Suggestions for Ned.com Discussions

The Ned.com Five Minute Action Tool

I've been thinking about how ned.com is great for shooting the breeze, getting to know one another, reporting, documentation, even collaboration on shared documents from time to time. But there isn't a framework for actions yet, which is why I think we find ourselves 1) spread out across other "action" platforms and 2) without a "history" building tool to record actions.

So I've been thinking about a possible build that could help change this situation, if it seems sufficiently worthwhile to other members. Here's the idea:

Within the "Groups" feature of ned.com, create an "Actions" tab that reads alongside "home," "discussions," workspace, etc.
When clicked, the "action" tab bring the visitor to a "landing" page not unlike discussions, with the exception that I reads as "Actions":
- Top 5 actions
- Most recent actions
- etc
There several options a visitor can consider/take:
- Browse "current" actions
- Browse "completed" actions
- Start and action
- Join an action

Browse actions

Purpose: Enable visitors and members alike to connect with, support and record member-initiated actions Like all ned.com "browse" tools, a simple way to get a high-level grasp of what's taking place around ned.com.

Key features:

Actions in a group

Actions in related groups

Actions by members (with a way to browse members by number of actions/completed actions/current actions as well)

All actions

Start an action

Purpose: Enable members to create time-driven action campaigns to which they can recruit internal (ned.com) and external (facebook etc) support to carry out some activity.

Key features:

Create site-wide visibility and some action

Categorize the action by type (ie entrepreneurship, art, tech, human rights, etc), geography, need (donation, sign a petition, etc)

Establish goals and targets ie number of members engaged, amount raised, etc

Time sensitive ie beginning and end dates

Build in links to a handful of simple, related tools, such as dropcash, pledgebank etc so that it is easy to support an action with external tools

"Lock" mode (like "workspaces") so that basic description and parameters of the action can be enforced it has been initiated

Recruitment tools, for example notify group members that a new action has been created

Comment thread so that people who have joined the action can provide feedback, etc

"Freeze" mode once action has been completed ie no more open comments, etc

Join an action

Purpose: Enable ned.com members to become a part of and support clearly defined, trustworthy actions initiated by fellow members.

Key features:

"Join" the action and see basic data about the action ie number of members, who they are, etc

"Support" the action by stating the nature and level of support members commit to

"Rate" the action by level of enjoyment, etc derived from participation in the action

Provide feedback via comment board on action experience

Be rewarded with reputation points for joining the action and support by recruiting others etc

That's the basic idea - what do others think? For the programmers and technically savvy, does this seem doable within the existing ned.com framework?

Last comment added: Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:17:02 PDT

SaltSpring Island Ned Board Meeting Notes

<ned> Board Meeting and all were welcome to participate. In attendance: Evvy, Meron, Jackie, Sam Barlow (who agreed to take notes), Ellie Parks, Heather Martin-Mcnab, and myself. 2 (or so) great hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was a great group too, in that Sam and Heather are rare visitors to Ned, and Ellie is very unfamiliar with o/net, Ned or the entire 3.5 year history...so it was a great balance of people. I'll start with the list of the initial nine things, then some random notes I took, and an action list of sorts.

Better World Media Network

I'm working with Josh Friedman and we have formed a for-profit LLC business called Better World Media Network. We are working with "better world" oriented web sites and selling advertising/sponsorships space on their web sites to advertisers and ad agencies. 10% of monthly gross sales go directly into microfinance via Ned Foundation (being formed) and 55% of Ned revenue will be distributed back through the Ned community people/projects. Online advertising is going from 20 billion dollars this year to over 60 billion dollars a year over the next 4-5 years. One of the reasons I wanted to get ned.com to one million pageviews monthly is to provide regular revenue stream to favorite Ned community projects. One million pageviews at a $35CPM (cost per thousand) is $35,000 in monthly revenue. I strongly suspect BWMN will do over a million dollars in revenue in 2009, though not sure how Ned will factor into that (of course I could be off my nut regarding the numbers...but I gotta hunch)...the ad agency grew to over 7 million annual revenue in five years.

2. Ned Microfinance (MFI, workshops, schools, Alpha/biz/home party, biz/sales/marketing training) Interest: 1/4 admin, 1/4 more loan principal, 1/4 community projects, 1/4 principal/interest payback

Since April and May I've given 9 microfinance presentations to high schools in the Portland area. 15 minute talk, 15 minute video, 15 minute Q/A. Working with one student, and perhaps more to find ways to do other presentations to various businesses and organizations in the Portland area spreading the word about microfinance. There are some potential sponsorship and home party type potentials for revenue here. Would like to explore this further in the ned.com community and what that might look like.

