The Worldwide Social Network

The real “social” network…because change is possible

I’m looking for partners to help build WorldSocial.net

It is going to be a full-featured collaborative open source social networking and management tool that will also provide a back-end platform for organisations, individuals, causes or events to incorporate into their own sites and customise for their own profiles.

Problems

• Thousands of NGOs focus on issues ranging from sustainability and humanitarianism through to political reform and education
• Difficulty motivating cross pollination
• Not enough time, funding or people
• Organisations constantly reinvent the wheel
• Lack of enabling tools
  Old methods of communication cannot handle this and new ones are proprietary, incompatible and too numerous.

Opportunities

• Rise of social media and online tools: Facebook, Twitter, Meeting Wizard, Wikipedia, MySpace, Google tools etc..
• Economic recession provides need for innovation and incentives for collaboration

Market

• Governments and grant-giving bodies looking to put money to its most effective use
• Corporations willing to make progressive changes, but need partnerships to take the plunge
• Thousand of organisations and causes that need resources, membership/event management, collaboration tools and networking opportunities
• Millions of individuals looking to volunteer, donate, make changes and have an active role in shaping their world

Features

• Management tools: membership, events, petitions, meeting wizards, grants, volunteer, employment,
• notifications and management for both physical and digital resources.
• Information integration: articles, blogs, studies, collaborative encyclopaedia, press releases, videos, tweets and status updates.
• Relevance algorithms
• Networking tools
• Profiles: interests, events attended, education, affiliations, resume etc…
• Geographical integration.
• Online meeting, conference and collaboration tools

Scenario 1: Physical Resources

Get Out The Vote wants to run a campaign in the interior of Canada but their offices are in the major cities.
They have a few supporters out in the country.
Those supporters search for organisations in their local area that would allow them to use printing equipment.

Scenario 2: Digital Resources

Joe Smith from Vancouver wants to run a program for troubled teenage boys in high school.
He searches WorldSocial and finds the “No Limits” course which was run in Sydney.
He downloads it, adapts it and tries it.
Later on he uploads it to share on WorldSocial, along with photos and videos too!

Scenario 3: Individual Support

Mary Stephens from Newcastle wants to donate some time and money to help her community.
She fills out a survey on WorldSocial about her interests and values.
Later on, she is notified about the details of several events in her neighbourhood.
Also, her $20 donation was split between the 7 organisations that she approved upon the survey’s suggestion.

Scenario 4: Group Websites

Macquarie University Sustainability Society wants to create a website for their members.
They log in to WorldSocial, start a group and then customise a website that works in realtime with the Worldsocial database.
This time they decide to go for customised template with their own URL.
Now they can organise events and meetings, collect membership fees and donations, share their work, apply for grants and syndicate information about local sustainability groups!

Scenario 5: Online Grants

The New York City Council are looking to support social enterprise businesses in the Manhattan area.
They create a grant listing on WorldSocial and wait for applicants to create profiles and apply.
Later on they view all their applicants profiles and user recommendations on WorldSocial!

Group Networks

Groups are much more networked than we think – here’s just a quick overview of the simple relationships.

What is already there?

Facebook, Craigslist, Digg, MySpace, Google Maps, Skype, LinkedIn, Google Docs, Taking IT Global, Meeting Wizard, Livejournal, Flickr, Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube, Twitter, Blogger, GetUp…

What are they lacking?

• Integration
• Centralised database
• Synchronisation
• Full features
• Open source
• Co-operation
• Customisable front-end
• Expandability
• Collaboration
• Full syndication

Challenges

• Getting financial support for an unknown entity in times of economic recession
• Reluctancy to support something that wasn’t started in-house
• Creating something this big will be very hard, but there is no point in doing it unless we aim big.
• Current tools do parts of this and the need for a full-featured collaborative and open tool may not be obvious.

WorldSocial.net

A full-featured collaborative open source social networking and management tool that will also provide a back-end platform for organisations, individuals, causes or events to incorporate into their own sites and customise for their own profiles.

Communication and collaboration are the most effective means for change!