James Boyce

Once Again, Business Shows Nonprofits the Future

2010-10-07T12:55:22-04:00

Occasionally, we can gain great insights from small events. These brief moments often disappear into the ether, but sometimes a small moment, with perspective, can actually indicate major change on the horizon.

On a plane back from D.C. last week, I saw such a telltale sign. It was a small blurb about Barnes & Noble and their view of the book industry. Currently, 10 percent of Barnes and Noble income comes from digital products, but they believe, and are projecting, that the number will jump to 31 percent within 36 months. That's $1 billion in digital revenue.

I would wager a lot of nonprofits are taking in about 10 percent of their revenue from 'digital' sources right now, the same as Barnes & Noble, but Barnes & Noble knows that to reach the goal of 31 percent, and to meet or exceed what the marketplace is doing, they will have to dedicate real resources, and a real focus on changing their business model to capture that market share. They will objectively look at present trends and make an informed strategic decision about the future and execute to that decision.

And how many large nonprofits can say they are doing that?

When I spent 2004 as an unpaid Senior Advisor on John Kerry's campaign, I learned two things, the first is that unpaid means unpaid and you will never appreciate how much it actually costs to live until you have the word 'unpaid' in front of your job title. The second is that a technology gap exists between business and nonprofits that is fairly interesting, and important to understand.

With perspective, I see that some of the things that I saw on the Kerry Campaign, a fundamental misunderstanding of how information flowed in the 2004 world, a lack of knowledge about email, even servers going down, were actually a reflection of how many people on the campaign had either stepped into the campaign from nonprofits and D.C.-based causes. These were smart people who were dedicated, passionate about winning, but disconnected from leading digital strategies in the business world. I recall people literally walking the halls of the McPherson Square office with wonder about how "Howard Dean is emailing everybody."

What I came to understand is that the business fixation with quarterly profits, with taking market share from other companies, with the day-to-day corporate struggle has led to businesses increasingly becoming early adaptors of technology.

If a business had to make a decision between sending 10,000 direct mail pieces at 68 cents per piece and 10,000 emails at 0 cents per piece, the ROI was instantly calculated and the emails prevailed. A nonprofit or cause group or, say Senate office that doesn't even pay for its mail to its constituents, wouldn't approach the same question with the same mind-set. They would come much more slowly to a conclusion, or even a non-conclusion, compared to the business facing the quarterly profit report.

This slower approach that nonprofits take has led to a lag in adaptation, and therefore, a digital gap. This gap has always been in existence to a certain degree, i.e. twenty five years ago, nonprofits also lagged businesses but the impact wasn't as profound and it wasn't increasing exponentially. And that's where Moore's Law comes into play.

Moore's Law states the computer power doubles every two years. Think back to the computers of the 1980s, the doubling of the power within those machines was important but nothing compared to the doubling of the power within say, the latest MacBook Pro. Put another way, last year's iPhone, is today's iPad.

Consider too the pace of play in our brave world. Substantial and powerful outlets such as The Huffington Post, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and many more are all less than five and a half years old. The gap is larger than ever, and many large nonprofits are struggling to figure out how to close the gap when seemingly every day, it is getting wider.

At the same time, you'll see nonprofits that have been created within the time frame of the new digital world leapfrog the growth of nonprofit programs operating in the old world structure. One of our clients, Product (RED) launched in fall of 2006, lives on the power of its remarkable digital assets, a million plus people on Twitter, half a million on Facebook, and so forth. This community, galvanized by a strong online connection, has generated over $150 million to fight AIDS in Africa.

VoteVets.org started by my friend Jon Soltz has mastered the blog/new media world as it too was launched in 2006. Now that group is helping making sure Vets get the care they need when they return home and influence key elections.

Simply put, the nonprofits and charity organizations that inject digital strategy in the core of the efforts will ultimately succeed just as every American business, like Barnes & Noble, must understand how digital will impact their worlds. If they do not, in either case, they will be overtaken by more innovative organizations. This requires a change in resources and in the larger nonprofits a change in core organization. Two changes that will often, and in fact, in our experience, almost always meet with resistance.

The first barrier is that you essentially are working against the core culture of a nonprofit, and the past experience of those who work there. Working at a nonprofit is not the same as working at a for-profit company. The wages, the job expectations, the vacations, they are all very different.

