We see 2 problems with Social Actions:
1) It creates information overload
2) That information overload, in turn, causes action paralysis.
Let's expand Social Actions Alerts to filter and deliver users' interests by keyword and Recommender System.
When Peter Deitz, Founder of Social Actions, approached us at last year at N2Y3 to create Social Actions Alerts, we all immediately saw the need for customizing our information overload filtering tool to help him make some sense and relevance of all the Social Actions coming from the 50+ platforms.
Social Actions Alerts filters and delivers your causes and interests by keyword sent direct to your email or cell phone.
For instance, if you only want to receive alerts when the keyword "education", "health care" or any cause-based keywords you want appear on Social Actions, this is the tool for you!
Social Actions Alerts filters and delivers you all keyword-relevant postings available at http://search.socialactions.com through connection to the Social Actions API
Click here to read about how Netsquared's Britt Bravo uses Social Actions Alerts!
To co-promote with Cell Alert in the Change in Web Challenge, please email israel@cellalert.org
The Social Actions Alerts Widget is currently in prototype stage. We hope for it to become a multi-lingual viral widget for Cell Alert-based matching and distribution of Social Actions Alerts of all 50+ action platforms.
The main goal of a Recommender System is the management of information overload and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
When I use Social Actions, I feel helpless. I feel daunted when I read the huge commitment that some of the listed actions require of me. We need to be "led" toward action, not just informed. Not just "invited", but led, inspired, empowered.
You can't ultimately empower with technology. Empowerment is the realm of people alone but technology can help (when people-focused). So we would create a people- and empowerment-focused 2-tier Recommender System solution for Social Actions:
A "people-to-cause" Recommender/Empowerment System similar to the user-generated criteria- and interest-based Iams Pet matcher. http://www.iams.com/iams/pet-care/dog-breed.jsp
We would create this person-based Recommender System with a similar user criteria-matching method that Iams offers and then use our existing Cell Alert matching engine to alert users when their requirements are matched.
A "people-to-people empowerment tool" Recommender/Empowerment System matching the top-10 most popular Social Actions to the top-10 Group Actions on PledgeBank.com.
We at Cell Alert believe that it's ultimately people who empower us, not technology alone. It's groups of people who inspire us, not technology apart from community. Ultimately, groups of people doing good truly move us. Community actions, we believe, are the most empowering and inspiring of all social actions.
This system would also rely on the existing Cell Alert matching engine to locate and then distribute these Group Social Action Alerts to users.
We think that the combination of Social Action Alerts and the Alerts Widget with the Social Actions Recommender/Empowerment System will result in the following:
1) An increase in the findability of useful information (via Social Actions Alerts) about social actions for users who will in turn take action. And isn't that the point of this site?
2) A net increase in social actions completed due to the synergy created through the group social actions (connected together by the Social Actions Recommender Systems)
We leave you with these poignant thoughts from "Information Wars" by Jackson Browne.
"Beyond the hundred million darkened living rooms out where the human ocean roars. Into the failing light, the generations go, heading for the information wars."
"And in the flickering light and the comforting glow. You get the world every night as a TV show. The latest spin on the shit we're in, blow by blow. And the more you watch, the less you know."
"And there's a front row seat for the precious few. The latest war as a pay-per-view. Famine and disaster right in front of you. And the more you watch the less you do."
Freedom Fone is a free open source software tool that can be used to build and update a dial-up information service in any language. Its easy to use interface lowers the barriers to using Interactive Voice Response for outreach. Freedom Fone empowers non-technical organizations to build automated information services that are available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Pre-recorded audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a Content Management System. This is updated through a simple to use browser interface. Callers then phone in to listen to the audio options available to them.
Freedom Fone addresses communities’ requirements for a simple, affordable technology to communicate with one another. Freedom Fone leverages the fastest growing tool for personal access to information 24/7 – the mobile phone – & marries it with citizen radio programming.
Audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a Content Management System (CMS) which is updated through a simple to use browser interface. These audio clips populate an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu through which callers can navigate for information. Deployment in any language is possible as key global files for menu prompts can be uploaded through the browser interface to the CMS.
Individuals can contribute questions, content and feedback by leaving voice messages via the IVR interface. Freedom Fone can be operated as a collective, with different groups managing different channels (IVR menu options) of information from the same installation.
Freedom Fone is network agnostic and can work easily and happily with mobiles and landlines. Scalability can be factored in through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in countries where VoIP is available.
This technology can be used in a ‘cost free to caller’ context – where users could dial a toll-free number to access the service – or tickle a number that records the user’s phone number and calls them back, connecting the user to the IVR menu content. In a ‘low cost to caller’ context users can SMS in for a call back.
There are no geographical or community size limitations to the implementation of Freedom Fone. The interface facilitates frequently updated short segment audio programming. It removes the technical challenge of hosting and setting up the back-end, allowing users to concentrate on content.
Elements used by Freedom Fone aren’t new, but their intuitive convergence makes it innovative and globally relevant. Global Voices' Ethan Zuckerman said recently "I'm surprised there hasn’t been more work done making interactive voice response systems usable for development purposes."
Freedom Fone provides exactly that.
AMISPROJECT presents the problem farmers and consumers face in the rural communities of Cameroon where seasonal roads make it impossible for agricultural field workers to make frequent trips to monitor farmers' activities. We believe that sending SMS text messages to farmers will educate them before and during the planting season.
