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2007 Individual Honorees

Society For New Communications Research
2007 Awards

Individual Honoree

Mike Dillon
General Counsel and Executive Vice President
Sun Legal Department
Sun Microsystems
Contact: kristi.rawlinson@sun.com

Mike Dillon serves as Sun's General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Sun Legal Department. In this role, Mike leads a worldwide organization consisting of three functions: Legal, International Trade Services and Business Conduct. Mike has worked at Sun Microsystems twice during his 20 year career. From 1993 to 1999, he served in a variety of roles in Sun's legal department including in support of Sun Microelectronics, Sun Soft, Inc., and I-Planet. In 2002, Mike rejoined Sun as Vice President of the Products Law Group. In this role, he was responsible for legal support for all of Sun's product development efforts. In April, 2004 he was appointed to his current role as Sun's General Counsel. Mike brings significant experience to Sun. Prior to rejoining Sun in 2002, Mike was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of ONI Systems Corporation, a publicly traded manufacturer of optical networking equipment. Earlier in his career he was an associate and partner at several Bay Area law firms. Mike completed his BA in Communications/Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He received his J.D. from the University of Santa Clara.

Individual Honoree

Francois Gossieaux

Francois Gossieaux is a lifelong technical marketing and media veteran. He led marketing, product management and strategy at eRoom Technology, is President and Partner at MarketHum partner Corante, he founded Synopia, advises numerous companies in the technical marketing space, has developed and chaired industry events, and more. Francois has a long history with online media – having implemented an intranet for a large multinational company in the early 90’s, and was the organizer of the first large scale virtual event – InterAct ’96 – with Time Magazine and Infoworld. He has used blogs for grassroots political and environmental activities, and is currently blogging at emergencemarketing.com.

Individual Honoree

Hylton Joliffe
Contact: hyltonj-at-gmail.com

Hylton Jolliffe is a pioneer in social media, having founded the world’s first blog media company, Corante, in 2002, of which he is currently editor and publisher. Hylton held various senior roles for magazines, tradebook and Internet publishing start-ups in Hong Kong and New York before founding Corante and MarketHum LLC.

Individual Honoree

Chido Makunike
Contact: chidomakunike@gmail.com

Since 2006, Mr. Makunike has been an agricultural, business support consultant and freelance writer in Dakar, Senegal. He has been a frequent contributor of articles to many newspapers, blogs and websites regarding African political and economic development and agriculture. In recent years he has concentrated more on sustainable development and agricultural issues. From 2005-2006 he was the Coordinator of the Africa Organic Service Center branch of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM); Bonn, Germany and Dakar, Senegal. Prior to that, Mr. Makunike was an agricultural consultant, had his own vegetable growing business, was an immunology research associate at Texas medical Center in Houston, Texas, and a biochemistry research assistant at SUNY Syracuse, New York. Mr. Makunike has a B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin, and has completed graduate courses in biochemistry at State University of New York, Syracuse.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Technology Innovation Awards

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...CIRCLEUP!

Website: www.CircleUp.com

The Challenge
In the past twenty years email has gone from a techie tool used by engineers, academics and scientists to the defacto method of communication for hundreds of millions of people in all walks of life. Instant messaging has been hot on its heels in the younger demographic and is now reaching critical mass even in the enterprise. With daily emails worldwide totaling somewhere between 50 and 62 billion messages, an almost unmanageable torrent of information flows every single day. Email has even overtaken telephony as a communication tool in the workplace (according to a recent DataMonitor study). While email is the most widely used tool in existence for knowledge management, it has proven to be relatively inefficient when it comes to group communication and information gathering it is great at one-way distribution but inefficient at round-trip management. Today, when you ask a question or send a request to a group you get back a blizzard of emails that often include random answers, distractions and extraneous details that complicate and delay the information gathering, collaboration and decision-making process.

The Ingenious Proposal
CircleUp decided to provide a free service for groups of any size to reduce information overload. Their vision is to offer a service that allows people to pose questions and gather needed information from their groups and get back a single, organized result/answer, and then to deliver these organized results containing answers, facts, files, links, photos and feedback in a format that can be acted on immediately and shared with the group. Unlike mailing lists and existing social networking sites today that even businesses are relying on, CircleUp enhances group communication by offering a tool that saves time, reduces message clutter and enhances productivity. CircleUp is for anyone who uses email, instant messaging or Facebook to communicate with real world groups they belong to, such as sports teams, classroom parent volunteers, volunteer coordinators, grassroots political organizers and leaders of faith-based organizations. Businesses also benefit from CircleUp, using the service for day-to-day management, allowing professional users to deliver significant productivity gains in email and group communications right from Outlook.

The Call
The arrival of CircleUp introduces a new way for people to efficiently and powerfully manage their group communications, putting an end to the back-and-forth that often goes along with it. CircleUp solves the dilemma associated with trying to obtain and organize information or feedback requested from groups of people. Instead of receiving a blizzard of individual responses, you get back a single, organized result that you can print, share, export or archive to help manage and make sense of all of those responses. CircleUp easily allows users to message their circle in three simple steps, using the QuestionWriter wizard to guide them through the process. First, users create and personalize the question they want to ask, then select a specific AnswerPattern that best reflects the results (responses) they’ll receive in return. The last step is to choose intended recipients by clicking the icon of an existing circle (add or remove individual members with a double-click) or by creating a new circle directly from the user’s address book. Results can be accessed from just about anywhere through email, Facebook profiles, newsfeeds, the CircleUp website, a CircleUp widget on a group website, or via RSS. They can then be directly exported to Microsoft Excel, PDF or even transferred to Outlook contacts and Google or Yahoo maps using microformats. With the integration of the free CircleUp service with Outlook, used by close to 18 million people worldwide, CircleUp extends its service to small business, home office and professional users to deliver significant productivity gains in email and group communications. Now businesses are using CircleUp to maximize their productivity and positively impact the bottom line. For example, businesses can CircleUp all of the employees to ask “Will you be making a change to your benefits during open enrollment?” and get back an organized list of people who need the paperwork, instead of a ton of emails (and the risk that someone’s email might slip through the cracks). CircleUp 45 sales reps in the field to ask for suggestions on how to solve a thorny customer problem. Get back a single, organized result that can now be shared by everyone, and found quickly and easily for future reference.

The Success Story
Denis O'Malley is a youth soccer tournament organizer in Concord, California. O'Malley used CircleUp to streamline the process of receiving tournament t-shirt orders. Using CircleUp, he created an email poll to receive information on sizes and numbers of shirts from over 100 team captains - receiving the details of 1,800 t-shirts by sending out just two CircleUps. O’Malley was able to save hours by avoiding his old process of viewing each email and typing the results in by hand. Shannyn Flory, a real estate agent, based in Boise, Idaho uses CircleUp to get quick answers from her fellow agents on feedback on the houses that she is selling, such as its pricing, condition and likely interest to homebuyers. By using CircleUp, she reduces phone calls and paper - and it enables her to simply show other realtors the CircleUp results page, instead of having to compile emails and notes into a readable document. Flory has also used the service to compile agents' recommendations for the best contractors in various areas, such as landscaping or roofing. CircleUp isn’t just another destination website. CircleUp is helping to define the new era of Email 2.0 where users can get the messages they need through the channels they want, and can manage the amount of information sent to any one channel to improve personal efficiency, reduce information overload and enhance group communication. Since launching at DEMO in Feb. 2007, CircleUp has demonstrated what Email 2.0 looks like -- round-trip communications management, for free!

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...CLEANPIX!

Website: www.cleanpix.com

The Challenge
In most businesses today, digital files are still being delivered manually. This method requires burned discs, overnight couriers and increased hardware for storage and management, which causes increases in cost both monetarily and environmentally.

The Ingenious Proposal
Simply put, digital files should be delivered electronically. CleanPix created a digital file courier for logos and marketing materials. CleanPix wanted to reduce or even eliminate the use of burned discs (plastics), packaging (paper/plastic), overnight couriers (fuel) and the need for additional hardware (raw material) in the management and delivery of digital media files. CleanPix solves the current problem of communications managers having to spend too much time, effort and cost to put their company's marketing materials into action. It is often difficult to find the right file, figure out what file format you need and how you are going to get it to the person who requested it. CleanPix gives you the right file, right format, right now!

The Call
Create a service that uses a collective use of hardware and software (ASP) for clients to manage and deliver digital media files. The service needed to be easy to use and require minimal technical skills by both the administrator and end user. The service does not require any special purchase of hardware or software. This immediately reduces plastics, packaging, fuel and raw materials consumption.

The Success Story
CleanPix has eliminated or greatly reduced the manual delivery of media files for its clients and increased their PR and marketing visibility worldwide. In the past 6 years they have recorded over 300,000 successful downloads for their clients. As an example, NYC & Co., a client since 2002, has approximately 2,500 downloads per month. The overall impact for the environment is huge.

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...VISIBLE TECHNOLOGIES!

Website: www.visibletechnologies.com

The Challenge
Consumer Generated Media (“CGM”) is the term that encompasses all social media content on the Internet authored by consumers. This content ranges from blogs, to social networks, consumer review sites, message boards, and videos. CGM represents the fastest growing segment of the Internet, with more than 1 million new articles of content posted online and in social communities everyday. Millions of people worldwide are sharing experiences about themselves and interacting with companies, brands, services, and products. For companies, these online conversations represent a new opportunity and challenge for brand monitoring, reputation management, word-of-mouth marketing, and consumer engagement.

