This is Beth Kanter live blogging from Feedback Session 5 - Social Impact Track at the NetSquared Conference. Live blogging disclaimers!

Expert Reviewers
Lucy Bernholz, Paul Lamb, Denis Moynihan

HELP

Questions

• Wouldn't it have more social impact to bring doctors with backpacks?
• What technologies are you using for live broadcast and for your donors?
• What's the bottom line impact -how many lives have you saved?   In enhanced version, how many more will be saved?
• How is your organization different than doctors without borders?

Response

When we arrived in Turkey, there was massive death, injuries, etc.   The mobile clinics become mini community centers.     Security is important.   There are many different aspects as to why these are good for the initial response as well as an ongoing building block. We need over-the-shoulder input.

The connectivity needs to be varied so we can bring as many resources to the play as possible.   That's true of the hospital networks.   How to bring the public into our project.   Through our network, attach to the mainstream media.   The idea is to let people get involved in fund raising on their own as well as select what area of the relief to support.

It is difficult to count how many lives we've saved.     As part of someone dying and as a result of tele medicine,saved them - can't say the numbers.   We see huge numbers of people cry out for help and will allow to help more people and be more effective helping people. What is the clinical outcome?

For example, water purification system after an earthquake, we saved the lives of 40,000 people.   We've tried to quantify without over stating the numbers.   We're trying to be proactive.   Can we measure water purity and shut it off before they start drinking it?   Makes it hard to measure.

We're trying to get donors to support specific aspects.     Gave several examples of supporting containers or a specific child's medical needs.

We are different than doctors without borders, including the telemedicine overlay.   When someone arrives in a disaster, there needs to be coordination. That isn't something that dwb does not provide.   We have a different focus.   We've worked with the Red Cross and other groups.

They are looking at technology to connect families in different camps.   In the 1990s had that experience.   They've gotten involved with an African disaster database because of these logistical and matching needs.  

The Freecycle Network

Summary

Environmental tool set up by tree hugger.   Did not anticipate the social people impact.   We get 4 million items out of landfills.   In addition to keeping over 4 times the height of mt. everest out of landfills.     Communal impact - when you talk about social networking - free cycle is based on the premise of local communities.   You go to the person's house and pick up the sofa.   Paradigm shift - local scale.   Free cycle is a life affirming thing.

Questions

• Can you grow your network larger without staff?   Why not grow the organization to expand social impact?
• Have you considered partnering with larger organizations out there?
• Can you explain the relationship with Yahoo?
• If Yahoo is already working, why bother?
• Have you considered partnering with Craig's list.
• Subvert Yahoo by getting geeks to help you.
• Plans for expanding marketing?
• Do you have any information about drop out rate of people signing up and using it?

Response

We're trying to run the organization with $100,000 and it absurd.   We have many volunteers.   Once you get past the top 20 people who are doing this as volunteer full time job.   Very fulfilling, but painful not to be able to pay them.   We failed with a web site.     The biggest challenge to find the money to design the site and build the organization and meet the needs of the global group.

They are starting a partnership with Habitat for Humanity by providing some reuse items.   They are starting to offer them some items in a store.     We have done some proof of concepts with free source concept at local landfill.   Very successful.     Made it into a party.

The issue with Yahoo explained.   A big thank you to Yahoo Groups and our growth is due to how easy it is to set up.     The initial response - come back when you are bigger.   Once we got huge, the challenge of a for-profit to look at the bottom line.     We've approached them as a potential partner.   It is hard to partner.  

One of the issues of Yahoo Groups, can't offer the information to all the members.   Can't do RSS feeds.   Can't send an email to all members.   Can't connect with widgets to myspace.   We can fulfill out nonprofit mission not on Yahoo platform.

Craig's list partnership - our information is in Yahoo.   Can't do it.   Big barrier.
Does the Yahoo terms of service allow you redistribute the content posted on Yahoo?

We haven't done diddling in marketing.   That's our key weakness.   We've only done 3 press releases.     We're viral word of mouth.   Very local, very grassroots.   There is a heck of lot of more we could.   We'd love to go Oprah.

The user experience is initially negative because the default is individual emails and the lists have heavy traffic.

Big Brothers Big Sisters AIM System

52% less likely to skip school
53% less likely to display violence behavior

Intentionality - parent or teacher brings them.     Recent program to go into prisons to identify children via the parents.

Tipping - if we go to scale and improve the life of one child in a classroom, what happens when you improve ten?   What is the multiplier effect.

Questions

• How will the system enable you to serve more children?
• You're creating an in-house info system that is connected to Microsoft technology and people here talk about open source.   What is the social impact of sharing the tools?
• What is the cost/benefit as you roll out to scale?
• How are you going to deal with the human/change management issues?

Response

How can we handle the volume when we go to scale?   How can we avoid safety issues because the bar is so high.

Currently do not have plans to distribute open source tools, but are considering it.     When we can take a deep breath, we can repackage our system.

We have the advantage of starting from scratch.   We've tried to make the system simple.   There has been small impact.     The conversion from old system has been painful.     The migration is a lot of data cleaning which is painful.   There is a six month pain period - things get worse before they get better.

How are you addressing the human change issue?   What's your plan?   We've been lucky in that the 100 agencies are larger and they've migrated over.     The medium and small agencies want the system, but cheap.   They want to make it simpler.

How are you explaining to staff members the benefits?   They have a team of agencies who overseeing the project and telling other agencies about the system - versus national to the agencies.

The ultimate end result of connecting child with a mentor and how the system makes that happens seamlessly is important.

Kabissa 2.0

Questions

• What would the ambassadors do?
• What is the criteria for the organizations that ambassadors would be serving?   What is the broader impact?
• What demand has propelled this need and project?
• What are members working on now, how will impact increase once they engage with ambassador?
• What type of training in connectivity is limited?
• What are the opportunities for larger connections between the ambassadors and other networks or partners?

Response

Currently working with 1,000 grassroots organizations.   They would hire them on a quarter or half-time basis and serve as Web2.0 grassroots evangelists.

They put poll on site about topics they wanted to see.   The winner was understanding new technologies.   Once people understand what is possible, they see the opportunities.   The ambassadors will help with that.   People don't ask, "I want to learn how to podcast because they haven't learned how to podcast yet."

Example of impact.     An organization in Nigeria had signed an agreement with an oil company.   They scan the agreement, put it on the web and get national attention.   Web 2.0 Ambassador would show them more tools to accomplish that outcome.   It's about taking an existing work and taking them to scale with new tools.

Social impact of Web1.0 - organizations saw the possibilities of how they can be connected to outside world.   Now, with Web2.0, there is the opportunity for the groups to connect with each other, particularly civil society practitioners -- home grown ways that they can help each other in Africa.   What are the best practices in Africa.

Preparing the ambassadors to train others.   Once a year the Ambassadors will meet face-to-face and monthly skype to support each other on a peer basis.   Will have a Kabissa community organizer.   Building blocks for independence - bar camp in Kenya.   Peer learning will be important and critical to the success.

A great idea about outside connections to other partners - haven't gotten to that point yet.   Potential to partner with Global Voices or Aspiration - they would bring that expertise when needed.