Consider Impact and Make Meaningful Projects

November 17, 2007 · Comments

still alive People of Earth: my plans for world domination are as follows: I will create 3,979,416 websites that hope to use advertising as their business model for getting rich. I will call one of them Facebook. I will call another Google. I will break into Microsoft and infect Steve Ballmer such that he says that advertising is an important thing to figure out in 2008. Further, I will create several video players that allow pre-roll, post-roll, inline, 1/3, and contextual word-matching advertising along the sides and in the middles.

I will scrap radio stations for billboards (CBS did this). I will replace half of my advertising spend with social media, because that’s just a great way to get people to make ads instead of spending all that money on creative people, sets, and other talent. Besides, social media is just PR, Marketing, and advertising. Right?

What are we doing?

Forget innovation. Forget thinking up new ways to make businesses. Forget the fact that lots of people get along just nicely without this wired up rectangle in their lives. We are ALL on the Internet, and those who aren’t? Well, they will be soon. Heck, we’re giving them all laptops, right?

What are we doing to make an impact on the universe? What are we doing to move the technology ball forward, the green living ball forward, any of it? What the hell MATTERS to us?

Where are We?

We have to step back from all this and look at what the heck we’re doing with our time. We have to see if all this stuff we’re reacting to and using actually matters to our day. We have to audit our time spent on various social networks, and ask whether it’s doing something different for us than what we had before.

What are we doing that’s new? Better still, what are we doing that’s helpful?

Over the past week, I’ve heard of some interesting projects. Look at this one, about bringing art to impoverished places. Or how about a project in Bangladesh to help with crops for the drought-threatened region?

My Plans

My knowledge is in technology, community, and people. So with what I know, I’m going to find some ways to be helpful over the next year that I hope align with some bigger things. Here are some thoughts for what I’m going to do:

  • Teach companies how to virtualize their data centers, cutting heat costs, materials costs, and space needs.
  • Conduct and promote virtual conferences and webinars, to cut down some carbon from travel.
  • Promote and support more small giving projects like Beth Kanter’s college project, OLPC, and more.
  • Do at least one offline, non-internet project a month.
  • MAKE something NEW, either online or off over the next year.
  • Support shows like Real World Green, which show easy ways to live greener.

I’m sure more will come to me. But this is what’s on my mind this morning. It just struck me that sometimes, maybe just now and again, we should step away from the shiny rounded corners and look at some of the other stuff going on as well. Just some thinking. What do YOU think?

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  • Hey Chris, Meaning is our ONLY guideline in 'using the power of media for positive change'...Without it, we're stuck with vapid values and the Hiltonization of pop culture on a global scale as we export our drek elsewhere.

    MY plans? To put you in my RSS reader pronto, as we keep cross-pollinating on themes. First it was when I discovered your blog via Beth Kanter's Twitter/Cambodia project and wrote about it here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=729 Then it was the OLPC post here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=776.

    NOW it's making me laugh out loud, because just yesterday I wrote about the need for GREEN to be more about meaning over money, since the sustainability movement could make a bigger impact by aligning with each other rather than splintering into factions of specialization. Plus, green conferences hither & yon are adding to the carbon footprint, and could really benefit from your techno-expertise and media savvy!

    This is my post on Shaping Youth, called, "Green Scene Needs Digital Convergence..."
    http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=790

    I'm convinced that folks like you and Beth can 'show us all how to do it'

    ---That's "my plan," anyway. ;-)
  • There is this big, shining, entertaining, addictive, exclusive, monopolizing, universal thing which is called Internet.
    All the rest is just life.
  • Kat there is a quote from the Talmud " We don't see things as they are we see things as we are !" Why not ! See,[ Branding] it raises it's ugly head the New Brands in 2007 , Green,Global Warming ! How about we brand, teaching kids to read as the KInd,Kind, Kind Brand! We have taught them text messaging and now they can't
    tell a verb from a dangling participle ! They have three word dictionaries words - cool,for sure, wow !
    macroscian (muh-KROSH-i-uhn) noun

    1. One casting a long shadow.

    2. One who inhabits polar regions.

    [From Greek macros (long) + skia (shadow).]
  • Kat
    i loved this post
    i wonder about some of the computer lives
    i even have to remind you sometimes to come up for air
    and you have to remind me to keep up with what's going on in the tech world

    both of us seeing outside our box
    in opposite directions :)


    as a note
    i do not live green
    in fact
    i make no effort what so ever to live green-ER
    in that case i look outside of my box
    and i just don't get it.
    which is what happens too.
    just because you look at it doesn't mean you see it.
  • I am making efforts through my web sites to post articles by people who are trying to make a difference , "in my opinion !" Knocking peoples efforts, is a waste of time being positive is what we all need ! I am not a fan of brands ! I am a fan of very generic
    efforts directed at helping our society ! Pick one area stick with it
    put the grain of sand in the Oyster and it will become a Pearl! We can take a lesson from Dr.Mani one cause from start to finish ! Global Warming ? How about Al Gore promotes teaching all the kids in the world to read ! This is Possible ! To Stop Nature from her pruning process I have my doubts! If any one has a cause just send me the information I will put it on my sites and punch it out to social networks ! This is my contribution !
  • Great goals!

