NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoupGlobal.org blogs

Welcome Elijah van der Giessen to the NetSquared Team

Marc Manashil — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:37:36 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Elijah van der Giessen who is starting this week as a contractor on the NetSquared community team!

Eli will be working with Anna Kuliberda and I over the next 90 days to assist with a variety of NetSquared community engagement activities. As part of this work, he will be providing day-to-day support to NetSquared Local groups formerly covered by Claire Sale in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Anna Kuliberda will remain the point of contact for all NetSquared Local groups in Europe.

Eli is an event and volunteer organizer extraordinaire who brings terrific online engagement skills. He has been a NetSquared Local organizer in Vancover, BC, Canada for the past three years and is a star member of our Global Leadership Council.

Before starting this gig with NetSquared, Eli served as Creative Services Lead at the David Suzuki Foundation where he led the online acquisition and outreach work that has helped the foundation build an online constituency.

If you’d like to learn more about Eli and the amazing work he’s done, a great place to start is the Vancover NetSquared page.

I’m incredibly excited that Eli is working with us, so I hope you will join me in welcoming him to his new assignment at NetSquared.

Houston NetSquared Learns the Big Secret to Using Social Media for Successful Events!

sarahmworthy — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:56:43 +0000

According to a recent survey by Constant Contact, 77% of event marketers from small businesses and nonprofit organizations use social media as a complement to their event marketing. The survey cited the top 2 reasons for using social media in conjunction with events were to attract new attendees and to reach past attendees with the overall goal being to increase awareness and attendance at events.

At the May Houston NetSquared meet-up, Wesley Faulkner shared ideas and actionable takeaways for integrating social media with your event marketing strategy. If you are like most nonprofits or small to mid-sized organizations, you may just want to keep reading how to increase awareness and registrations at your upcoming events...

The Big Secret

Wesley saved his Big Secret for event marketing success for the end of the evening's meeting last Tuesday - so I won't make you wait any longer to learn it in case you missed the meet-up:

"No event is ever really a failure unless you think it was."

As event marketers, we all want to say our event sold out, our attendees had the best time ever and we exceeded our Fundraising goal from sponsors and donors. Let's call it a Perfect Event when an event accomplishes all 3 of these objectives:

Sold Out
Amazing Attendee Experience
Exceeded Fundraising Goals

Perfect Events are extremely rare for nonprofit organizations. When you are a nonprofit planning an event with little to no budget, a small staff, and limited resources - chances are you are more worried about whether anyone will even show up than if you manage to pull off a Perfect Event.

What if No One Shows Up?

Hopefully, none of you have had to ask that question before an event - and I'm guessing there are more of you reading this that have had than anyone would guess. Generally, events work out and Perfect Events are rare but successful events are not rare when you put a little effort and planning into the details.

Wesley gave great advice for those events when "no one shows up" - I put that in quotes because I don't think most of us have had a true zero attendance for an event. If you've had an experience like that - leave a comment and share why you think it happened so we can learn from it. If you end up with one of those events with few attendees, the key is to remain flexible and use the lower than expected attendance numbers as an opportunity to give those attendees the best experience ever.

"Not all events are a success; that's the one thing you can’t control."

If you throw a party and only 4 people show up, take photos, create an atmosphere online and more importantly, offline for those 4 people. You have far more resources per person to give them a great time than you would if 100 people were there so make use of it to give those people the best event experience ever.

Social media gives you the chance to show how awesome your event was, regardless of how many people were there by providing you so many different channels and ways to send your stories: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Use social media and this advice to implement Wesley's Big Secret so that none of your events will ever be failures.

Now that I've shared Wesley's big secret from Houston Netsquared, let's talk about the real guts of his presentation and how you can increase your event marketing to get closer to having more Perfect Events by using social media.

Different Strategies for Different Types of Events

Wesley recommends identifying which category your event falls into to first determine the best social media marketing strategy to use from three event types:

Traditional Events
Social Media Based Events
MultiFaceted Events

Each of these different event types will have different end goals for determining if they are a success. You'll also typically find the events have very different implementation strategies, budgets, and audience sizes.