Ned Coop-ish Thingamajig (test 7/1/08 thru 12/31/08)

Ned needs some things done and needs to pay people to do some of those things. It needs graphic design work and some technology work to build out some new features on the site. Also noodled up some interesting ideas as to smaller scale projects and small work for hire jobs that could be done in emerging markets as well. The long at short of it is, Ned is going to test this idea out over a six (6) month timeframe (7/1/08 thru 12/31/08) and we'll evaluate it at the end of that time. Geographically created pay rates are all based on very conservative, very small per diems in any event. Ned will commit up to $18,000 USD in total capital during this six month evaluation timeframe.

So one technical person and one graphic designer will be hired and paid an initial monthly per diem rate of $250 USD each. If someone has solid experience in international grant writing, there would be consideration that for a position as well. In addition to that will look to hire for some very part time emerging market positions that will pay out at a rate of $25 USD per month. Positions will include; Ned staff photographers (we'll provide digital cameras, and photographers will be encouraged to find other ways to earn income with their cameras), Free Ned training sessions offered for no charge to local ngo/npo staff members (with associated generous commission rates (like 100%) if organizations purchase Ned private group access), other small part-time, flexible hours job ideas as well. Building and hosting small NGO web sites free or at very low cost. Peace Tiles coordinators? Open to ideas.

Very decentralized "staffing" with self reporting functions that are easy to see the results of and present back to the community online.

Now, if during the July to December test additional revenue comes in past the commitment I've already made, the $250 per month staff will go to $500 and the $25 per month staff will go to $50, and a new level of staff will be hired at the initial $250/$25 levels (all still part of the test that will be evaluated during the final month of December).

Ned Better World Teams

Giving away money online to make good things happen has been interesting over the last four years, and in the community sense of giving away money...many of us share a very unique experience within the o/net community. Now when the Steve Case Foundation Parade Magazine America's Giving Challenge happened, it was thrilled that Atlas Service Corps and Scott Beale was on the receiving side of $50,000 USD. But, like the Razoo speed granting effect, I was still left feeling like the "biggest network" will and always does win...so went about noodling up what something very different could look like. Something without the biggest network always wins. Something without oodles and oodles of rules and complication. Fewest rules possible, failure (multiple failures) is an acceptable outcome. Succeed small, fail small, learn and redo. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not afraid to fail small and often. Big things can still happen...but let's all learn loads together without fear of failure or need of a net (and over planning/worrying). Get to the action. The result. Making good things happen. Let people on the ground decide what those good things that happen indeed are. So, when a Nedsters Makes the World A Better Place project is announced, it would look something like this.

At the time of this announcement the team leader must be an existing Ned member.

Taking a leadership role, anyone who wants to be a team leader recruits 5 new members/friends to Ned to be on your Make a Better World team (each team will have a leader, and 5 new members who are friends/associates/acquaintances).

The first 10 teams to self organize become the official teams by signing up in a workspace at Ned.

Each team spends 7-14 days talking about exactly what they will do to make the world a better place, what results will they expect, who on the team will be responsible for what, and how will they measure their efforts, and each team will be sent via Moneygram $250 USD to make the world a better place.

A given timeframe will pass, and groups will hopefully report during their efforts on their better world team progress. A final very, very brief report of written results will be completed (50-100 words) and the Ned community as a whole will vote...based on their favorite result/outcome.

Well, you get the idea...sharpening feedback and ideas always welcome. Would like to get this going in early July as well.

Ghana/Homowo/Ned - library, internet café, business incubator/innovation center

Been working with Susan and Obo Addy and Homowo to build a facility in Accra, Ghana ... and the first step in the process would be to tour the country with 10-16 people from Portland, Oregon during the first two weeks of November this year. 8 have committed so far, and we need a total of 10 to commit to make this a certain thing.

Ned Goals (inside people/orgs and outside orgs Intel/Nike)

Aside from the Ned goals in my signature file, I don't have any other personal goals written, other than to help other people and organizations use Ned to help meet their goals. Outside organizations such as Intel and Nike have expressed interest in working with Ned, and are very interested in seeing how ideas 1-4 from above play out over the next few weeks and months. My goal is to make Ned a place that offers real help to real people, projects and organizations so they reach their goals.