    I've been doing a series of Webinars for the Case Foundation recently - on personal fundraising - trying to inspire and encourage individuals to raise money for a cause they care about in their communities.

    Some resources here:
    http://personalfundraising.wikispaces.com

    Look forward to read more about of your thoughts on all this .... and seeing where it goes.
  • It's true, sometimes we forget about the world outside the box. While you're pushing for the virtualization of data centers, perhaps look at CosmoCom's technology for the virtualization of call/contact centers as well. Things like the ability to have agents for a center anywhere in the world where you're connected, the true death of distance, that can have a REAL impact on the company and the individuals as well.
  • How I am trying to make an impact and have meaning- I smile and say thank you and please always.

    http://www.grassshackroad.com/pages_new/green.html

    www.kivapodcast.com
    (also currently interviewing businesses for Kivas media libary- media stations to get a glimpse of the people who are impacted by the loans. Last week 4 interviews from Kenya, 4 from Mozambique heard how Kiva loans have changed lives. Not for the podcast yet)

    great post Chris.


    m
  • Great post, Chris. My touchstone has ALWAYS been - Is what I'm doing help spread awareness about congenital heart defects, or raise funds to sponsor a child's operation?

    If yes, I keep doing it. If not, I stop.

    EVERYTHING I do passes through this filter.

    Even this! :)

    All success
    Dr.Mani
  • The picture had the most impact on me :)
  • That's what I'M saying! Sheesh...
  • Keith Burtis
    Hey Chris, Just joined your conversation and this is my first post. Honestly....honesty is what reverberated through your post. I really think that it is required of all of us to understand the marketing because there is really no other way to effect the collective concious. The fact is that we in the cyber world ofen get tunnel vision. Figure out a way to make these Ideas of inspiration part of the collective concious and things become much easier. I know I'd rather see a report about a guy who is trying to make a difference in the world on my local news than what car crashed and killed someone last night. Cris, Ideas are everything, and an once an idea has incubated properly and is ready to hatch no one can stop it. I am not at all technically saavy but I do understand people, and people are ready for good change....not bullshit politically inspired ad campaigns that are self centered. Keep up the good work.
    Keith Burtis
  • Ok Chris - you're into the Al Gore thing, its another angle that marketers will try to exploit. The globally act locally. I'm old enough to remember when that bumper sticker first came out and the classic TV ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gokTG46oQ

    Consider two other issues that are tied into

    1) Intention economy http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2006/03/the_in... the idea that creating demand is pushing a lot of wasteful spending, resources, etc.

    2) Social media is a movement, a people place not a marketplace. The intense push to monetize the blogsphere has cut into what I think is a keystone of its initial attraction. While businesses are rushing to figure out how to get people to buy stuff in a social network they are missing the initial point of why those people are aggregating in the first place.
  • I think (hope) you know this already and I think you should tell yourself this everyday... YOU ROCK!

    Okay so maybe that sounds cheesey... if you heard me say it... you know I'm genuine.

    Every little bit counts and enough little bits add up to a whole.

    Thank you for yet another awesome post!
  • That is the challenge of today's society living in the high tech world. How do we as humankind achieve a balance without exploiting more than we already have while keeping up with the new technology? I believe the answer lies within an individual. Like Marshall McLuhan once said, "If it works, it's obsolete. And it's only when a thing has become obsolete that everybody is sufficiently familiar with it to make it work."
  • Never neglect the little things, either. Matthew Ebel wants you to save a few gallons of water in your shower every day:

    http://matthewebel.com/main/2007/11/16/easing-u...

    and I'd like to save you $150 a year:

    http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/2007/11/10/t...

    Even if you do nothing other than reduce your environmental footprint, that's something.
  • Right on Chris! As with any problem solving effort, the first step is admitting you have a problem. From Micro to Macro, there are problems to be solved.

    Explorers have alway excepted that they will spend a ton of time to do what the next generation will take for granted.

    As we move to a more information and credit based society/world, buying becomes almost like bartering - I send you a payPal, you transfer it to a cel phone, or buy something on EBay or Second Life with it.

    How about taking what we've learned about electronic fulfillment using the internet to dis-intermediate crisis and charitable aid interventions so Third World (or, 1st world for that matter) land barons/politico's don't plunder the riches of int'l aid efforts?

    That's it. Another caffeine induced free idea; guaranteed or your money back
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