Dharmafly

OpenFreecycle won at OpenHackLondon!

Premasagar — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:20:35 +0000

Streuth. Hot on the heels of last week’s UnLtdWorld award, I was amazed to experience the web application that I created with Tom Leitch being awarded the top two prizes Yahoo’s OpenHackLondon. And this, after winning a prize with ‘HackHUD‘ at the previous Hack Day London, two years earlier (the famous one, when it rained inside Alexandra Palace).

OpenHackLondon is an opportunity for web developers and programmers to get together, to collaborate and experiment with new ideas in technology. The focus is a 24-hour (overnight) hacking challenge, with a two-minute demo by each team, and prizes in several categories.

OpenFreecycle

Our entry was OpenFreecycle - an itch that I’d been wanting to scratch for a couple of years. This was an attempt to make community sharing of free, unwanted items much more easy and accessible. Sort of like eBay, but for free.

Our two-minute presentation to the crowd

There are around 10,000 local “Freecycle” mailing lists (all of them are hosted on Yahoo Groups). They offer an extremely useful service: a way for people to offer or find unwanted items amongst their local community. Got a spare mattress? Put it on Freecycle. Need a chest of drawers? Find one on Freecycle.

The Problem: Closed

The system, however, is far from ideal. Each group is initially private and closed. You need to request membership and await approval for each group before you can see what’s available. Prospective browsing in neighbouring groups becomes a painful task.

Over 10,000 Freecycle mailing lists on Yahoo Groups

And then there are the emails - hundreds in your inbox every day. And, because each group is just a plain and simple, private email list, there is no way to expose all that interesting content to other places on the web. That is, until now…

The Solution: Open

A simple, searchable, open system, with the option to subscribe to feeds for specific search terms in specific area (e.g. ‘baby’ in Leeds), the possibility to subscribe to alert notifications for specific items and the ability to integrate all this content around the web, for example with Greasemonkey in shopping sites, to inform you when an item is available for free in your local area:

A mockup for OpenFreecycle integration into eBay, via Greasemonkey

What we built was a rough proof-of-concept. It only handles the Leeds group - and very simplistically, at that - but it gives an idea of what is possible when you start to open up data.

(Of course, there are merits in selected aspects of the system being closed, or guarded - e.g. in protecting user’s contact details, and the ability to identify potential exploiters, such as tradesmen scooping up everyone’s free offerings. These need to be preserved, for the health of the community.)

How we did it

Here are the slides from our demo:

We used the Yahoo Mail API (via PHP) to log into a subscribing mailbox, then converted the emails to Atom feeds (with Perl), imported these into Yahoo Pipes and performed geo-location, term-extraction and some other bits and bobs, drilled down into the resultant feeds with YQL and then presented the lot using the Google Static Maps API and a smattering of jQuery. Voilà!

We Won the Double!

Moment of glee

OpenFreecycle won both the “Hackers’ Choice” prize, as voted by the 300 participants, as well as the “Best In Show” prize, unanimously awarded by the competition judges:

David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo
Tim O’Donoghue, vice-president of engineering at Yahoo
Sophie Major, head of international at the Yahoo Developer Network
Pascal Finette, Mozilla Europe
Matt Biddulph, co-founder of Dopplr
Daniel Ek, co-founder of Spotify

Check out the other winners and all the Hack Day entries - there are some ingenius little gems to be seen.

Whatever Next?

Take OpenFreecycle for a spin. Have you got any ideas? How would you improve the experience of local sharing?

We Won a Bric!

Premasagar — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:06:58 +0000

The BRIC award - photo by Jane Middlehurst

At last week’s beautiful UnLtdWorld first birthday gathering, I was honoured to collect a shiny BRIC award, for “using technology for social good in the most creative and innovative way”.

Thank you to everyone who voted for Dharmafly, and to all who have supported us in the last 2 years.

There were five award categories, with an array of nominees, each of them involved in the finest of projects. Although UnLtdWorld is an online social network (it brings together those with an interest in positive social change), it was a particularly rich experience to meet in person so many passionate and focussed individuals. And there is a growing number of meetups in this area, such as Social Innovation Camp, the Shine Unconference and 2gether.

