing.

Mark's sig file brought as big a smile as the video. Ned offers a chance for dialog. Perhaps the "one thing" that's most important is every "one thing" they'll see at Davos; the one thing is the conversation.

Comment 11 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh John - where to start????

It wasn't MY "Evangelical personal-mission driven madness" statement but a statement made by my friend Em during a conversation/debrief we had within hours of Mark posting this thread & before I was aware of it.

That written, I actually agree with Em given the context within which she made the statement.

There is no need to re-write the general gist given it appears in the 3rd post on this thread but the pointy end is simple and perhaps not one I made as crystal clear as I could have.

Em's friend has headed off with NGO status (German registration I think) and all the taxation benefits that can bring, big bucks in her pocket & no real plan other than a personal mission to "do good things" in Africa.

SO ... her airfares are now tax-deductible as are many other expenses and yet there is no measurable and effective project plan in place on the other side of the ledger. (the accountability/service delivery side)

With all the taxation benefits or "rights" of NPO/NGO status comes corresponding "responsibilities" - and I completely agree with Mark and many, many others that (given the rapid increase in small NGO numbers over the past 18 months) some form of independent, international monitoring framework needs to be considered to ensure the NGOs employing standards of best practice - not only in community identified, needs-based service delivery but in transparent accounting and forward planning projections - are acknowledged and publicly listed along with those NGOs whose organisational practices leave a lot to be desired.

The benefits of the creation of an independent monitoring agency for NG/NP organisations are numerous and well within the scope of some of the UN sub-divisions. (UNHCR already monitors the quality & effectiveness of service delivery of all the big NGOs regarding refugees.)

As Mark pointed out, "realize that all these 'one things' are connected" ..... what one agency does in terms of transparency and accountability OR NOT directly effects the next agency and its ability to do it's work cleanly and get on with the job.

Comment 12 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark Grimes said:

>>Ned has a G rating<<

BTW, I think when needed, Ned can go all the way to NC-17

Call me psychic, but I reckon you are going to regret writing that sooner than you think!! :)

Comment 13 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark Grimes said:

Invited this gentlemen to Ned. Seems like a Nedster kind of guy.

Thanks a lot for the invitation. As you can see I've made an account. I might indeed be interested in participating in this community.

The coming 2 moths I will be busy with examns, but after that I might come back and spend some time here.

Greetings from the Netherlands, And all blessing with all youre work!

Johan Slobbe

Comment 14 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Welcome aboard Johan, glad you found your way here and signed up. Thank you for the kind words, great luck on exams and hope you will find some time to spend some time here and participate...there's a great group of people here.

For those that missed above, here is Johan's video he made for the gang at Davos...

Comment 15 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Now THAT is what I am talking about, Mark! Great video!

Comment 16 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Gayle, I'm afraid I blather at the mouth too much. I really ought to restrain my self. I'm very sorry if I made it sound as though I disagreed with either you or Mark. I don't.

There are many reasons I believe Mark is so right in proposing the need for independent reporting. Yes, of course the pointy end of your comments are very valid and important.

You mention the rise in number of small NGOs. Like everything else that's a mixed bag. But one very optimistic way to take it is more community-based approaches for solving particular local challenges. I'm not sure that really addresses the situation of the person Em was talking about and her organization, but in a general way I think small can be beautiful.

I was interested in William Easterly's paper because he pointed out how the MDGs were set up biased against Africa and explored some possible reasons for that. One of his observations was exaggerating African failures is coupled with exaggerating the West as Savior.

So the point I was trying to make, drawing on that example, is that while measurable objectives are essential, there's a context that shapes the nature of the objectives premised on culturally-defined biases. In every case metrics are not neutral instruments.

Independent reporting will have to navigate the minefields of religious and cultural presumptions of the various groups they are reporting about. I think it's fair to say that the attendees at Davos have cultural presumptions and are adept at measuring and mis-measuring in in favor of their interests. No doubt they have other beliefs that are not tied so concretely to financial gain as well.

