Inspired Elders Are Listening to You
We live in a global village and we need global wisdom. So, what would your life look like each day if you knew about a group of inspiring leaders, no longer bound by the governments that elected them, no longer bound by the influences of career building, no longer bound by the constraints of personal capital, who acted to build peace where there wasn’t any, who acted to speak and listen to the unseen and unheard?
The Elders are an astounding group of individuals who have made a commitment to work together to try and answer these very questions. Founded by Peter Gabriel and Sir Richard Branson, 12 Elders including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, Kofi Annan and others, are embarking on a journey to build a world leading NGO from ground up using the Internet as the core voice of the organization and I’ve been invited to work on the project team.
Lead by good friend Jason Mogus, Alexandra Samuel and I, along with some of the smartest people working with human rights issues today, are working together to help shape the foundational vision of how just such a group of wisdom leaders might be able to use the Internet to support these noble and audacious goals.
The World is Bigger When You Think Local
One of the main challenges for those of us working in sustainability, conservation and social values work is limited resources. The truth is resources are always limited. Those of us who have worked with non-profits, foundations, start-ups, small and large scale service firms, and/or the Fortune 500 (and I’ve worked at, or with them all) know the same thing; resources are limited everywhere. What I’ve noticed is that we often think the other guy doesn’t suffer from limited resources. The non-profit thinks the foundation is flush with cash (when I say cash here I mean, cash and resources), the foundation thinks the start-up is flush with cash, and on and up with most everyone thinking that the Fortune 500 have it all. They don’t.
Resources are limited everywhere, to varying degrees and in context. Okay, I know this isn’t a grand, new business revelation, but one area scarcity thinking and the argument that limited resources prevents all these organizations from taking on the challenge of excellence is localization. All these types of organizations at one time or another all make the decision whether intentional, planned, prioritized or otherwise not to extend their user experiences into local markets and languages. Traditionally, it has been expensive, and no it isn’t easy, but the decision to take on this challenge is often both; necessary to accomplishing the goals of the organization, and vital for future success. The great part is that now it is getting easier for organizations at all scales and with varying resources to reach local markets.
Here’s a round up of the some ground shifting changes that have happened in the last two months to help you and your organization open the gates to big thinking on getting local with collaborative translation;
- Facebook Is Not Only The World’s Largest Social Network, It Is Also The Fastest Growing
- How to Start a Multi-lingual site by Google
- Google Announces the Google Translation Center and the creation of the world’s largest Translation Memory
- Google Hits 40 Local Language Translations
- Google Launches the Google Translation Widget
Check out THINKHIVE in Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic
Getting SMART at Social Tech Training
The good folks at MaRS and conveners of the Web of Change conference are organizing the Social Tech Training conference in Toronto, Canada this month. Designed to help answer “How do we do it?” and “Where do we start?” for those in the social change sector.
If you are attending, colleague Rob Purdie of Important Projects was planning on delivering a couple of sessions but isn’t able to attend, so I’ve been asked to jump in and lead the ‘Defining Your SMART Objectives’ session. We’ve been collaborating on the delivery, and this session will be valuable for those looking for a simple, but strong structure to articulate measurable objectives for your organizations.
I’m also collaborating on another session with good friend Jason Mogus of Communicopia in what we’re calling ‘Communicating Your Ideas and Getting Them Done’. This will be a good one for those who need help getting their ideas heard and making them happen as the expectations of what is possible online rises within your organizations. The conference is sold-out this year, but get on the list if you are interested in attending next year.
UPDATE: Thanks again to all STT08 participants. Here is the presentation on setting SMART objectives that Rob Purdie and I collaborated on for Social Tech Training.
Welcome to ThinkHive
This is Christopher Roy's workspace for Internet strategy, localization and project management consulting. The news, analysis and resources you will find here are for sustainability professionals working in Internet marketing, localization, collaboration, project and community management.
