Archive for the ‘Global Implications’ Category
December 23rd, 2009
Last week, we learned that Idea Aid, with not-for-profit partner Heifer International, selected its top five idea submissions. In a bit of unexpected news, one of the winners came from Critical Mass – submitted by this very blogger.
The goal of 2009’s Idea Aid (the first of hopefully many to come) was to generate new fundraising models to raise $1 billion annually. The weeklong brainstorm benefit, organized by Mensa Process, resulted in 585 ideas from participants in 66 countries including Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Congo, Croatia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Iraq. Heifer International will share the winning ideas with other like-minded organizations – after all, when the goal is to eradicate global poverty, sharing the idea wealth is a must.
The five winners include ideas that emerged multiple times over the course of Idea Aid week. (“Great minds think alike” is cliché for a reason.)
1. “Rounding Up Around the World” has an approach alá Bank of America’s “Keep the Change,” where users enjoy automatic savings derived from rounding their check card transactions to the next dollar. Here, consumer transactions would round up for the benefit of charities. This idea came from Tomer Ram of Israel – and based on the results of our brainstorm breakouts, it was a popular theme. An added thought from this blogger: Just as BoA offers a 100% match for the first three months and a 5% match thereafter (with an annual cap) to help motivate sign-ups, a similar tactic should be used here – with the help of a generous third-party entity (anyone have Richard Branson’s or Bill Gates’s number?).
2. “A Penny Goes a Long Way,” from Dr. Christina Bautista of New Mexico, suggests that an extra penny from consumers’ credit and debit purchases go to charity. Though consumers would hardly feel these micro-transactions, money would accumulate to a significant charitable sum. This theme was another popular one – in fact, more than a handful of brainstorming CM’ers referenced Office Space as silver-screen proof.
3. “Gift Cards: The little bit that’s left” proposes that the little bit of extra on retailer gift cards be funneled to charity. It’s a no-brainer – consumers could lighten their wallet of those pesky remaining gift dollars, to benefit those who need it more. This idea, from Jay Bassett in Georgia, had at least one idea doppelganger in Critical Mass’s very own Duane Wheatcroft.
4. “Global Online Auction,” a winning idea from Ruth Parvin in Oregon, combines art, charity, and the global reach of the Internet. Artists would donate works to an online auction, with all proceeds going to charity. Ebay would be the first tree to bark up, as they have the global reach this idea would thrive on.
5. The final idea was a submission of mine – originally called “Beautiful Change,” revised to “Destinations for Donations.” In this idea, artists, sculptors and/or architects would create fun, interactive money-collecting structures to appear in cities that get significant tourist traffic. This idea was inspired by the Chicago cows, an irresistible coin-spinner I experienced as a kid (a donation mechanism itself), and a similar thought from a coworker of mine (Senior Copywriter Jamie Toal, who, during one of our office-wide brainstorms, asked, “Why can’t we just clear out the change from the fountains of the world?”)
Needless to say, my Critical Mass cohorts and I are thrilled to have contributed a fundraising idea worthy of the hope and confidence of Heifer International and the Idea Aid organizers. If you asked me, I’d say it’s a lovely way to close out the year. We’re excited to see what comes next.
December 3rd, 2009
Critical Mass teams took time out of their workweeks recently to brainstorm for Idea Aid. (Read more about Idea Aid in this entry.)
Heifer International, a U.S.-based humanitarian and not-for-profit organization, partnered with Idea Aid for its inaugural year. By the end of the brainstorming benefit (at the stroke of 11:59 pm on Saturday, 11/21), Idea Aid had gathered 585 ideas to help Heifer raise $1 billion annually to eradicate global poverty.
57 of these ideas came from Critical Mass – through several brainstorms, bagels, beers, and one be-post-it’ed elevator. CM’s submissions represent a wide range of thought from high-concept one-liners like “Elevator Toll” and “$1/flight” to blown-out campaigns like “Buck Poverty.”
Idea Aid participants supported their favorite ideas during the brainstorm by clicking a “promote” button within the list or on an individual submission’s page. One of the Critical Mass ideas, “Beautiful Change,” reached #11 in this popularity ranking. This concept involves artists and architects creating fun, engaging coin-collecting sculptures to appear in tourist cities during a yearly, outdoor exhibit.
As of now, the list of idea submissions is viewable only to those who’d registered on the Idea Aid site. There, an official note from organizer (and Mensa Process Director) David Wynett states:
Thank you for your interest in IdeaAid 2009. The online brainstorming phase of the project is closed. The evaluation team will review and analyze all ideas submitted. The IdeaAid team, in partnership with Heifer International, will announce the five leading ideas once the review process is complete. All registered participants will receive notification of the results.
Whether a Critical Mass idea makes the final cut or not, we hope our contributions help Heifer International and Idea Aid achieve such a noble goal.
October 30th, 2009
This weekend, the world gathered around one iconic idea: 350ppm.
350 parts per million is the level of CO2 many climate scientists agree is the safe upper limit of carbon in our air (we’re at about 390, by the way). But that’s not all 350ppm is. It’s also one of the strongest examples of social media optimization the world has ever seen.
To help promote its International Day of Climate Action (last Saturday, 10/24), 350.org simply asked supporters to use a special hashtag in related tweets: #350ppm. According to search.twitter.com, it was used 1,500 times over the weekend (10/23-10/26).