Felix Gonzales produced this video:
(please excuse my slightly gushy, tongue-tied jabbering - I must have been having a rush)…

And here it is on my desk, as promised:

Update: And another very special, double award was received over the weekend. More on that ~~later today~~ ~~very soon~~ right here…

Nominated for an UnLtdWorld BRIC Award

Premasagar — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:05:17 +0000

Dharmafly are chuffed to have been nominated for a BRIC award with UnLtdWorld, the social network for social entrepreneurs. ~~You can vote with your feet (erm, your mouse) right here.~~

Since its launch, one year ago, UnLtdWorld has gone from strength to strength as a platform for collaboration, helping people to work together for social change. We’re listed in the Digital Award category, for those “using technology for social good in the most creative and innovative way”:

The BRIC Awards aim to recognise the most active, inspiring and original members of UnLtdWorld, as voted for by its community.

They encapsulate what UnLtdWorld stands for: Business, Resources, Insight and Community - and members selected as nominees reflect a well-rounded approach to those elements.

Voting ends Friday 24th April, 5pm (UK time), and the winners will be announced at UnLtdWorld’s first birthday celebration, on May 5th.

Twitter – The Simplest Little Big Complicated Website in the World

Leif Kendall — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:05:55 +0000

Twitter: What it is, why you need it, and how you can use it to change your world

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a website that lets visitors write short messages (limited to 140 characters) that answer the perennial question: What are you doing?

Twitter began as a way for employees to communicate within organisations, but gradually expanded as a way for friends, colleagues and contacts to share their news, thoughts and interesting discoveries with each other.

If you want to have a conversation online, you might use email or instant messaging. But if you want other people to ‘overhear’ your conversation, allowing them to join in, then Twitter is the perfect medium.

Twitter is becoming an inspirational source of connections, helping like-minded people unite for social change, good causes and business shenanigans.

Why should you use Twitter?

At first glance, Twitter might appear to be a hyperactive torrent of random thoughts. But it’s much more than that. You can use Twitter to do many things, including:

Let colleagues and clients get to know you as a person
Open communication channels between your organisation and the public
Demonstrate your intelligence/wit/charm/(insert good quality here)
Find new partners, volunteers, members and clients

Why do other people use Twitter?

We asked these questions…

@leifkendall Asking: Why do YOU use Twitter? Why?! #
@premasagar Doing a little research… Tell me, why do YOU use Twitter? #

…which very quickly led to these responses (and more):

@mattlambert Hi Leif - twitter is human moderated search, I get to find stuff I didn’t even know I wanted. Plus, a personal radio #
@helenbaker I use Twitter in the hope of learning something new! I like the trying-to-be-useful Tweets, not the tells-me-nothing ones. #
@TraceyDooley First it was curiosity. Then it was an addiction. Now I intend to build good relations (I hope!) with people AND poss clients #
@ThirdSectorLab I use twitter to learn from all the knowledgable people in the twittersphere and [hopefully] to contribute as well. #
@eggboxrobin Would love to help, but can’t say why I use Twitter in 140 chars! To stay informed, meet new interesting peeps, feel connected.. #
@catherinepope I use Twitter in lieu of real colleagues. The virtual variety is much easier to filter out! #
@theanxy Staying close to people, sharing information easier and faster, discovering new resources from interesting bloggers. #
@cathyma To keep track of the minds of smart people and to share exciting quirks online #
@stevebridger It’s like having better brains on tap, and I work alone, so it helps me feel connected - I call it ‘alone together’
@Robpermeable For tidbits of info, useful urls, and connecting with people in my sector (charity and PR) #
@jellyslastjam Initially to see what the fuss was about, now I’ve been sucked in and can’t help myself. #

As you can see, people have many personal and commercial reasons for using Twitter - but don’t just take our word for it, the web abounds with useful articles on Twitter (such as this excellent one).

One thing’s for sure - now that Twitter has broken into the mainstream, playing its part in citizen journalism, charity fundraising and Barack Obama’s legendary social media success (he’s by far the most followed Twitterer), it’s not going away any time soon.

So, do YOU use Twitter? Why?

Leif Kendall is a freelance copywriter, “micro-storyteller”, proud dad and avid Twitterer.

Twitterer Floats Away at Twestival

Premasagar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:43:23 +0000

This month, we’re taking great pleasure in helping out both the London and Brighton Twestivals on the 12th of February. We’re donating a mind-expanding, floaty prize to the London Twestival raffle, and we’re a main sponsor for the Brighton Twestival.

Why the sponsorship?