Traditional Events

Traditional events include events that have been around for a while and are usually an annual fundraising activity. Wesley shared ways he's helped traditional events integrate social media into their events to make it easy and build awareness of the organization's cause in addition to helping attract new participants. Wesley states that "Events give people the opportunity to experience the struggle that you are going through to get to the finish line."

Find ways your attendees can share their accomplishments at each milestone during the event to enhance your social media marketing and event marketing campaigns. Wesley uses the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure as an example of how to include social media with the teams during the race itself to give the team opportunities to share their experience on social media channels. His team was taking photos at each mile marker and sharing with their online communities as they went through the race.

Another option you can try is to create Foursquare locations at each mile marker. Then encourage your attendees to "Check-In" on Foursquare. Then, use Wesley's suggestion to offer messages at each mile with words of encouragement or a funny message on Foursquare so when they check-in, they receive a boost. Nonprofit organizations use these special events to raise money and the key is to get your donors personally involved when you plan your next event.

Think of ways to give people an experience and then, add the social media element by thinking of ways to make that experience share-able online.

Social Media Based Events

Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have inspired fundraising and cause awareness events for nonprofits like Twestivals and Foursquare Day. These events are very different in that they typically aren't planned in advance by a nonprofit organization. Instead, people who are active in their local communities and on social media sites online come together and organize the event.

Nonprofit event organizers should try and see the perspective that the people participating in social media based events are using their money as a "ballot" they give by attending events they've learned about on their social networks. Unlike traditional events where you are trying to make your event share-able online, social media based events begin online and the key to success is to take the online excitement and buzz offline and in a format where people will come out and "vote" for your cause.

This requires your organization to first be online and simple to communicate with. Wesley suggests you regularly look at who is following you on twitter and Facebook that are truly passionate about your cause and engaging online with you. Reach out to these "Superhero Volunteers" online and ask them to help organize and promote your next social media based event.

Multifaceted Events

These events are harder to describe because they take on so many forms. In fact the branding and purpose can differ dramatically depending on who you ask at the event. Large conferences like SXSW and Love Austin Week span multiple days and locations, and managing these requires an ability to reach a point and then just let them run. Some of these events will take on multiple themes and some events, like Movember, will span multiple cities and countries.

To make the best use of social media to promote multifaceted events, Wesley says "Go Nuts!" and find ways to get everyone involved and having fun online and offline. The best way to get people involved is to find ways to personalize the experience each attendee has at the event. For example, one event Wesley helped organize hired an artist who did charicatures of attendees for their t-shirts.

Here are a few more ideas that can help you personalize your event:

Personalize cupcakes, cookies, and other sweets for each participant
Come up with a signature cocktail for the event
Create a website just for your event
Offer customizable swag bags that your attendees can select items for before the event
Include Online Participants by sharing their tweets and offering event videos and photos on your website
Rent a photo booth or hire a photographer and send attendees home with a photograph in a frame highlighting your event

Succeeding in the Social Economy

I want to conclude my wrap-up with Wesley's words of wisdom to keep in mind when you are venturing out into social media.

1) The social economy doesn't use the same exchange that we do at a merchant level... Give before you ask and be mindful of your social withdrawals.

2) You have to sometimes have a team member or partner who helps you get to the next step - Don't feel like you have to go it alone and you'll go further when you combine resources. This is particularly true when you are combining social media channels to promote your event.

3) Be like-able and make it easy for people to find you and talk to you! I want to thank Wesley for a great presentation that gave tons of helpful ways to make your events more successful with social media marketing.

You can find Wesley's slides from his presentation here - Social Media and Events: An Evolution.

We want to give a huge thank you to our sponsor Tendenci, the open source CMS for NonProfit Websites for the food, drinks and photos from our meetup: Tendenci Photos Album.

Connect with Wesley Faulkner online:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/wesley83

Blog: http://wesleyfaulkner.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley83

Join Houston NetSquared in June

Find out the details for future meet-ups on the Houston NetSquared Meet-up page and RSVP for our next meeting. Please "Like" Houston NetSquared on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Net2Houston and share the meetup with your Tech and NonProfit Friends!

Photographer sues AFP for 120 million US Dollars over photos taken from Twitter

Timo Luege — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:23:15 +0000

A photographer is suing AFP and Getty Images for 120 million US Dollars over photos that he had taken in Haiti after the earthquake and which he had shared on Twitter.