The second is that large nonprofits rarely re-organize like a business will restructure. A new executive will look at a company and often will make quick and radical changes. This rarely happens in a nonprofit. But it should. And, in fact, it needs to. The changes in the world around them are far too substantial to let change occur naturally. It needs to be injected into the organization, not in the traditional nonprofit mode of consensus building but with a corporate restructuring mindset.

This has to happen because the world outside the walls of nonprofits has been permanently and fundamentally altered. Recently, Arthur Sulzberger, CEO of New York Times, stated that yes, eventually the New York Times would cease to publish a print edition. Dozens of nonprofits and progressive causes act with the goal of having their cause, their work, their campaign reported on in the NY Times. But soon, I say within 24 months, there won't be a NY Times to try and get into.

Nonprofits and causes live and operate in the same world today as businesses. Business is telling us what they see coming. We'll have to see how many nonprofits can adapt, and how fast they can adapt so that they are as prepared as it certainly appears Barnes & Noble intends to be.

Big Oil's About to Go Big Money in California

2010-10-06T20:58:30-04:00

Right now, California is about to get a dose of Big Oil's money as some of the biggest polluters in the country -- Valero, Tesoro and Koch Industries -- see their dream of Proposition 23 go down in flames.

These Toxic Triplets have poured close to ten million dollars into California in a desperate attempt to overturn a bill, AB 32, that is the cornerstone of California's hope for a green economy, green job present and future. AB 32 is generating jobs right now, but not jobs in dirty energy, so major oil companies are doing everything they can to stop it.

Things like paying scientists major bucks to write false and misleading reports. My colleague Max Bernstein and I created a word to describe the right's strategy of creating a scientific controversy where there is none -- manufactroversy.

Steve Maviglio reports how the oil companies are taking this to a whole new level in the Prop 23 fight.

Tom Tanton, who has produced several reports attacking AB 32 and bills himself as an independent "economist," received $35,000 in payment. Tanton's widely criticized work is the basis of the Yes on 23's "study" that says AB 32 will hurt local communities. Gee, I wonder if the $35,000 he received helped him reach that conclusion in his "independent" work.

What we should watch out for as Prop 23 looks like it might go down in a very expensive defeat for Big Oil is that they will start to panic, pour more money into California and ramp up the attacks, the lies and whatever else they can think of.

It's not the money that matters so much -- it's the fact that to preserve their profits, Big Oil needs to be obsessive about stopping anything that even suggests that clean energy is good, or good for an economy.

Stay tuned. It's ugly out there in the Golden State. And it's about to get uglier.

Introducing SustainableTrip.org -- One Step Better Than Reusing Your Hotel Towels.

2010-09-24T10:35:46-04:00

How much energy are we conserving when we reuse our hotel towels? Sure it's a good thing, but the cynic inside many of us says this small effort does more for the bottom line of the hotel than it does for the environment.

If we really want to make a difference while we travel, we need to make better, more informed choices. Real sustainable travel is about more than reusing towels, turning off lights and hotel recycling programs. These days, it has to be.

Today we can travel wisely and consciously and support businesses that are committed to sustainability, without sacrificing quality or luxury.

The Rainforest Alliance has just launched SustainableTrip.org, a global database of hotels, lodges, B&Bs and resort accommodations that are committed to sustainability. The businesses that are listed are verified by the Rainforest Alliance. This means they have had to prove that they are committed to protecting local wildlife, or they support staff training and education programs, or that they are implementing technologies that help save energy, or of course, all of the above.

The new site shows some of what you would expect: canopy level eco lodges tucked into Costa Rican cloud forests, and bungalows in Belize. But, they also have larger resorts in Aruba, Turks & Caicos and Jamaica, places you might not think to associate with sustainability.

Travel, especially for a vacation, is a leisure activity. It's a time to escape some of our daily responsibilities, but by making a choice to support a hotel or resort that's committed to sustainability, we're doing more than taking a break from life, we're helping to sustain it.

When Obama Called Mike Castle

2010-09-21T10:19:10-04:00

Surely President Obama has better things to do than to make time to call someone who lost the Republican Nomination for Senate in Delaware. But the fact the President Obama made the time to call Mike Castle says a lot about Washington, the remaining vestiges of inside the beltway power and the circle the wagons mentality that DC continues to hold.

What may have driven the phone call was one member of the political establishment commiserating with another who was driven out by Republicans who voted against Washington and elected a questionable candidate in Christine O'Donnell.

