Block out March 7th on your calendar.

And not because I want you to go anywhere or do anything.

In fact — I want you to stay home.

Imagine it right now:

• No need to dress up. PJs are PERFECT.
• No need to spend hours trying to think of something to do with your friends/spouse/recent Craigslist “friend”
• No need to put on heels or iron a shirt or GROOM IN ANY WAY
• No need to get a sitter
• No need to leave your dog/cat/bird/fish at home
• No need to get crazy reservations and STILL wait in line for an hour because they’re backed up
• No need to stand at the bar and pretend you’re waiting for someone
• No need to pick something off the menu that fits your diet/allergies/political sensitivities
• No need to pay for watered down drinks in awkward to hold glasses
• No need to pay for a cab
• No need to regret spending $30 on the WORST MOVIE EVER

… and by doing absolutely nothing, you can actually HELP SOMEONE ELSE.

The idea is that Social Media can do some good things for Social Change. Contribute the money you’d normally spend on a Saturday out to Social Media For Social Change’s City Harvest Initiative (event coming up April 3rd!)   Seriously, people. In this economy, who wants to go out anyways? I don’t. I have enough entertainment here at home. So, why not spend the few bucks you might spend going out on the 7th on something that can actually help others???

It doesn’t matter if it’s a buck, $4 bucks or whatever you’d normally spend. This is important. 

Odds are, if you have internet access to take part, you’re doing at least a little better than the families that City Harvest supports — and even if you only have only  a little to give, every single penny is appreciated.

MemeLabs, the online video contest gurus, have a new contest, and one that sounds pretty cool. Chip Wilson, the Lululemon founder, apparently isn’t dead yet, and to commemorate that, he’s holding a walk/run/parade/party …thing.

This is the 2nd year for the “Chip’s Not Dead Yet!” one mile, uphill race where all proceeds support BC Children’s Hospital. This race is different; you have the choice to run, walk, or parade in one of the various ‘waves’ that go up the hill. If you want to run in your underwear, so be it. If you want to run in a bridesmaid dress, go for it.

On Friday, June 20th, 2009, a busy street in the Vancouver neighborhood known as Kitsilano will be completely closed to traffic and the event starts. You run in “waves” of themes - all the superheroes together, all the animals, the gladiators… well, you get it.

The fastest one up the hill will win $20,000, but, you’ve got a chance to win $1,000 right now! Memelabs wants to know what your ideal themed wave would look like. Dress up as your favourite superhero or even run in your underpants! Tell us what you think would make for the best wave and you will have a chance to win $1000 in cash and one of our monthly prize packs! Enter here!

For a quick sneak peek of the race, check out the video.

Vancouver is home to the 2010 Olympics, as much of the world is aware (and those who aren’t aware have more important things on their minds).  The city is enveloped in a flurry of activity, getting everything from buildings, athlete’s villages, and ski jumps ready for the onslaught of tourists, athletes and media that will descend onto our fair city.

Recently, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (aka VANOC - you know, the bigwigs in charge of all of the Olympic everythings in Vancouver) began a four-day “World Press Briefing” for more than 250 visiting journalists and media managers. There was some serious debate about how media coverage of the Olympics is changing dramatically due to new and emerging media.

Three local citizen journalists, under the Raincity Studios umbrella - Dave Olsen, Kris Krug & Robert Scales - have written an open letter to VANOC requesting entry into the closed-door press briefing.

DaveO, ever the eloquent one, says, “In brief, we’d like to have a conversation about how to allow fans and amateur media makers to document their Olympic experience…”.

“We are aware of your obligations to media rights holders and are seeking to provide an entirely different sort of coverage than the accredited media provide,” he wrote. “We are not looking to cover events per se but are instead interested in covering the cultural stories, athletes’ families’ stories, and stories from fans who saved and travelled from around the world for this experience. In other words, we plan to encourage and aggregate fan coverage of the individual’s on the street experience of the Games.”

Between the three of them, Scales, Krug and Olsen have covered Beijing 2008, Torino 2006, SLC 2002, and Nagano 1998, all unaccredited and on various forms of media.

