I like making simple videos with original music for Creative Commons releases.

I would be willing to assist your cause by working with you to create Creative Commons viral video to post on youtube and similar social network video sites to raise awareness about your program. I charge nothing for my work--it would be a simple effort to help.

You can see an example video, my remix of Ken Munro's poem "randy", at   my myspace,

www.myspace.com/gurdonark

Our Creative Commons netlabel is http://www.negativesoundinstitute.com

My working method is to aim for simple, easy-to-create video, which I assemble with my own software, ideally with some photographs or video segments, and some text about the the subject.

If you are interested, please contact me through this site or through my e mail,

gurdonark@aol.com

best, robert

I am brand new to volunteering online and I would just like to show my support for Nabuur.   I have been able to reach out and help people in developing countries.... without leaving my home.

 Yes Nabuur has some site issues, but it is pleasing to see that they are constantly trying to improve the site.   The fact that they are willing to implement changes means they are behind this concept 100%.   The original concept is what is important and that concept is what attracted me to Nabuur in the first place.      I love the idea of helping these communities to help themselves, and I get to do it by doing what I love best.   Researching the internet.

Keep up the good work Nabuur, and you definitely get my vote!

Best Regards,
Melissa

michael gibbons buttons of hope

In Transparency is the new black...

I love the idea (Nabuur) of villages defining and refining their needs and then seeking out individuals and/or groups to help them solve their problems. To me "instructions on bee-keeping in Gbongay (Sierra Leone)" sounds damn interesting --I'd give to that cause and I'd be darn interested in how much honey they make! Having the village define and then propose their needs...it's not unlike the empowerment one feels submitting to an N2 contest

You have my support -- I hope you will consider a vote for buttons of hope!

The first time  I encountered Siegfried and heard about the Nabuur concept  I was pleasently surprised, to say the least. From all the initiatives that came to my attention this was the first that really adressed two issues of modern involvement and international volunteering.

1 people are looking for (new) places to find other people that want to help too. In my interpretation of  Nabuur they offer a virtual kitchentable at which neighbours and friends can come together and discuss and ACT to solve a problem of one of the neighbours (in this case a village). By this, Nabuur  not only cashes in on existing social capital by the volunteers but also offers possibilities of maintaining or even developing this social capital. Nabuur in its next step in development needs to put in systems that can help to form this social capital; the glue that keeps the kitchentabel together and working

2 people are looking for very active forms of helping and moving from the 'tell me / show me' stages of philantrophy into the "INVOLVE ME" stage. Nabuur  gives people the opportunity to be actively involved in finding solutions and solving problems instead of giving money to some NGO or other organization. As you all probably now this is happing all around the world at a more or less individual level in which people run their own development projects or in which students and others enjoy "volunteer tourism". The unique point of Nabuur is that it offers to bring together all this indvidual actions at one virtual kitchentable per village.

In my experience Nabuur offers a  very inspiring idea which is easy to sell to people and institutions (even to some universities......) but in order to overcome some of the issues (like the potentail underuse of all these people who want to volunteer) action is needed.

Much has already been written here about Siegfried's considerable and acute vision. He has said that the concept for Nabuur has proven to be successful. My experience with the site over the last 12 months shows that to be true.

But now it is time to move past Siegfried and to give legs to his idea. Nabuur need to expand rapidly. The innovation, daring and skill of technologists in the valley (and many, many other places around the world) will move this network of people beyond proof of concept and into the practical, daily experience of professionals, students and the retired worldwide. Nabuur needs to experience the open source network effect in order to expand the number of neighbors and villages rapidly.