I find it remarkable that this story doesn’t get more attention because it shows just how much trouble you can get into if you take photos from social media platforms without making sure that you have the necessary rights.

I know a lot of organization who don't take copyright too serious - this case shows why you should!

http://sm4good.com/2012/05/14/photographer-sues-afp-120-million-twitterp...

Human-Centered Design Can Save Lives

Bari — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:11:15 +0000

Designing an appealing brand of hand soap typically might not follow the same process as designing a solution to a life-threatening, global health problem would. So it’s not often that I discover processes used for designing consumer products that are also well-suited to solving complex social problems.

Design Thinking may be one of the few exceptions.

TechSoup’s Glenn Fajardo was recently in Malaysia and had a chance to speak with the organizers of the *Weekend who use Design Thinking in their weekend events to create innovative solutions to social problems.

Here are a couple of impressive examples of Design Thinking actually saving lives:

Reused syringes kill 1.3 million people each year by spreading viruses such as AIDS -- Imagine a syringe that is designed to lock and break if someone attempts to reuse it after the first full plunge. Learn more.
4 million low-birthweight babies die within the first 28 days of life due to lack of affordable incubators (to regulate body temperature) -- Imagine a cheap, portable incubator that is designed to be used in remote areas and costs less than 1% of the typical $20,000 one. Learn more.

Inspired by the work of global innovation and design firm IDEO and taught at Stanford University’s d.school, Design Thinking has its roots in the business sector, but it is increasingly used by non-profit organizations for tackling tough social problems.

According to the folks over at IDEO:

The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps. There are three spaces to keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Think of inspiration as the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions; ideation as the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas; and implementation as the path that leads from the project stage into people's lives.

Let’s take a deeper look at each of these spaces.

Inspiration -- As the foundational step in the design thinking process, it is critical to observe and understand the people (users) for whom you are designing. This is accomplished by empathizing (observe, engage, immerse) with users and their behaviour in the context of their lives in a real-world setting. An example may be to live amongst a community in rural India to fully immerse and empathize with the potential users of an affordable incubator blanket.

Ideation -- Yes, this is about generating ideas, and lots of them. Divergent thinking is encouraged to create disruptive solutions that will prove beneficial in the long-term. Bringing in multidisciplinary teams, valuing their diversity and practicing radical collaboration is key to successful ideation. Powers of Ten is an example of an ideation mode that increases or decreases the magnitude of the problem by asking questions like “What if it cost more than a million dollars to implement?” or “less than a dollar?”

Implementation -- In this phase explorations and ideas are used to create the final product or service. There are two key elements to implementation:

Prototyping -- getting ideas and explorations out of your head and into the physical world. Post-its, storyboards, or a role-playing game are all great examples. Prototyping works best when done interactively to obtain more empathy for users.
Testing -- typically done with a small, carefully selected sample set of users. The goals are to learn more about users and refine the prototypes, solutions, even the initial problem framing itself.

All sounds simple right? It’s actually a pretty detailed and intensive process. But all that effort can be well worth the amazing and revolutionary possibilities.

What IS simple -- and brilliant -- is that whether it is used in the business or social innovation context, Design Thinking is at its core, human-centered. And it is not just the products or services produced that are human-centered, but the process itself.

Are you interested in learning more and applying Design Thinking concepts and processes in your work?

Here are some resources to get you started:

The Human-Centered Design (HCD) Toolkit (Free, but requires registering)
Stanford University’s d.school BootCamp Bootleg
d.school’s Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking
Ideo.org (more great examples of social applications of Design Thinkng)

Image source: Stanford University - http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu

4 Ways To Use Pinterest To Encourage Corporate Volunteerism

causecast — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:21:17 +0000

Lets face it; it’s hard to look away from Pinterest. The hottest new social media site has become a go-to source for the latest shopping tips, design advice and funny dog pictures. Who wouldn’t want to sit there all day and stare?

As Pinterest fans are discovering through the growing legion of companies that are marketing and selling products via the site, Pinterest also has great commerce potential. Nordstrom, Real Simple, Fresh Direct and even Major League Baseball, for example, have all developed active pages that encourage user interactivity.