One of the better columnists in our local paper is an Australian. He got to the USA via the Vietnam War. He's a bit more conservative than I, but the tragedy of the Vietnam War is something he well understands and sometimes writes about. Another columnist is a retired State Department Africa hand. That columnist is more conservative than I, but surely fancies himself realist--one advantage of that is he doesn't make my head explode. Both seem to understand that the War on Iraq has been caused in part by "Evangelical personal-mission driven madness"--even though that's not your statement it's something good to watch out for.

You wrote:

[W]e both kept coming back to the increasingly pressing need for independent & transparent assessment and monitoring of NPO/NGO practices. (the HOW part of the What and When).

I'm sure there are better ways of doing things and worse ways, but I'm not always so wise as to know the difference. Of course I've got opinions, but it's very important to me not to be so attached to them that they are not open to question and analysis. On the other hand a certain amount of stubbornness is essential to have the endurance for ideas to grow strong.

My hunch is that the attendees at Davos are so accustomed to giving orders they have little time nor reason to ever question their opinions. I'll admit to being a bit of a missionary, but I'm a piker in comparison to the Davos class. I'm wary to call the practices of the Davos crowd "best." No doubt they're clever. Mark's video doesn't pander and it's made in such a way to be accessible to the intended audience. That Davos is asking and Mark is responding makes me quite glad.

Something quite unique about Mark's pitch is the idea to make it "financially rewarding for organizations to collaborate." Presumably the disincentive for collaboration now is the lack of standards for best practices. But another disincentive for collaboration is the different missionary positions; I mean religious, economic and cultural assumptions.

Self-interests at least has a certain predictable logic to it. Matters of the heart aren't so predictable. What seems to enable people to transcend their missionary zeal best is when others really matter to us. The conversations here at Ned allow people across different boundaries to talk and to matter to one another.

If I would make a video "dialog" is what I'd say. I think Mark's video is great. First of all I can watch it, some of the ones up so far are hard to watch. I also am so happy that Ned.com is. The idea that the people putting together the Davos conference are seeking YouTube videos is wonderful. They'll get to hear what smart people like Mark have to say. Besides that they're doing what I recommend without even hearing from me;-)

Comment 17 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I sorted the Davos videos by searching "Davos Question." Mark's video didn't come up. Pleas add the tag "The Davos Question" to see if the search will pick up the video. It's too important to be lost; one way or another we need to figure out how to make the video get selected by search.

Comment 18 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

John, you're not the only one with a sharp intake of breath at the infamous "Em"'s comment, before reading it in context. Mission-driven "madness" has to be better than consuming lots of Cadbury's chocolate, which is what I've spent much of Christmas doing.

I would also guard against this "measurement" obsession that our countries seem to be advocating. Whilst my (limited) experience of Africa is that measurement needs substantial improvement, we certainly do not want to be allocating 40%+ of our budgets to administration, filing and paperwork, just to comfort the bureaucrats. I would favour a system which actually (in the UK) reins back administration and measurement and develops government-NGO partnerships based on trust, rather than record-keeping. The last thing we want is for the large charities to say to the funders that only they can operate appropriate measuring systems, forcing a possibly unwanted partnership between a charity and grassroots organisation, although I agree that in some cases this partnership is not just wanted, it is also a critical and beneficial development for both sides.

Certainly in Nigeria, there is a huge desire for learning and the idea of "learning how to measure" would be received extremely well, but at the moment the main funders have excluded this from their funding strategy, even though such a policy would be rolling a rock downhill. So my suggestion is much more to try to empower NGOs to measure their own success. Perhaps this could be done by "planting" measurement professionals (free of charge) into larger and more competent NGOs, who would then "seed" a crop of indigenous "measurement" trainers.