The Ingenious Proposal
Enable companies to identify, monitor, listen, engage and influence what consumers are saying about their products, brands, or services online and in social media communities. Visible Technologies’ TruCast solution is the industry's first comprehensive service for social media analysis and engagement enabling clients to track, analyze, and participate in CGM conversations in blogs, forums, social networks, and online communities. The TruCast solution monitors in excess of 70M sources of CGM and online content -- like blogs, podcasts, videocasts, forums, discussion boards, and all major publicly available mainstream media. The TruCast solution is an enterprise software solution that is offered to clients as a software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) model. Clients pay an implementation and monthly recurring fee for the services -- typically a 2-year engagement. Additionally, they have an a la carte model for basic brand monitoring outputs and reporting that can be provided pre-implementation of the full service offering.

The Call
Visible Technologies was founded in 2003 by a group of Seattle technology enthusiasts who had a vision of creating social media software solutions to empower individuals and enterprises. Through their TruCast and TruView solutions, Visible Technologies has catapulted interest in social media activation and engagement with their brand monitoring and online reputation management solutions. Visible Technologies also helps brands and individuals manage and protect their online reputations with its powerful TruView search engine solution.

The Success Story
In 2006, Visible Technologies formed a strategic partnership with WPP, one of the world's largest communications firms. The two companies continue to collaborate to create technology-driven marketing and communication services to meet the needs of clients. For clients using Visible Technologies’ products, ROI can be measured by several key factors: the amount of data/content/posts collected, the amount of users that engage in conversations, identification and interaction with influencers, and the amount of time from comment to measurement. With Fortune 100 clients and individuals utilizing TruCast and TruView, Visible Technologies is quickly becoming the industry leader in the rapidly evolving new media environment.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Nonprofit Communications Innovation Awards

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNICATIONS INNOVATION CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...DIRECT2HOUSING!

Website: www.direct2housing.org

The Challenge
Finding adequate housing in a large city can be challenging. Finding adequate supportive housing options is even tougher. Direct2Housing.org was created by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) to assist all case managers, housing advocates, social workers and people in the metropolitan Chicago community, in locating housing resources and housing service providers.

The Ingenious Proposal
The only housing database of its kind nationwide, Direct2Housing fosters greater communication and collaboration among housing advocates in different agencies in order to provide the most consistent, highest-quality services to clients, and creates an environment where housing advocates share resources rather than compete for them. Direct2Housing is a FREE online tool for the community. Supportive Housing programs can register for a free username and password that will allow them to enter their program information. The general public can go to any computer with and Internet connection and do a free search for supportive housing options at the main page. The audience is the front line case managers and social workers who see clients who are in need of housing assistance. They can sit with their client and help them do a search for the supportive housing options that they may be eligible to apply for. Because Direct2Housing can be accessed at any computer with an Internet connection, the client is empowered to go to the library or a computer lab and search for information on their own if they can. The goal is to make the contact information, eligibiltiy criteria and application process for the entire broad range of supportive housing options transparent and accessible to the entire community.

The Call
The website allows users to view the contact information, application process and eligibility criteria for Supportive Housing Programs. The staff at these housing programs are able to easily update information about unit availability by simply filling out an online form and clicking "submit". This allows for program information to be more transparent than ever before. When someone completes and submits the short registration form, the Direct2Housing administrator will screen the applicant to determine what kind of housing they provide and therefore, what kind of access rights they will be given. If an agency has a Housing Advocate on staff that develops relationships with Private Market Landlords, the Housing Advocate can use Direct2Housing to enter their Private Market landlord listings. They are given access rights to a password protected search engine that can only be viewed by other users who have "Housing Advocate" access rights. Homesharing is a program that aims to set up compatible matches between responsible adults who have extra space in their homes and those needing affordable housing to share expenses. Ideal participants are people who own their home or condo and have a room for rent. A Homesharing provider could also be a leaseholder who is looking for a roommate. Home Sharing Providers can use Direct2Housing to enter their Home Sharing Provider listings. They are given access rights to a password protected search engine that can only be viewed by other users who have "Home Sharing" access rights.

THE SUCCESS STORY
With limited staff time, AFC had only been able to encourage a small number of agencies to register for a username and password and then follow through with entering and updating their information. For this reason, AFC hired a Community Outreach Consultant to work out in the field, at Supportive Housing Program sites. Since January 2007 this employee has provided demonstrations of Direct2Housing for agency staff members, helped them register for a username and password, and taught them how to enter their agency information. In the first six months of 2007 this has resulted in an increase of supportive housing programs added to Direct2Housing of over 500%. This type of increase directly impacts the amount of transparent, available housing resources for all case managers, housing advocates, social workers, and community members.

Additional funds are needed to further increase awareness of Direct2Housing to the community. Distribution of posters, business cards and postcards began in Spring 2007. An ad campaign ran on the CTA Red Line trains in the summer of 2007 that significantly helped to inform the public, but it must be ongoing in order to be most effective. Training and education will be provided for all Housing Locators, Housing Advocates, Information and referral specialists and Landlords working to help connect homeless clients with resources and services. Direct2Housing is a copyright protected product that AFC owns. At this time Direct2Housing is only being used in the Metro Chicago area. It has potential to be purchased and utilized in other cities. In order for other cities to benefit from this community tool, training materials would need to be developed. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago is grateful for the opportunity to improve the Coordinated Housing Advocacy Program, improve the Direct2Housing community tool and better serve people in need of housing assistance.

NON-PROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNICATIONS INNOVATION CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...ENGINEER AID!

Website: www.engineeraid.com

The Challenge
Often in developing and disaster-hit regions there is a lack of appropriate skills and knowledge to allow continuous self-help development and there is a demand for skilled people, such as engineers, to provide advice and solutions to technical problems. Conventional development charities aim to meet this demand by sending volunteers abroad. This requires investing huge resources in travel costs and limits the pool of available personnel to those able or willing to travel for reasonable periods of time. This pool could be greatly widened to include engineers of all disciplines who wish to collaborate and solve problems if there was an effective gateway for communication between them and people in areas of need. EngineerAid believes that with the innovative use of digital collaboration technologies the benefits and reach of the development aid can be improved whilst reducing the carbon footprint and the resources required to send experts abroad.

The Ingenious Proposal
Provide a platform that facilitates the provision of engineering solutions to social development projects. The transfer of appropriate technical skills and knowledge between engineers in developed economies and people who work and live in less economically developed countries allows continuous self-help development in developing and disaster hit regions through effective digital collaboration technologies. Objectives of the program are: 1. Ensure that as far as possible the support given is appropriate and follows the principle of socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Improve the knowledge base of people in developing areas by promoting wider distribution of successful advice and solutions within communities by those who have already benefited. 2. Recruit and maintain an engineering volunteer base which is both technically capable and effective at ideas. 3. Provide a high level of accountability and reporting on their activities to all stakeholders in the charity but particularly those who give their time and donate their money. 4. Identify a continuous stream of development projects suitable for aid in the unique format we provide and developing increased interaction with other non-governmental organizations (NGO) to deliver sustained and long-term support. 5. Generate awareness among the engineering profession that there are opportunities to use their skills in a philanthropic way. Engineer Aid aims to provide a service with open access, giving simple, direct and timely advice required at any stage of infrastructure building in developing countries. EngineerAid works with communities (not limited to, but presently focusing on, Asia and Africa), who cannot access the technological expertise Engineer Aid provides. The solutions are provided by professional volunteer engineers working within public and private sector companies globally. EngineerAid works both independently and in partnership with other NGOs. We intend to continue building networks extending globally and provide a means of opening communication lines with like-minded organizations to compliment and improve each other’s services.

The Call
EngineerAid is currently providing remote solutions to technology problems in the less economically developed countries by providing a platform to engineers to communicate, collaborate and solve problems. The Concept and the Strategy: EngineerAid has been the first to successfully facilitate useful and meaningful direct communication between engineers in developed economies and people who work and live in developing economies. Our methodology champions empowerment, concentrating on knowledge transfer from professional engineers to disadvantaged communities and technical answers and advice is given directly to those who make enquiries. Local networks and self-help groups are strongly promoted. The Tools: Enquiries or engineering problems are logged via a tailor-made online intelligent system, and after careful matching are allocated to individuals with a particular expertise in the relevant area. Experts are then able to use online collaboration and communication tools authored and tailored to provide responses to the projects. This integrated network allows specific engineering problems to be translated and reviewed on a large scale and the solutions are provided by professional volunteer engineers working within public and private sector companies/organizations around the world. Transferral of the information takes place in a multitude of formats, languages and time zones but the concept remains the same: open communication channels between our target communities and professional engineers, providing simple, timely and direct help. As all communication between engineers and enquirers is carried out online, expense in terms of time and cost is minimized making EngineerAid entirely sustainable as well as environmentally friendly. In addition to this, the collaboration between the expert knowledge of engineers and the local knowledge of enquirers means that the work we do has a long-term, lasting impact for the communities we help. The Components/Guiding Principles: Technology Requirements - Human interaction and communication technology for the end users, collaborative tools to enable engineers to design sustainable solutions, dedicated software for transmitting and sharing the information, and managed hardware and software (dedicated servers and accompanying software). Enterprise Structure: Non-profit management, Board of Directors, and General Manager. 4 primary team manager roles: IT & Communications, Projects, Fundraising and Marketing.