DaveO goes on to explain that, in order to facilitate more citizen journalism, Raincity Studios will be “… hosting an independent, international media centre at our Gastown loft office. As part of this, we’ll organize events like photo walks and aggregate fan-made content for the enjoyment of a worldwide audience.”

This is going to happen with or without the mighty blessing of VANOC, but as DaveO pointed out,  “We’d [all] like to work with you to do this for mutual benefit.”

To date, all that I know is that the spokeswoman for VANOC told Jeff Lee, the Vancouver Sun Olympic Reporter that “The IOC is the ultimate arbiter on the representation on the press commission, and each country’s National Olympic Committee determines which media get accredited for the Games.”

She goes on to say that, “As the organizing committee, we can and will encourage both entities to recognize and facilitate the immense growth of online media, however ultimately decisions for press commission membership and Games accreditation lie with them. We have not yet responded to the open letter from the social media group but will do so in the coming days.”

So, Dave, Kris, Robert, where do we stand on this? Has VANOC gotten back to you? Have we come to any sort of conclusion here?

Hein Gerber is speaking at the Institute of Corporate Directors breakfast about what social media and networking actually is, and how corporations can use social media to their benefit.

We’re talking at the moment about what social media is, how it works, and what some examples of social media are. Hein dares people in the room to type “company name” and “facebook” in google and see what comes up. He says that many corporations don’t know they’re even on Facebook.

I constantly forget that corporations aren’t up to speed on social media - that we really are early  adopters.

The main drivers of social networking: uptake and exponential growth, changing workplace demographics, and enabling technology.

The proof is in the numbers:

In January 2008, Facebook there were 64 million and now, 11 months later, there are 124 million users. Companies are starting to realize that social networking and the requirement to spend money on these services and to invest in social networking in order to recruit and retain employees.

The examples that hein is using to explain the kinds of corporations that are using to describe social networking:

Delta, Boeing. BC Government, Nike, Nortel (on Twitter) TELUS… I’m surprised that we’re not talking about some of the really big players in  the social media world - sure all these companies are using these tools, but what about Mortrin, Southwest Airlines, and some of the other really big players?

Wow. We’re talking about Second Life, and Telus’s virtual store … he’s using 15 million registered users as the figure to explain how “important” Second Life is, but this is telling me that the corporate world is really very behind on the actual social media world - there’s really not many people who are actually using Second Life anymore.

Now we’re getting into the risks. This is what I’m really interested in - I want to see what the corporations think of as the major risk factors in business.

One of the major ones is from an individual perspective: that an employee can put some of the confidential information out on the web; they think that there will be a slow down in corporate infrastructure if people are streaming videos; malware, viruses etc; damage to the brand (oh hai Mortrin), corporate espionage, performance degradation and productivity loss.

Ahh, now we’re getting into Mortin. Hein thinks that it was a good move to pull the ad, that Motrin was acting in the companies’ best interest, and yet, Ad Age makes a good case for the fact that Johnson & Johnson moved way too fast. Just because a few people were rather, ahem, vocal, doesn’t mean that it’s the view of the majority of your users.

Some of the questions that Hein says companies should ask include:

What is your organization’s approach and commitment to Web 2.0?

How will your organization benefit from embracing Web 2.0?

Does your business strategy consider the impact of Web 2.0?

Has your organization conducted a risk assessment of internal and external implications of Web 2.0?

Is your infrastructure secure enough?

Will your organization be able to measure the impact and benefits of Web 2.0?

Can your infrastructure support Web 2.0?

Does your organization’s policies address the use of Web 2.0 technologies?

Does your IT portfolio include an inventory of Web 2.0 applications and initiatives?

Is your organization actively monitoring public Web 2.0?

Some of the advice that’s being given this morning is really concerning me - blogs won’t just “be viral”. People won’t just “learn about it” even if you have good content. It’s not a “Build it and they will come” matter. yes, you have to have a goal for having a blog - you can’t just put it up there and hope that people will find it, but you also can’t use traditional media to tell people that you have a blog.