We might be able to paraphrase the conversation to include, 'Sorry about your loss, wow, the people are really rising up aren't they.' In a year when Republicans are supposed to be so strong, this article pointed out something I hadn't realized.

The National Republican Senate Committee supported eight candidates during the Republican primary. All eight lost.

The facts are clear. Earlier this year, I noted that when Martha Coakley was leading by only five points, the DC Consultant Group came to her rescue, pouring in excess of $10,000,000 into Massachusetts to try and retain the seat for the Democrats.

Having to spend $10 in Massachusetts to keep a Democrat in power used to be considered high budget. And we all know what DC got for its investment -- a resounding loss.

From coast to coast, from the grassroots and the netroots up, the message is clear: DC is a disaster for both parties. The point is hard to argue; if you are from DC, you are in trouble. I fear this will actually lead to a long term trend of anti-incumbency that I am not sure is positive but in the short run, there are two things that will be interesting to watch.

For the Republicans, it will be, and the media needs to help here, the uncomfortable realization that the Tea Party is not, in fact, a political party but Republicans. No candidate that I am aware of has run as a "Tea Party" candidate, they are all Republicans.

For the Democrats, it will be the need to feel much less complacent about the Christine O'Donnells of the world. People get that she may be crazy, dishonest, pagan and everything else. What they are saying to the world is 'we don't care, she's not from DC"

And the way it's looking, and Senator Scott Brown might agree, that's all she needs to be.

The Democracy Diet

2010-09-14T14:33:26-04:00

It doesn't take a doctor to look around and see that our body politic is not healthy. We've been gorging on too much corporate cash, and special interest distortions. And while that looks really good on the surface, it is not giving us what we need to keep our body healthy and strong. So today, when there are primary elections in New Hampshire (not to mention DE, DC, MD, MN, NY, RI, VT, WI, and HI) I want to suggest a great cleanse: The Democracy Diet.

Last week, the Live Free or Die Alliance (LFDA) unveiled a massive warehouse of all-natural election information that is essential to consume regularly for a well-balanced perspective at the polls. The way it works is this: we already have all of that unnatural, over-processed stuff in our system, so add Election Central, the LFDA ingredient, and it will immediately start working to break down those compound masses of unhealthy vitriol - which are often cancerous to the body politic - into their more simple and benign elements. We immediately start to feel less anxious, and we can think more clearly. It improves our vision too.

It is not easy to farm good, nutritious information for the body politic. The good folks at the LFDA have been working all summer in the fields of knowledge to produce this harvest. They dug up every single candidate for public office in New Hampshire, washed off the dirt and smears, and posted what they found in the warm light of day.

What do they charge for this political super-food? Nothing. So c'mon and get some of the good stuff, and help our body politic to have a better self image, to stop hating itself, and shed some of the unnecessary weight it has been putting on.

Next, consider enrolling in regular De-spinning classes by joining the Live Free or Die Alliance, and by becoming part of the community on the Facebook Page.

McConnell Opens The November Window For Democrats.

2010-09-13T16:40:02-04:00

There have been lots of stories about how the Democrats can rally from two plus years of perceived ineptitude and salvage the November elections. Well, Senator Minority Leader McConnell has promised to filibuster any extension of the Bush tax cuts that do not include Americans making over $250,000.

He wants to protect Americans millionaires from paying their fair share of taxes. He promises to filibuster any bill that doesn't protect them. Make him.

Clear the slate of the Senate and bring in the cots. Bring the bill to the floor of the Senate as soon as possible and make them filibuster all day every day from now to the election. Make them defend the massive impact the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Make them defend the independent studies that show wealthy Americans save their tax cuts.

Make them filibuster.

After a week, or two, there will be the temptation to drop the filibuster, to go onto other issues.

Don't do it.

Make them defend their tax cuts for the wealthy all day every day for the next seven weeks and maybe, just maybe there will be a window for the Democrats.

Thanks Mitch, just when we needed a lifeline, you just tossed us one.

Americans Don't Burn Books

2010-09-07T09:38:02-04:00

Enough is enough. Enough with the bigotry and the hate. Enough with the race-baiting and the fake debate about the Ground Zero Mosque. Enough of white Americans putting up fences to keep their fellow humans out. Enough of the birthers.

Enough of Christian hypocrites who thump their Bibles while denying men and women the right to marry the one they love. Enough of conservatives holding up the Constitution having never actually read it and preaching about one nation under God and also denying that every American has the right to worship the God of their choosing.