Jackie and Meron both spoke very passionately and wonderfully about Ned, and more to the point...the Ned community of people and what we all mean to one another, our mutual support, caring and helping out one another. On many levels, given what we’ve all been thru, we have all started out in a very unique situation and have been thru some very challenging thing together...and know we can all deal with hardships, and still maintain the ability to move ahead in a positive way. Special people all around. Respectful. Caring. Wonderful.

Ned Better World Island

Touched on this briefly. Jackie and Mark will need to connect and do something meaningful and not too overly complex. We'll keep in simple, yet with the ability to scale and bring in some additional revenue for Ned projects.

The Giving Project

Since the PayPal problems happened (now fixed), all Giving Project monthly payments were permanently stopped. Before Niny left town, she just said to apply her payments towards web site hosting. I think some members would be interested in getting payments going again, but perhaps with certain projects or types of projects to choose from.

Start-up package for <Ned> NameYourLocation

This was simply too late in the day to delve into, what with all the other things we talked about. Once there are some revenue generating models in place, I'll be much more comfortable exploring what a startup package might look like.

Okay, the notes above were scratched out...here things get truly scattershot out.

Ellie said something that resonated, well quite a few things...but that Ned is not a coop, but a collective.

Ned is friendly, but how do people dive in?

Expectation, hook, draw.

Ubuntu Management book was suggested as a good read

For social profit. We are for social profit. Profit for social good.

Real people doing real things to try to make a better world.

We need an environment of welcoming and connecting people to others.

Ask newcomers to post a comment or share something about themselves.

Five Minute Action Network, simple things people can do in five minutes one day to make the world a better place.

Problem, solution, action.

Power over, power to, power with, power within

Some people are entrepreneurs, some looking for work, some looking for sponsors, some looking to share wisdom.

On a Ned.com home page it would be good to have Ned News. More targeted Ned stories.

People connect to stories (and ideas), we really need to find a place where members can really get into sharing stories.

Would live chat on Ned be good or bad?

On the Ned.com home page it could be interesting to offer small widget type things for LiA, Partners for Others, Peace Tiles, The Emancipation Network, that would offer people something small to purchase, something small to give/donate (ala mini-action network), and some small action to take...so visitors choose from some things in which immediately and really make the world a better place.

Ned could be good to offer some users (many users?) ned.com email addresses.

Manzini is the name of the Children's Hospital in Swaziland that Jackie is going to be on the board of.

Volunteer Sector Knowledge Network (read, ask, share) http://www.vskn.ca/

People are asked to do one of four things: 1. collaborate, 2. give, 3. do, or 4. learn/share

Change Everything powered by Vancity http://www.changeeverything.ca/

UVIC African Partnership Network http://ring.uvic.ca/08mar06/afri can-partnership.html

Ellie shared a couple decision making techniques one of which is called "Fist-of-Five" or "Fist-of-Five". In this method each member of the group can hold up a fist to indicate blocking consensus, one finger to suggest changes, two fingers to discuss minor issues, three fingers to indicate willingness to let issue pass without further discussion, four fingers to affirm the decision as a good idea, and five fingers to volunteer to take a lead in implementing the decision

The other decision making technique is called dotmocracy. 1. An issue is presented with questions. 2. Discuss potential solutions. 3. Post proposals. 4. Fill dots to record opinions. Write comments. 5. Formulate a common solution.

Listening to Jackie, Meron and Evvy talk about how important o/net/Ned was and is in their lives as a supportive community and group of friends was a very special time during the discussion. I didn't take notes but just rather listened and took it in and Heather, Ellie and Sam took in their words. Truly people that give so much also get so much. Not just the words but the true connection only people can have with one another. People connecting. Good people. Making great things happen. Personal transformation and incredible individual commitment. Very special people indeed.

End of the Board Meeting Action List of Sorts

Partners for Others web site to be designed and built/hosted inside of a Ned workspace.
Change age restriction on site from 21 to 15 so high school students can participate.
Restart brief 8:30AM PT Friday AM goal conference calls (on Skype)
Help new members connect
Simply need to be more action based
Need to encourage more and small Ned FTF meetings worldwide

Jackie. Meron. Evvy. Please by all means help plug in the many holes that I left in this message.

