Spark presentation is now available!
May 18, 2009 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
The SPARK Humanitarian Suite presentation is now online. Click here to view the Flash presentation.
MegaCommunities
April 23, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
Megacommunities, by Mark Gerencser, et al. (a book review with key points posted by Mark Smith)
The problems facing the world are so large that no one sector–business, government or non-profit–can solve the problems by themselves. According to the authors, what is needed is a megacommunity.
A megacommunity is a public sphere in which organizations from three sectors–business, government and non-profits–deliberately join together around compelling issues of mutual importance, following a set of practices and principles that make it easier for them to achieve results without sacrificing their individual goals. The megacommunity is an alliance of organizations, not individuals. In a healthy megacommunity, the three sectors maintain balance by “pushing” and “pulling” at each other according to their respective forms of influence. Order comes out of balancing this dynamic tension. In contrast to public-private partnerships, megacommunities bring civil society (NGO, church, non-profit, etc.) into the equation.
The megacommunity recognizes the kind of legitimacy that civil society represents. The civil sector brings accountability, insight into how to get things done locally, sensitivity to how the issues at play might affect individuals and the environment, and credibility in arenas in which business and government fall short.
Wikinomics: NGO 2.0
March 13, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
Anthony Williams, co-author of best-selling book Wikinomics, gave a keynote address at the Spark conference title Wikinomics: NGO 2.0. Here’s a brief summary of his keynote:There are four drivers of change today:
- Web 2.0. People want to be content creators. People want to be part of the global conversation.
- The Net Generation. According to a Wikinomics survey of 11,000 people aged 15-30, the Net Generation wants cust omized relationships, jobs, etc. They want freedom of choice to do life their unique way.
- The Social revolution. Think Facebook and MySpace and the growth of social networking.
- Economic Revolution. Rethinking the enterprise to take advantage of items 1-3 above. Companies companies in the future are those that can unbundle, network, partner, and outsource to focus on their core competencies. Companies that are built vertically will need to be restructured.
Web 2.0 examples and ideas:
- Dell’s Mindstorm utility that allows users to determine the specify and vote for the features they would like to see in Dell systems.
- Using Second Life to create virtual 3rd world communities for training NGO field workers.
- Blogging.
- Using social networking sites to tap into the untapped time & talent of employees and donors. Enabling collaboration on actual NGO projects.
- Habitat Jam. A 3-day conversation with 40,000 people to harness the collective intelligence of a nation. Wikinomics plans to participate in a similar project in Canada.
- Ideagoras, a market place for minds. Ideas and innovations are increasingly coming from outside company walls—and Web-based virtual talent pools are stepping in to fill the need. An example of this is Innocentive, an open marketplace matching solution seekers with solution solvers. This is a POWERFUL idea. I know of many Halftimers who have the time & talent to solve a particular problem, but need to be matched up with larger NGO’s and Church networks that can provide distribution and funding to take their solutions to the next level.
- UN Solutions Exchange, a UN initiative for development practitioners in India.
- ReliefWeb, the global hub for time critical information on Complex emergencies and natural disasters.
- IntelligentGiving. A website that allows you to comment and rate charities.
Bottom line: I found the keynote fascinating. I believe Kinnovation will be one of the key players in helping NGO’s, para church and church networks to develop next generation technology solutions that will make a substantial difference.
Spark Conference
March 8, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
As Sabre is to the airline industry, Spark is to humanitarian industry.
Imagine a day when each airline had their own reservation system. We all relied on travel agents to navigate different computer systems just to book a flight. In the early 70’s, American Airlines teamed up with IBM and created the Sabre system. It was one of the first computerized reservation and ticket transaction systems. Originally used only by AA, the system was expanded to travel agents in 1976. It is currently used by a large number of companies, including Eurostar and SNCF. Today the system connects more than 30,000 travel agents and 3 million consumers with more than 400 airlines, 50 car-rental companies, 35,000 hotels and dozens of railways, tour companies, ferries and cruise lines. This evolved into ACP (Airlines Control Program), and later to TPF (Transaction Processing Facility). American spun off Sabre on March 15, 2000. Sabre was publicly traded corporation, Sabre Holdings, stock symbol TSG on the NYSE until taken private in March 2007.
Today, all non-government organizations (NGO) use different systems for Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DM&E). Each year, billions of dollars are donated by individuals, businesses, and governments through NGO’s to reach the end beneficiaries. Unfortunately, there is no standards for reporting impact, so it is impossible for donors to get a consolidated report of their donation impact across multiple agencies. In effect, the non-profit industry is where the airline industry was in 1972.
On March 11, 2008 World Vision, one of the leading NGO’s ($2B/year), gathered together 15 organizations to discuss the possibility of developing an inter-agency DM&E system that would benefit the entire non-profit industry. If successful, the system (code named “Spark”) would enable all non-profits the ability to capture impact data into a common platform and report back to donors. It is believed that providing higher quality and more transparent impact reports to donors will increase accountability and ultimately result in higher donations to the organizations that provide this information to it’s donors.