This project is about delivering educative and informative SMS messages to farmers and consumers that would enable them connect directly and do business.It is intended to seek funds and expertise that will enable us fulfill the wishes of the rural populations within some isolated English speaking communities in Cameroon.
The rural community here in question are the farmers and consumers within the localities of Limbe and Buea. They need information and education on pesticides necessary for the health of their crops and the soil, and information about available markets and consumers demanding their products.
This approach would enable them improve their economic situation, fight poverty and promote responsible farming practices in areas not readily accessible by agricultural field workers.
We have chosen to exploit this idea because since this very approach has been used in the banking and transport sectors with success, we believe it shall be productive to replicate this simple idea. Basing it on existing infrastructures of mobile communication, these simple tools of Information and Communication Technologies would positively affect farmers and consumers as well.
This proposal is hinged on the premise that the lack of access to immediate information is the reason why farmers and consumers alike fall short of satisfying their quests. African farmers on the one hand strive to increase the continent’s food production and make economic gains for themselves through farming in the expectation that consumers would just “stumble” upon their products “with pockets full of money”. Unfortunately this has not been the case, as farmers work hard and end up either destroying their ecosystem through uninformed farming practices thereby unwittingly destroying their dreams to prosperity on the one hand, and on the other hand depriving consumers “with pockets full of money” the opportunity to avail themselves of these products, stay clear of famine and contribute towards fulfilling the farmers’ quest to economic posterity.
The advent of the internet, websites and satellite technologies though very effective as tools of modern communications fall out of the range of these actors for two reasons: either farmers and consumers don’t know how to exploit them, or that they cannot afford the cost of getting connected and finding the information they need. The proliferation of websites that document information about farm products and consumers therefore does little or nothing to remedy this situation. Therefore, this proposal reposes entirely on SMS messaging to all actors involved because it is more instantaneous than other applications in use.
For teachers who want to encourage their students to research and read online, ReadPlayHelp will be a website where students can have a new kind of e-learning experience. Instead of just reading an article, at ReadPlayHelp, students will Read a teacher-assigned web resource or one they find on their own, Play computer-generated games to demonstrate comprehension of the reading, and Help others because for each question answered correctly, money will be donated for Internet connectivity in developing countries.
Unlike other free e-learning games, ReadPlayHelp will let teachers automatically generate games such as crossword puzzles for any content and at any educational level, making it an ideal learning activity for dynamic subject matter such as current events. Further, ReadPlayHelp will track student activity and send reports to the teacher for automatic import into grade book software.
Students and the general public will be motivated to stay on the site because there will be a variety of activities and real-time counters showing how many articles have been displayed, how many questions have been answered correctly, and how much Internet connectivity has been donated.
As ReadPlayHelp builds a following, it can grow in many directions. Teachers could easily create and share more sophisticated learning activities. Further, ReadPlayHelp could become a space for students to discuss the content being read.
Anyone in civil society could also use ReadPlayHelp as a channel to promote their informative content by having a link on their site saying, "Don't just read this article, ReadPlayHelp it." The ReadPlayHelp engine could be adapted to other many platforms.
Further, the general public would find the site appealing because of the fun, educational nature of the games and because of the click-to-give value proposition that the longer they stay on the site, the more social benefit they are giving to others.
Another avenue for growth is localization. Wikipedia currently lists 76 languages with 10,000 or more articles. Simply localizing ReadPlayHelp would let teachers produce an infinity of online learning activities.
With the right kind of nurturing, a community will form around ReadPlayHelp and ReadPlayHelp will evolve in response to the community's needs.
Citizen guardianship over public-interest information channels is essential to democratic debate and socially responsible media policy change. Independent, noncommercial and community media are struggling to survive while multi-billion dollar industries grow more powerful from the cables they run under the public roads and the licenses they use to broadcast on public airwaves, fighting off public obligations at every step. How can we create an environment where diverse media thrive? This is about how and what we communicate. Today's emerging information technologies have the potential to connect the world as never before. New media tools enable us to share solutions, strengthen cultures, and create new levels of accountability and transparency in governments and corporations, as well as, among social change organizations. THIS PROJECT could make local, regional national, and international media advocacy activities accessible to anyone interested in holding information gatekeepers in check. It would provide concerned citizens with 1) tools to feedback to broadcast, cable, satellite, radio and internet content decision-makers, 2) tools for messaging policy makers, and 3) motivation to transform individual viewers/receivers/"consumers" into participating media rights advocates by provide opportunities to get involved. THE PROJECT would also address a pressing need among media advocacy players in the U.S. Accessing information about partnerships, collaborations, new initiatives, etc. is klunky and time-consuming. Bridge-building between and among advocates across regions and issues is timely, if not urgent in today's media landscape. The widest gulf exists between grassroots and local media justice organizations and Washington D.C. Policy change efforts. The connection between scholarly research and community advocacy is developing, yet improving knowledge of and access to organizations would expedite productivity (and therefore, positive policy change). THIS PROJECT could minimally, be the gateway to more efficient networking, alliance and partnership initiatives and collaboration. Funders and/or investors would use the service to gain pertinent information about media issues or potential grantees. This mashup would help strengthen media movements, and ultimately be the e-support of efforts that preserve the free expression of diverse perspectives.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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