Please feel free to talk about anything here.

Questions.

Ideas.

Comments.

You name it.

Last comment added: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:39:55 PDT

ENTANDA HERITAGE CENTRE PROJECT

Entanda heritage centre project is aproject designed to centralise the exhibition,documentation and collection of Buganda kingdom's cultural artfacts and history.

The project has 4 components namely;

1.CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK: -Tour-guide services of Buganda's cultural sites. -Translation services for foreign tourists and publishers. -Produce documentaries about Buganda culture
2.COMMUNICATION PORTAL: -Develop Internet-based communication portal -Edit and Archive digital media -Publishing in Luganda
3.CONSTRUCTING CULTURAL CENTRE COMPLEX: -Construction of structure -Interior décor -Exterior décor -Maintenance schedule
4.CULTURAL COLLECTOR'S PURSE: -Compile artifact gallery -Luganda language classes -Set up resource centre

The project has been spearheaded by my self after being crowned "OMUZIRA MU BAZIRA 2005"( translated: The Mightiest among the mighty) by the King of Buganda after winning the National Buganda cultural knowledge quiz on CBS FM,Radio Buganda (Kampala Uganda) in 2005. The 2 acre plot of land for this project was actually the prize he received from the King of Buganda among other presents.

The project was named after that radio programme called ENTANDA YA BUGANDA. Entanda programme/quiz started in 2003 and i happened to be the third winner in 2005. It is intended to teach and preserve culture,particularly GANDA culture.

So i decided to start-up something in the same line, with the same purpose, and that is the origin of Entanda project.

Last comment added: Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:51:46 PDT

A Good Ned Tour

Ned has a great help index, but I think is in need of a good Ned tour. A visual overview explaining in a dozen or so panels/pages how to best use Ned.

Here are some samples of other tours...

http://www.socialtext.com/produc ts/tour

http://digg.com/tour/

http://www.aboutus.org/TheWikiWa y:WhatIsWiki

http://www.wiserearth.org/articl e/Tutorial

Thoughts on what would make a great Ned tour?

Last comment added: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:05:26 PDT

Ned Open Source Sales Force

Here's a little hey diddle diddle.

So at some stage here during March we'll have nine sponsored text links at the top of the site, and each company name will go to this single page, or one just like it.

The sponsors will be listed top to bottom in order of who spent the most, and how much they spent will be transparent on that page.

Sponsorship funds will be allocated along these lines...

// Monthly Sponsorship Allocation //
35% microfinance
35% specific grassroots better world projects
15% administration
10% better world media/marketing
5% web hosting & technology development

Now, if there was a sales cost (say 15%) prior to the above distribution, then the entire sales process could be open sourced. Probably at first by a limited about of members, and targeting companies in their own countries.

But, Ugandan members could target Ugandan companies and should they make a $200 sale, earn $30 USD. Thailand members selling to Thai companies. Kenyan members selling to Kenyan companies. Etc, etc.

Ned could provide the sales materials, sample emails, online sales training, media kits, etc.

There would need to be a workspace for "claiming accounts" so no more than one person would be trying to approach the same business, but it could be a rather simple experiment. Of course people couldn’t just load the top 100 companies in their country in the workspace and claim them as an account.

Thoughts?

Last comment added: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:43:11 PST

Suggestions for New Ned.com Site Features?

Okay, there's a boatload of ideas here to start with, please feel free to add your own to the workspace, or suggest other ideas in this thread.

How can Ned.com site be made better?

What features from other sites do you like, why, and how could they be used for a better exeprience?

If you could add just one thing, what would it be?

Last comment added: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:24:37 PST

Ned Accomplishments, Milestones, Goals & Deliverables

Sometime near the end of December I changed the signature file in my email to include the raft of information you now see below. After reading the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World John Wood it inspired me to include these measurable real things, and even go another step to project and include 2008's goals and deliverables, most simply pulled from a post written 9/8/07 ...the day after o/net closed down.

Thought I will deconstruct the details of 2008's goals and deliverables a little more, but equally...more important really, ask at the end, what do you want from Ned in 2008? Both Ned the web site, and Ned the community as well. Ned is you. Well, really Ned is us. Ned is our community. Ned is what we make of it.

Anyway, first the Ned Accomplishments, Milestones, Goals & Deliverables sig file...