I’m moderating a panel this afternoon for the Vancouver Board of Trade’s series, Tough Talk for Tender Causes on “New Communications Tools: blogs, twitter, facebook and social networking”.

The panelists include Michael Allison, Stephen Jagger and John Starkey, and we’re going to try and cover as much about this topic as we possibly can! We’ve only got about an hour though, so we’re definitely going to have to move quickly!

I’m definitely looking forward to this afternoon, and I’ll be at the reception afterwards, so if you’re there, come and say hello!

Edited to Add: we had a fantastic panel, people were completely involved, and we had more questions from the audience than panels in the past! Go us! I’ll update you guys on the information shared as soon as I get my brain back.

This evening was Vancouver’s monthly Third Tuesday, where Mhairi Petrovic, the founder of Out Smarts, explained how to sell social marketing to the traditional marketing decision makers. Raul (aka Hummingbird 604) live-blogged the event.

The information was fantastic, and I thought it needed a wider audience. The full post from Raul is here, but the salient points are below.

Some of the primary objections to social media that traditional marketers have to social media include: 

1) “We already use social media” Complete misconception -  having a website or a facebook page is not participating in social media.  

2) Perceived as a tool for only the younger set. This is a misconception. Yes, MySpace was adopted by young music lovers. The over 35 demographic is the fastest growing sector of the users of Internet. Social networks for professionals are the fastest growing social media segment. 

3) Social media does not apply to me. Technorati and its State of the Blogosphere report stated that they have 133 million blogs in 36 countries. 100 million people on MySpace, 140 million people on Facebook, 20 million photos on Flickr. You have to join in the conversation, before you get left behind.

4) Social media as simply a fad. It’s got no long term/staying power. The case of Friendster is commonly cited as the example of social media being a fad. This is only one case, but the first blog is dated 1982 so it’s not a flash in the pan. If you don’t start using these new technologies NOW you, and more importantly, your business, risk getting left behind.

5) The need for transparency and the fear of losing control of your brand. Those that need to control every press release and make sure that what is being said meets the party line think that social media is too risky. Business owners who think that participation in social media makes you vulnerable and means that you lose control of your brand need to learn this is not the case. Participating in social media means that you actually get more control than you may have had previously - you can respond to any negative comments and move the discussion to your corporate blog.

6) The need for privacy. LinkedIn and Facebook have privacy settings. Set appropriate limits both in terms of who to add and what information you put out there. You control the content. Don’t put EVERYTHING if you feel that it may infringe on your privacy. Use these tools appropriately, understand that you’re in control, and limit your risk by using these technologies in the right way.

7) “Social Media is just fluff.”  People say that Facebook is just fluff - all those zombies and bunnies and garden patches! But the sheer volume of people using it, shows that there is relevance in it. There is a lot of fluff in TV but that doesn’t stop companies from spending billions in advertisements in these media. Your company can benefit from social media if you implement the tools appropriately.

“I don’t have time for social media”  This excuse allows people to negate doing something that they have to do. You can’t afford not to at least consider what your competition is doing with social media and to find out what you can do with social media. You can reach your customers more effectively through social media and by building community. Overall, a social media campaign costs less than a traditional campaign. You may need to hire someone to help you navigate the social media waters and to do it correctly, but that cost will only be a positive investment. 

9) “The only professional way of doing it is the traditional way.” Social media tends to be seen as either “for, or by amateurs”. Social media strategists are considered snake oil salesmen still. Social media is NOT only for amateurs, it’s not an appropriate comment at all. For people who only do traditional marketing, they should transfer the budget for those projects to social media for one month to see how it effects it.

10) “Show me the money. Where is the ROI (Return On Investment)”. There is a dearth of information (publicly available - what has been the return on investment in social media?). Wal-Mart episode - got bad marketing. Mazda did a similar thing. Despite their huge presence, they still had to lay off people and cut off costs. Social media-based marketing is not the end and be all, but it is a component that you can use in your marketing arsenal. Traditional marketing campaigns are even harder to measure in terms of ROI.