The Success Story
EngineerAid’s services are supported by professional engineers, each with an average work experience of 10 years (amounting to a commitment of 474 hours of engineering support per month, the equivalent of £569,000 per annum of engineering resource) thus ensuring the highest standard of expertise available within the sector. Their work with other NGO’s - developing strategic partnerships, networking with grassroots organizations and providing support to developmental projects, clearly indicates the quality of delivery of our services. Additionally, EngineerAid carries out regular monitoring and review by using knowledge based systems to ensure that enquiries are answered promptly and that, where necessary, they adapt to the changes in demand. They have been able to provide aid that has an immediate impact on the target groups and have successfully supported over 50 projects worldwide in 2006-07, and the feedback they have received so far from their projects is extremely encouraging. "We are indebted to EngineerAid for their support and prompt advice. We hope to continue this partnership and develop a sustained model of support." - Department of Forests and Environment, India. “You won't believe me how much of help your reply is to us here!" - Duetsi Khadro, Indonesia.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Nonprofit Wiki Award

NONPROFIT DIVISION, WIKI CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...THE CITIZENDIUM FOUNDATION!

Website: www.citizendium.org

The Challenge
The Wikipedia model suffers in two respects: the credibility of its content and the maturity of its community. These problems probably cannot be solved from within. The Wikipedia community, unfortunately, is very resistant to significant change. Suggestions that a special role be made for experts, or that contributors be required to log in, are met with fierce resistance. In September 2006, Wikipedia's co-founder, Larry Sanger, started a non-profit competitor, called the Citizendium, or the Citizen's Compendium. The Citizendium is an open wiki encyclopedia, but it requires the use of real names; experts have a role in the system (they may approve articles); and the community's governance process is developing into an online constitutional republic. While the project's first year has generated hundreds of contributors and some 3,000 articles, Sanger's challenge has been to demonstrate the long-term viability of the model of an expert-guided, responsible, but still bottom-up wiki encyclopedia.

The Ingenious Proposal
The Citizendium's goal is to sum up humanity’s understanding of the universe, in as much breadth and depth as a collaborative global community can achieve. Accuracy is key. They encourage their expert editors to approve articles when they are ready. They want approved articles to be, in the long run, as authoritative, error-free, neutral, and well-written as encyclopedia articles can be expected to be. As to quantity, they hope to grow to hundreds of thousands of articles within a few years, and millions within ten years. This is not the traditional goal of encyclopedias, which has been to offer up only mainstream views of the most important aspects of the most important topics. Cheap disk space and bandwidth, and the potential of participation by ultimately millions of people, mean that they can capture their understanding of reality with far more nuance and detail than traditional encyclopedias. They also hope to demonstrate the viability of an expert-guided wiki model, open to the public but requiring contributors to use their real name. Sanger is the main person responsible for engineering the Wikipedia model in its first 14 months; there is a good chance he will, with Citizendium, demonstrate yet another viable way to use wikis. The Citizendium's audience is the same as Wikipedia's: a world of students, writers, researchers, and members of the public excited about vast quantities of information, but eager for more reliable information.

The Call
In some ways, the Citizendium works similarly to Wikipedia: an open, bottom-up wiki, a wide variety of people may join and contribute to whatever topic they want, whenever they want. The interface, using MediaWiki software, is fairly simple and easy for any reasonably technically adept person to learn. This system has allowed the Citizendium, like Wikipedia, to create thousands of articles in a short time. Yet the project is truly a by-the-bootstraps operation; when first announced, the project had a zero budget, and has been able to survive for a year on little more than $40,000 in donations and with one full-time employee.

The Success Story
Citizendium's differences with Wikipedia have proven extremely consequential and successful. Because the Citizendium requires the use of real names and biographies, there has been virtually no vandalism; furthermore, the community is mature and collegial, yet still dynamic. Because the Citizendium has a guiding role for experts, articles tend to be of remarkably high quality. Moreover, there are over 40 approved articles and over 600 "developed" articles, i.e., articles close to approval. In addition, the Citizendium has recently enabled contributors to add various other kinds of reference information: bibliographies, external links, tables, image galleries, timelines, and much else.

With support, the Citizendium Foundation could hire a programmer who would transform the text-oriented MediaWiki platform into something that handles all different sorts of information intelligently. The Citizendium, in turn, would show the world how to use the software. Support for an administrative assistant would also help the project to do a serious recruitment drive; until now, most people have arrived via the many mentions of Citizendium in the press. Similarly, support for a development director would help the project tap into the millions of dollars that are available for a project that has already proven itself in this way. In short, while the Citizendium has already shown that it has the potential to solve Wikipedia's problems, further support would make this assured. The success of the project is generally to be measured in terms of number of articles per day, and particularly, number of approved and developed articles; and also numbers of active participants. If, after the grant were made, these metrics were to increase at a significantly accelerated rate, that would count as a success. For example, a jump from 13 articles per day (the present number) to 20 would be significant; from our present 200 authors editing per month to 350 would be significant; from our present 35 authors doing work on the wiki per day to 55 would be significant. Such growth can perhaps be expected as a matter of course (see http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Statistics), but there's no doubt that a grant would help them accelerate. If used to enhance MediaWiki software, the grant would also be assessed based on what coded, tested, installed, and used features were added. Moreover, if used for a recruitment assistant, the grant would be assessed based on how much accelerated the new contributor rate was.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Nonprofit Virtual World Award

NONPROFIT DIVISION, VIRTUAL WORLD CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...CONVERSEON!

Website: www.converseon.com, www.plantit2020.org

The Challenge
How does one use the virtual world to positively impact the physical world? Virtual worlds present an interesting but challenging environment for marketers. Many brands have struggled with integrating brand experiences in a manner that respects and embraces the unique culture of the virtual world, while leveraging the potential of the medium to impact real world activity. Converseon’s two-fold challenge: 1) How do we, a social media agency, effectively enter and gain acceptance within Second Life? 2) How do we overcome “donor fatigue” and demonstrate the power of virtual worlds to positively impact a real world’s socially responsible initiative on behalf of a non-profit partner, Plant-it 2020?

The Ingenious Proposal
Have people plant virtual trees in the virtual world of Second Life. For each virtual tree planted, Plant-It 2020 will plant a real indigenous tree in a rainforest area. The goals are to: 1) raise awareness of non-profit Plant It 2020 and reforestation while demonstrating the power of virtual worlds to positively impact a real world’s socially-responsible initiative; and 2) Capture the attention and support of Second Life residents and encourage the support of this influential group to move outside of the virtual world into the real world through blogs and other social media properties.

The Call
Create a low budget innovative project that provides a platform for tech influentials to form a deep relationship with Plant It 2020 and empowers them to raise awareness of the charity both online and offline. Second Chance Trees Island was designed and built in Second Life. Second Life avatars can purchase and plant a virtual copy of an endangered rainforest tree for 300 Linden Dollars (about $1.50), while participating in an immersive educational process. In turn, this triggers the planting of a corresponding indigenous tree in endangered rainforest regions in the real world. The Second Life presence was supported by outreach within the virtual world and a comprehensive social media strategy communicating via a wide range of social media venues to help the campaign extend its reach beyond the virtual world. The island was launched in April with a media release, a dedicated website, outreach to environmental and Second Life bloggers and personal contact with influential Second Life residents. The island was continually supported through the hosting of live events in-world (Earth Day in Second Life, etc), social media such as Flickr and MySpace and targeted outreach to bloggers and Second Life influencers. In July, Plant It 2020 was selected as one of 50 finalists in the American Express Members Project, a program whereby cardholders could nominate a charitable initiative to receive a donation of up to $5 million from American Express. To encourage votes from American Express cardholders, a call-to-action machinima video was filmed within Second Life and uploaded to YouTube and other video sharing portals. It became viral with the assistance of a social media press release and outreach to environmental, technology, marketing and Second Life bloggers along with key influencers in Second Life. Alongside the Converseon team, a globally dispersed group of selected Second Life residents provided support for the project including leading designer Luna Bliss and Australian Machinima artist Decomposing Monstre. SAE Paull Young (LL Platypus) headed up the in-world efforts hosting events, building relationships with key Second Life residents and with continual outreach to key bloggers.

The Success Story
Plant It 2020 received significant visibility not just within Second Life, but through widespread blog commentary, mainstream media attention and recognition from the high profile American Express Members Project competition. It was Selected as one of 50 finalists in the $5 million American Express Members Project competition. Thousands of avatars have visited the island, purchasing over 600 indigenous rainforest trees. The campaign was featured by the Financial Times and CNN who called it an “innovative” and “wholesome” initiative that aims to “make an environmental difference in the real world.” Dozens of Second Life residents have posted hundreds of positive blog posts and photos. In just 7 days there were 100+ blog posts and 6,000+ views of a machinima video supporting the Members Project initiative. The Google Search Engine Results for “Second Chance Trees” went from zero entries to 15,900 individual mentions online in six months. 14 of the top 20 Google Search Engine Results for Plant It 2020 reference Second Chance Trees.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Nonprofit Video Award

NONPROFIT DIVISION, VIDEO CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...PUBLIC CITIZEN!

Website: www.citizen.org

The Challenge
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. A class action lawsuit about the pediatric use of a popular anti-depressant was brought by parents against pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline. The case settled and resulted in a $48 million reimbursement fund, a fact that needed to be broadly publicized. The drug company was only required to announce the settlement terms once, terms that were very unfavorable to the majority of potential class members. Public Citizen filed a legal objection and succeeded in significantly improving the qualification terms, but the court did not require the drugmaker to re-publicize this new outcome. Class action notifications typically use newspaper and/or magazine ads, which don’t necessarily reach the target audience. Public Citizen needed to reach parents or guardians of children who ever took the anti-depressant Paxil before their 18th birthday, or the people who took Paxil themselves. The word had to get out before the deadline for claims submissions, August 31, 2007, and they quickly discovered that traditional media weren't at all interested in covering this story. Public Citizen needed to come up with a better, faster way to reach the biggest audience they could find.