N: Mark Grimes
P: 503-502-0185
E: abcdefgh@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
=====================================
78,850 youtube neddotcom channel video views
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
500,000 youtube neddotcom channel video views
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

>1,000,000 web site page views monthly<

This is like a gas pedal and can be relatively "controlled". We've been at roughly 3-4,000 pageviews a day, and will need to get to 33,000 a day to hit the mark. We'll get there, I know how to put the foot on the pedal. But this is about quality, not eyeballs. Connection, not numbers. Participation, action, engagement, and involvement...not big volume, massive numbers, and traditional social network ego puffing.

>500,000 youtube neddotcom channel video views<

Well this number has gone from 78,850 to 304,527 in less than a month, thanks to the Davos: Making the World a Better Place video being featured on the front page of YouTube 1/13/07. Can we get another front page video, and/or another 200K video views? We'll see.

>1,000 registered ned.com members<

Since the end of December Ned went from 345 to 582 today, not bad. Again, a number that can ebb and flow daily with people joining, but we really want people to become active members and connect at Ned, and take ideas and each others projects and business models from ideas and brainstorming into real world action, collaboration and results. So 1,000 is just a number, I'd take 75 committed people making things real things happen over 250,000 "sign ups" doing nothing any darn day. This is about quality and action, not about volume and numbers. 1,000 is still the 2008 goal, how to get new members best engaged, involved and participating? That's the big question? Ideas welcome. Ideas into action...even better.

So to kind of recap. Imagine Ned with a few hundred key core members that really live the Ned experience members that will participate at a much real action based level, do a click for something campaign, make a very small donation now and then, sign a Darfur petition online, that kinda thing. Imagine the power of change in that.

>500 Better World Island monthly project revenue<

Errr. Jackie and Meron have offered to build Ned on Better World Island. I've gathered some notes I have not yet shared. I suck. Nuff said. (It will be built, then we'll see about the $500 monthly revenue.)

>150 microloans<

Started at the end of the year at 59, now at 104 ...just a matter of time before we hit the 150. (well, time and money)

>25 good quality inbound web site links<

Well, if you believe this there are 28,500 inbound links to Ned, which of course isn’t the case.

Now when you look at Google Analytics report from 1/5 - 2/4, you get more data, and more knowledge.

In items 1-20 below you will see web site traffic source, number of visits, and time spent on site. The average time overall was 11:03, but when you take out the 46% "bounce rate" (people that see one page and leave immediately) you can probably double the average time for the average user to over 22:00 minutes per visit.

(direct)/(none) 4,138 09:42
google/organic 2,519 09:09
omidyar.net 356 14:06
internet4change.com 299 38:33
lifeinafrica.com 261 14:58
youtube.com 225 03:17
beta.razoo.com 196 45:21
zthing.com 190 00:11
onarchive.net 138 07:49
us.mg2.mail.yahoo.com 113 13:30
yahoo/organic 109 3.91 05:16
uk.f866.mail.yahoo.com 87 07:08
webmail.pas.earthlink.net 77 21:45
kiva.org 55 09:28
aboutus.org 47 08:24
kellygraphicdesign.com 41 05:05
stopgenocidenow.org 40 11:30
pageflakes.com 34 11:50
aol/organic 32 00:32
mailcenter.comcast.net 31 08:34

Number 1 represents people directly typing in ned.com, or simply current members that have bookmarked the site and visit from there. As judged by time spent on the site, look at the difference in quality of search engine visitors from Google 9:09, Yahoo 5:16 and AOL 0:30...pretty amazing. Google sends very, very targeted traffic that really digs into the site and spend some time here, AOL...not so much.

Also interesting to note omidyar.net visitors spends 14:06 at Ned while the new onarchive.net visitors spend about half that at 7:49. Don’t know what that means, but it's interesting. Zthing, which was a viral humor/game site send visitors of people not looking for the content Ned offers, therefore become 00:11 second hit and runs. This goes back to the importance of quality traffic. I4C and LiA spend longer periods of time on the site, not surprising given their connectivity issues in Uganda and the fact they are using the site so richly for their business models. Why the average Razoo visit is so long at 45:21 minutes per visit I can only hazard a guess.

>10 ongoing monthly ned.com sponsors<

Just starting to speak with people, but the monthly sponsorship page will look a little something like this template. As outlined at the bottom of that page, monthly sponsorship funding distribution/allocation will look like this to start: 35% microfinance, 35% specific grassroots better world projects, 15% administration, 10% better world media/marketing, 5% web hosting & technology development.

