Category Archives: Web/Tech

Virtual Social Networking, a blessing or a curse?

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Here at SSE we find the internet quite useful and employ our blogging skills quite routinely, as you can see. There are countless tools to choose from, web 2.0 or not: along with the blog, we utilise e-newsletters, the facebook group, online resources, an extranet, and more recently an online bookstore. As Brett Bonfield reported recently however, virtual social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc) can both be a blessing and a pain to non-profits. Bonfield gives some hints…

Who is likely to get the most value out of social networking sites? To
answer this question, Idealware spoke to a number of nonprofit
technologists working with social networking tools. We searched beyond
the success stories to discover tales of only middling success, or even
of disappointment. What resulted were two sets of guidelines: first,
how to know if social networking isn’t right for you and second, some
of the ways that social networking might benefit your organization.

Bonfield provides a quite useful check-list to go through if you are in doubt if using the web is valuable to your organisation. It should come as no surprise that not all social entrepreneurs find networking sites online helpful, as using the resources correctly is a skill-set that constantly needs updating and development. More importantly perhaps, not all groups that social entrepreneurs target have access to the internet nor find use in online features.

While online sites are good for networking and information sharing, it is sometimes hard to see the obvious benefit a social entrepreneurial organisation can gather from the web. Some SEs base their whole operations online, while others ignore its usefulness completely, finding other ways to get by. As a whole though, it is hard to get away from the fact that tools like blogging, e-news letters, resource sites, facebook groups are very convenient for the social enterprise sector, with their low cost and high (potential) reach.

Could virtual networking work to you org’s benefit? I recommend you take a look at the check list!

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Transparency and giving well….

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Regular readers will know that I often cite the delivery, quality, transparency mantra as important foundations for any socially-beneficial enterprise seeking to operate in today’s world/markets. Two of those, quality (including measurement) and transparency, have collided in a huge furore over a US-based philanthropic funder/evaluator called GiveWell. You know when the founder of an organisation has to title a blog post "I had a lapse in judgement, did a horrible thing, and I apologize", that things are not good.

Basically, one of GiveWell’s founders was caught asking himself a question (with a fake ID), then responding (with another ID) promoting GiveWell. He was also subsequently tracked using various aliases to promote GiveWell elsewhere online and, according to some posts, give their competitors a kicking. Not good, particularly when the organisation has shouted from the rooftops about the need for transparency and openness. This has made the reaction (see GiftHub and the original Metafilter post for the gruesome details) all the stronger and more vicious, alongside the fact that many seasoned professionals in the field had already been rubbed up the wrong way by GiveWell’s perceived arrogance and naivety (the two founders are recent converts from hedge fund management, and their initial response was to offer the MetaFilter community money by way of an apology).

The laundry continues to be aired in public too. The much-respected blogger Lucy Bernholz is on GiftWell’s board, and has posted here asking what she/the organisation should do.  Having put itself forward, as Jeff Trexler puts it, as a model of accountability, it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

What’s interesting about this, I think, is not only the importance of walking the walk as far as transparency is concerned, but also about really understanding the internet and its power (constructive and destructive). If people thought that this blog was being used to advertise products, or had press releases placed with it, it would damage the credibility…as would any suggestion that we were making up comments on this blog or other people’s. At the same time, people expect the blog to represent and inform about the work of SSE and its students and Fellows, amongst other material, in as fair and objective a way as possible. We don’t always get the tone right, and sometimes have strong, subjective opinions, but trying to manipulate the audience is never an option, as GiveWell are discovering.

Incidentally, our new intern Thor does exist and is not a figment of my imagination. He’ll be giving the unvarnished, barely moderated truth in his month-long stay with us here….

[UPDATE: the GiveWell founder has been demoted to Program Officer, according to this official statement from the organisation’s board]

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Talk about a resolution…

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Happy New Year readers / subscribers / social entrepreneurs. Hope you had a nice festive period: I was delighted to find that this blog had had its busiest traffic day in a long time while it was on leave; not sure what that says, but welcome to all newcomers.

It’s traditional, of course, to start the new year with a whole host of lists and resolutions, and the blogosphere is no different. You might want to start with the mighty Merlin Mann over at 43folders who has posts about Fresh Starts and Modest Changes and then read about 9 great tools to help you achieve your goals. Or, if you want to be real about the new year resolution shtick, how about 5 hard questions to ask before starting a new project, followed closely by choosing one of these Free Tools to Manage New Year’s Resolutions. Being S.M.A.R.T. about those resolutions is the key, apparently….

There will be those reclining, wishing to be told what to expect in the year ahead. Here, I might point you to Lucy Bernholz or McKinsey’s  8 Business (Technology) Trends to Watch. And for those still wanting food for thought, you might enjoy the EDGE’s annual question to the great thinkers of the world (this year: "What have you changed your mind about, and why?") and John Thackara’s reflection on approaches to sustainability.

A few other things to catch up with over the Xmas break:

– Tom Savage on how social enterprise doesn’t have a monopoly on doing good (and how it is difficult to invest in). I missed this last year, but is worth a read, if only to ponder how one reverses through a glass ceiling. More seriously, it does raise some interesting points, in relation to educational background, barriers to investment, and the need for greater "remuneration".  Given that Al Harris is largely considered the driving force behind Blue Ventures, it will be interesting to note the progress of Tom’s Bright Green Talent recruitment agency….certainly seems to fill a niche at a good time.