Enough of Progressives and Democrats who engage in these debates rather than attack these bigoted racist hypocrites. Enough of the hate-mongers getting all the attention and press.

You have to draw the line somewhere. Guess what? Now's the time.

You are entitled to your own opinion. After all, this is America and there is freedom of speech. But just as important, there is freedom of worship. Because of our freedoms, there, ironically, is the freedom to burn books. However.

Because we are Americans, because we defend and fight and preserve the right of free speech, because we have seen what happens in countries who don't defend these freedoms, we do not burn books. Let me repeat that.

Americans don't burn books.

We print books that maybe you don't people want to read. We print books filled with hate. We print and print and print books of all kinds, but we don't burn books. By defending everyone's right to speak, we defend our right to speak. By defending everyone's right to their own religion, we defend our own right to our own religion.

We have gone to war with people who do burn books; Adolph Hitler comes to mind. Stalin. Pol Pot. There are others. Our military graveyards are full of the men and women who protected us, who gave their lives for us. Not one soldier has ever died, so we could burn books.

Americans Don't Burn Books.

And we especially don't burn the books of another person's religion.

You may or may not believe in the Bible, but if you think the Bible is the worst book in the world, as an American, you don't have to read it, you don't have to believe, no one can force you to or hold it against you if you don't, but you can not burn the Bible.

You may or may not believe in what is in the Torah. You may think the Torah is the worst book in the world, as an American, you don't have to read it, you don't have to believe it, no one can force you to, or hold it against you if you don't but you can not burn the Torah.

Buddhist books, Pagan books, Hindu books. You can't burn them.

And you can't burn the Koran.

You may or may not believe in what is in the Koran. You may think the Koran is the worst book in the world; as an American, you don't have to read it, you don't have to believe it. No one can force you to, or hold it against you if you don't but you can not burn the Koran.

I salute my friends at Human Rights First who are standing up against the bigots who would burn the Koran on 9/11. And if you want to, you can click here and get a free bookmark from Human Rights First. It says:

Americans don't burn books.

But other people do. Notice the crowd watching the book burning and who is in it.

Welcome to America: Head Down, Trying to Survive the Day and a Bad Marriage

2010-07-28T10:24:03-04:00

I am fascinated, perversely, with the total and complete failure of the climate clean energy bill in the United States Senate, and have struggled to find a parallel in our time for such an event.

Rising temperatures, scientific consensus, public support, a Democratic Senate, House and White House, the unfortunate disaster in the Gulf in the news front and center -- and the bill didn't even come close. I think it's far too simple to blame the outlying Democrats, the obstructionist Republicans or the leaderless White House for the failure; I fear the reason for the failure is deeper and more devastating.

As I struggled to put these reasons into words, and spoke with many friends about the issue, Wikileaks released tens of thousands of pages on the failed war in Afghanistan and while the issue is completely different, the fundamental underlying reaction to it is not.

Our country and our lives have crumbled and are crumbling around us. The infrastructure of our nation is horribly poor. Walking around Boston with a knee brace, I have been reminded every few steps that we are nation, or at least Boston is a city, that can't even maintain its sidewalks. Bridges are getting washed away, our air traffic control system is a third world embarrassment, our schools are falling apart, the national debt is exploding, we are almost a decade into two lost wars, when in our history have so many factors combined to create a sense of underlying desperation.

Did I mention that one of four houses is negative equity on the mortgage? Or the rising obesity rates?

The relationship between the average American and the country at large, and the world around us, has become one of a bad marriage. In a bad marriage, both parties over time realize the marriage is fundamentally broken. Communication is gone, intimacy is gone, trust and love, gone. But often the parties, overwhelmed with the turn of events, become not focused on addressing the pain of the issues, but simply put their heads down and try to survive the day. They can't face the idea of addressing all the issues in the marriage, they can't see the path to improvement, they can't see how to get out, and they simply shut down.

We as a country have been and continue to be in the process of shutting down. And as we were, two years ago, another factor came into play. Americans have become used to -- in fact, dependent on -- an ease of life that no past generation has ever known. Information and news are at our fingertips -- no one has to go to a library to research anything, we simply Google it. Every piece of news and gossip and information is here, online in an instant.