The Ingenious Proposal
Since the drug has been marketed since 1992, Public Citizen figured that the kids who took Paxil would now be part of the population who most frequently use and enjoy YouTube. Hence, "Paxil Payback" was born, becoming the first time in the history of class action notification that the job was performed by a YouTube video.

The Call
Public Citizen produced a 90-second YouTube video to illustrate in a simple but dramatic way precisely why parents brought a class action lawsuit against the giant drug company, and to inform the public that the lawsuit had settled and refunds were waiting to be claimed. Using their own staff to create props and act in the video, they wrote, produced and directed the project, made possible with the generous donation of studio space and a video technician by a non-profit labor association. Public Citizen then edited the piece at a small, local production company who specializes in working with non-profits.

The Success Story
Unlike most class actions suits, Public Citizen doesn’t know who or where the qualified class members are because of patient/client privilege. Only a few named parents pursued the lawsuit directly, so Public Citizen took the completely unique and innovative step of using YouTube as a method of class action notification. Called "Paxil Payback," the video has been viewed almost 6,000 times in one month, posted on other websites, and generated news coverage by Public Radio Intl.’s "Marketplace." It was blogged by the Wall St. Journal and the Miami Herald in both their legal and health columns and written up by the National Law Journal and the St. Louis Dispatch, to name a few. Every YouTube view, and every posting and article meant Public Citizen’s message was spreading virally. At first they didn't even realize they had become the first organization ever to advance the class action notification process in the hottest public forum of our time. As it turns out, YouTube is also helping push the message the old-fashioned way, by contributing to word-of-mouth within families and communities. The Paxil Pediatric Settlement Fund administrator is not required to reveal the number of claims it is settling, but Public Citizen continued to spread the message until the August 31, 2007 deadline. They want every parent whose minor child took Paxil to benefit from the $48 million waiting to be claimed.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Nonprofit Division Awards

NONPROFIT DIVISION

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION!

Website: www.americanheart.org, www.goredforwomen.org

The Challenge
One humid August morning, 46-year-old Nancy McKesson collapsed in the elevator on the way to her office. She was a vegetarian, took an at-work yoga class, and cheered at her son’s softball games on the weekends. Nancy never thought a heart attack would happen to her. In fact, she never even considered it. Despite the fact that heart disease is women’s #1 killer, only 13 percent of women in 2004 viewed it as a health threat. This alarming statistic led the American Heart Association (AHA), a nonprofit association that aims to protect people of all ages and ethnicities from the ravages of heart disease and stroke, Edelman, a global public relations firm, and other partners to initiate the Go Red for Women (GRFW) campaign to raise awareness of heart disease risks and prevention. AHA hoped that as a result of the team’s efforts, hundreds of thousands of American women like Nancy would join GRFW, and achieve awareness that would lead to an average of 14 more years with their families.

The Ingenious Proposal
Create the American Woman study, involving a national, in-depth look at women of all ages and ethnicities. The survey aimed to determine women’s habits and practices regarding protection against cardiovascular disease. The team learned that 73% of women understood that heart disease is a major threat and more than 75% were interested in actively preventing it in themselves and other women. However, because there was no way for women to know, feel and understand their personal risk, it was difficult for them to internalize the message. AHA needed to create a tool that would alert women to cardiovascular disease risks, including problematic cholesterol, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI) numbers. In the meantime, 2006 was witnessing an explosion in American consumers leveraging the Internet to research health information. According to Harris Interactive, 80% of U.S. adults were searching for health information online, representing a total of 136 million people. Additional 2006 demographic research by Nielsen/Netratings indicated that nearly 57% of these Internet health consumers were female, and a large majority was over the age of 25. Edelman and the AHA conducted another research initiative to review women’s online activities and priorities, from which we determined that nearly 40% go to the Internet first for heart health information and most want to receive information on healthy living and nutrition. These findings validated the results of the prior studies and served as the basis for the GRFW Web site and e-communications content. Objective 1: As women’s heart health had become AHA’s largest and most important cause, AHA’s primary goal was to accelerate awareness of the grassroots Go Red campaign, resulting in a long-term goal of 500,000 program registrations. Objective 2: While the public was familiar with the AHA, the Go Red movement remained hidden in the shadow of its parent organization. AHA desired to increase the visibility of Go Red (via millions of online and offline impressions) so that its standalone brand and messaging became readily identifiable. Objective 3: Create automated mechanisms that allow women to take active steps to prevent heart disease. Objective 4: Actively engage stakeholders with the authority to influence women’s heart health. GRFW honed in on women ages 35-54 because these women are most at risk for future heart disease. GRFW aimed to motivate them to alter their lifestyles with respect to diet, exercise, and access to physicians. Also, in order to effectively reach the critically important Hispanic audience, the plan included the use of Spanish-language communication materials. Based on the research, the team concluded that the most effective way to achieve their objectives with these audiences was to center the campaign around the core message that women should personally take part in the fight against heart disease and “Love Their Hearts.” Communication strategies involved: Sharing GRFW messages among women through a new, interactive Web site and an easy-to-use assessment tool that served as a call-to-action; saturating national and local media markets with GRFW messaging; and reaching out to influential people (media, corporations, politicians, health professionals, etc.) to generate buzz.

The Call
A combination of online and offline tactics was executed to spread the word about GRFW to the target audience and influencers. The standalone, bilingual Web site, GoRedForWomen.org, was friendly and sophisticated, and evoked the look and feel of the GRFW brand. The content was based on what the research determined the target was looking for: informative, personal, and emotionally engaging health-related material. It included heart health facts, real-world, video case studies, an e-commerce engine for purchasing GRFW products, and most importantly, a GRFW Heart Checkup. This risk assessment tool, which was only possible using the algorithm capabilities of the Internet, allowed women to take the test and know their 10-year risk of heart disease. A woman could print out the results and take them to her physician and share the tool with loved ones. A monthly e-newsletter included heart-healthy tips, events and activities, news, recipes, and promotions. Four national partnerships (Macy’s, Pfizer, Bayer, and Pacificare) were leveraged online with contextual advertising and member discounts. GRFW’s online presence was supported by search engine marketing, webcasting, partner development and traditional PR tactics including: National Wear Red Day: Thousands of corporations and hundreds of cities participated by going red. This could mean local news anchors wearing red or companies serving heart healthy red foods in the cafeteria. Cities Go Red: Landmarks across the nation glowed with the color red, including the Empire State Building and Niagara Falls. Public Service Announcement: GRFW messages lit up the jumbotrones in Times Square. Media Outreach: We conducted local market broadcast and radio tours with national spokespeople, national pitched and paid placements and podcasts. GRFW was seen on The Today Show, The Early Show, Live! With Regis and Kelly, the Wall Street Journal, and Ladies Home Journal. Rhapsody in Red Event and Live Webcast: Taking place during New York Fashion Week at the New York Public Library and hosted by Sigourney Weaver, the event engaged influencers, healthcare professionals and media in the movement. Medical Community Outreach: Pfizer’s sales force distributed 10,000 physician toolkits, while Bayer launched an online CME course to familiarize 40,000 pharmacists with AHA’s guidelines.

The Success Story
The GRFW campaign is still underway, but has already measurably increased awareness and action to prevent heart disease. The new site has registered 450,000 online members, 90% of its long-term goal of 500,000. These members receive information, on health tips and events to help prevent heart disease. The GRFW campaign generated over 1.8 billion online and offline impressions. The GoRedForWomen.org site was re-launched and achieved nearly 9 million hits in its first month alone, tripling the total traffic of the old site. In a single month’s distribution, 75,000 members opened the e-newsletter. Since the launch, subscription has increased by 75% and open rates have doubled. More than 130,000 people have launched the GRFW Heart Checkup tool. The average length per user session since launching the tool has risen from three minutes thirty seconds to four minutes and ten seconds. 12,800 companies and 150 national landmarks participated in National Wear Red Day and Cities Go Red. In 2006, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced the HEART for Women Act, the first-ever federal legislation designed to address women’s health.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, OTHER CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...GINA FOR MISSING PERSONS FOUNDATION!

Website: www.411Gina.org

The Challenge
Singer-songwriter Gina Bos disappeared on October 17, 2000 after performing at a pub in Nebraska. Gina's story had no scandal or suspects, no hook needed to get national attention. Gina just vanished. 
Gina’s sister, singer-songwriter Jannel Rap, could not live with herself if she did not do something to create ways to gain attention for missing children and adults who vanish without a trace or hook.
 In 2001 Jannel organized GINA, bringing together recording artists from all over the country in an effort to raise awareness of all the people who go missing every year.
 GINA’s mission is to bring together media agencies and artists that create an avenue of hope and awareness that can guide people whose family members become missing. 850,000 missing persons police reports are filed each year and we only hear and see a handful of stories. Working to create media hooks while finding and creating alternative ways to get the attention of the media is the ongoing challenge.