As ever, we’re interested in helping out with events that are run for the community and by the community. This time, we’re extra-enthused because the Twestivals also embody several other passions of ours:

We love gatherings where positive, chance meetings happen between like-minded people.
We want to support events in aid of charities (all proceeds help Charity:water’s efforts to bring safe drinking water to the world).
We’re excited about events that have been enabled by social media (in this case, the ever-growing community on Twitter), where online communities create events in their very own neighbourhood.

What’s this about Twitterers floating?

At the London Twestival, one lucky raffle winner will win our prize of a year’s supply of float tank sessions.

Sometimes you need a rest from all the hubbub, wittering, twittering and chasing about. At London’s float centre, Floatopia, you’ll find a haven from the mad rush of life in a warm, relaxing, womb-like pool:

Whilst suspended in a dense Epsom salt solution, warmed to skin temperature, one soon gets the illusion of floating in air. The resulting sense of serenity and deep well-being will stay with you for days after your float.

(Warning: You may have to leave your iPhone outside).

Six months of the prize is courtesy of Dharmafly and this has been generously matched with another six months by Floatopia. You can read more about the benefits of floating on the Floatopia site or Wikipedia.

Happy Twestivals! We’d love to hear your experiences if you’re the winner of our floaty prize, and even if you aren’t, drop us a comment below and let us know how the Twestival went for you.

Update: Another prize - Green Hosting

We’re also now offering a prize of one year of our 100% renewable energy web hosting for the Brighton Twestival raffle. Best of luck, raffle peeps!

Twitter Gets Real

Leif Kendall — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:29:15 +0000

Twestival unites online friends for charity

Twestival is a global series of local events, happening in over 100 cities worldwide (including London and Brighton), on 12 February 2009.

Twestival bridges the gap between the off- and online worlds. It provides a chance for communities on Twitter (a web service that allows users to share their thoughts with their peers) to meet in person and to raise money for Charity:water, who provide clean water for people in developing countries.

Dharmafly spoke to Amanda Rose, the enterprising organiser who got the Twestival ball rolling, to find out more about Twestival and why Twitter is suited to this kind of crowd-sourced social action.

Rippling messages through the web

As Amanda noted, Twitter allows for a “ripple effect”, letting messages spread and surge through the web. This gives Twestival instant access to willing participants - people who pass on the message and offer to get involved.

Those who are making Twestival happen are ordinary people, choosing to help a good cause after hearing about it through their Twitter network.

Charity:water has been chosen as Twestival’s beneficiary, partly because they are active Twitter users themselves (such as the charity’s founder, Scott Harrison), using it to spread news of their work and to connect with interested parties.

Twitter steps out of the web

Twitter is sometimes characterised as another way for socially-awkward people to avoid human contact (mainly by people who’ve never used it). Twestival is further evidence that Twitterers want their interactions to make a difference beyond the web.

Twestival: a flash-function

So what exactly is a Twestival? It’s a loose idea, varying in nature from city to city. Each Twestival is a rapid-response flash-event, created almost spontaneously by volunteers.

Some Twestivals are taking the form of an “unconference” (a grassroots conference organised by the participants), some are relaxed social gatherings in cafes and pubs, and some will have entertainment and activities. All Twestivals aim to bring together local Twitter communities to benefit a good cause.

Twestival: raising money for Charity:water

At the heart of every Twestival is Charity:water, a non-profit organisation that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of donations go directly to creating sustainable clean water solutions.

The directness of Charity:water’s donation system means that every penny raised by generous Twitterers will help provide clean water to the people who need it most. You can also donate directly on the Twestival page of the Charity:water website.

Twestival in Brighton: @brightwest

Brighton’s Twestival tickets go on sale at 12pm today. If you want to track its progress, follow @twestival and @brightwest on Twitter, and check brighton.twestival.com for more information.

Update: Now sponsoring

Dharmafly is now happily a Twestival sponsor, and we’re giving away some gorgeous raffle prizes.

Leif Kendall is a freelance copywriter, “micro-storyteller”, proud dad and avid Twitterer.

Wishing You a…

Premasagar — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:12:16 +0000

(Hint: Take a closer look)

To all the beautiful people we’ve worked with over the past year… to all our readers and contributors, family, friends, peers and, well, everybody else…

Have a sumptuous Christmas (or Winter Solstice, or what have you) and an inspirational New Year. Be well, be great and be here with us again in 2009.