– The government launched a new initiative called Spark (igniting social enterprise to prevent homelessness), which is:

"an innovative project developed by Communities
and Local Government, The TREES Group, Big Issue Invest (part of The
Big Issue group) and Eastside Consulting to build and inspire social
enterprise to prevent homelessness"

It will aim to scale up existing enterprises, support the growth of enterprises within existing organisations and encourage the sharing of skills and resources across sectors.

– A full list of third sector-ites on the new year’s day honours list to follow, but here’s some North-Eastern social entrepreneurs who made it on….

– Many SSE students and Fellows are driven by faith or spiritual beliefs of some kind. There’s a discussion about the relationship between spirituality and social entrepreneurship on Social Edge.

– And last, but by no means least, proof that SSE reaches beyond these shores….to the Sydney Morning Herald, no less: Calling all rebels: it’s your time

My resolution? Eat that frog.

 

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Death by PowerPoint

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I was at a conference a while back where I sat through so many dreadful PowerPoint presentations, that I considered setting up a PowerPoint training social enterprise on the side. Not that mine are paragons of presentational virtue, but these were the lowest of the low. My recipe for death by powerpoint is achieved as follows:

– give out a handout of your presentation at the start (so everyone reads it before you start)
– include lots of text on every slide (so people read it and don’t listen to you…unless they’re still reading the handout)
– read the text out word for word (the text that the audience have just read on the handout and/or on the slide before you started speaking)

Then stir in some additional ingredients (sound effects, animations, unreadable fonts, background images) and leave to simmer for absolutely ages….as the person has not rehearsed and has no idea that they won’t be able to do 54 slides in 30 minutes.

Ok, rant over. But presentations are an important part of social entrepreneurs’ work these days (indeed, lots of people’s…), and it’s worth addressing this. Powerpoint is not a teleprompter or a data dump (or a support mechanism for you being nervous), but a means to an end: to allow you to communicate and, yes, sell what you do with passion. If it’s getting in the way of you communicating, engaging, involving, enthusing, attracting attention for you/your organisation, then you shouldn’t use it (or start to use it differently). Many of the most powerful presentations at SSE graduation events have been by those who simply spoke without any slides, and, despite advice to the contrary, the less successful ones often use more features of PowerPoint than I knew existed. [for those present, the one that machine-gunned the letters across the slide will remain with them forever]

If you have written on the slide the words you want to say out loud, you can probably remove them and replace with a one word heading. If you haven’t thought about how it’s structured (and how it looks to someone from the outside), then you need to. If you haven’t rehearsed it, it almost certainly will take longer than you think it currently does. If you’ve used all the colours of the rainbow (my personal weakness), you should pick 2 or 3 and stick to them. If you love ClipArt, get over it and use some proper photos. If you love bullet points (another personal weakness), go "beyond bullets". If you love "those curly fonts", change them to Arial or Helvetica or something readable from a distance.

There’s a bunch of resources on how to avoid "evil" or "really bad" powerpoints (people get quite passionate about this stuff) in the SSE bookmarks / current reading. Feel free to send in your own, and any horror stories to share in the comments….

This presentation, by contrast, is absolute genius:

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Friday round-up: Coin St, Clinton, Camberwell, Collaboration

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SSE is still recovering from its residential in Devon which was a great success. Write-up/report to follow soon. Though here are a few photos that give a snapshot (click to enlarge):

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So at least you know why we’re tired….anyway, the traditional Friday round-up:

– Social Entrepreneur Show going on in Olympia today and tomorrow. Part of Business Start-Up show that’s run for quite a few years….

– Whilst we were in Dartington, CAN had their Scaling Up event. Third Sector reports on some of the findings, namely that the supported organisations’ turnover increased 20% in two years, with social impact increasing 40% (presumbaly with a wider range of measures..). I was interested by this as well: "A CAN spokeswoman said Permira had received no return on its investment
of £690,000 because, in CAN’s view, the social enterprise sector is
“not yet ready to give market-rate returns”."

– Coin Street in the news with their ambitious South Bank plans….

– For all those who say the hype is out of control, check this report in the New York Sun: "A Bush-Clinton idea". The idea? Social entrepreneurship….Look forward to seeing George and Bill on our next programme.

– Chris Hill at Camberwell Project makes some good points in this article from the Yorkshire Post re. enterprise and deprivation.

– Interesting article in New York Times on the "right" places to learn entrepreneurship, which basically goes through lots of university-based courses. Then there’s a link to a different view, an article by George Gendron, who says "kids with passion are our next entrepreneurs", and that entrepreneurial life skills are needed by all…

– In the world where social networking meets non-profits, no-one understands/connects more than Beth Kanter: thoughts on Google Open Social et al in this post

– Also via Beth, Forces For Good: the Six Practices of High Impact Non-Profits is a new book out in the US. Read the authors’ essay on Stanford Social Innovation Review site: Creating High-Impact Non-Profits
The 6 practices, FYI, are:

  • serve and advocate (delivery not enough: policy to achieve big change)
  • make markets work (tap into self-interest / capitalism)
  • inspire evangelists (strong communities of supporters / emotional connections / involvement)
  • nurture non-profit networks (collaboration rather than competition)
  • master the art of adaptation (combining innovation, execution and learning)
  • share leadership (distribute amongst organisation / team)

Job done.

– Acumen Fund have a blog which occasionally has interesting gems. This post about Melinda Gates aiming to eradicate malaria is worth a read. I particularly enjoyed the following comment: "the experts are often expert in what has been, not what could be."

Cheers.

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