On top of that, over the past fifteen years or so, financially, we have gone from a country where we worked and saved and planned for buying a car, a boat, a house to one of instant credit, and instant reward. Who needs to save for a downpayment? Who needs to save for a car when you can lease one? We've become a country of instant reward and instant solutions.

Two years ago, collectively, we saw the issues on the horizon, the economy was faltering, we have seen our schools crumble, our reputation fading, and we saw a path for instant reward and instant solution, his name was Barack Obama.

We embraced the absolutely unreasonable idea that one man, a decent man with better than average oratorical skills, would come in and fix everything that ails us. He'll fix Iraq and Afghanistan and our schools and our climate and don't ask don't tell and he'll fix our financial mess and the housing crisis. He'll make it all better, instantly.

It was a last gasp shot at recapturing past glory. It was the aging quarterback looking for one final Hail Mary pass. It was doomed to failure. And while Obama hasn't failed, our hope for him has because it was not based in reality.

So here we are, and what happens next?

I don't honestly know but I fear many things. I fear the rise of nationalism and racism because it's far easier to blame others than it is to face your own failings. I fear that we will continue to choke on cheap debt and the illusion of glory, focusing on the one person in the country who earns $100 million playing basketball, and not on the 100 million people who are struggling to pay their bill.

I fear that we have become lazy and fat and a society ill-equipped to deal with hardship and that our politicians will continue to fail us, because we continue to fail ourselves.

The crisis is here, or actually there's much more than one. Will we put our heads down again and again, or will we finally raise our heads up and begin to fight back?

The Distant Neighborhood

2010-06-29T16:56:58-04:00

A recent week long stay in the hospital got me thinking about connections, our five best friends, and how vast our local neighborhoods are. When I busted my knee up, and couldn't drive, or get dinner by myself, I turned to my friends for help.

I am not the most social of bees but do have a nice collection of close friend. Thanks to email, Facebook, cell phones, Twitter and Texting, my core group of friends are all very close to me, and I probably communicate with them much more often than my father would have with his five best friends at our same respective ages. But of my five best friends, people I could call and say come pick me up at the hospital, only one of these friends actually lives in Boston. The other four are on Long Island, in North Carolina, in Los Angeles and in Scotland.

Before we go on, take a moment and envision where your five closest friends are. Probably at least two or three, or more, are far away from you physically. Instead of staying close by having lunch or dinner, we stay in more frequent contact electronically, building and nurturing friendships at a distance. We can also often find the means to fly to see those friends at much less expense than in days past.

You can also look at your Facebook friends and see friends from literally all over the world, from distant high schools or colleges. But again, many you actually may not in stay in touch with, you share photos and videos with, celebrate birthdays with, hang out with virtually. Just as some have asked "will Facebook kill the high school reunion?" it's fair to ask what other impacts the concept of a distant neighborhood might have.

It occurs to me it does indeed make the world smaller. I think I have friends from about 20 countries on Facebook and this brings their worlds, their lives, the issues where they live into my lives in a more pronounced manner.

It also means that brands are more instantly portable because if you work at Boloco in Boston, and you are looking to open a Boloco in a whole new market, friends of your existing fans may well, in fact, almost definitely will, live in that new market. Essentially you can get "word of mouth" advertising the day you open a store in a market you've never been.

It also makes somethings harder. Let's say you're raising money to build a new Little League field where you live. Well, you don't have the automatic group of people to tap into because your best friend in Los Angeles probably doesn't car quite as much. You can gather people globally as easily as our parents gathered people on the proverbial south side of town.

It also, trust me, makes getting home from the hospital a touch more challenging.

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut. Sometimes You Don't.

2010-06-23T11:43:17-04:00

Can you complete this old advertising jingle?

Almond Joy's got nuts, mounds don't.

The other day in our office I discovered, and I am sure I am not the first 45 year old boss to have such a moment, that our newest hires had no idea what I was talking about. Luckily, some of our more seasoned employees chimed in and I was only slightly humiliated by the passage of time and memories of a long-ago most popular jingle.

Our newest company addition, a very capable young woman from Northeastern, Class of 2012, had no idea what I was singing off key and for good reason, that ditty is twelve years older than she was. However, it's an interesting moment culturally because that ditty from the 1970s was popular on TV, it was part of our culture, it feels like a more modern moment but indeed it got its start more than thirty five plus years ago.