Mark's comment about NGO partnership is also interesting, albeit in its way impractical in many cases. My feeling is that we should concentrate on rolling rocks downhill and the idea of NGO partnership is, at the very least rolling a rock on the level. I spent a long while at my last NGO working on partnership development, but it is only on rare occasions that the level of trust is high enough for a solid partnership to be developed and sometimes this ends up as a merger, in any case, which isn't really what Mark is driving at (I think). In countries, where there is a culture of corruption and mistrust, don't be surprised if people are unwilling to share their knowledge.

Partnership is a great buzzword and generally a good thing, but to me it should never be at the core of any strategy as it can be extremely discriminatory, just as much as other criteria. The idea of providing a financial motivation for partnership will only in some cases combat the mistrust that exists between organisations. Fine, if you want to strategically encourage partnerships, but this should never be an exclusive criterion for selection for funding.

I would distinguish "partnership", which is perhaps a more permanent arrangement, from temporary "joint working", which I feel almost every organisation should have in their armoury of work methodologies, so maybe this should be the terminology.

Comment 19 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh shoot, I was just putting the finishing touches on a post here and apparently closed the window. I probably should take that as a hint that I'm going terribly off topic and just stop, but Ben's great post got me thinking.

I actually am a big fan of measurable objectives, and an even bigger fan of transparency. Ben is onto something really important with the terminology of "joint working."

Most of us here are familiar with Gapminder Interacting with those motion graphics makes it hard to argue that data doesn't make a difference. But Hans Rosling has often been frustrated getting agencies to make data public. There are a host of reasons that data is held close to the vest.

Van Jones' keynote address to Craigslist Non-Profit Boot Camp has been making the rounds online. Miracles is worth sharing. Jones writes:

So let's talk about your impossible dream. You need some miracles. Good luck with that. But I can give you, as a 10-year veteran, my five counter-intuitive and probably immoral success secrets.

Self promote

Steal

Don't Lie

Hate your enemies, but love your rivals.

Do less.

The first three really have to do with transparency, and the case for it. The fourth goes directly to Ben's concept of joint working. Jones has taken on the discipline of loving his rivals, and the habit of bragging on their accomplishments. He points out that hasn't made his rivals like him and his organization more. But it's changed how the public views their organization and how people in the organization feel about themselves. My short version is about it is "We're more fun!"

I'm sure that Mark doesn't have in mind one worldwide organization to collate and distribute all the reporting. Organizations like CCGHR Canadian Coalition for Global Health Reporting are probably more in tune with what Mark would support. And that's very much in sync with Ben's ideas of joint working. The point is we need more cooperation.

But Jones' talk made me think about transparency in a broader way than just metrics. Promoting is an important kind of transparency, especially using online tools. Ned seems very much ahead of the curve when it comes to the ways social networks can be important, but in general as more organizations use social networks the ways of being transparent are being changed.

Blogs are also quite important. I've been very happy to see Chris Blattman blogging. A recent post, Field Notes Inside the Sausage Factory is an example of the sort of conversation that may well lead to better data collection. We all can learn faster when we're sharing. I've been disappointed in Google.org's blog; I suppose I was expecting Google.org to be more forthcoming and transparent.

Pernille Baerendtsen recently completed two years working for The Danish Association for International Cooperation MS Uganda. She blogged while she worked. I remember that Solkari of Black Looks and her exchanged harsh words. Lots of people have been reading Black Looks regularly for a long while. So that sort of thing is quite public, her blog was quite public. But hanging in with the online conversation made a real difference. Perhaps one way of showing the difference is when Baerndtsen submitted her Final Report and put it online, other bloggers linked to it. The report is also more candid because she blogged.

I have no idea how MS Uganda feels about the public nature of the report. But it's the kind of transparency that will be increasingly common, and it's fits quite nicely with Van Jones' rule "Don't lie." Many-to-many media is changing how things are done, surely in many ways for the better.

Comment 20 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark, to vote for the Davos videos, do we just rank them? It doesn't seem clear to me but then again it's 4:30 am here.

Comment 21 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

There "rules" say...