The Ingenious Proposal
Janel founded GINA for Missing Persons FOUNDation in an effort to educate the public about missing persons by utilizing entertainment. Goal: to find and bring home missing people by creating alternative ways to gain attention for the them by utilizing entertainment, events and media outlets. To create events all over the world that are earmarked to gain the most attention possible in the media and beyond. Major recording artists, TV and Movie personalities and media will eventually use their spotlight to aid missing persons local to their events and or their national exposure. To continue to create a website that is an information and education hub for the world’s missing and assists the families of the missing with resources to make their search easier.

The Call
The Look, Listen and Pass it On CD/DVD: Recording artists donate their music or concert footage to be placed on a CD or DVD. The faces of selected missing are placed on the CD/DVD, which are given away at events. GINA is asking people to look, listen and pass it on. GINA Sessions Webcast: Artists perform monthly and profile different missing persons on a live webcast. People are asked to call the local authorities if they have any information about the missing persons profiled. GINA Concerts: artists all over the world earmark their events to profile missing people local to their events. The press usually cover these events and so the local missing person receives press that they normally would not receive. The Squeaky Wheel Tour: A 19-day tour, involving 100's of artists internationally in an all-out effort to gain attention for the missing persons local to their events. FINDing Gina: a documentary about Jannel's band, Clementine, on the SWT Tour performing with other artists in an effort to gain attention for the missing via a webcast, press, events and ultimately the airing of the 22-week series. www.411Gina.org: Extensive website with resources for the families of the missing that profiles their missing loved ones.

The Success Story
To date, over 140 missing people profiled have been found. This has been a collective effort by the families of the missing, media, artists, other nonprofit organizations, law enforcement and volunteers. The ache that never goes away is not knowing what has happened to your loved one. Many families live with this ache for decades. The natural grieving process is on hold. Bringing their loved one home gives them a chance to begin to grieve and heal.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Nonprofit Mobile Media Award

NONPROFIT DIVISION, MOBILE MEDIA CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY LOGISTICS PREPAREDNESS - H.E.L.P.!

Website: www.disasterlogistics.org

The Challenge
Humanitarian Emergency Logistics Preparedness, Inc. (HELP) is a non-profit humanitarian relief organization devoted to meeting the needs of the many victims of natural and man-made disasters on a global basis. They target medical/health concerns in disasters and other areas of chronic medical need. Challenges they address range from disaster trauma (ie; blunt trauma, wounds, etc.) to HIV/AIDS, TB, Elephantiasis-Filaria, malnutrition-related disease, water-borne Illness, insect infestation disease and much more. These are areas where often times medical emergency crews are non-existent due to disaster (they themselves are dead), likewise their facilities are often damaged or destroyed or they are located in chronic needs areas where no one else wants to help. Additionally, in many third-world locations local medical staff are typically under-educated and under-equipped with no access to advanced medical resources.

The Ingenious Proposal
HELP wants to deploy more of their Doc-in-a-Box mobile telemedicine clinics and to expand their web-based community of volunteer physicians and hospitals around the globe. These clinics enable local physicians to have modern state-of-the-art facilities and expertise "looking over their shoulder" thus providing the latest technology and insight to the remotest regions of our world. Telemedicine utilizes broadband satellite communications, the Internet and cellular technologies to allow field personnel in real-time to diagnose critical patient information with the assistance of medical specialists anywhere in the world. The output of electronic stethoscopes, ultrasound imagery and other medical equipment are sent instantaneously to a staff of collaborating doctors. Additionally, the collaborating medical professional can see and speak to patients half a world away. HELP has proven this effective from a HELP mobile medical clinic in the remotest rural areas of a tsunami relief camp in India (a 9 hour train ride from the nearest airport) via satellite to medical professionals in Arizona and Florida. This was done live with the physicians speaking - through Christian missionary interpreters - to the patients and hearing their digital heart and lung sounds. As a result, doctors were able to develop accurate diagnoses and, through the HELP medical teams, provide treatment to tsunami victims who still to this day, have no other medical care available to them. Four hundred people showed up to the first of numerous clinics conducted by HELP during their most recent visit. “It’s always a challenge to triage large numbers like this as we can only afford to get the most extreme cases in front of doctors via the satellite link we were paying $13 per minute to use,” said HELP President Randy Roberson. “We hope to return again soon and bring more badly needed medicines and other resources,” he added. HELP has been working to address these needs in the third-world. Their target audience in India alone (where they have been very focused since the Dec 2004 Tsunami) is nearly 1.5 billion in number. They have also worked in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Colombia, Turkey, El Salvador, Albania and Thailand. They have requests for help this year in Kenya, Darfur, Iraq, the Philippines as well as their ongoing efforts in India.

The Call
Obtain funding through various grants and technology awards (see http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/h-e-l-p-s-international-telemedicine-humanitarian-emergency-mobile-medical-clinic-network-interview-randy-rober) to enable HELP to supply 250 of the Doc-in-a-Box clinics to areas of chronic need in Africa, India, South America, the Philippines and American Indian Reservations. In addition, they will build their web 2.0 portal to accomplish three important tasks that not only provide better implementation of the telemedicine network to our clinics but also will provide sustainability long into the future. 1. Secure a web portal for physicians and hospitals to link to the mobile clinics. This will include complete video conferencing with all the various medical peripheral devices attached and displayable. Create integrated databases for ultrasound, x-ray and other imaging as well as audio files of digital heart and lung sounds, 2. Obtain additional secure portals through which the public and corporate sponsors can see the latest photos, videos and reports from the disaster locations. They will also be able to quickly and easily build their own fund-raising pages where they can invite friends to support the cause and track the effectiveness of their efforts. Corporate sponsors will be able to include their own corporate branding so the pages virtually represent what "XYZ Corporation" is doing to help with this disaster or chronic area of need. 3. There will be complete current financials displayed live 24/7 on the site that shows how every penny is spent. A main critical objective of HELP as grow to the next level is to be the most transparent non-governmental organization (NGO) on the planet.

The Success Story
Not only do these clinics provide increased expertise to be transmitted to the disaster field, they also present an outstanding opportunity to provide "tele-mentoring" to medical teams in the field. This will enable increased abilities on an ongoing basis as well as the help that is needed in times of extreme crisis. This offers a perfect example of "A hand up, not a handout" to third world countries and their people. It also gives physicians in the US and other highly developed countries the opportunity to make a difference overseas. In doing so H.E.L.P.'s experience is that many find an equally significant change in their own lives. Project case histories will be tracked in the databases for ongoing review by foundations and other support mechanisms. 100% of public support will go to the projects with nothing being deducted. Reports required from field staff (complete with photos and/or video) will be constantly posted on each clinic’s blog for public review. This will provide complete accountability of the clinic's productivity. This will also be tied to routine briefs from the various physicians who support these clinics via their telemedicine link.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Nonprofit Community Awards

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNITY CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...THE KUBATANA TRUST OF ZIMBABWE!

Website: http://www.kubatana.net

The Challenge
Zimbabwe has an extremely repressive media environment where most forms of communication are state controlled. The sharing of information is a fundamental human right. The Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe desired a way to address issues of censorship and isolation.

The Ingenious Proposal
Kubatana decided to create an online community for Zimbabwean activists. The Kubatana web site came into being after the creators experienced how useful the Internet can be in political campaigning and how the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector in Zimbabwe needed information and communications technologies (ICT) strengthening. Kubatana focused on using a wide range of interventions, such as establishing a highly regarded information portal (www.kubatana.net), email newsletters, regular electronic activism campaigns, SMS alerts, the sharing of audio files, and the blogging community. Kubatana’s program goals include: making civic and human rights information on Zimbabwe accessible on the Internet in an aggregated form - helping the NGO/non-profit community in Zimbabwe to become more accessible through publishing fact sheets for each participating NGO on the Kubatana web site. This facility gives small pressure groups the opportunity to be a part of the digital global community - encourage a greater professionalism in Internet publishing in the non-profit sector - keeping Zimbabweans from all walks of life who have access to email and the Internet informed of their rights and other issues related to social justice - exploring the innovative and integrated use of new media; for example, using mobile phones to solicit feedback from their community and then publishing the response on their website or blog to encourage broader debate. Please view http://kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=201 to read more - counter state propaganda by making objective civic and human rights information available - encouraging citizen mobilization and participation through notification of events, public meetings and protests.

The Call
A questionnaire was developed which was completed by a large number of NGOs. The Kubatana NGO community now hosts over 240 NGOs. A mock-up of the Kubatana home page was created and the founders of Kubatana went to many different NGOs to get their buy-in for the concept. The Kubatana web site was created using an Access Database and ASP. Other products used include Dreamweaver, HTML editing software, Fireworks and Mailman runs the mailing lists. Kubatana audio files are created using Wavepad and Audacity. The Kubatana SMS initiatives use Frontline SMS. The Kubatana blog is a Word Press blog on a Linux system. The Kubatana project has the following staff: Creative Director: Bev Clark (founder),Technical and Financial Manager: Brenda Burrell (founder), Amanda Atwood: Information Officer and New Projects, Dennis Nyandoro: Front Office and Logistical Support.