A 45 year old boss and a 22 year old new employee would always have differences of time and experience but I wonder if there has ever been a time when you have not only great differences and great similarities. Twenty years ago, the boss would have liked different music and had different tastes in TV shows of the day.

However, now thanks to technology, those lines are being blurred. I have an iPad and she hasn't gotten one yet. We both have iPods. We are both on Facebook (much to her chagrin I suppose but she was good enough to friend me back, but I'm betting that's only a work deal as our company is an online marketing group.) We are consumers and users of new media in very similar ways, ways that wouldn't have linked someone a generation apart, a generation ago.

But as we are similar in how we are consuming media today and in our daily technology experiences, our pasts are so stunningly different it's amazing to think.

In 1987, when I graduated from Duke, this is my short sweet list of things that didn't exist. No internet. No Facebook. No cellular phones. No laptop computers.

I remember fax machines with the rolls. She does not. Because she was born that same year.

What I remember clearly, she has no experience of. (Sony Walkman? Check.)

And yet here we are, both living and using the newest and latest technology. True she has a few thousand more photos on Facebook than I do (something I definitely have noticed is a generational difference) and she is more comfortable with some of the tools and technologies.

But our present and our futures look very similar even if our pasts, and especially our paths to this moment of connectivity do not.

Wiffle Ball: The Greatest Game

2010-06-15T15:00:00-04:00

Second base is a granite rock. Third an upside down kettle. First the top of the step sewer. There is no home plate, only a slowly-being ground down patch of grass in front of the basement. The wiffle ball field my son and I play on is far from a flawless diamond and the rules are our own -- rules that make perfect sense to an eleven year old boy and his father and few others I suspect.

Two strikes is an out, fouls count, and one out is an inning. Oliver has too much baseball talent and too much hand-to-eye coordination to make it feasible otherwise. Five run max in every inning but the last, three balls a walk. It's a game meant for speed. But games I savior.

Wikipedia will tell you a father invented Wiffle Ball with his son in 1953 in Connecticut and today, 47 years later, a Wiffle Ball and stick is just $3.99. We don't go through many extra sticks but we have broken our share of balls out in the front yard.

The yard we play in is the yard I played in as a child -- the yard I walked through on a gray November day so many years ago when my father died across the sea -- sits in front of where we play. I know every inch of that yard. I remember the friends, the girls, and the lovers who have walked it. But now, nothing matters more to me than the game.

"One game" he will plead. "Just one game." Sometimes it's one inning. I always play because well, it's tough times right now for Oliver and I some days. He lives with his mother, I am working on my new business, trying to help take care of my mother, and the person I am closest to in the world has been going through her own hell.

So I make sure I show up for first pitch, in fact, now, I think the games mean more to me than to him.

My daughter once came out for five moments, announced she was cold and bored and that Wiffle Ball was stupid and returned to the house.

I have to play hard, dusting off what little game I had back in high school. I win some -- usually irritating and sometimes infuriating Oliver. But I lose more even when I try. He is getting bigger, faster and stronger every day.

We don't talk much about our situation out there in the front yard, in fact we rarely do at all. It's hard to find the right words when your son is hurting in front of your eyes. But I do try.

But mostly we play.

We play as the sun sets over the water.

We play in the rain.

We play before breakfast. And after dinner. We play in whipping wind and perfect calmness.

Two strikes, you're out. Three balls, it's a walk. One out and you move on. Six innings is a game. No cream rule in the last.

On Sunday, it was cold, misty, we were out there in bare feet, hoodies. The wind was from the east. Oliver won 14-3. He hit the ball great. He ran and played hard. He was happy.

What's up With the Rainforest: Need to Save Our Planet Has Never Been More Urgent

2010-06-15T10:33:42-04:00

Whether it's getting to work on time, or crossing off the last item on our bucket list, life is a race against the clock -- and right now, we aren't winning. We've spent the last decades without much regard to how our actions will impact our ecosystems and environment, forgetting that our own future depends on the health of our Earth. But now that we've started to see the consequences of our actions, as well as realize the immense benefits we can gain through understanding and preserving our environment, it's becoming clear how important it is to save our planet. And while we can't turn back the hands, or stop the seconds from ticking, we can make sure we don't waste the precious moments we are given. We, along with our partner Rainforest Alliance, hope you will take the time to help us work towards a future where our environment not just survives, but thrives, for generations to come.