Will Ned be a million dollar business? Probably... just not in 2008. But, unlike the other "better world" online networks that exist out there Ned has no significant monthly expenses and no desire for a liquidity event...ever. And quite candidly, the more I think about how great all the members that are here, and the more I have visited other "better world online networks", the more I realize how powerful and elegant the software running this site is, and that the people (the community) is/are the power behind the site anyway. Best members, best software, no six figure a month nut to crack, and no investors pushing for a liquidity event. Life at Ned is good.

>7 new videos at neddotcom YouTube channel<

Err, okay this one was way, way underestimated. Ended 2007 at 64 videos and now already at 82, well above the goal for 2008 of 71. But this did get me thinking. The neddotcom YouTube channel is about Ned community and better world videos produced/made by any Ned member. Beyond Stop Genocide Now, if Peace Tiles, Uplift Academy, SOLID, Seeing Beyond Sight, Ghostwise or you wanted to distribute/release a "better world" video on the neddotcom YouTube channel, that would be great. All for one, and one for all. Good for all. Aggregation, shared efforts and collaboration.

>6 <Ned> projects anywhere in the world<

Liquid soap was looking like one, then Munnu the project champion/leader unexpectedly joined the army, so we'll see. Another photo-journal project in Gulu is a distinct possibility. Some Ned driven Peace Tiles projects. Things'll happen.

>3 microfinance workshop sessions in Portland<

In development and fully expect these three to happen be years end.

>2 events where five or more Ned members meet FTF<

Well, Ned Salt Spring Island May 2008 Gathering will be the first of what will hopefully be two or more Ned gatherings in 2008. We'll just have to wait and see if another one comes together.

>2 <Ned> thriving real world locations<

Swaziland. Lesotho. Gulu. Kampala. Ubon Ratchathani. Ghana. Kibera. Tanzania. Fiji. Guatemala. Zimbabwe. Kabul. Franklin. Atlanta. Salt Spring Island. Portland.

There are many, many possibilities. Management team on the ground, building infrastructure, ability to execute, ease and fluidity of build out all play a major role in this underfunded grassroots effort. This is probably the smallest number with the greatest efforts it will take to achieve within all the Ned accomplishments, milestones, goals & deliverables. Frankly, at the same time...one of the most important too though in integrating online and real world networks in an interesting meshed way.

>2 or more totally unexpected spectacular things<

This one we'll all have to look back at on 12/31/08 and see what we all think.

The reason I like these goals is they are measurable and most easily verified by one or more third party people or organizations.

I'd also very much like to see Ned and the Ned community help in some ways Peace Tiles, Life in Africa, The Emancipation Network, Atlas, Partners for Others, Making Cool Stuff Happen, Opok Farms, Stop Genocide Now, Camp Darfur, World Connectory Project, Better World Island, Unbelievable Donation, Seeing Beyond Sight, Aware Magazine, (too lazy to link to all those, if interested please use Ned's search feature to locate) and any other Ned community related projects, organizations and businesses help their models along in some way.

Obviously, there is only so much time in the day. As a community we may be able to support very real and meaningful efforts like Atlas Service Corps in Americas Giving Challenge receive $50,000. Enough Ned members made donations there to really make a big difference, but of course that type of engagement can't be done every single day. Within Ned there are groups. There are threads. But above all else, we are people, and we make up the community. We the people. We that work individually and together to try to make a difference.

What do you think of the above Ned Accomplishments, Milestones, Goals & Deliverables?

What are your personal goals and deliverables for Ned in 2008?

What might other Ned members be able to help you with?

What could fellow members do, say, brainstorm, contribute, connect, or whatever?

What do you have that you could offer other Ned community members? What talents, things, contacts, ideas, abilities, and such do you have to offer other Nedsters?

What do you want? What do you have?

What different kinds of things could happen on the Ned site to make it an even better experience for you?

That's one honking post. Anything else? Yep. Glad you are here.

Be well.

edit: typo

Last comment added: Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:52:05 PDT

Code of Conduct

General announcement that the start_here page has gone thru a few revisions intending to give new members a better lay of the land.

In addition to that there is a well crafted <Ned> Code of Conduct that was drafted by Anne Marie (big thanks and thumbs up for such an incredible job). Questions or comments about the Start Here or Code of Conduct page are welcome here.