The Success Story
Kubatana has become one of Africa’ s most recognized web sites providing accurate and respected information. Kubatana’s email subscriber list currently includes over 4000 people, the majority of whom are Zimbabweans. One of their outreach tactics is placing inspiring advertisements in the press, although some of their ads have been banned by the Zimbabwe government. Over 240 Zimbabwean NGOs are in their community. Zimbabwean organizations as well as regional and international media and human rights organizations also use Kubatana’s information on a regular basis. Kubatana’s work has been integral in keeping information flowing. Kubatana makes human rights and civic education information accessible from a centralized, electronic source. It is also worth mentioning that the Kubatana project is possibly more impressive because it has been entirely conceptualized and implemented by women, who are generally marginalized in the area of information communication technologies in Africa. The Kubatana web site is cited as a resource by many different institutions and is used by a variety of local, regional and international journalists. Feedback indicates that Kubatana provides a vital service in a country where its citizens struggle to access information. Kubatana has creatively kept information flowing in this challenging environment. What is worth noting on this point is that the Kubatana project is run from inside Zimbabwe whereas the majority of information projects on Zimbabwe are external. This gives Kubatana added credibility and respect. Kubatana has been short-listed for the Hafkin Prize. The Kubatana project has won the award for most innovative ICT project at Highway Africa and was short-listed for the Yeoman Local Content Award. These are specific indications and acknowledgement of Kubatana’s impact.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNITY CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...THE GAY MEN’S HEALTH CRISIS!

Website: http://www.gmhc.org

The Challenge
The fundamental issue addressed by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) media project is the continued increase of HIV rates among young men of color who have sex with men (YMCSM). [Please go to http://gmhc.org/about/releases/070912.html for more information.] Furthermore, social marketing that targets this population is seriously lacking and is characterized by: a) an overall lack of YMCSM representation in media in general; b) a lack of quality public service announcements (PSAs) with HIV prevention messages targeting YMCSM; and, c) a lack of culturally competent social marketing and messaging that truly speaks to YMCSM. This project attempts to stimulate discourse in communities of YMCSM around HIV/AIDS by providing relevant and engaging HIV prevention and health messages to this population.

The Ingenious Proposal
Reach YMCSM who are at high risk for HIV transmission via online venues where men meet other men. Examples of these online venues are manhunt.net, blogs by YMCSM, brutha4brutha.com, YouTube, and MySpace, and other sites popular among young men. Data shows a steady increase in the number of YMCSM accessing the Internet, thereby continually increasing the opportunities for reaching this particular audience through this medium. The overall goal of GMHC’s media project is to reduce the number of HIV infections among YMCSM. More specifically, the media project aims to: Raise awareness and increase the discourse around HIV in online communities of YMCSM; Produce quality streaming media in the form of culturally competent PSAs that speak to YMCSM; Directly engage community members in the production of social marketing with messages directed at their own community; Engender discussion around HIV and sexual health among community members; Increase knowledge of HIV/AIDS among YMCSM; Raise awareness of attitudes and beliefs around HIV; Build the capacity of YMCSM to communicate effectively around; Build the capacity of YMCSM to produce PSAs with effective HIV prevention messages; Engage websites in participating with the dissemination of HIV prevention.

The Call
GMHC’s media project, Raw Cut Productions, was designed as a community-level, peer-based, social marketing, HIV intervention. The peer-to-peer model is designed on a base of strong community participation and uses ongoing community participation as its core tenet in creating socio-culturally relevant PSAs. One major component of the intervention is the workshop/production cycle, which comprises the following parts: 6-10 YMCSM are recruited from online venues where men go to meet other men. These participants attend an 8-part workshop by the end of which they produce a complete PSA. In the workshop, participants learn HIV basics, discuss how HIV impacts their lives, learn how to create effective social marketing messages, and then proceed hands-on through the entire process of developing, filming, editing, and producing a short PSA with an HIV prevention message. The PSA is then distributed to a variety of participating online venues, such as the ones from which the participants were recruited. The filming of the PSAs is accomplished using mostly hand-held digital video cameras. Editing and final production is done on a Mac computer running Final Cut Pro. The PSAs are distributed as QuickTime and Window Media files. Rawcutproductons.com, a companion to the workshop/production cycle, is the eponymous website dedicated to showcasing the PSAs produced by the project. Where the website really shines, however, is the feature it offers visitors to the site for submitting their own comments about each PSA. This provides another layer of opportunity for community dialogue and interaction around the issues addressed by the PSAs. Finally, the spirit of Raw Cut Productions expresses: democratic, organic, creative thinking process, idea exchange, alternative to commercial media. Please visit rawcutproductions.com to see all the PSAs produced by the project and the visitor comments that have been submitted on the website.

The Success Story
GMHC assesses the success of their media project in a number of ways. The website of the project provides them with ongoing quantitative and qualitative data in the form of visitor comments as well as statistical data that include demographic information, frequency of hits, and participating online venues where visitors originally click to see the PSAs. (User comments can be seen on rawcutproductions.com). GMHC hired an independent social marketing consultant to evaluate the project. The goal of the study was to assess the target audience’s connection and response to the PSAs and messaging, as well as evaluate the experience of the program participants. Research strategies included focus groups with YMCSM to assess the effectiveness of the PSAs and interviews with program staff and workshop participants. This evaluation found: An overwhelmingly positive experience for workshop participants, a real sense of urgency and need for pieces that speak to YMCSM, a usefulness of recruiting YMCSM to speak to their peers, and a social component of building a community drawing on participants’ strengths. The main challenge is that the project is resource intensive; there is a short period of time in which to complete a vast amount of learning and work.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNITY CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...HEALTHCARE INFORMATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS SOCIETY (HIMSS)!

Website: http://www.himss.org/

The Challenge
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. HIMSS is known throughout the industry for the quality education programs offered to members and to any healthcare professional. HIMSS holds many international conferences, with the U.S. Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition being the largest health information technology conference in the country and HIMSS’ main revenue source. HIMSS member research indicated a strong interest in and preference for online educational opportunities. Many healthcare professionals, from clinicians to health IT managers, do not have the budget or time to attend a conference in person. Thus, the introduction of a virtual conference seemed a logical next step for the organization

The Ingenious Proposal
Create a virtual conference in addition to the in-person conference. HIMSS wanted to enable the expansion of educational offerings to the online venue to address the needs of members and other healthcare professionals who cannot attend in person, and provide the ability of members and others interested in the electronic medical records industry to visit with vendors throughout the year instead of just once at the annual conference. Their goals were to: 1. Acquire 51 exhibitors to participate in the May 2007 HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo; 2. Get 3,000 registrants and 1,500 attendees (with 500 paid attendees) for the educations sessions at the Virtual Conference & Expo - 1,000 non-paid attendees represent the need to account for the fact that approximately 50% of registrants do not attend; 3. To raise awareness for HIMSS’ new educational offering, the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo; 4. To generate interest and excitement about the conference to ensure attendance and exhibitor goals; 5. To successfully market the concept, topics and content to audiences in a way that will demonstrate value and high quality leverage marketing to differentiate this product from other HIMSS educational offerings.

The Call
InXpo provided the technology infrastructure for the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo. Jeff Schmitt, Senior Manager, Education, managed the conference for HIMSS and led the team in all deliverables. This was an integrated conference with an integrated approach to setting up this meeting with HIMSS education, meeting services, marketing, communications, business development, and HIMSS’ publishing partner, MedTech Publishing, working as a team to put the conference on. HIMSS conducted pre- and post-conference research to ascertain the benefits of conducting a virtual conference, and then fulfilled those needs. The team met twice a month until about six weeks before the conference; then the meetings were weekly.

The Success Story
While not all objectives for attendance were met, the comments HIMSS received were positive. Those who did attend benefited, as noted in the post-survey comments. Holding a HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo (VCE) twice a year is now part of the FY08 HIMSS Strategic Plan. Demographics of Attendees: There were 2175 total attendees with 59% HIMSS non-members and 41% members; 71% of attendees were not present at HIMSS07. Overall, the attendees’ worksite and professional level mirrored the attendees of the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition. There were no outstanding differences. Electronic Survey Highlight: An electronic survey was sent right after the conference to all attendees. HIMSS received 135 completed surveys. Findings from the survey were very positive: Overall satisfaction for the VCE was rated good to excellent by 87%, 82% of respondents are planning to attend the November VCE, 87% had never attended an online conference prior to HIMSS VCE, 96% rated advance notification good to excellent, 81% rated pre-conference marketing materials good to excellent, 87% rated e-mail campaign good to excellent, 69% rated their satisfaction with the Daily Insider as good to excellent, 81% rated the Show Guide as good to excellent, and 74% rated the Attendee Guide as good to excellent. Most attendees heard about the VCE through e-mail, an online ad or newsletter. 91% of attendees stated that they would like to learn about future VCEs through e-mail.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNITY CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...INFOGROUP INTERNATIONAL!

Website: Pending

The Challenge
There are currently conflict areas in Africa, especially east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan’s Darfur region, where many abuse cases and human rights violations have been registered. Infogroup International desired a way to connect people across the continent and around the world, and help them find inspiration, education and information, and get involved with human rights activities, programs, and initiatives locally, regionally and globally.

The Ingenious Proposal
Develop a website and program that will serve as a source of information regarding human rights for people in Africa, especially in the conflict areas, and others globally. The website will allow people to participate in educational programs, and share ideas, experiences, and information. It will help people explore and better understand human rights and its impact on development and social and cultural issues in their community, while at the same time learn about the communities of other groups, and build a local, regional and global network of people committed to advocating human rights issues. Their goals are: 1. To increase human rights information dissemination amongst people and encourage them to respect and advocate human rights and related issues in their local community and across the continent. 2. To create a positive change towards human rights issues among people in east of Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan’s Darfur region. 3. To provide a forum for discussing human rights issues and exchanging ideas, videos, and information, and promoting effective local, regional and global networking.

