501V3 Campaign: Millennials as Elected Officials

The V3 campaign has added a new twist; a blog to encourage Millennials to run for pubilc office.  In According to the first blog post of this new effort on the V3 blog describes what they’re calling 501V3 in this way:

Members of this “We Generation” are now starting to run for and hold elective office—while still in school. Just as we have questions for other politicians, our big question of the students is: how will their background in service inform their positions and decision-making?

I had an email exchange with Robert Egger, the founder of V3, about this new effort on Friday.  In his uniquely enthusiastic style, Robert wrote:

“Can you imagine—what would it be like if this GIANT cohort said—we do not want our service to be channeled exclusively through charities anymore—we want a new avenue to get our skills into the mix, and its politics!!!!”

It is definitely worth watching and supporting this new effort as it launches.

Self-Organized Protests of the Bailout

There has been a panoply of amazing activist sights and sounds in New York this week.  The opening sessions of the UN is always a circus shutting down traffic and bringing out protestors, particularly when the demagogue of Iran, Ahmadinejad, is speaking.  The Clinton Global Initiatives was a magnet for rock stars and CEOs. But the most exciting event of the week, for foks like me who are more than a bit obsessed with citizen participation was the self-organized protests on Wall Street last night.  Sparked and coordinated by email, blogs and Twitter, hundreds of people arrived with their home made signs (which don’t look so home made anymore with new technology, do they?) to protest the proposed bailout.

Keeping Us In the Dark on the Wall Street Bailout

Do you really trust Washington politicians to get this bailout right?  An enormously expensively, risky proposal comes flying up the Hill from the White House and Congress meekly agrees – sound familiar?  Show us the bill, says the Sunlight Foundation!

Clinton Global Initiative Supersizes Philanthropy

The morning plenary at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) just concluded. After some opening remarks, President Clinton “Oprahed” a august panel that included Queen Rania Al-Abdullah (Jordan), E. Neville Isdell, chairman of Coca-Cola, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Al Gore and the person I was most excited to hear Bono!

This is the fourth CGI but the first that I have attended.  It is a star-studded alignment of donors like Pam Omidyar, corporate CEOs, nonprofits, Nobel Peace PrizeLaureates like Gore and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, and government types.  Mayor Bloomberg, who spoke with Lance Armstrong, prior to the panel about funding cancer prevention in Africa, is all of the above minus the Nobel Peace Prize!

The CGI brings all of these pieces together to provide large investments in infrastructure and urgent needs in developing countries.  It is astonishing to see the size of the commitments – similar in size to the economies of the countries themselves – as President Clinton recited over the past four years of $30 billion affecting 215 millino people in tens of countries. In additon, the microphilanthropy segment of CGI has raised $4 million, generated 400,000 hours of volunteer time and donated 4 million items to causes.

Here’s a selection of comments from the panelists:

• Queen Rania mentioned that the total annual cost to educate every child in the world is $11 billion.  Hmmm, compare that to a 700 bilion bailout of Wall Street — or as President Clinton said, it is half the monthly cost of our military effort in Iraq.
• Isdell was fascinating, an incredibly forward-looking corporate steward.  He said that, “believing that the only purpose of business is to make a profit is last century thinking.  We have to function as a partner in every society in which we are based, it’s good for business.”  He said that unlike the last major recession in 1998, emerging markets are more robust and stable and are becoming the epicenter of economic growth — as if we weren’t scared enough already!
• Bono was as fabulous as I hoped.  He compared the $700 billion bailout to the $20 billion that that G8 countries have yet to find to eliminate childhood poverty and hunger.  I was very moved by his recollection of what Warren Buffet told him once, “Don’t apeal to the conscious of Americans, appeal to the greatness of America!”
• Al Gore was the closer.  A bit puffed up, literally and figuratively, he an impassioned talk on the need to create a “smart grid” that replaces the old power grid with wind, solar and geothermal power.  In what was to that point a rather subdued room, Gore got rousing ovation when he called for civil disobedience  to fight the creation of new coal and oil-burning power plants.

A surprise appearance by the former President Bush, the bookend of what he called the “odd couple” with President Clinton to announce a new initiative to support hurricane ravaged areas of the Gulf coast,.