Big Love,
Dharmafly

I is for iPhone

iPhone apps shown above (l-r):

Hahlo - Twitter mobile browser client
Alphabet - Phonetic alphabet speller
Pownce - (ahem) Unsocial networking
Photonasis - Photo filter effects
Moblyng - Social network slideshows
iTimeX - Collaborative time tracking
Mobyko - Mobile info backup & synchronisation
Last.fm - Personalised music radio
iLove - Quick-dial your true love
Dictionaire - Word, words, words
Hyves - Social networking for Europa
Colorblind Avenger - Photo colour-picker for the colourblind
AeroReader - RSS reader
Memiary - Remember your day
hContacts - Sync with contacts on Highrise
Facebook - The Facebook app. (While I’ve always found Facebook just painful to use, the iPhone app feels effortless).
Lokalisten - Local listings… in German
MetU - Find someone you once lost
[Last year's message from Dharmafly]
Dharmafly.com

Put Yourself on the Map

Premasagar — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:00:30 +0000

If you had a map and you could show it to anyone, what would you put on it?

These days, maps are playing a big part in the development of social media. Imagine you were to run an event, or make a journey around the world, how could you represent it online? How could you help people to find out where you are, to know what you’re doing, or even to see what you’re seeing?

As you can imagine, interactive web maps and location-based activities are not just useful for looking up addresses. We can now assign practically any piece of online content to a map, including videos, photos or location-based conversations. At last, the web doesn’t have to be so geographically anonymous anymore.

Everyone has different needs and interests, so their information might be organised in different ways: people such as film buffs, chess enthusiasts, or parents looking for baby groups might all want to find out about related activities in their local area, and web mapping can help.

Interactive maps in action

Dharmafly recently created interactive maps for EastHampshire.org, partnering on the project with Brighton-based Callender Creates.

As a website for residents and visitors to East Hampshire, it offers information about community groups, news and local events. On the interactive map, you can look at up-to-date information and find out where it’s going on at exactly the same time.

Harnessing the social web

Rather than reinventing the wheel and creating a brand new, separate events engine, EastHampshire.org is hooked into Upcoming, a social network website for sharing events.

When an Upcoming user creates a new East Hampshire event, it is automatically pulled into EastHampshire.org, and the same happens in reverse. This stream of events is fed directly into the interactive map, allowing the content to stay fresh, relevant and up-to-date.

Other mapping projects we’ve worked on

We like mapping projects. Here are a few others:

Talking America, where we charted a BBC bus tour across America, as it gathered on-the-streets opinions in the run-up to this year’s momentous US Elections.
Bangladesh River Journey for BBC World Service, where we created a map to track the journalists as they investigated how climate change has a direct effect on people’s lives throughout Bangladesh.
Location-Based Services, an article for Opera about the use of mapping and geographical tools on the web.

So, if you had a map, what would you put on it?

4 Ways to Make the Most of BarCamp

Premasagar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:28:17 +0000

We want to spend a little time reminiscing about last month’s Brighton BarCamp, one of our favourite events of the year and a time when we get to roll up our sleeves and muck in with the community.

BarCamp is a self-organised gathering of New Media enthusiasts and an important opportunity to share knowledge with peer businesses and enthusiasts. Naturally, we were keen to get involved, and we found no less than four different ways to do so:

1. Mingling

The best thing about BarCamp is the opportunity to hang out and discuss technology and business with a great bunch of like-minded people. As ever, there was an eclectic mix of developers, designers, thinkers and doers - mainly Brighton-based, but the event attracted people from all over. Andy Mitchell, from Leeds, had this to say:

Coming down from the North I find it a real different culture, so mild-mannered and alternative (sessions on “GeekYoga”? “Getting Things Done” and “Meditation”?!) I must admit I’m somewhat fascinated with it.

2. Organising

In the run up to BarCamp Brighton3, we played a part in getting sponsors on board, as well as being mini-sponsors ourselves. BarCamp is entirely free and inclusive, and without the many sponsors and volunteers, it just wouldn’t have been possible.

One minor feature that was unexpectedly well received was the hand-crafted, recycled newspaper goodie bag given to each attendee on arrival at the event. The bags were made by a local greengrocer in Suffolk, and they’re so special that they now have their own mini-cult following.

3. Speaking

I gave two talks: one for BarCampers interested in business development and one for those curious about new methods for social media.

The First Talk: “Can Your Business be Franchised? (And Should It)?”

A little while back, we were considering what would happen if Dharmafly was a franchise - or, rather, not if it was a franchise, but if it was capable of being a franchise.