"The highest-rated videos will be screened in Davos (January 23-27), where world leaders will watch your videos and make responses of their own. Your idea could be the start of something big."

So I think you just need to give Davos: Making the World a Better Place (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4 KI-ulJNDqY) as many stars as you feel it's worth...and that's it.

Comment 22 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

* done!

Comment 23 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

ditto!

Comment 24 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

ditto! ditto!

[Actually I did it earlier when you sent it to me on FaceBook. I tried to add a comment but it wouldn't take it ... and no, I didn't use any bad words ; ]

Comment 25 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Meron Moroz said:

ditto! ditto!

[Actually I did it earlier when you sent it to me on FaceBook. I tried to add a comment but it wouldn't take it ... and no, I didn't use any bad words ; ]

No-one here believes you ... so go and stand in The Corner!! :)

Comment 26 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Thnx all for checking out and rating the video. It's at 649 views with 25 people rating it as of today.

>>But this business of "the West as Savior"<<

Hope you're not getting any hints of that from the YouTube video, the YouTube video description, or anything I've written here. Definitely not my POV or anywhere close to it. John, there are some great links in your post, thank you very much.

>>Presumably the disincentive for collaboration now is the lack of standards for best practices. But another disincentive for collaboration is the different missionary positions; I mean religious, economic and cultural assumptions.<<

I don’t think it is so much lack of standards for best practices. I believe it is the funding that each NPO/NGO feels they have in their own special secret sauce. Though I agree wholeheartedly there is a lack of standards and best practices widely available in the NPO/NGO sectors. When donors or foundations award funds, how are NPO/NGO results measured...and who measures them?

Third Party Reporting

Looking at the challenges in transparency, reporting and such. Ned has 59 microloans to date, and that can be seen by anyone in the Kiva open reporting system. Now while that is open and transparent it could still be argued that microfinance does not work, albeit a separate argument. Same with the neddotcom YouTube videos. Growing from 64 to 71 (and over 100,000 video views) could be arguably of negligible consequence. Now the nice things about those numbers in particular is they are already being reported on by a third party, it's just the quality of the actions themselves that can be open for debate. But I'll take third party transparent open reporting of actions, then no third party reporting and sharing of any goals or outcomes whatsoever, any day.

The "One" Thing

Bono whose nonprofit organizations include Red/aids, One/poverty and DATA/aids/poverty I suspect would say aids and poverty are the two most important issues that must be dealt with. John Wood founder of Room to Read which has built thousands of schools and libraries in rural areas in developing countries would say that literacy/education is the main thing that should be focused on (I suspect). I heard recently that Paul Farmer (Partners in Health) after years and years of providing health service in extremely impoverished areas finally realized that microfinance was a needed tool...to help improve health for people locally.

And yet...

In the Where We're Going 40th Anniversary issue of Rolling Stone...

Al Gore said...

"Millions of children die each year from lack of clean water and penicillin and basic preventative health measures. In too many parts of the world, the levels of persecution and suffering are far beyond what the conscious of human-kind should tolerate. Sexual slavery, the oppression of minority groups, the struggle of people to overcome the yoke of dictatorship - all of these challenges and others as well cry out for attention. But none of them can be solved unless we solve the climate crises. The climate crises must be seen as pre-eminent, because it is necessary for us to safeguard the ecological basis for human civilization."

And a few pages later Bill Gates said...

"Between now and 2100, how many people in Africa are going to die of malaria? Just do the numbers. Helping them avoid an 11-inch rise in water in 2100, we could dot it, we should do it, and we will do it. But in terms of relative priorities, if you want to help the poor, this is not the issue to be focused on. About 10 million children a year die from curable diseases. Yet the amount of energy being devoted to prevent that, either by inventing new things or delivering existing things, is tiny. To me, that’s the greatest problem."

So for Bono the most important thing above all else is aids/poverty.

For John Wood the one thing is education.

For Paul Farmer the one thing was health.

For Al Gore the one thing is global warming.