All in all a fascinating amalgam of policy, philanthropy, and populism.  I just wonder, though, is it voluntary action we’re watching — or a brand new form of government that replaces the old big/small paradigm.  Hmmm.

Of Course, Next Prez Needs to Listen to Ellen Miller

Wired Magazine confirmed what I already knew — the next President, whoever he is, needs to listen to Ellen Miller, the driving force behind the Sunlight Foundation (and 14 others)!  We know how social media are shaping this campaign, Ellen and her colleagues at Sunlight are leading the way on how it can also shape what we know about our government and how we can shape public policy with better information.

Creating Financial and Social Capital without Institutions — Hooray!!

I had a wonderful visit with the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center in downtown Indy yesterday. Loved learning more about their asset-based approach to building communities.

Loved even more the story that Josh Bowling told a story that I wanted to share here as well. Josh lives in a changing neighborhood — that hasn’t changed yet. They’ve been trying to recruit small store owners drop down roots in the neighborhood. This past summer a local resident decided to open a deli and raise the capital by posting his business plan on Prosper.com. Quickly, $7,000 was raised, mainly by neighbors, and the deli is going to open soon. And, as Josh pointed out, not only did the deli owner raise financial capital but the neighborhood created social capital with all of the loaners really committed to the success of the deli and to ensure that they get their money back. Capital without intermediaries and institutions getting in the way — hooray for the Connected Age!

One Web Day Today

Today is One Web Day! Go to onewebday.org to learn more about how you can participate.

Seth Godin Talks about Nonprofit Marketing

Here is a great talk by Seth Godin of how nonprofits have to change their approach to marketing their efforts using new media:

Seth’s talk.

What is the Purpose of Facebook, Exactly?

The risk of great success is the ease with which others can easily ridicule your blind spots.  And the larger the institution, invariably, the less human it becomes and easier it is to poke fun at the ridiculous things that android institutions do. Michael Arrington posted on TechCrunch yesterday about a flap on Facebook when users of an application called PackRat set up profiles just to play the game. They were literally “gaming” the system, you could say!  Here is the initial response from Facebook: Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site. Accounts that are used solely for the purpose of applications are in violation of our Terms of Use. Unfortunately, I will not be able to reactivate your account. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this decision is final. The draconian response reminded me of the story I wrote a few months ago of  Derek Blackadder’s union organizing on Facebook that resulted in the same kind of message – you are using the site in ways that we don’t approve, we are rescinding your account. Michael Arrington pushed back and got a more thoughtful response from a human being at Facebook who wrote, “we encourage users to add people that reflect their real-world connections and create trusted networks.” OK, sounds reasonable.  The reason why this interaction is important is not because of the last, reasonable statement, but, rather, the first robotic one.  It is a reflection, again, of the enormous chasm between social sandbox Facebook world and the faceless, corporate Facebook that is salvating at all of that personal data just waiting to be manipulatd and sold somehow so that they will have a vaible commercial model and be able to cash out.

State Department Promotes Democracy!

The State Department has figured out that it might help the world if they promoted democracy! The State Department announced this week their first Global Democracy Video Contest.  The contest has been launched in concert with the United Nations First International Day of Democracy.  Here’s the low-down on the contest from the website:

Create a video short that completes the phrase “Democracy is…”

The Prize

• An all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., New York and Hollywood.
• Gala screenings of the winning videos in Hollywood, New York and Washington
• Exposure to filmmakers and the U.S. film and television industry.
• Meetings with democracy advocates from government, media and civil society.

The Timeline

• SUBMISSION DEADLINE – JANUARY 31, 2009
• Challenge semifinalists will be selected February – March 2009.
• An independent jury will narrow down the semifinalists to 21 finalists April 1 – May 15 2009.
• The general public will vote online for the winning videos May 15 – June 15, 2009.
• Seven winners – one each from the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South & Central Asia, East Asia/Pacific and one anonymous winner – will be announced in mid-June 2009.
• In October 2009, the six publicly identified winners, one from each of the six geographic regions, will travel to the United States to claim their prize.