But to take full advantage of Pinterest's possibilities, businesses should also be thinking about the site as a way to highlight their philanthropic endeavors and promote corporate volunteerism. In so doing, companies can increase employee participation in volunteer and giving programs and earn the goodwill of other Pinterest users and potential customers.

How does Pinterest work as a tool for employee volunteer promotion?

Unlike Twitter and Facebook, images are key to Pinterest. This means that in order to successfully promote and encourage volunteering efforts, photos must be at the forefront of the initiative. Pinterest-interested businesses should thus encourage employees to take photos while they volunteer; use pictures in company handbooks to explain the company’s volunteering opportunities; and keep extra snapshots available so there is content in reserve to regularly update the Pinterest page.

Need more reasons to start "pinning" your corporate social responsibility initiatives? Here are four other ways that Pinterest can promote corporate volunteerism:

1. Motivation

Employees often just need a trigger to pick up a cause, and sometimes this motivation comes from seeing others engaged in positive work. That’s why showing good work in action - or the results of that good work - can easily inspire others to do likewise. And don’t forget the potential of food for thought pieces; just posting motivational quotes can encourage employees to start volunteering.

2. Support

Pinterest offers a compelling way to support those who are already volunteering. Say that one of your employees wants to raise funds for a particular nonprofit; why not post information about their mission on the company Pinterest page? Sharing these sorts of visual updates could encourage company-wide support while inspiring others to start their own fundraisers. Combine that with a company match of some sort and you've got a great way to help your employee reach his or her goal as fast as possible.

3. Engagement

Gamification is a hot buzzword these days, and when this sort of competition is applied to corporate volunteer programs it can generate significant employee engagement. Through the use of solutions like Causecast's Employee Impact Platform, companies can develop entire volunteer campaigns around a competitive goal, like prizes for those who raise the most funds. In this case, participants can use Pinterest as another tool to post updates about their progress and efforts. For instance, seeing Dan next to a photo of 100 canned foods may motivate Sue to bring in 110 the next day. With a prize that encourages participation, seeing the frontrunner in photos can go a long way towards firing up the competitive juices of other employees.

4. Interaction

With visuals featured so prominently, Pinterest can also be used as a way to interact with employees around volunteering. A picture speaks a thousand words, so posting a photo of an animal shelter set to close down and asking how co-workers can help could lead to active brainstorming. Once ideas get rolling, who knows what's possible? A charity drive may come together, or a Saturday for employee volunteering may form. But planting the seed can offer tremendous results, with little cost.

Besides the obvious goodwill generated, the final outcome of all of these ideas can be to create fantastic content for your company’s Pinterest page. And if Pinterest is used as a vehicle to promote your overall corporate volunteering efforts, these compelling photos and interactions can bode well for your company's employee engagement levels.

So the next time you plan a company volunteer outing, just remember to “Pin it.”

Vodafone xone™ AI Hackathon

DLPRSF — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:40:07 +0000

Vodafone xone™ Hackathon Challenges Developers and Entrepreneurs to Build a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Powered Apps

Vodafone xoneTM, in collaboration with one of its incubating start-up partners, Expertmaker, is hosting a ground-breaking developer hackathon event - Vodafone xone™ AI Hackathon. The event is focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics for developers and entrepreneurs to tackle the issue of content and information overload on mobile devices. This challenge will take place June 8-11 at the Vodafone xone incubation facility in Redwood City, CA.

“AI powered apps can change the way people consume content and information on their mobile devices,” said Fay Arjomandi, Head of Vodafone xone. “We invite developers to Vodafone xone to stretch their knowledge about the latest in AI, analytics and business intelligence and build an intelligent app or web solution.”

“Our goal is to ignite an AI revolution. We packaged a lot of advanced technology into a simple to use platform that anyone can use to build AI powered apps,” said Lars Hard, CTO and Founder of Expertmaker. “We’re excited to share this tool with the developer community in Silicon Valley and look forward to the solutions they will create in just a weekend!”

Each participating team will present their solutions during the Hackathon, with cash prizes going to the top three winners. All participants will receive a free Expertmaker license for one year (SaaS). Participants are encouraged to sign up before May 25. More details and event registration can be found at http://expertmaker.com/partners/vodafoneaichallenge/.