As our first article highlights, we have much to do as individuals and a global community in order to turn our environmental crisis around, and unfortunately, time is not on our side. The author applies the theme of this year's World Environment Day, Many Species, One Planet, One Future, to help remind us of our "complete and critical dependence on our environment." Also pointing out the urgency by emphasizing that, "the momentum towards environmental catastrophe builds at a cascading pace." However, the author gives hope that just because we've started this mess, doesn't mean we can't clean it up. Stating that "through cooperation, common purpose and shared goals about our environment and our future" we will be able to change our path of destruction.

New research is also helping make clear that saving our environment doesn't mean compromising our future. According to this study, protecting rainforests reduces poverty as well as conserving biodiversity. The analysis revealed that "the introduction of measures to protect rainforests and ecosystems in Costa Rica and Thailand over the past 40 years have improved the livelihoods of the local population," proving once again how the benefits of a healthy environment extend far beyond the trees. And it's not just scientists who are realizing the advantages of understanding and preserving our planet. The corporate world is also getting in on the action, as seen in this article that reveals how businesses are taking design inspiration from the natural world to improve "their green credentials and drive design innovation."

Lastly, we look at how one Amazon tribe is hoping to use the Internet as a way to save their rainforests. The Surui Tribe has been selected as the first indigenous group to be paid by the world to preserve its forest, and Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui believes that combining technology with tradition will be the "only way they can save their forest, their culture, and their tribe." Almir Surui is planning to reverse the deforestation that has devastated his homeland through "the Internet, Google Earth, and GPS." While only time will tell if the outcome is a success, Almir Surui is clearly showing the commitment and dedication it requires to winning this battle against climate change.

Time is running out to save our planet from irreversible damage. Join us on Facebook and get involved in the fight for a sustainable and brighter future. We have the tools to make a difference, so let's start using them - the clock is ticking.

(RED) Shows The World How To Score With SMO

2010-06-15T10:23:49-04:00

The world in which we live and I work is one that is changing at light speed. We are living Moore's Law; the founder of Intel theorized that computer power doubles approximately every eighteen months. A generation ago, the power that was being doubled was significantly less than that which is being doubled now. Famously, a new car has more computer power than an Apollo landing module. The iPad is really the Ipod doubled, and then some.

So now, everyone's attention is turning to not just building Social Networks but also to optimizing. Increasingly, our company is helping groups with what we are calling Social Media Optimization, or SMO -- how do you get the most out of the networks you have spent so much time building?

Our clients have Facebook groups ranging from 1,000 fans (I still call them fans, likers just doesn't make any sense) to over 500,000 fans. Regardless of the size, the core issue is how you communicate with these fans to keep them engaged, keep them active and empower them to help you in your mission -- no matter what that mission is. But before we get to the SMO part, let's take a step back and look at two basic rules we often see that groups and organizations are not following.

The first rule is that while it is your page, it is not your community. We always recommend that clients default their Facebook pages to "Your Name + Others" for some pretty simple reasons. It's not much of a message to send to your followers that your news goes front and center and everyone sees it, but if they want to take the time and effort to put something up, well, that has to be hidden. Yes, this does mean more monitoring of your page, but think about it, don't you want to do anything possible to encourage your fans to engage with you and other fans? There are more things like this to consider but this is really the first and most important. Make your fans' ideas as important as your ideas.

The second rule is what you post. And here it is important to remember two things. First, you can post a lot of content on your Facebook page as long as it is good, relevant content. The key is that it be relevant not to you, but to your fans. They, not your internal needs, are your audience and your primary consideration. You, ultimately, are going to ask for something from them, sign a letter, give a donation, volunteer, something, so in turn, you need to provide them with interesting and important content to keep them engaged. Sure, your organization's blog posts matter, and you want everyone to see but really if your group is, say, a group on birds, and your fans are all birders, the issue is to help keep them up to date on what is happening in the bird world. Some of that will be your content, some might not, but the important thing is to provide the content they want to see.

If you're following these two rules and if your group is of reasonable size, then the time comes when you can activate the group more aggressively.

We saw a great example of this last week with our client (RED) who partnered with Yahoo! on the first day of the World Cup. Yahoo's online game, Penalty Shootout, went (RED) for the day and for every goal scored, up to 100,000 goals, Yahoo donated $1 to The Global Fund, (RED)'s on the ground partner in Africa in the effort to save the lives of those living with AIDS.