I have been associated with the Nabuur community (as a volunteer) since 2004. I published this 'conversation' with the founder, Siegfried Woldhek, in 2005:http://aplaceof.info/nabuur/0502siegfriedidyll01.htm     <br>Nabuur remains a remarkable vision full of break-through potential.     <br>Nabuur is, importantly, naive and perhaps outrageous. Otherwise what potential would it have for growth. It is, in 2007, in a very difficult stage of development, with many developing communities having established Nabuur villages and confronted by cliff face obstacles to achievement of what they seek.     <br>The Nabuur office, while seeking enhancement of the web interface to concentrate attention on practical tasks, is not solving this problem. To a large extent this is because it SHOULD NOT be the party to solve it. Yet whether Nabuur succeeds or fails (still an open question) depends on solving the problems.     <br>What are the problems?   <br>First, there is the lack of uunderstanding by many participants in the process of the issues of development, cross-cultural relations and technology transfer. Too many issues are thought of too simply. In part, Nabuur has failed to address itself in recruitment to the skills needed. In part if is a problem of how the people on either side of the glass ceiling see each other: the people in the Third World 'local community'and the people in the developed world, at their computers. The local community sees the gulf in wealth and wants that. The people at their computers often fear this wealth difference, do not see themselves as wealthy, are reluctant to 'give' because of the consequence of pocket-opening. But then, while there is a high expectation in the local community of the outsiders being potential givers, that is not Nabuur's intention. Nabuur has sought but failed to screen out proposals from local communities which are essentially fund-raising. At the same time, Nabuur seems not always to have recognised 'success' in other than such material terms. It seems always easier, especially given our captivity in a consumer society, to want to buy a solution than figure one out.     <br>Second, despite Siegfried's vision (url above) seeking the engagement of ordinary people because the agendas of 'organisations' are full, there is a terrible tendency of Nabuur village communities to work out a plan of action and then try to sell it to those organisations. this remains a recipe for project failure.     <br>Third, the medium - discussion via a very complex web interface - can be more difficult than talking under treacle at times. The efforts to make the interface 'easier' do not overcome theinherent complexity of the task. The effort to simplify tasks often tends to brush aside the problem that many simple tasks of transfer of any idea from one place to another is inherently complex.     <br>Fourth, there are not a lot of people who stay the course. Because of such problems. Interestingly the greatest successes (in staying and working) seem to occur where much dialogue moves away from the limitations of the web site. Here are two of my side-steps: http://aplaceof.info/kiliba/from which now beginning http://ourcongo.net/ andhttp://aplaceof.info/acoke/ Extension beyond and away from Nabuur's discussion forum in itself is not a bad thing. My own view is that like Marx's state, Nabuur should wither away when other ways of dealing with issues develop, or when there is success. Nabuur needs to see that for someone to pick up his ball and walk away saying "I can do this by myself" is (as in much of life) often the highest compliment, the essence of success, if it reflects a realisation of power and responsibility by the community or individual. In terms of the Siegfried vision, Nabuur needs to work hard to avoid focus on its organisational self.     <br>I remain with Nabuur, nonetheless, because I know no other mechanism comparably able to synergise energies for the single most important process on the planet. We live in a time when the influencing of national policies on matters of war and peace and the environment becomes inncreasingly elusive and where climate change will take place whatever action is taken. In this situation, what can be more important than earnest and equal and fair connections between people in different places to build goodwill and work together.     <br>Nabuur is also personally transforming for those who participate, from all directions, in my view. That's another thing that continues to engage me. Dennis

I've followed the development of Nabuur for five years and its trajectory has never waivered from Siegfried Woldhek's vision of an online system where relationships drove the motivation to help. By establisning communications on the village scale, Nabuur lets those of us with access to technology, money and spart time engage directly with people who have ground level familiarity with local needs. It's a great model, and now that it has reached a certain scale, it has become a reliable source of learning for participants on both ends - in the developing countries and in the modern world. This is truly one of the Internet's most outstanding purposes - to help equalize the distribution of knowledge and basic needs. Nabuur deserves recognition because there are plenty of Internet users looking for meaningful ways to use this tool. The need for good advice and support in the poor parts of the world will only become more intense with climate change. Let's grow the dialogue and put our compassion to bear where the problems are likely to be most intense.

Nabuur is an excellent initiative for mobilising the vast intellectual and social resources of the world to help solve local community problems.   The world-as-a-neighbourhood concept underlying the service has Millennial credentials, and although it has passed for a time behind a cloud in the past century, it is about to come back into its own as the global problematiques of climate change, species extinction and general social breakdown remind people of the value of community solidarity.

As Nabuur grows and Metcalfe's Law takes over, the value of this network will rise sharply (quadratically, at least) and it is only a matter of time that concepts such as volunteering, cooperation and mutual help take on new meanings and give a whole  new value to the Internet -- and vice versa.

In all frankness: Nabuur is by far the best and most innovative development concept since a long long long time, bringing together the transboundary opportunities of the web and the willingness of so many ordinary people to help and assist each other. Nabuur shows and offers the concrete alternative for bureaucratic and paper / procedure driven Aid Agency work, and focusses entirely on bilateral help and cooperation between individual people and communities, with a great feeling of mutual ownership and concrete responsibility. And the great side effect is that people all over the world get to know and understand each other better and even become friends... This world desperately needs revolutionary and innovative initiatives like Nabuur.