Mhairi’s main and central example on huge ROI for using social media - a UK company “ WigglyWigglers” that engaged in a great social media campaign. This is a gardening company. They have a podcast, YouTube channel, a blog, a newsletter and they use them actively to share information on the worms for gardening. The result: they now have over 40,000 podcast subscribers, 43,000 newsletter subscribers, more than 800 friends on Facebook, customers in New Zealand and North America, they’ve improved their Google Page Rank massively, online sales 50% of their total sales, and they’ve done this all with a 97% reduction in their advertising costs. That really proves the ROI on these technologies.

The bottom line is that traditional marketers can no longer ignore the benefits of social media. All the results attest to the fact that traditional, old-school marketers need to learn some of these tools, and harnessing these tools can only benefit you. 

Thousands of blogs all around the world are using today to blog about poverty and work with BlogActionDay to help change the conversation. Social media, and it’s ease of use, from anyone with a state-of-the-art laptop to a cell phone to a desktop from the early IBM days can create a blog, twitter, use Facebook or MySpace.

Social media, no matter how you access it or how you use it, is about the conversation and more so, it’s about the connection and the relationship you form with others. Social media doesn’t recognize financial boundaries or constraints.

(image source: uncultured)

I’ve looked at other ways social media is being used for social causes, to fundraise, raise awareness for causes etc, and Blog Action Day is just another one of those causes. By gathering 12,000+ of the most talkative, prolific, and influential bloggers together to talk about one topic, we are able to make a difference.

I tried long and hard to come up with a way to connect Blog Action Day & the topic, Poverty, to Social Media. Sure, there are blogs out there like the Union Gossip Mission’s, there are Twitter streams like Safe and Well from the Red Cross, but I kept coming back to the fact that in and of itself, by it’s very existence, Blog Action Day is affecting poverty through social media.

One issue, Thousands of Voices

Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently. [source]

(image source: babsteve)

Blog Action Day has put together a list of 88 different things you can do right now to help solve poverty in your neighborhood. Take a look through, add your own thoughts to the list and maybe just try one or two this week. You don’t have to do a lot. Just do something.

Also, Share this list everywhere - Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Mixx, Twitter, the bus, the train, the plane, the street, the dinner table, the pulpit, the classroom, the boardroom, the bedroom, etc. We mean everwhere. It’s called blog ACTION day, not just another day to blog.

88 Ways to Take Action Against Poverty Right Now
I’ve chosen to do the “sponsor me” day.  Today, and for the rest of October, pledge any amount of money, even a dollar, and I’ll match your donation and donate the total to Kiva to help with wells, water cleanliness or food. Comment on this post, or on the BuzzNetworker Blog Action Day page and let me know you’d like to donate. I’ll email you separately and provide you with the Paypal information. I’ll update your name and link on the Blog Action Page upon receipt and at the end of the month will announce the total raised.

What are you going to do? Did you participate in Blog Action Day? Do you want your link to be on the BuzzNetworker Blog Action Day page?  Drop me a line or leave a comment on this post.

We just had a (somewhat pointless) federal election in Canada yesterday. There’s generally supposed to be a blackout ban on televising or broadcasting the results  until all of the polls across the country are closed. Because of our geographic spread, polls in Newfoundland closed more than 3 hours before those in Vancouver had. In fact, when the polls closed in Newfoundland, I still hadn’t voted in Vancouver.

The CBC is reporting today that the broadcast blackout was “broken” by the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Canadians with an internet connection were among those who could find their way around that particular election rule Tuesday night.

Several blogs and social networking sites that are available across the country posted comments and information about results in Eastern Canada while voters in western regions were still heading to the polls.

And satellite TV beamed Atlantic Canada’s results to the West well before the law permits.

Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act bans the transmission of election results from any electoral district where polls have closed to districts where the polls are still open. [source]

CBC reporter Susan Ormistan, who was tracking the election results, said that while it was expected that social networking sites would break Section 329, there was nothing done to counter that.

Canada is going to have to look at this “new technology” in time for the next election to prevent this from happening again, or it’s going to need to look at that Section and see how it can be updated. And the States, with their upcoming Federal election, better have a good idea on how to handle this too.  (image source, screenshot by me)

This is a follow-up post for the presentation Lisa Thomas-Tench gave this evening at Net Tuesday. Lisa has worked with community and capacity building organizations around the world and traveled to Africa last year to build schools and work in the communities.