Last comment added: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:37:45 PST

Designs for Reputation and Feedback for Building Healthy Community

I'm starting this thread specifically for discussion about how to ensure that the feedback system here at <Ned> supports the process of growing the kind of community and interactions that we want to have occur here.

A bunch of this conversation has already started in the Site Improvements thread and I'll start by inserting the (lengthy) post that I put there jumping into the dialogue in progress.

Please share about the purpose you'd like any feedback and reputation systems here to serve. Then we can scheme together about how to make that work. The example below is just one possibility.

Entry from the Site Improvements thread follows:

Sorry to join this thread so late after Linda made the Stone / Tumbles / Gems reference so early...

I'd like to have a fairly concerted conversation about points / posies / neggies / reputation / incentives / ratings / signal-noise filtering and such. I'm going to start the conversation here responding to a number of things in this thread, but it may be appropriate to start a topic on it.

A Context for Reputation & Feedback

So, first let me link to the recommendations I wrote up a couple years ago about reputation and feedback for o.net. I know <Ned> may have a different agenda, but based on the discussion already going on on this thread, I think it still applies.

We initially created the metaphor of Stones/Tumbles/Gems as a general tri-fold reputation currency for online communities of practice. The metaphor itself creates the context that we are moving toward creating Gems (action, practice, impact, results). However, the Stones (ideas, theory, insight) are a valuable starting point, and the Tumbles (feedback, dialogue, refinement, processing, participation) are critical to the process as well.

Much of the dialogue on this thread about points has already been infected by the assumptions acquired from the other place. I think we need to stop and get clear about why we would even use points and what they should be useful for.

Please note that Stones/Tumbles/Gems are NOT like the different categories of kudos on Razoo. They are never directly given to a person. Rather they are calculated based on a number of factors related to the persons behavior. How active are they? How are their posts rated? How many people have "subcribed" to watch their posts? How many have blacklisted them? Are they participing in initiatives and producing results? etc...

The Purpose of Reputation and Feedback

Reputation for People: As has been pointed out, this is silly if it is about stroking our egos. However, it is very useful for managing community boundaries and acceptable use of the site. We want to know if somebody is a constructive member of the community. Ideally, we'd like to know something about what kind of resource they might be for us and what kind of resource they've been for the community.

A well designed reputation is a kind of extrapolation of somebody's trajectory... it gives a sense of what they have to offer in the future based on their past behavior. Any reputation based on the arbitrary giving of points/kudos/thanks, ends up being a kind of popularity contest rather than a measure of value they're contributing to the community.

Reputation for Discussions/Workspaces/Threads Again, this is not about stroking people's egos. What makes this kind of reputation extremely valuable is when we can use it for gauging quality. We have finite time and attention, our community will fail if we feel like we're drowning in noise just to get to the valuable pearls of wisdom.

The "verbal diarrhea" of the other place has been mentioned and I think it was a natural consequence of the points system there. You were rewarded for talking. The more actively you posted, the more your bank grew, the more your bank grows the more you can throw points around to shape other people's attention and stroke egos and increase the chance of receiving reciprocal points. In other words, the more noise you made (regardless of quality) the influence you had. Norbert gave over 44,000 points away (over 20,000 more than Mark, the 2nd place giver of feedback). If points are used to highlight valuable content and/or fold it, do we really want them to just amplify the influence of the already loudest voices?

BTW, the current <Ned> solution of just keeping the banks from growing isn't really a solution to this problem either. We want community members to actively be rating content so we can have the high-quality stuff become visible instead of being buried. Having scarce points prevents people from fulfilling this role. Of course, I'm suggesting something more like 5-star ratings on content rather than points anyway. And everybody always gets to have their vote on each item of content. There's always enough votes to go around.

Did Neggies Destroy Omidyar.net?

Yes. I believe they did.

But posies played their role too (as noted above - they only amplified the noisemakers).

If neggies are supposed to play the role of muting innapropriate content (and posies are supposed to highlight content), how well did they play that role?

Neggies consistently generated MORE noise when they were used. Fights ensued, people were offended, they took it personally, people's attention was drawn to them. People even veiwed folded posts, curious about why they were folded. The combination of two noise producing points activities was the large part of what made o.net fundamentally untenable.

