I'm back in Germany at long last, and recovered enough from the San Francisco Bay and air conditioning-induced allergies, and jet-lag, to be able to post online again... I really enjoyed the conference info about how various nonprofits created very positive online "buzz" about a particular issue, or how they countered an opposing political effort through grassroots online organizing, etc. BUT... I also kept thinking of how these efforts are NOT always used for "good", and I brought up how it's been through various efforts, including online activism, that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has been so severely maligned, particularly regarding its work in China. I've found myself convincing family members back in Kentucky, and friends back in Texas, that, no, what they read in that church bulletin or heard on some local radio program or read on some online discussion group about UNFPA was, in fact, NOT true. How does an organization effectively counter malicious, seemingly-grassroots online efforts to discredit its excellent work? (I've written to UNFPA directly and encouraged them to respond as well, FYI)
FYI, I'll be posting my thoughts about the conference on my own web site shortly (as most of you are in the USA, it will probably be posted by the time you wake up).
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Tackling this problem for charity social network site Helpalot
Yesterday I was at the SIGCHI conference The Web and Beyond in Amsterdam. I had a talk about my Helpalot project. I'm building a charity social network site. Afterwards a had a discussion with someone who had heard my talk and his view as that it was impossible for social network sites to stop people from mis-using the system if the site is only relying on social control and a 'slashdot comment karma' system for moderation.
For the test version I'm making I don't see this as a real proble, because I will be personally moderating. For the real version I have some ideas why it shouldn't be too much of a problem and I'll write about that soon on my project blog.
What is your view on this? Does a charity social network site with evaluations need extra systems in place to stop people from frauding the system? How can this be done if the site must be kept decentralized?