NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.

net2 updates

Building community in your area? Check out the newly-launched Community Organizers Handbook! Everything you need to start and grow a NetSquared Local group or any other community-powered program.

net2 local

NetSquared Local events provide a chance to connect locally with all those interested in the intersection of social technologies and social change. There are new groups forming every week: Join in!

net2 updates

Building community in your area? Check out the newly-launched Community Organizers Handbook! Everything you need to start and grow a NetSquared Local group or any other community-powered program.

Chagora

Challenges Entered: 
There's a link between money, speech and the ability to participate. Political MicroDonation (under $1) with Electoral/Geographic Networking is vital for scaling representation. Especially in grassroots issue or legislative lobbying and for new candidates and ideas. It's the Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!It's a fundamental of speech and association. (Chagora is NOT Monetized via any addition to transaction costs!)

A Charity and Cause/Campaign Service Provider Characterized by Associated Individual Donor Accounts accessed via the Recipient’s and others’ Chagora widget or the Chagora website itself which is Attractive to Recipient charitable and issue/candidate oriented nonprofits because of its enablement of Exclusive Transaction & Feedback Capabilities of vital interest to Donors and the general public.*

 

Chagora Assumptions

  1. CHARITY and especially POLITICAL MICRODONATION (Cause/ Candidate contribution under $1 alone or in concert with others) has very Powerful and Unrecognized Potential as a USER ATTRACTANT If it can be made easy enough for the donor to give and economically feasible for the recipient to receive.
  2. And can CATALYZE Donor usage of this account for ALL CONTRIBUTION in both the POLITICAL AND CHARITY sectors for reasons of convenience, unified accounting, reporting and additional functionality and benefits discussed elsewhere.
  3. The CHAGORA System thus is attractive to potential charity and/or candidate/cause Recipients BOTH because of the direct services Chagora offers (accounting, reporting, visibility, specialized group fundraising capabilities, unique charity/corporate sponsorship capabilities, etc.) AND the ready Donor-base it can provide.
  4. And forms the basis for a Long Tail Aggregator with high-margin profitability NOT dependent on advertising or transaction fees.

The Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!

Attempts to revitalize our political system have focused attention on the issue of money in politics. All are good tries, and all are from the wrong end. It’s not just too much big money… it’s too little SMALL money. Political MicroDonation under $1 is a proximity substitute for conditions under which Representative Governments first arose and operate best… and are essential for scaling better leader development and decision making.

When teamed with more effective information gathering and dispersal (e.g. Sunlight Foundation, etc.) as well as new technologies of association (OpenSocial Initiative, Causes, etc.) its capabilities will be quickly seen and hence its growth will be self-reinforcing...

Most people never give to a cause or campaign… They will!  They don’t give now because they assume they can’t make a difference…  It’s too much, too rare and too difficult!

They’re hungry for a voice; a mechanism to bring them IN. Chagora does it and does it profitably. The design as a for-profit structure with ultimate exit-strategy by ownership transfer to the Donor-base is a unique element intended as a check & balance mechanism empowering the commons in a reasoned way against imbalances concurrent with civilization scaling.

The Mechanism and the Fish

Political MicroDonation is a catalyst and needed an enabling mechanism. And the enabling mechanism itself is a Hook for a priceless fish. The Fish is a natural concentration of Donors gravitating to such a system... And an essential tool for empowering citizens in the commons!

How does it work

The Donor’s P.U.D Account (Pooled, User-Determined Account) with accounting and reporting makes previously non-viable and therefore non-existent transactions feasible and FUN.

Essentially the User participates in a Chagora Trust account with as little as $10 and relinquishes ownership of deposited money, but retains full discretion on its distribution (within defined limits relating to charitable or cause-based entities).

Further, the account, once established persists whether funded or not and has functions related to social networking for civic purposes which are expanded on elsewhere. Chagora takes no part of the transaction between the donor and recipient. CHAGORA’s Design Structure suggests that even those with NO interest in politics at all will eventually be drawn in as well!

Monetization

Recipient Subscription Fees, Charity and Cause/Campaign Services, Charity-Corporate Sponsorships, Accounting Services, FEC (and other) Reporting Services, Supplementary Web & Tech Services, Event Media Fees, etc.

(See my comment below and the link to a recent Washington Post article on problems with fundraising by the facebook application "Causes" and consider what effect Chagora's capability would add.)

*This user-controlled specialized account has additional potentials depending on a number of factors and its application in different countries and legal systems will vary... however its underlying fundamentals are universal.