For Bill Gates the one thing is curable diseases.

Of course they are all right.

And they are all connected.

Comment 27 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Another good Davos video from YouTube user andymooseman...

Comment 28 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Sam, another Ned-like person...

Comment 29 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

The andymooseman is a goodie ... meshes beautifully with "our" one!

(HeHeHe .... <Ned> ... one for all and all for one ... minus the swords)

And "we" need to get SAM over here quick smart.

He is definitely a ned-head - GREAT davos answer for collaboration - and if he joins, I'd be one step closer to an Antipodean take-over.

AND I'll get to make jokes about his accent and then Linda can make jokes that no-one outside Australia and New Zealand can tell the difference between either accent. Who says you can't make a difference AND have fun!!!

The benefits are endless :)

Comment 30 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Not sure where to put this but I meant to post the link before Christmas. Perhaps it should be here given transparency and microfinance are spoken of. (or on one of Chris' threads)

Love him or loathe him, it is an interesting interview considering the International influence Clinton carries.

Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose speaking to "GIVING"

<edit: to include this note that I just PM'd Chris with the link>

Comment 31 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I am in Dhaka where its a bit difficult to watch videos. If we''e trying to pressurise some return to using economics to help solve human problems rather than cause them; my vote would be to demand that Davos ends its no books rule. Apprarently ceos were leaving too many books and other handouts in their hotel rooms; so even with a book as seminal to what is economics for as yunus' on Future Capitalism Davos maintains its no books rule! http://www.ned.com/group/communi ty-general/news/108/

Comment 32 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I am feeling somewhat exposed having my own video on-line and somewhat embarrassed by the quality in comparison to everyone else; still - it's at this link, if anyone is interested enough to go visit it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S JcG6pSnXFg

Comment 33 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Ben no need to be embarrassed, many, many good ideas in there. Quality was fine, and you did a great job with what looks like on your channel to be your first video. Kudos.

Chris, a no giving away books rule. Wow, that seems over the top. Keep us posted.

Comment 34 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Benjamin ..!!!!

Your video is terrific. Lots of great ideas and the part at the end - "we're relying on you" - gave me goosebumps.

You did good, darlin'

Comment 35 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

some double irony here; I heard today that after having some doubts whether he was up to folowing a 14 day 11 usa city launch of his book with an overnight flight to wef, Yunus has decided to do so; and one reason may be to announce a new Bottom of the Pyramid initiative with a major technology company whose arrogance we've been questioning in another thread;

I get rather lost with where we are with internet 2.0, 2.1 etc but maybe 2008 will be a tipping point year in terms of seeing that the web could have done far more to integrate the world's poorest into global and reduce degrees of separation on life critical info contexts

remembering too how a john doerr weekend houseparty so his peers could meet yunus of microcredit is reputed to have sparked all of omidyar's interests in microfinance and community discussions thereof; I wonder what a dooerr houseparty on Yunus Future of Capitalism could do

Comment 36 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Hmm - interesting news, Chris. I assume the major tech company you refer to is *ntel.

I see from the WEF website that there are events in London and Zurich, prior to the '08 Davos gathering on Jan. 22.

I wonder if this announcement is somehow linked to the Partnerships for Education.

Comment 37 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I really don't know how I missed this - being the massive Geldof fan that I am - but when I watched it, all I could think of was the Davos question. (amid cheering!!)

This video should be copied as a working example of an answer to the question.

"When reason, positivity and collaboration fail to shift the needle on corporate decency and responsibility, don't be silent; Be fearless, bold, articulate and relentless in your opposition."

Comment 38 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

"When reason, positivity and collaboration fail to shift the needle on corporate decency and responsibility, don't be silent; Be fearless, bold, articulate and relentless in your opposition."

Thank you Gayle ... I need to remember that : )

Comment 39 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

16 days and the video has gone from 350 view to 1,328 views, and 8 ratings to 32. Would be great to get 50 ratings by this weekend, Davos kicks into gear next week, and I suspect 50+ total ratings would get it seen and quite possibly responded to by some of the people there. Thnx.