The Day of Climate Action was a rousing success. 181 countries participated (meaning fewer than 15 didn’t), and there were 5,245 events across the globe.
As for SMO success, 350.org now has over 10,000 Twitter followers. They’re ranked #43 in the “Everywhere” region (via Twitterholic). 350’s most recent Influence score from Twitalyzer is a “profound” 64 of 100, after a recent increase of 31,900%. Twitalyzer bases Influence on Reach (followers), Authority (getting retweeted), Generosity (RT’ing others), and Clout (getting mentioned). 350’s Clout score is 100 of 100, unchanged in the recent past.
On Sunday, 350’s Day of Climate Action was the most talked-about news story on the planet – tops on CNN, The New York Times, Le Monde, Google News, and more. The top Google headline was “Campaign Against Emissions Picks Number,” due in no small part to thousands of participants using “350.” For Sunday and Monday, the story of 350 got more impressions than any other in the world.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 1st, 2009
I thought 2008 would be a non-year for events, at least as far as technology was concerned. I was off on that prediction — there were a few notable points (such as an attempted Yahoo! takeover and the iPhone 3G launch). I played it “safe”.
This year is different. “Safe” isn’t an option. This isn’t going to be an easy year, folks. It’s gonna get ugly. That’s how I see it, anyway… Read the rest of this entry »
January 1st, 2009
A year ago today, I put on my prognostication cap and looked to what we’d see in 2008. At the time, I declared that I was playing it safe, owing to “not seeing any change”. Well, when you play it safe, you’ll probably get things more right than wrong.
In that sense, I did pretty well for predicting. But that’s also like saying the Dallas Cowboys will probably win against your local high-school team — not really cheating, but going with the obvious.
That said, I’m still going to go over what I said, and toss in some new commentary. Read the rest of this entry »
June 2nd, 2008
I recently visited Shanghai on business and I can tell you that no article in a Wall Street Journal or New York Times best selling book can prepare you for the experience that is China. Put aside, for a minute, the obvious cultural differences. Let’s look simply at the overwhelming digital statistics:
1. 200 million internet users.
2. 100 million blog clicks in 2006.
3. 4.5 billion web pages served in 2006.
4. 66% broadband penetration.
Lay on top of these numbers the fact that in a communist government the internet is the least regulated media and what you have is a helluva lot of people spending a helluva lot of time online. The internet isn’t pushing mass media, it IS mass media.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 12th, 2008
Wired.com was kind enough to invite me to the opening of the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry last week. In three words, I can sum up the entire experience: Green is Amazing. And the fact that technology is enabling the efficiencies, makes it all the more amazing.
To-date, I’ve been doing my part to go green, by reducing my consumption habits – in many cases, making sacrifices to save energy and resources. While my quality of life hasn’t been compromised, I can honestly say that the standard of living hasn’t increased because I recycle or use my own bags at the grocery store. The Smart Home, however, is employing technology to make life better.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 9th, 2008
My wife had experienced strange (and very uncomfortable) abdominal pains for a number of years. No one could ever properly diagnose it. Every time the pain flared up, she’d trundle off to a clinic, they’d run a couple of tests (which would always be inconclusive), and a couple of days later it would disappear again. Painful and frustrating, since the obvious conclusions were that no one was reading the history of what was happening, and we both knew it would come back again.
Finally, last December (during another bout of pain), she lucked out and got in to see her long-time doctor. (Yes, read that sentence again. I said “lucked out” to see her own doctor. But I digress.) After recounting the last few years of goings-on, the doctor recommended something a little different. A new test revealed acute appendicitis.
In all of this running around, one thing struck me as being so backwards that I was amazed that someone didn’t accidentally remove, say, my wife’s spleen. Everyone communicated verbally. Is it just me, or did we suddenly regress 100 years?
Read the rest of this entry »
April 18th, 2008
What is this?
This is an EZ code – which is one of the many types of 2D barcodes currently available to mobile users. The EZ code format was designed by ScanBuy and mobile solution provider. This EZ code contains a link to a special article on the topic.
What do I do?
First of all you’ll need a mobile device, equipped with camera that supports this activity. Next you’ll fall into one of 3 categories:
1) You may be lucky enough to already own a new device that comes with a built-in barcode reader, such as the Nokia N95 series. In this case you should be able to go ahead and run that application on the device and scan the above EZ code.
2) You have a device with no software application to scan the EZ code. In this case you’ll need to install the application on your mobile device. Here there are a few options to consider:
- Download / install ScanBuy’s barcode reader application.
- Download / install Kawya’s barcode reader application.
- Download / install QuickMark’s barcode reader application.
- For iPhone people – Download / install iMatrix’s iPhone barcode reader application.
3) The last scenario is unfortunate, but does happen too often at this point. Your device is unsupported and you will not be able the test out 2D barcode scanning – sorry.
Just want to read the post? If you’re unable to successfully execute the steps above or you’re simply time compressed, see the post here.
April 16th, 2008
Image: Paco Olvera Monterd
Amazing how refreshing a change of scenery is, isn’t it? I spent a good part of last week in Mexico City on business, and the warmth of the people, the refreshing business culture and the great food made it a memorable journey. It’s been a long time since I traveled outside of the United States and Canada and the trip brought back pleasant memories of traveling in the North Pacific, China and Southeast Asia too many years ago. It was also a firm, but friendly reminder of the assumptions that we can make about customers and research.
Read the rest of this entry »