The Call
The project will be developed using a participatory process that brings together individuals, human rights activists, educators and organizations from across the continent. During the expansion process, the project coordinators will choose Regional Officers at different conflict zones and community focal points who will coordinate the volunteers and activities in their areas, and liaise with the Regional Officer and the Project Coordinator at project headquarters. The organization will also benefit from the expertise of a variety of advisors, as well as a strong network of human rights activists, specialists in human rights, media partners, and educators. The main tool of information dissemination will be the website, which will be developed in many languages spoken in Africa, such as English, French, Arabic, Swahili and other major dialects, to reach a broader audience. The website will host human rights events, and have educational programs, poems, songs, illustrations, opportunities, a chat forum, a mailing list, registration options, contacts, music, videos and documentaries. They will create chapters for various communities committed to advocating for human rights activities and information dissemination. They will establish a global network with other organizations, youth groups, non-governmental agencies, and the media. They plan to launch regional and national programs, and be present at local, national, and global human rights events.

The Success Story
The official website has not been launched yet, but there are procedures in place to evaluate the success of the project once it does launch. Primarily qualitative in nature, the formative evaluation will be conducted through interviews and open-ended questionnaires, and will assess the impact of the project in different regions. Volunteers will be surveyed monthly about the training program and materials, and the content and usability of the site, to provide feedback for the ongoing improvement of the operation of the project. The Project Evaluator will meet regularly with project staff to share findings from the formative evaluation effort. Periodic reports will be prepared that identify the major findings of the formative evaluation and how they have been used to improve the project’s operation.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, COMMUNITY CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...WIKIKLESIA PRESS!

Website: http://www.wikiklesia.org

The Challenge
Book publishing enterprises operate generally as "top down" organizations guided by market forces and narrow stakeholder interests. How can today's dominant publishing paradigm be expanded to include social benefit and broader global participation? Can global-virtual ("online") communities be leveraged to assume roles traditionally dominated by centralized and/or for-profit publishing interests? Can the quality and time-to-market of traditional publishing models be maintained, or improved upon, by tapping the rapidly growing pool of collective virtual intelligence? The challenge is to create a new publishing paradigm not bounded by traditional business models - to leverage the resources of global-virtual community into a self-organizing, self-sustaining book publishing enterprise guided by shared ideals rather than profit or narrow/special interest.

The Ingenious Proposal
Create a leaderless, sustainable anthological book publishing enterprise focusing on a wide variety of religious-themed issues establishing (1) effective incentive for recurrent projects and (2) controls to maintain high literary quality. This new publishing model should exhibit emergent/chaordic properties, leveraging chaotic attributes of global-virtual community towards viral growth. A primary goal is sustainability with minimal structure - to move insular religious communities towards decentralized cooperation - to launch a self-perpetuating "nomadic" business model: raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new anthologies covering all manner of relevant topics. The project will be considered a success if (1) no long-term centralized leadership is required, (2) the franchise changes hands as new projects are created, (3) new projects emerge and self-organize based on the strength of broad-based collective ideas rather than narrowly focused institutional agendas, and (4) money is generated for charity with each new project. Wikiklesia Press serves a broad Christian/religious audience worldwide. Target demographics will vary with each new volume (e.g., women's issues in religion, technology's impact on religion, new expressions in global ecclesiology, etc.).

The Call
Two initial facilitator-editors employed their weblogs to announce the formation of the "Wikiklesia Project" and issue a call for authors. The topic chosen for the first anthology was "the impact of technology on religion;" specifically, the impact of virtual communication on global Christianity. The facilitator-editors received roughly fifty chapter proposals/abstracts within a two-week period. Roughly forty chapter proposals were accepted for publication. Of the finished chapters received, two were rejected for substandard literary quality, as determined by the facilitator-editors. Virtually all of the authors had some manner of existing virtual presence, such as personal web sites, weblogs, e-zines, and targeted e-mailing lists. Authors publicized the book, along with their chapters, using the virtual tools available to them. The book was highly publicized both pre-release and post-release. Author-volunteers assembled chapters into a finished "e-book" in PDF format. One author, an artist, provided original cover artwork. The e-book was released for sale on www.lulu.com. A paperback version of the book was released a few weeks later and sold via "POD" (purchase on demand) on lulu.com.

The Success Story
The first Wikiklesia paperback volume was just released (11 Sep 07) and has sold over 200 units to date (22 Sep 07). It is far too early to evaluate success based on sales (all of which goes to charity), nor are sales the primary metric by which we are measuring success of this project. We are meeting all goals outlined above, specifically, (1) a distributed, leaderless enterprise has been created authors from many divergent sectors of global Christianity are working together towards a common goal, (2) a second project has been initiated by a new team of facilitator-editors, lending weight to the goal of sustainability without centralization, (3) a high level of editorial/literary quality has been achieved, (4) over $1,000 has been raised for charity in a short period of time, (5) emerging writers, working alongside seasoned professional authors (Michael Lissack, Scot McKnight, Rex Miller, etc.), have gained a high visibility platform for their voice. As new Wikiklesia anthologies are released, we believe that the viral nature of the Internet will, over time, propel Wikiklesia into focus as a more socially-conscious alternative to traditional publishing models, while opening new doors of ecumenical cooperation and partnership. The second volume of the Wikiklesia Project is currently underway. A new group of facilitator-editors are preparing to announce their project, a survey of global Christian alternative/emerging faith communities.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Nonprofit Blog Awards

NONPROFIT DIVISION, BLOG CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE GOES TO...THE CENTER FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES!

Website: http://www.groundviews.org

The Challenge
Promoting progressive communications within and between communities WITHIN cycles of violence and a context of gross human rights abuse, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org) aims to further the impact of citizen journalism (CJ) in peace building and conflict transformation. Groundviews was the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, a country wrecked by violent conflict for over 25 years. It’s ability to feature content that questions the status quo and highlight voices rarely featured in traditional media has earned its Editor and his family death threats and public abuse, but importantly, forged best practices on editorializing and expanding the understanding and use of CJ to address violent conflict. Groundviews and its related sites, VOR Radio and Vikalpa, form a CJ eco-system that is challenging polity and traditional society through simple, personal and compelling stories. While CJ examples are aplenty, Groundviews is the only one set up in violent conflict to address the same.

The Ingenious Proposal
Feature stories via a blog that are vital pegs of hope, diversity and coexistence. They are those that will possibly never make it to mainstream media. Ordinary citizens, weary of violence, will write them. Artists, human rights and media activists, academics, young bloggers and thinkers, none of them with any journalism background or training, will write them. However, there is no guarantee that it will foster a new social movement in support of peace, when to do so is to risk one’s life. There is no guarantee it will secure peace and support real world conflict transformation initiatives. There is no guarantee that hate speech will not take over the timbre of online debate. Ironically, the more Groundviews is successful in fostering new voices in support of peace, the more it will be a target of concerted attacks to prevent it from growing further. And it is here that our greatest challenge lies. Not in the technology itself, but in the creation of a social and political movement, fostered by citizen journalism mediated through new media and new technology, that is able to maintain, in some small way, the hope of a just and lasting peace in Sri Lanka, even when the world around it is going to hell. And it is this hope that fuels Groundviews, not as a simplistic magic bullet against terrorism, but as an increasingly important vehicle for ordinary citizens to record their views in support democracy as the only way through which terrorism can be effectively combated.

The Call
The plan was simple - to use a blog to publish content (text, audio, video, photos) in English and the vernacular (Sinhala and Tamil). The technology they chose was Wordpress because of the ability to use custom plugins and themes to get the site operational in the manner they had envisaged. CPA approached InfoShare, a leading civil society technical support organization, to design and develop the site that, at the time, was the first tri-lingual blog in Sri Lanka. The strategy was to raise awareness of the blog virally. Aggregation of content on a well established Sri Lankan blog aggregator (www.kottu.org) guaranteed high visibility amongst the growing blogosphere locally as well as amongst the diaspora. Key authors were asked to contribute pithy and provocative articles that pushed the boundaries of polity and traditional media and forced readers to think outside their comfort zones. Measures were taken to register the site outside of Sri Lanka in light of the repressive regime in the country that could take steps to block the website. After the launch, fortnightly email updates on new content are sent to around 6,000 email addresses of donors, civil society organization, human rights activists and journalists based locally and internationally. Particular articles, such as those written by a noted personality or dealing with a significant issue or topic, are also sent out via email. These have resulted in a growing and faithful readership base for the website. A detailed set of guidelines for the publication of content and commenting on the site was drawn up that was the first of its kind on any media website in Sri Lanka. These guidelines allowed for progressive communication on highly contentious and emotional issues and at the same time kept the flamers and trolls away. Given the huge erosion of human rights and the culture of abductions and murder, the safety of contributors was guaranteed by anonymous postings, though the identity of each contributor was known to the Editor in order to guarantee trustworthy and high quality submissions. Finally, the groundbreaking content on the site itself resulted in increased visibility.