The main thing that Lisa wanted to make sure came across during her presentation was that online supportive international projects are subject to the same challenges as standard, off-line charitable donations. Many people don’t realize this, and tend to assume that because it’s online, it’s going to be easier.

There is an absolute explosion of social networking for social causes type sites out there now, so it’s more important than ever to do your research to find out exactly where it is your money is going.

Like our mantra in social networking, make sure the organization you’re donating to is transparent. It’s vital to make sure that the right people are getting the right funds so that your donation has the right impact. You want to know how much of the organization’s donations (on or offline) are going to marketing, salaries, administration and other expenses, and how much are going to the actual projects and the people running or participating in those projects.

Be aware when you’re looking for a project to support, that you find one that supports local capacity building and has strong, two-way communication. Some projects can do both capacity building and two-way communication if they’re done well.   (image sources: Lisa Thomas-Tench)

Alberto Masetti-Zannini argues that participation mechanisms are key: “NGOs have struggled for a long time to build effective participation mechanisms in the developing world. Relevant and correct information from the bottom of the development pyramid is necessary to make knowledgeable decisions about their work.”

But, Alberto is optimistic: “Indeed, Web 2.0 tools are beginning to change this situation, by generating and disseminating local content and knowledge in an open, shared structure. But are NGOs adopting these new technologies in their knowledge management practices?”

Lisa has a few tips to share with people interested in how best to spend their online fundraising dollars:

• Keep it small by using sites like Dreambank
• Keep it personal. Micro loans from sites like Kiva keep your donation personal, and goes directly to the people you’re trying to help.
• Research and take your time before you donate. All of the projects need to have the backing of an actual charity. You can’t just throw up a project and get people to give you money. Look at sites like Give Meaning to help you find worthy projects.

There are several ways that social networking and Web 2.0 tools are helping to spread awareness, raise funds, and share knowledge.

• William Kamkwamba has a windmill blog here. My first thought was “what’s a windmill blog??”, but was soon completely impressed by the “About” page:

Starting at 14, rather than accept his fate, William started borrowing books from a small community lending library located at his former primary school. He borrowed a 5th grade American textbook called Using Energy, which depicted a wind turbine on its cover. He decided to build a windmill to power his family’s home and obviate the need for kerosene, which provided only smoky, flickering, distant and expensive light after dark. First he built a prototype, then his initial 5-meter windmill out of a broken bicycle, tractor fan blade, old shock absorber, and blue gum trees. He was able to power four light bulbs and two radios, and charge neighbors’ mobile phones. He then rebuilt a 12 meter windmill to better catch the wind above the trees, and added a car battery for storage, as well as homemade light switches and circuit breakers.

You can help William’s education and engineering projects with a secure donation via PayPal. Through a generous donor’s matching grant, contributions of $100 or more will be doubled! Payments appear as Griot Digital, LLC

• There are several sites dedicated to sharing knowledge, including: Knowledge Management for Development, Web2ForDev, and Development through Dialogue.  
• Share information via SMS and online tools with sites like TradeNet.biz. The goal of TradeNet.biz is to create a platform where farmers and traders across the world can share market information via mobile networks and the web.
• Crowdsource crisis information - who better to tell you what’s going on during a crisis than somene involved?

  Ushahidi, which means ”testimony” in Swahili, is a website that was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi’s roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis.The new Ushahidi Engine is being created to use the lessons learned from Kenya to create a platform that allows anyone around the world to set up their own way to gather reports by mobile phone, email and the web - and map them. It is being built so that it can grow with the changing environment of the web, and to work with other websites and online tools.

Are there any tools you’ve used in the past that we’ve missed?

Finally, a wrap up in images:

BlogWorld Expo Banner

Tessa & Stu of ideablob

Jeremy Tanner rockin’ the ideablob shirt

Ezra, never too cool for ideablob.

Julie from b5media sporting a lovely ideablob putty necklace!

BLOB DOWN!!