Vodafone xone™ is the incubation center of Vodafone, one of the largest global mobile operators. Based in Silicon Valley, Vodafone xone™ offers onsite development, integration, and investment support. Vodafone xone’s objective is to fast track the path to market for new innovative products and services for our customers worldwide. We take pride in our dedication to operate with speed, simplicity, and trust. Learn more at:
http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/about/xone.html.

About Expertmaker
Expertmaker is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software company. We offer a platform for developers to build intelligent apps and handle big data analytics. For more information, please visit www.expertmaker.com .

WHEN: June 8 – 11, 2012.

Registration and team formation: June 8 at 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Hackathon at Vodafone xone™: June 9 & 10 - 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Hackathon complete: June 10 at 9:00 PM
Mixer and App Presentations: June 11 - 5:00 to 8:00 PM

WHERE

Vodafone xone: 275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 400, Redwood City, CA 94065, (650) 400-9540

TechSoup Webinar: Creating Effective Reports with Crystal Reports 2011

Alicja Peszkowska — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:25:03 +0000

Do you need a clear and engaging report to share with your board, funders, or community? Join our webinar Creating Effective Reports on May 10 at 11 a.m. Pacific time to find out how SAP's Crystal Reports 2011 provides effective reporting solutions.

Crystal Reports reporting software allows you to create interactive reports via the web or embedded in enterprise applications.In this webinar, SAP's Jaclyn Churcher and Kenneth Li will walk you through the ins and outs of Crystal Reports 2011, including a discussion of mapping and visualization functions.

Do you have specific questions about Crystal Reports 2011 that you would like to see addressed in the webinar?

Email khunt@techsoupglobal.org

Details:

Date: Thursday, May 10
Time: 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern)
Topic: Creating Effective Reports with Crystal Reports
Register: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/qikudovtb9e0

TechSoup Webinar Tomorrow: Jump Start Your Grant Seeking

Alicja Peszkowska — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:27:22 +0000

Jeremy Smith, GrantStation's communications and technology director, will provide a short tour of the GrantStation website.

He will also talk about how a GrantStation membership can provide you with full access to the website, including a searchable database of thousands of private, corporate, and international grantmakers, as well as a list of current federal grant programs.

The tour will also include a sneak peek of Grants2020, a newly developed tool to help you build an effective grants strategy for years to come.

Also, check out TechSoup's GrantStation promo, scheduled for May 8 and 9.

Details:

Date: Thursday, May 3
Time: 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern)
Topic: Jump Start Your Grant Seeking
Register: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/wzt1gp7r92tj

Just The Beginning. Fundacja TechSoup at the SHARE Conference in Belgrade

Alicja Peszkowska — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:51:07 +0000

On Sunday early in the morning the festival that I previously promoted on the Netsquared blog came to an end. SHARE brought together activists, new media artists and Internet/ tech organizations representatives. We shared knowledge, experience and fun. We shared them by day (in the Dom Omladine aulas), and by night (in Belgrade night clubs). According to the organizers there is a theory that an event becomes a festival when its agenda is too rich to handle. That definitely is the SHARE case. When there is so much to do and see, everyone’s path through the program ends up being a little bit different. Hence, My SHARE was probably not what it was for anyone else. For me, it was a great introduction to the Balkans exciting tech scene.

As one of the biggest and most popular regional conferences SHARE was a great opportunity to meet and talk to tech activists and NGOs in the region. This is what Anka and I wanted, and for a good reason. This upcoming fall, TechSoup Europe (Fundacja TechSoup), together with the US State Department, is going to organize a TechCamp for 6 Balkan countries: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia.The camp will focus on transparency and accountability in public life, and how technology can drive and promote them. We are currently looking for regional NGO partners, potential speakers, and trying to identify key topics that should be investigated during this regional meetup.
Last week we tried to understand what has been already happening in the regional accountability work, as well as the problems that Balkan organizations are facing. We wanted to make sure that the TechCamp concept resonates with the potential participants and organizers. We wanted to make sure that we know what is worth talking about, and who should we talk about it to.