Evvy suggested that maybe we could just have a more enlightened view when we receive neggies. However, it is a VERY different experience to receive 1 or 2 out of 5 stars on a post than to receive a negative feedback point. It occurs for most people as personal -- as if I received negative feedback. Neggies are an active attack. 1 out of 5 is simply constructive feedback. Consequences are necessary, but neggies are not necessary to create consequences.

Neggies (and Posies) also tend to reduce constructive dialogue and increase personality battles. Posies and Neggies should not be about whether you agree or disagree with what was said. What we care about is whether a post is appropriate, on topic and adding value to the dialogue.

Personal note: Frankly I couldn't keep up with the noise machine, and that is my biggest fear about participating here where you're using the same tools. I set out to post this suggestion a few days ago, and the thread grew by pages before I could read the other suggestions to be sure I wasn't being redundant and could integrate people's input. And this is not that active a thread. A "hands-on" board who can reprimand people can not make up for the deck being stacked for generating noise. And if they try to, it will feel like censorship.

Some other Pearls on this Thread

On Topic - David Frayne suggests and "on topic" flag. This is exactly one of the things to help filter noise. Sometimes jokes or other things inserted into a thread are funny or constructive, but they're not on topic. If I have the time to read everything because I care about the interplay of each personal interaction, I can do so But if I'm trying to figure out if they're something valuable in this thread that I can use or want to respond to, I can skip the jokes (even when they're funny enough to rate 5 stars).
Reputation Scale - Niny suggests 2000 points could be intimidating to newcomers. And Mark talks about rebooting points so they don't grow out of hand. David F. suggests what percentage of all points given went someone... In any case, a reputation on an infinite scale is meaningless. One strange thing about the points in the other place was that if you had over 100 points you had more than about 90% of everone else, but compared to the leaders it seemed miniscule. I'd recommend that reputation be displayed as a percentile ranking. It gives it a clear scale. Percentage doesn't quite work, because with enough people, the top rated person may still only be 2% of total points given. You'd never be able to see any progress on your reputation.
Distraction - John Berger talks about points as a distraction. I couldn't agree more about that in the way they're currently structured. However, if one's reputation is derived from actual behavior metrics (rather than tossing points around) than it is a natural, emergent thing that just comes from participating. And one form of participating is helping filter noise from content by rating it's quality and noting it's relevance.
Offensive Content Flag This is where it is great to have active moderators who can respond and delete spam or posts which are not congruent with the purpose of the community. They can respond to these flags and remove the item, or remove the flag if somebody was mistakenly trying to use it like a neggie.
What's Alluring about Razoo? - Action. O.net provided great discussion tools, but really had nothing to support action. Razoo is organized around action. Frankly, it's weak on discussion and workspaces. Adding the ability to post initiatives/causes and actions and track who is accomplishing them makes our talk of making a difference real.

If you skipped the link to the recommendations at the beginning, now is the time to go read it. It should help clarify the Stones/Tumbles/Gems concept a lot. You'll find that all these issues were addressed in it.

Jim, I'd be happy to discuss any of the technical aspects in greater detail. We could even look into using some of the things we've already built in conjunction with this toolset.

edit: fixed image insertion tags

Last comment added: Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:57:03 PST

Ned.com Main Index Page Design

Would like to hear from others what could be some interesting things that could be incorporated into a well designed main index page?

It will need to be manually edited and can be much more graphic in nature.

Given the content can point to dynamic content within ned.com it would be nice if the page was updated weekly. Daily is too much, and monthly is too little.

It will be a great page to introduce potential new members to the projects and actions taking place inside.

One thought was highlighting a small picture of a new Peace Tile weekly and share a short story about the person that made it.

Other possible things:

wdydwdy?
cool outside "do good site" feature
link to <Ned> graphics
current action/funding/inkind/volunteeronline/volunteerrealworld items,
one product featured for sale
nedyoutube, nedkiva, nedflickr, nedmeetup
featured member (link to profile)
using ned.com - a member tip on how to get the most out of ned
chat of the week (link to an interesting chat)
poll of the week
tag party
feedback swarm
Oh, for the love of <Ned>, photo of the week
3-4 regular weekly contributors (a brief paragraph or so, leading to their group), possible examples: John/Human Trafficking/TEN, Lars/AIDS/Peace Tiles, Christina & Grace/economic development/LiA <Ned> Uganda.

What other great weekly recurring things/content could be on a well designed front page that would act as a great introduction to new people just finding the site?

Last comment added: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:14:13 PDT