The Success Story
Groundviews commands name recognition amongst significant civil society actors and journalists in Sri Lanka for content that furthers democracy, peace building, reconciliation and human rights. The site has received over 75,000 page views since its launch in November 2006, which is significant for a blog in Sri Lanka. Groundviews generates around 500 page views a day, with roughly 60% of traffic from Sri Lanka and 40% from the diaspora. The website has been featured in local media, regional media as well as references in numerous blogs. Original news stories from grassroots have been republished globally. Articles on Groundviews have been republished in print and on the web by traditional media and other blogs; these articles were unique to Groundviews and on issues that exposed rights abuses, the absence of ethics in traditional media or the growing democratic deficit in Sri Lanka. Leading journalists and civil society activists have sent in content to be featured on the site and Groundviews is the only website in Sri Lanka that regularly features human interest stories from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees from the embattled regions of the country. The respect for and recognition of insightful and courageous content on the site is growing amongst key stakeholders in polity and society in Sri Lanka. The primary objective of Groundviews was to set a standard for and raise awareness on citizen journalism supporting peace building through the publication of progressive multi-lingual content. The initiative has largely succeeded in this regard.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, BLOG CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...CAPULET COMMUNICATIONS!

Website: http://www.capulet.com, http://www.desmogblog.com

The Challenge
DeSmogBlog.com is an advocacy website and weblog, dedicated to "clearing the PR pollution that clouds the science of climate change." An overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that the globe is warming - the world's climate is changing - and that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is to blame. DeSmogBlog knows that the risks are incalculable and, increasingly, they understand that the solutions are affordable. DeSmogBlog exists to shine the light on techniques and tactics that reflect badly on the PR industry and are, ultimately, bad for the planet. The challenge for Capulet Communications was to extend DeSmogBlog’s online marketing reach and drive more visitors, including journalists, academics, online influencers, environmental and climate change bloggers, to their website.

The Ingenious Proposal
DeSmogBlog engaged Capulet Communications to increase their online visibility. Capulet applied a variety of web and social media marketing strategies and viral campaigns to bolster DeSmogBlog’s web presence.

The Call
Capulet started a weekly 'best of' newsletter, created MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr profiles for DeSmogBlog, and consulted on a site redesign. In addition, the following are three viral campaigns that Capulet created that have worked like gangbusters for DeSmogBlog. They built a desktop widget (http://www.desmogblog.com/widget) that displayed recent DeSmogBlog news, as well as a climate footprint counter. They launched a contest, hosted on Flickr, called The Greenest Photo Ever (http://www.flickr.com/groups/greenest/). Why host it on Flickr? Social media marketing works best when you go to the content creators, instead of trying to drag them back to your own site and through a complex submission process. Maybe DeSmogBlog receives fewer visitors during the contest, but they earn more visibility and credibility in the long term. They also devised and built Stars and Stinkers (http://www.desmogblog.com/stars_and_stinkers), a Flash game where visitors rated celebrities based on their environmental-friendliness. They enabled bloggers to embed the game on their own site like a YouTube video, and also released the source code so that designers could build their climate change mash-ups.

The Success Story
When Capulet submitted the desktop widget to Apple's Dashboard library, it was featured on the site's home page. For the thousands who have downloaded the widget, DeSmogBlog has been moved out of the browser and onto their desktops. So far, 15,000 people have played the Stars and Stinkers game. While these campaigns have all driven plenty of visitors to DeSmogBlog,
Capulet satisfied a more crucial objective: to bring new visitors from outside the site's core readership. Over the past year, they’ve had a radical impact on DeSmogBlog's visitors, increasing them by nearly 300%.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, BLOG CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...THE CENTRE FOR POVERTY ANALYSIS (CEPA)!

Website: http://www.cepa.lk, http://www.pact.lk

The Challenge
The history of the Sri Lankan conflict is complex, not only because of the length of time that has passed since its origins, but also the existence of a myriad of perspectives on peace and conflict events. But any dialogue on the origins, manifestation and trajectory of the conflict is limited to certain circles. Bringing the dialogue outside of these limited forums would help to encourage a broader audience to take the first steps in acknowledging the existence of different perspectives and, in time, to understand them. The need to have this dialogue, particularly amongst the Sri Lankan diaspora groups, is clear: much of the different diaspora communities seem completely oblivious to any other viewpoint besides their own. And yet many feel that they should do more to promote understanding between their respective groups, both home and abroad.

The Ingenious Proposal
In order to provide a space for constructive dialogue on the origins, current manifestation and trajectory of the Sri Lankan conflict amongst diaspora communities, the Peace and Conflict Timeline (PACT) initiative was conceptualized. A conflict timeline has a number of uses. It is commonly used by researchers to examine the history of a given conflict and to improve their understanding of the sequence of events that led up to it. Conflict timelines increasingly feature in conflict transformation workshops, where participants are asked to collectively put together a timeline of key conflict events, to prompt exchanges around them. The PACT project takes the conflict timeline tool from the workshop to the web, where participants are free to voice their convictions while not having to step out of their comfort zone. The overall goal of PACT is to encourage dialogue and foster mutual understanding of different perspectives concerning the Sri Lankan conflict amongst the diaspora. It has two broad aims: (1) to be used as a resource to help those with an interest in the Sri Lankan conflict gain a deeper understanding of the history of the conflict; and (2) to encourage dialogue between stakeholders to the Sri Lankan conflict in order to elicit different perspectives on events relating to peace and conflict. Engagement with PACT, if encouraged, can open up new spaces for new sorts of conversations and an opportunity particularly for the diaspora groups to come to understand each others’ perspectives. Diaspora groups from conflict- affected countries run the risk of becoming spoilers to the achievement of peace back home unless they are constructively engaged in dialogue, particularly with the unlike minded, about the critical issues concerning the conflict. In seeking to address this concern, the key audience for (PACT) will be the Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala diaspora communities living outside of Sri Lanka, in various parts of the world.

The Call
The first phase is the development and online presentation of the peace and conflict timeline the tool upon which the whole initiative is anchored. Users of the PACT website are encouraged to engage constructively with the timeline. They will have views on what is missing - whether the timeline looks sufficiently back in history - and be given the opportunity to add new events. The juxtaposition of peace initiatives alongside conflict events will prompt comments on the missed opportunities and hopefully draw out lessons for the future. Users may also like to pose questions for others to address. There is also space here for people to give their personal experience of an event, which beyond a clinical analysis, will make users stop and think about the impact of the conflict on ordinary peoples’ lives. A prototype version of PACT (still in its pilot phase) can be accessed at www.pact.lk/. Currently, the events (both historic and contemporary) are presented on the timeline like newspaper headlines, calling for deeper analysis and understanding from users engaging with the timeline. During a second phase, this initial layer of engagement will be supported by primary research that will feed into the initiative, seeking to collect the spectrum of viewpoints on any given issue. Akin to an oral history project, individuals who can give greater insights into historical events - who have lived through them - will be specifically targeted to give their perspectives. A third phase of PACT will take the dialogue further and facilitate online Dialogue Sessions, inviting skilled mediators to facilitate conversations around specific events presented on PACT between individuals representing different views on the Sri Lankan conflict, including its triggers and trajectory. The team that will work on the project will be the Poverty and Conflict team, which specializes in applied research, conflict sensitivity and promotion of dialogue and exchange on poverty and conflict related issues. The team has undergone training in conflict transformation skills and a particular strength of the team is its gender balance and composition: all ethnic communities of Sri Lanka are represented.

The Success Story
PACT’s success will be measured using qualitative and quantitative indicators. Objective (1) will be measured using quantitative indicators, including the number of user registrations, number of hits to the website, number of postings made by users and the number of returning guests who were initially invited to take part in the Dialogue Sessions. Achievement of objective (2) and progress towards the goal will use more qualitative analyses of users’ posts. As the project is aiming to elicit the full spectrum of perspectives, users’ posts will be categorized according to the possible breadth of opinion on a conflict event or issue. A sample of users’ comments will be monitored for their openness to understanding the different perspectives of others. Qualitative analysis of the exchanges during the structured Dialogue Sessions will be useful in monitoring: do they indicate that even the unlike minded are nevertheless open to hearing about and understanding the other’s perspective? Another facet of the monitoring exercise will be to see whether, as the project progresses, users are positively influenced by reading the views of others, and use language that is respectful, abiding by the rules of engagement.

NONPROFIT DIVISION, BLOG CATEGORY

AN AWARD OF MERIT GOES TO...LIFELUBE!

Website: http://lifelube.blogspot.com

The Challenge
The communication challenge is to find a way to engage gay and bisexual men in overall sexual health and wellness issues - above the navel, not just below.

The Ingenious Proposal
Create a blog to engage gay and bisexual men in their overall, holistic health as both a means of preventing HIV as well as a way to promote health and wellness in general. The audience is international gay and bisexual men. LifeLube strives to address mental, emotional, spiritual, physical and sexual health in a culturally competent manner.

The Call
LifeLube was developed by a new collaboration of gay men's health and AIDS organizations called Sexual Health Xchange (SHX) made up of AIDS Project Los Angeles, AIDS Action Committee in Boston, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Gay Men's Health Crisis and Philadelphia's Black Gay Men's Leadership Council. The group created a website - www.LifeLube.org and a companion blog as online portals to connect with gay and bisexual men. Both were launched on Valentine's Day of 2007 with the tagline "Gay, sexy, healthy." Jim Pickett serves as web and blog master and the other entities help with providing content and marketing.

The Success Story
A snapshot of LifeLube.blogspot.com from April 26 through September 26, 2007 revealed: 15,037 visits from 126 countries, an average of 97 per day - in the last month, the average has been 146 per day; 4,250 were return visits, 522 people have visited over 200 times, 965 have visited twice, the average time on site was 2:15 minutes, the top traffic source was Google, responsible for 3,439 visits, the top key words were "gay sexy," and “GMHC's statement on male circumcision for gay men” was the URL with the highest number of clicks.

Popularity: 10% [?]

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