A more detailed report from the trip will be coming up soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime I will try to embrace what I have learned. I'll read an “Almanac on Security Sector Oversight in the Western Balkans”, and “Institutions abused” -- two books I brought back from the trip. I will also subscribe to Bturn, an alternative media outlet for Balkans. For now I just want to thank the SHARE conference organizers, as well as everyone who we managed to meet and talked to. Hopefully “something wicked this way comes”. You know, Boston style. Stay tuned!

The 100 Day Challenge, Day 10: NetSquared Vision

Marc Manashil — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:48:47 +0000

In her post last week, Laney Strange introduced the NetSquared 100 Day Challenge -- a set of six commitments we’ve made to our Global Leadership Council (GLC) and the NetSquared community that will move our work forward in a big way. Today on day 10, I’m pleased to report significant progress on Challenge #1: NetSquared Vision.

The NetSquared Vision: Clarity and Purpose

The goal of challenge #1 is, quite simply, to clarify the vision of NetSquared. Our recent listening activities and discussions with GLC members surfaced the difficulties that many organizers face in explaining the work of NetSquared to their colleagues and prospective constituents. In the words of one of our GLC members, “people just don’t get it.”

In response, we’ve challenged ourselves to construct a clear and compelling vision statement that Net2 Local organizers can use to recruit and engage their members and partners. Our team Director and TechSoup Global Vice President, Billy Bicket, took the first step by drafting the following statement. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

Our vision for NetSquared is to make it easy, meaningful, and fun for people and organizations to get the information, visibility and support they need to accelerate the impact of social-benefit projects.
Here's what we do to bring the vision to life:
+ Showcasing social-benefit work through Net2 Media.
We surface and organize the work happening at the intersection of technology and social change through media channels including the NetSquared community blog, the new Net2 project galleries, as well as social media platforms like twitter, facebook, linkedin.
+ Supporting local communities. NetSquared Meetups:
We facilitate the work of 50+ local organizers around the world by helping them convene face-to-face monthly events. We help local leaders grow and strengthen their local groups by making community connections to the NetSquared community of practice, funding resources, technical volunteers and the materials they need to make delivering NetSquared Local programming easy and fun.
+ Harnessing Open Innovation.
Over the last five years, NetSquared has distributed >$500k in cash-prizes via our open grant-making process to more than 100 NetSquared Featured Projects. Today, community actors have published over 1,000 social-change projects in NetSquared's Global Project Gallery. Read more about some of the projects here.
+ Unleashing Human Capital.
We connect the business and technical expertise of our corporate volunteer networks with people seeking out new tools, strategies and tactics to accelerate the work of their local projects. Learn more about this emerging program here.
II. Here's What We Do To Encourage Sharing, Connections & Collaborations:
Sharing:
We encourage people to share what they are working on via dailybits (# of dailybits)
We encourage people to participate at face-to-face events (# of events + # of participants + event ratings + organizer ratings)
We encourage people to share what they are working on via publishing their projects to our platform (# of shared items)
Connections:
We make it easy and fun to connect with one another via introductions and the new Net2 platform (# of connections)
We introduce featured projects to funders interested in learning about innovative ideas bubbling up in the field (# of connections to resources)
We connect featured projects to mentors interested in contributing their business and technical expertise to projects they care about (# of connections to human capital)
We encourage people to refer their friends and favorites to tell us what they're working on and to submit project ideas (# of referrals)
Collaborations:
We work with other networks to highlight the work of people working at the intersection of tech and civil society (# of x-network referrals)
We work with CSR groups interested in extending the reach and impact of their CSR programs (# of CSR Partner Connections)
We work with government agencies to organize face-to-face events that bring together technologists and social-benefit sector actors (# of multi-stakeholder partnerships)
III. Reporting. Here’s How Content & Community Teams @ CDI Will Be Expected To Measure The Impact Of Their Work Day-to-Day:
# of projects submitted from the TSG communities I serve every month
# of connections made in the communities I serve every month
# of hours + cash + products unleashed towards the communities I serve every month
# of dailybits published from the communities I serve every monthSo What Do You Think?

So What Do You Think?

Is this vision statement clear? Is it compelling? What might help us clarify the vision based on what you know about NetSquared? Please share your comments below and @MarcManashil.

Based on your comments and those received from the Global Leadership Council, we’ll produce a final version to be included on our website and all major NetSquared communications materials. And we’ll keep you posted every step of the way.