Comment 40 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Good, Bad, or Ugly...who knows?

But this video is on the main page of YouTube right now under Featured Videos in the #3 position.

Hmmmmm.

http://www.youtube.com/

Comment 41 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh, for tracking purposes. It is currently at 1,801 views, 50 ratings, favorited 13 times, 1 honor, and 23 comments.

BTW, in the description to the right of the video...there is a link to this discussion thread.

Comment 42 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Holy cats.

60 ratings, 4,406 views.

Comment 43 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

OK, so I used the 11 video's from Gabriel's last trip to Chad and offered one each as a Video Response to each of the other Davos videos on the YouTube Featured Videos today in an attempt to get them seen. So far about 1/2 have been accepted, so they should get at least a little bump in viewership.

Needless to say, there have been a lot of negative comments made about the neddotcom Davos video, and though ratings and views are way up...people are rating it down...which I think is happening to most of the other Davos videos too. So it goes.

Comment 44 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I don't understand YouTube comment culture. Sometimes I get into the music videos where a musician puts up a video of playing and then others "answer" the video with ones of their own. Wow, there are some truly gifted young musicians out there, which absolutely delights me. Yet the comments are often so mean and uncalled for in my estimation. The negative comments just seem to go with the territory. Why? I don't understand.

Comment 45 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

>>I don't understand YouTube comment culture.<<

Age combined with anonymity I suspect.

Comment 46 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I was very briefly reading some of the comments to Davos responses last night - not just mean but dark and utterly hateful. Hideous stuff.

Comment 47 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Just killed the nasty comments. And oddly all the Davos video's just went away, and there's old Christmas video's from a couple weeks ago now on the main page. Odd.

Comment 48 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Okay! I just watched the ned.com Macy Gray & Stop Genocide Now Message for Darfur. & Stop Genocide Now???! How did I miss this? How did this all come about? Where the HELL have I been???

<dazed and confused>

Comment 49 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Gabriel met Macy's agent/contact at a Darfur event...and she want to help out. She was going to be on this trip...but the concert was the outcome instead. Gabe's the man.

Comment 50 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Go GABE Go!!! : )

Edit to add Gabriel is the sweetest, most amazing man I know. He's my hero!!!

Comment 51 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Just cut and pasted the last 3 posts here to the "Crisis in Sudan 2008" thread so Gabe sees them. (coz they are very lovely!)

Mark - I negged quite a few of the more hideous, white supremist type comments on "our" video thread (I love writing that :) the other night as I read. Haven't got time to look now but were you able to fold them as the owner?

Hope so!! As Rushdie (now) says, there needs to be a limit to liberal tolerance if it allows for the spread of hate.

Comment 52 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

>>Mark - I negged quite a few of the more hideous, white supremist type comments on "our" video thread (I love writing that :)<<

Thnx, and it is fun that it is our video thread. With neddotcom as the "channel" we can distribute videos thru the channel...and have more views and interaction than multiple different channels.

>>the other night as I read. Haven't got time to look now but were you able to fold them as the owner?<<

I figured out how to simply remove the truly hateful comments, so they are gone. (and having the negs made it a helpful guide, thank you)

Comment 53 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

113,785 views, 184 ratings.

Ned.com usually has about 100-200 visitors each Sunday, yesterday we had 400...the YouTube effect.

Comment 54 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

547 alerts/emails from YouTube in two days each time a comment or video is posted.

Comment 55 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

I joined in because I saw the video on youtube...It IS working! Keep going that way people :)) oohh,I feel great when I see bunch of people fighting for the rights of people who need US. :) Great Mark!! Great!

Comment 56 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

It is a great video Mark and an inspiration - it brought me here.

Comment 57 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Maja and Marty, welcome to Ned and absolutely thrilled the YouTube video got you here.