 Project is being developed 'Open Source'

Prototype & FAQ http://www.Chagora.com/faq.aspx

Blog http http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com  

LinkedIn  http://www.linkedin.com/in/culturalengineer

facebook  http://profile.to/culturalengineer/

twitter id http://twitter.com/CulturalNgineer

In brief, the development I'm discussing arose from a very clear conclusion that civilization scaling issues make enablement of political micro-contribution (<$1) a vital part of political representation. This has more to do with facilitating frequency and breadth of contribution over quantity of contribution by any particular individual, and the general expansion of participation that results. Its mere existence, in addition, sets up some beneficial political/social feedback loops and counteracts others not so beneficial in ways both obvious and obscure. (And in the end will actually reduce the role of money in politics altogether but that's a longer case to make than would be appropriate here.) In addition:

Note added June 26, '09:

Attending Participation Camp by invitation at NYU  for 2-day conclave on technology and government for New York... then on to Personal Democracy Forum and various meetings. Also in D.C. and making good connections in several congressional offices with very good implications for future support. 

Now have technical team with extensive database experience and additional expertise and advice from retired Verizon Senior Software Development Executive with extensive experience in very large database and billing systems as well as security issues and cryptography.

Now invited (personally) to submit for O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Expo and for personal meeting on this project.

My Blog on underlying theory also gaining some interest Chagora & Civilization Systems

B.A. Cultural Anthropology SJSU in a mere 7 years (some delay caused by refusing 2S student deferment as elitist and then refusing induction back in the late 60's), cleaned some pools, sailed some boats, painted some pictures, observed, discovered Web 2.0 & social media and took good advantage of the expanded research & information capabilities now freely available... in other words a useless but creative idler following his own interests... BUT then gained insights related to scaling issues in group-decision not being addressed... walked through the door in front of me since with knowledge comes responsibiltiy (Also realized old age was likely to be bleak unless I got practical fast!) and started putting it together... clumsily, but relentlessly. BTW, as briefly noted elsewhere, I believe, surprisingly, that a for-profit structure with exit-strategy thru ownership by the Commons (its universal donor-base as individuals) and not as either a government service or a non-profit may be best. And I can't deny I hope it can draw some interest so I can continue my work independently.

Except for poverty never had so much fun though I sometimes feel a bit like old Ignaz Semmelweiss who found both that the impact of small ideas can be great... and that social inertia can be a bit frustrating. 

Blog: Chagora & Civilization Systems

Selections:

The Foundations of Authoritarianism

Social Networks & The Social Organism - Healing the Breach

Miscellaneous on Status Updates, Distributed Intelligence and New Economies

Self-Interest vs Altruism - Problems in Scaling the Decision Process

Civilization, Complexity & Collapse - The Search for Levers 

Chagora Assumptions

The Chagora LiveDebate Function

Why Chagora

YouTube Videos:

Technology & The Decision Landscape

 Taking Back the Public Square

Project Details
Project url: 
http://www.Chagora.com/faq.aspx
Project video: 
Project Assessment
Financial support: 
Project has financial support
Sustainability Model: 
Monetization Recipient Subscription Fees, Charity and Cause/Campaign Services, Charity-Corporate Sponsorships, Accounting Services, FEC (and other) Reporting Services, Supplementary Web &amp; Tech Services, Event Media Fees, etc. Of the 1.4 million nonprofit organizations registered with the IRS in 2005, over half a million collected more than $25,000 in gross receipts. And nonprofits with less than $5,000 in annual revenue are not required to register with the IRS, so many nonprofits are missing from IRS registration lists. Small voluntary associations such as parent-teacher associations, neighborhood associations, and community gardens are underrepresented.   For 2005, there were almost 48 million itemized returns with average cash charitable contributions of over $2,800 and 87 million nonitemized returns with average cash charitable contribution of over $200.   There are approximately 30,000 new non-profits created every year, many temporary.  “…  about 7 billion a year – or half of the money contributed by corporations to philanthropic causes in the United States – comes via cause-related marketing…Trent Stamp, President of Charity Navigator: ‘This means, however, that most tie-ins are with big, recognized charities, not small local ones, even if they’re deserving,’ he said.”  From The Los Angeles Daily News Monday, June 4, 2007  See my comment below re &#39;Causes&#39; on facebook &nbsp; In addition: No
Expertise needed: 
 I have no experience as an entrepreneur so have been flying fairly blind while learning the ropes. So I could use some help. Also for website and accounts administration so I can focus on building user-base and public support for concepts by setting up one or more demonstration fundraising debates in connction with one or more meta-political organizations. (and there are fascinating issues related to the design of rule structures for such events which have minor technical implications but possibly large influence on cultural effects)  I really could use a team for technical issues as well as input for system design as it relates to user experience and social effects. While political microdonation itself is a relatively simple concept, it&#39;s implications are not. It deserves and requires the most professional and highest standards for its implementation... and to protect and preserve the values under which it must operate and out of which it developed.
Very experienced Team Now in Place for Open Source Development!Tech help no longer needed... (of course, money is kind of important since homelessness bites the big one!)
To date, this project has NOT been presented to the Venture Capital or Angel community. This is in part because it&#39;s an unfamiliar world to me, but more importantly because I&#39;ve felt the first task was to establish some credibility for the Chagora meme itself.At this I seem to be having some success. I believe its possible I may now have enough credibility and contacts to put this together with the sort of &quot;trans-partisan&quot; reputation it both deserves and requires. I&#39;ll be happy to discuss this in more detail if we should be fortunate enough to meet. In briefest, I believe there are ample bootstrapping opportunities via cooperative endeavours with various neutral or &quot;meta&quot;-political sites like the Personal Democracy Forum, the Sunlight Foundation, Congressional Quarterly, Brennan Center for Justice, C-Span, etc. I believe this somewhat backwards approach was best to ensure both a reputable and reliable launch and was more in-line with my out-of-left-field capabilities and lack of existing connections or known history in these matters. For much the same reason, I&#39;m convinced association with and support from well-established backers is my preference if possible.  I understand this is not the usual procedure.   Now it&#39;s time to try to reach the major potential players first. As you know there are only a few. My understanding is that you all have keen interest in the social web and issues with its monetization... and bettering the world and empowering Users is always good PR...Of course, industry wide social-investment in Chagora as a for-profit enterprise with pre-agreement for transfer of net profit above expenses to the user-base is an interesting idea. In terms of return on investment, risk vs. reward, cost vs. benefit and all that... Chagora is a much better approach to building a stable presence than paying oodles for an existing, but quite possibly transitory user base without clear monetization like... well, no names here... but like so often has happened before...
Project goals: 
Realized need for viable political microtransaction (under $1) especially in local and networked (group) action for needed rebalance of the relationship between the individual and the commons. &quot;Small Money, Large Numbers &amp; Immediate Feedback&quot; Early &#39;07 Developed simple mechanism for implementation NOT relying on any part of the transaction between Donor &amp; Recipient.Saw relationship to charitable giving, benefits to the individual donor, benefits to recipients, opportunity and liklihood for their congregation and catalyzation of long tail enterprise.Saw implications for ownership structureBegan entrepreneurship process: patent attorney, Incorporation of Civilization Systems LLC, tradmark of Chagora, search for developers AND...Attending Web 2, PDF, etc to learn about Internet Biz and entrepreneurshipGot development support for prototype Summer &#39;08 from HyTechPro Lost Bank of America Home Equity Line at launch which was using for self-funding in August which has been huge life problemLaunched live, practical Chagora prototype in SeptemberI&#39;ve been gaining support for this concept to the best of my ability w/o funds for formal launch! (See linkedIn &amp; Facebook) Currently in search for investment, a team, partners and advancement of Chagora concept (Individuallly-Controlled/Commons-Dedicated Account) as a for-profit structure with profit to the donor base as a beneficial mechanism and an essential piece of the necessary mechanisms for rebalancing the tension between the individual and the commons. Making progress with the following bootstrapping concept: Opportunity for a &quot;meta&quot;-political entity (e.g. Personal Democracy Forum, Sunlight Foundation, Brennan Center for Justice, Break the Matrix, etc) could fund raise, broaden its base of support AND raise their public exposure by hosting needed issue-oriented debates (in other words not necessarily connected to specific candidates and elections)  which in turn can benefit entities your selected debaters support... ALL while raising both the general LEVEL of discourse AND public awareness and ability in the process!
Identified Obstacles: 
Not surprisingly, no money... Loss of Bank of America Home Equity Line at planned Sepetmber launch with no recourse which had been sustaining me. Bootstrapping is both a fun and low-cost component and am currently pursuing some ideas about use by certain &quot;meta&quot;-political sites (process oriented NOT partisan) for demonstration of the LiveDebate component as fundraiser via hositng of neutral/bi-partisan/multi-partisan issue-oriented debates as fundraising method for the interests involved. Essential that Chagora function as neutral vehicle facilitating transaction... NOT an advocate for a particular position. See The Chagora LiveDebate Function at http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2009/02/chagora-live-debate-function.html P.S. Re &quot;The Team&quot; mentioned below... I believe I have a number of highly-qualified people interested and ready to participate and/or assist in various ways with this project. And will give names if interested. But, I&#39;m pretty much the big picture guy on this and while I could be comfortable with others discussing specific aspects... right now I&#39;m the source for the overview since I&#39;m also interested in gaining some attention to what I believe are its theoretical foundations and the &quot;meta-political/economic&quot; issues it attempts to address in part.

Location

Los Angeles, CA
United States
See map: Google Maps
Submitted by CulturalEngineer on March 26, 2009 - 7:52am

User login

What is OpenID?

Sitemap

About

Share

Partner

Connect

Creative Commons License