This is loosely inspired by the ideas of Michael Gerber in his book ‘The E-Myth‘. He suggests that if all the procedures of a business are clarified, systematised and documented as if the business was to be replicated to a different location, then the business will benefit, even if it isn’t actually replicated. (He also goes into a lot of other detail about other stuff that I didn’t connect with as much).

Think of something as efficient and repeatable as the McDonald’s experience, but with a focus on people, purpose and quality (and none of that meat, despondency or environmental destruction).

We discussed:

The development of business goals
Establishing consciously intended outcomes
Developing a system to achieve them

Jonathan Markwell from Inuda raised an interesting question:

How would it be possible to systematise and franchise Dharmafly, when your business values require those working for the company to feel it and mean it, and not just follow a list of procedures?

That got me thinking. An ethical approach to business must surely be genuinely felt and not just acted out by rote. On the other hand, it is said that if a person wants to cultivate a particular habit or value, then he or she could start acting as if they already possess it and, one day, they actually will possess it. For example, cultivate generosity by giving to those in need, and cultivate honesty by being truthful.

Would a person following an ethical system for business be transformed by it? I wonder what the people at Actics would say.

The Second Talk: “What Planet are You On?”

Our enthusiasm for Planets hasn’t waned since the launch of Planet Crunchy, a site we built to demonstrate the virtuous role of Planets in social media campaigns. (Planet sites are ones that aggregate content on a particular theme from around the Web).

Apart from taking a look at how Planet Crunchy works, we looked at some examples of beneficial Planets around the web, including personal Lifestreams (e.g. David Cramer’s) and communities like Planet BNM and Planet Microformats.

4. Experimenting

The Planet Crunchy experiment was interesting. We had given everyone at the event a box of Dharmafly Crunchies and invited them to post their experiences online. Some people really liked it, while others really didn’t.

Twitter was the most popular social network that people used to report their stories, with Flickr close behind. Nobody ventured to post a video.

Thank you everyone who took part. We love you most greenly.

Basecamp. A Project Manager’s Friend.

Ben Sauer — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:47:00 +0000

How many hours of your life have you spent rifling through emails and looking for all the bits associated with projects? And how often have you been cc’d into an email that was only marginally relevant to your work?

If you’re into managing projects and keeping things together, then Basecamp is your friend. Basecamp is an online project-management system that keeps all of your project’s communications in one place. It comes with both paid and free packages, and while there are some excellent alternative tools out there, we find it one of the easiest to use.

Recently, Ben Sauer used it to manage our work with BBC World Service on the Talking America project. Here, he explains why he is a self-professed ‘Basecamp fanatic’…

- Premasagar

How it changed the way I work

While working at my former company as a producer/director, we found that Basecamp transformed our business as soon as we started using it. We loved it, and so did our clients.

Before that, in the dark days, most of the decision-making and knowledge was buried in emails several replies deep. Since then, I have lived by a philosophy of minimal email.

The magic of Basecamp lies in commitment

Over time, I’ve become a Basecamp fanatic. Having an online project management system enables a new way of working, providing a central hub for all action points, project milestones, decisions and communications. To make the system a success, anything discussed outside of Basecamp needs to be added back in. For example, points covered in phone conversations and meetings.

People do sometimes need reminding to use it, and anything outside of Basecamp needs to be put in - including action points, milestones and the points covered in telephone calls. If someone in a team sends a group email instead of using Basecamp, I will usually copy the email into a new thread in Basecamp. This might seem pedantic, but the truth is that the system is only useful if you stick to it. It devalues very quickly if communications fall outside of it.

Opting out and dipping in

Things are made easier by the way that Basecamp integrates email. You can choose to have email notifications of new messages and, if you reply via email, your message will simply be added to the Basecamp thread. Whenever someone feels that their attention is not required, they can opt out of notifications.

On the BBC project, I hardly ever included the top decision-maker in email notifications. Any time that he wanted to see how things were going, he could just log into the system.

Working with clients

I have seen a shift in the way that teams work together once they start using a system like Basecamp. For Talking America, the World Service jumped in head-first. They understand that it brings greater transparency, and more efficient issue management and knowledge transfer.

We use Basecamp with most of our clients. Even if there is a slight learning curve, it’s worth it because we get to spend more time on the projects and less on administration.

If you’re interested in learning more about Basecamp, if you’re a project manager and you’ve used it before, or if you have another system for project management that works well for you, then we’d love to hear your thoughts.