Amnesty have a spangly new pink widget to promote their work; if all goes correctly, it should spring up to the bottom left of this post anytime soon. Interesting use of the web for campaigning, and squarely aimed at bloggers too. Sow the seeds and protect the human is the strapline….
[SOME WEEKS LATER: Removed this: got too annoying!]
Have been meaning to write more about the proliferation of web 2.0 tools and social networking/philanthropy stuff, but every time I did, something else got launched or brought to my attention. Anyway, recent news includes:
– LinkedIn for Good
– this article on social networking / non-profits (by NCVO’s Foresight Project)
– Facebook partnering with Project Agape
[incidentally, Facebook appears to have hit a tipping point in the last few weeks amongst my circle of friends….strange how these things suddenly kick in]
– you also have the ever-readable Steve Bridger on ‘Priming the widget response network‘, a title to get anyone excited, methinks
– there’s also Avaaz.org, Zaadz (what is it with z’s and a’s?) and Change.org
– Beth Kanter on Personal fundraising in Second Life
– and finally, and arguably most interestingly, Bring Light has launched: "Bring Light is a place for you to find causes you care about, dialogue
with charities and the community, and collaborate to fund a specific
project". Check it out in beta.
That should cover it then….
Interesting article from Paul Hodgkin, SSE Fellow and founder of Patient Opinion, in Wednesday’s Society Guardian entitled "Conversation Peace". On the face of it, this is an interesting diversion into how new technology might have ramifications for the NHS (video footage of mixed wards, unclean areas, bed shortages on YouTube etc.), but it is also the story of how the NHS is giving mixed messages about independence.
On the one hand, the NHS is being encouraged to commission and work with social enterprises to deliver services, and substantial sums of money have been made available for this. So, on the one hand, the NHS is being encouraged to devolve services to social enterprises and the volutnary sector. On the other hand, in the case of Patient Opinion, it has decided to develop its own solution in-house (NHS Choices), albeit with a slightly broader remit. And in an area where, as Paul points out, trust is absolutely paramount:
"Running Patient Opinion has convinced us that the state or public
sector providers themselves are likely to be poor hosts for these
conversations. Citizens are likely to instinctively distrust government
websites, suspecting them – rightly or wrongly – of spin. They may also
be reluctant to give email addresses to a feedback platform owned by
the NHS when they may be users of its services in the future. And, of
course, health abounds with controversies, be it hospital closures or
herceptin rationing.In our view, the NHS will find it easier to
handle such firestorms if they are hosted on a platform that is clearly
independent of the main players."
Now obviously, innovation is welcome and new models may bring different benefits. Patient Opinion will also have the benefit of years of operation, building its credibility and refining its model, whilst the new site has to build that from scratch. But NHS Voices may well, as the article points out, bring interesting new slants, open data to be used, interesting ways of gathering collective experiences and so on.
Still, even if this NHS IT project goes smoothly in development, there seems (admittedly from a distant standpoint) to be something of a divergence here between rhetoric and reality. Others have voiced concerns over health/social enterprise with regard to a) lack of social enterprises able to deliver; b) need for sufficient support and c) opening up commissioning to private sector (if not the first time, then after 3 years). There’s some validity to these, although there are good, well-informed people at the DoH working through the issues, but my concern is more of a cultural one: will the NHS really let go?
A self-confessed mish-mash of a post coming up, thinly connected by the golden thread of blogging (possible title of memoirs no. 345: "The Golden Thread of Blogging"). Anyway, things for your attention:
– INSEAD, whose Knowledgecasts I referred to in a previous podcast round-up, have started a new series called "Leadercasts". While some are probably more relevant than others to social entrepreneurs out there (i.e. leading a multinational pharmaceutical less so; leading for environmental and social impact more so), these are good quality, both in content and production
– Was interested to read that one of the few blogs focusing in this area (though more broadly: social entrepreneurship, CSR, international development, philanthropy etc.), Audeamus.com, is looking for a professional blogger to keep it going; I hadn’t realised the blogger was being paid, and surprised (naively?) to realise there was money in this field. Anyway, hopefully, someone as good as Audeamus part 1 will take over soon….
– Monetising the feed, or your RSS is also a recurrent message from our Feedburner account; thus far have resisted its wiles, and used it primarily to keep tabs on our subscribers via Google, Bloglines, Akregator, Newsgator, SharpReader, Yahoo and, marvellously, Zhuaxia. Zhuaxia, for those as ignorant as myself, is a "socialized RSS reader for Chinese web users", which signals our global reach….comments, suggestions and feedback always welcome from all subscribers, wherever you are
– And finally, sticking tenuously to the blog/web 2.0 theme, here’s an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, featuring not just web entrepreneurs, but web social entrepreneurs….social netpreneurs? Anyway, features Dotherightthing, Zaadz etc; see Responsibility is in their sites and have a read, despite the eye-wateringly bad headline pun…
Just a brief end of Friday note. Have recently been enjoying various TED Talks from the famous conference which have been made available as video downloads (which you can subscribe to via iTunes or view online). Favourites thus far include:
and, best of all, Hans Rosling of Gapminder fame [reminded via Steve Bridger / nfp 2.0]. Enjoy.