The people in this community are incredible people from all around the world, and we are all very happy to welcome new community members to Ned. Please don't hesitate to ask myself or any members here if you need help with anything, everyone is very kind and helpful. Well, I have my moments of rage and anger...but I try to keep in bottled up inside ;-)

Comment 58 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh, and thank you for the kind words regarding the video.

In many ways between the photos from the youth, and the music from Obo...it was really a group effort...I just put it together more or less.

Comment 59 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

The neddotcom video is 12th of 12 on the main page and will probably be "flushed off" some time today...so the views will plummet, and so it goes. It was very nice to see an influx of new members here. We'll never have the influx of having 10 billion dollars and/or having fame that would draw memebers...and I think that's a good thing.

Now, if someone from Davos responds to it via video, that could be interesting...we'll just wait and see.

Comment 60 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark Grimes said:

The neddotcom video is 12th of 12 on the main page and will probably be "flushed off" some time today...so the views will plummet, and so it goes. It was very nice to see an influx of new members here. We'll never have the influx of having 10 billion dollars and/or having fame that would draw memebers...and I think that's a good thing.

Ahem!!!

Linda, Meron and I are planning on being REALLY famous quite soon .... get yourself a contingency plan, babe!

Comment 61 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Oh and on the video and the new members that have found us as a result - well done you!!!

Comment 62 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Slightly off topic, but I was amused by Dani Rodrik's Davos Thoughts, particularly his take on the spectacle:

But what I loved most about being there is the spectacle. Think of hundreds of CEOs and statesmen packed together, all of whom are used to being accompanied by a retinue of assistants and (sometimes) bodyguards. When these personalities walk, ordinary people make way. Their sense of personal space is not quite the same as yours or mine. Imagine them now in Davos, minus their staff, negotiating a crowded staircase as they try to advance to their next session. Everyone's body language says: get out of my way. But no-one makes room because everybody expects others will yield first. The traffic is quite a sight. Luckily, the thoughtful organizers strategically place beautiful young guides throughout to direct the distraught dignitaries.

In my small forays into the hospitality industry as a busboy and waiter, the observations about differences of personal space really rang true.

Comment 63 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

John Powers wrote:

Slightly off topic, but ...........

And that is one of the many reasons we all love you to bits!! :D

Comment 64 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Nice Davos compilation video

Bono gives an answer

Comment 65 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Tracking MDG goals

Comment 66 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Google.org Press Conference

Comment 67 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Mark, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that your posts, as well as your hard work running ned.com, are highly appreciated.

Much thanks in particular for the "Tracking MDG Goals" link! I was especially interested in the "Raising awar[e]ness through sports" advocacy initiative, as I've been involved in my own small way with a group trying to organise a sports tournament for youth in the Nairobi neighbourhood of Kibera.

Comment 68 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Thank you Jon, kind words. At the end of the day though, Jim keeps the site running...and well, we all are running the community. Power to the people and all.

I've heard Kibera is just flattened in many parts following the election.

Comment 69 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Views: 184,551
Comments: 292
Favorited: 77 times
Honors: 2

One of the "honors"

#23 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Nonprofits & Activism

At the end of the day, the people that showed up here are the main thing (as a result of the video) in my mind.

Comment 70 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

neddotcom YouTube videos views are still going up about 1,000 a day...not bad.

Videos Uploaded: 78
Video Views: 292,416
Channel Views: 20,906
Subscribers: 264

Comment 71 on Davos: Making the World a Better Place

Yunus interacts with The Davos Question Here

during this video he suggest that teams of 3 could come up with a new years resolution - starting the year whenever they like - Christian, Chinese ... - This he calls Socila Action in chapter 11 of his book; the stepping stone to his and Bill Gates convergent Social ABC that changes capitalism

Between the Social Action and the Future Capitalism is the most revolutionary sytstem transformation model the valuation world has ever seen - it is called Social Business and described in the heart of what some people feel is the most dangerous book since the beginning of the printing press- Creating a World without Poverty