I wrote a blog post about it here and that post was used as the reminder piece of content within (RED)'s formidable social networks. It was tweeted to over one million followers, Facebooked to another 500,000 plus folks and then it (along with other efforts like a dedicated email and support from partners I hastened to add) took off within those networks, and by noon last Friday, the $100,000 goal had been met. Or should I say goals had been met?

Here you can see how it moved through the Twitterverse.

The point is that (RED) has spent significant time, energy and effort obsessively building those networks. They then created a great moment with a major partner, Yahoo!.

We created a single piece of content that could then be sent through those networks. And because (RED) has always treated those networks well, and grown them smartly, and engaged with them, the people within the networks returned the favor.

And $100,000 is going to help save lives in Africa. Score.

Cody Damon, Social Media Director at Common Sense NMS, has some more thoughts on this same event here.

Kick. Score. Save.

2010-06-10T15:28:31-04:00

As a red-blooded American, it is my God-given right to ignore every aspect of the World Cup. However, even if you are one of those people who are perfectly happy to skip the whole event as you wait for the real football season to get started, I am here to ask you to please tie on your virtual cleats tomorrow and play some soccer online for a very, very good cause.

And, of course, if you actually love the world's most popular game like a mad Celtic fan at Ibrox, well, then this, my friend, is the invitation you have been waiting for.

In honor of the World Cup, Yahoo! has created a great game called the PENALTY SHOOTOUT and it's actually a chance to win some great prizes and even, if you too are the best in the world, a free trip to Brazil.

Any day would be a good day to play, but tomorrow is a special day, because tomorrow Yahoo! is partnering up with (RED) and the game is going (RED) for day. For every goal scored tomorrow, Yahoo will give $1 up to $100,000 -- with 100 percent of the money going directly to The Global Fund. So, literally tomorrow, we can all play the game and get up to $100,000 donated to help fight AIDS in Africa. That's enough to bring out the inner Ronaldo in even the most die hard American.

The other thing to think about tomorrow as you take a break from work, and score goal after goal, is the power of every single goal you score. As (RED) has shown recently with their documentary, The Lazarus Effect, for just 40 cents a day, The Global Fund can provide life-saving drugs to one person in Africa. Every goal is more than two days worth of drugs. Imagine if you go on a scoring spree -- ten goals, twenty goals -- you literally are saving lives with every goal.

Please tomorrow, take a moment and play the game. As the World Cup starts in Africa, it's the right moment to realize the enormous challenges many in this wondrous continent face every single day.

Kick. Score. Save A Life. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday.

Great Britain Gives Respect To Women -- Bars Chris Brown From Entering

2010-06-09T12:24:48-04:00

Here in the United States, we seem to have a very hard time telling right from wrong. For example, when I wrote about the tragic death of Yeardley Love and how our culture is willing to forgive unforgivable offenses, such as Roman Polanski pleading guilty to sexual acts with a 13 year old-girl when he was 44 years old, some of the reader's comments on the Huffington Post said it all.

"(LA Law enforcement) have wanted to steal Polanski's fame, good name and his money, and his freedom all for a casual sexual encounter for which he was NOT entirely responsible."

Uh-huh. Or even more outrageous. The man who has allegedly confessed to killing Yeardley Love (beat her head against the wall, left her to die) well, let's see what some of the readers of the Huffington Post have to say about George.

"The comments have been overwhelmingly negative towards George Hugeley."

Also for those who read the original post, I had to change the part about Jackson Browne because well, he wasn't convicted for actually beating Daryl Hannah, but this is what her uncle wrote when he saw her in the hospital:

I was with her in the hospital, I saw the ugly black bruises on her eye and chin and on her ribs. The examining doctor reported she had blood in her urine. The doctor was shocked by the severity and noted Daryl as a badly battered woman. I photographed her at the hospital.

So it's fair to say I was shocked and disappointed by these reactions, and I believe that these reactions show my point exactly, and while I was disheartened, well, the good people of Great Britain have stood up for what is right.

Chris Brown has been barred from entering, and thus performing, in the U.K. because of the Rhianna beating.

So while some people think it's okay to beat your girlfriend to a pulp, at least law enforcement in the U.K. disagrees.

It's not surprising that at GiveRespect.org where we are asking people to pledge to respect their fellow human beings, a lot of folks from the U.K. are signing up -- you can too.

Sorry Chris, guess you'll have to find a country that welcomes domestic violence offenders so you can go do some more shows. Tough luck old chap.