At 5000Hands we are always talking about design and how to make it better. We want to make it better and easier for people to collaborate on volunteer projects. W should be able to easily work together without thinking about the medium where we accomplish this.
Here is a great interview and analysis of apple, perhaps the best design company of its generation.
http://www.cultofmac.com/john-sculley-on-steve-jobs-the-full-interview-transcript/63295
Great post by Scott Heiferman on pricing and charging for the meetup service.
This is of course something that is on my mind a lot. In the article he talks about what an MBA would think. Well I am an MBA. And a CPA, so I think about these things a lot more than most. But it is difficult in weighing what we are doing, because I believe that there is great value in what we are creating. I would like for this to be accessible to any cause to use. But, of course we need to create a sustainable business.
Here are the Meetup prices:
There are three plans (all prices in USD):
I like seeing other companies tackling similar problems and the benefits that they have derived from their decision making process and results of those decisions. The most compelling benefit that they experienced was making people accountable for the meetups they created. It resulted in less spam from the creators of the meetings as well.
I think that we can learn a lot from what they are doing at meetup- I doubt that we can replicate what they did, since there are additional features that I think are valuable to some users, but not all. For a great read:
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2751-scott-heiferman-looks-back-at-meetups-bet-the-company-moment-
The stigma that heavy internet usage creates lonely, reclusive people blogging in a dark room may require rethinking.
Internet users, and especially social networkers, are more likely to be active in volunteer organizations than those who don’t go online, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
Of all Web users surveyed, 80% participate in groups versus 56% of those who don’t use the internet, the report said. On social networks, it’s slightly higher, and on Twitter in particular, 85% are active in groups.
For the survey, 2,303 American adults were polled in November and December.
The survey found that Facebook, employed by 62% of internet users, was the most popular digital networking tool used by groups — much more so than Twitter, used by 12% of internet users. Of those respondents active in groups, 48% had a page on a social-networking site, while 30% had their own blog and 16% communicated with other group members via Twitter.
Pew’s research also found that internet users are more active participants in their groups than other adults, and are more likely to feel pride and a sense of accomplishment about their group’s activities.
Also, based on the survey’s results, the notion that today’s perpetually connected culture is exorcising religion may be flawed.
Pew found that internet users are slightly more likely to go to church or participate in organized spiritual functions than people who aren’t online. Also, mobile-phone owners are significantly more likely to participate in religious groups than non-owners.
Pope Benedict XVI has expressed conflicting views on the internet. Sometimes he encourages use of the Web to promote Catholicism. Other times, he has said internet use can give us “a sense of solitude and disorientation,” especially for young people.
Early on, savvy organizations identified the potential of gathering group-minded people online.
Charity Water started four years ago as a fundraising group promoting clean water in poverty-stricken countries. Because the organization is so new, its roots are in the Web, where expansion is cheap and nets can be cast widely.
By charity standards, the organization has grown quickly. Charity Water has 25 staff members and regularly creates big buzz thanks to online campaigns, using Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. It doesn’t send direct mailings or street team promoters.
“Twitter is, probably for us, where we have our biggest audience day-to-day,” said Paull Young, the charity’s director of digital engagement. “We’ve always been online-focused. We’re finding that’s the best way to connect with people.”
Twitter’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, likes to underline the importance of how the microblogging service can be used to organize people.
“We’ve put a lot of emphasis on tweeting” as a promotional tool, Dorsey said recently on Bloomberg TV’s “Charlie Rose.” “A lot of the value (of Twitter) is actually (in) following people.”
Social networks have encouraged more people to share content online, making it easier for them to form groups around common interests, said Murray Milner, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia.
“I think the internet probably is creating more networks,” Milner said. At the same time, Milner questions whether, despite broader group participation online, the internet is actually weakening some friendships — i.e., creating more acquaintances than close friends.
Posted on CNN by Mark Milian
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/01/18/internet.groups/
Well, we launched the 5000Hands site in beta. Right now the 5000 Hands site is empty, we hope to hear from you. Can email me directly david@5000hands.com
A few months ago I completed the training for Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt. Before taking the training I had an impression that Six Sigma is a great way for management consultants to make money by selling the promise of innovation and efficiency. Taking the course and earning the greenbelt, I learned that this doesn’t have to be the case. There are a lot of things that an organization can use and learn from lean and six sigma. It can make them more competitive and agile. I have my doubts about whether it actually does- or just creates another level of bureaucracy.
So this makes me wonder about a lot of other fads and buzzwords that are used today. Lean startup, gamification, social entrepreneurship, social media, freemium, viral loop/effect, etc… I resist incorporating these things into the 5000Hands lexicon because they feel so empty. When I investigate and read on the ideas, I find them so full of insight that we definitely include the concepts into what we are doing with 5000Hands.
It’s like these terms are used as a silver bullet to solve all problems.
Q: What do we need to be successful?
A: Use game mechanics.
A: Make it crowd-sourced.
A: Make it social.
A: Make it free.
A: Be a social entrepreneur
So here at 5000Hands- we think that the world is a little more complex then a silver bullet. 5000Hands can’t just be a single dimension. it has to be dynamic- learning and using the insights from several different fields. But we try not to use the terms, because what we really want to do is learn from as much as possible and try to build the best product we can.