10000 Tweets - Harnessing Micromedia to Spread Messages of Change
About You
Location
Project Street Address
1260 Hamilton St.
Project City
Vancouver
Project Province/State
BC
Project Postal/Zip Code
V6B 2S8
Project Country
Canada
Your idea
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-Profit
Web site (url)
Name Your Project
10000 Tweets - Harnessing Micromedia to Spread Messages of Change
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
I've created a one-minute video proposal for this idea: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmh8u519TI
10000Tweets.com is a lens for hyper-focusing online attention on good causes.
Twitter is a 'microblogging' platform that has enjoyed tremendous growth and attention over the past two years. It already has several million users, and is expanding at an astonishing rate. In essence, it's a near-real-time network for spreading news about one's day, sharing links and chatting with friends and colleagues.
News spreads incredibly fast on Twitter, and enables web-savvy users to provoke rapid actions--whether motivated by profit, goodwill or just fun--in their online network. In January, 2009, Toronto-based PR expert David Armano engaged his Twitter network to raise over $15,000 for a needy family in less than 24 hours: http://tr.im/bhnt.
10000Tweets.com aims to harness this de facto rapid-response network for good. It's a simple website built using access to Twitter's API. Each week, it displays a call to action that Twitter users are charged with spreading or 'retweeting' (repeating the message to their own Twitter network). An example might be:
Please retweet: Sign the petition to save the Great Bear Rain Forest: http://www.petitionurl.com
The website displays the weekly message, and also shows a counter of the number of times the message has been broadcast. A call to action is considered a 'success' when it's been retweeted 10,000 times. The site would be paired with a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/10000tweets) which would become essential to the process of disseminating the weekly message to a network of keen Twitterers would be the first degree of 'retweeters'.
10000Tweets.com would also feature a kind of polling mechanism like Digg or Reddit, so that the community could vote for their favourite cause for the following week's call to action.
Impact
What will be the impact of your idea?
Charities and non-profits are struggling to adapt old, real-world fundraising and consciousness raising efforts to the web. Fewer cheques are coming through the mail slot, and those diminishing returns aren't yet being adequately replaced by online efforts.
10000Tweets.com works as an apolitical tool that any social change organization could use to spread their message, invoke their users to act or solicit funding for a project.
Each year it would enable over fifty organizations or causes to reach out to new constituents and raise money and awareness for a project.
This Entry is about (Issues)
People: We are looking for ideas from people who can make them happen.
Darren Barefoot is the co-founder of Capulet Communications, a web marketing agency. His background is in software development, and been cited as an expert on emerging technology in the Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and sundry other news media outlets.
Joe Solomon (EngageJoe.com) is a social media consultant for nonprofits. Joe also has a penchant for fostering social change web applications. In the last year, he's worked with teams on Firefox extensions, WordPress plugins, widgets galore, and over a hundred Twitter mashups that help people make a difference online. Joe is currently the Director of Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge.
Rochelle Grayson is the Chief Operating Officer of Donat Group Enterprises, a leader in online social networking communities and internet applications for the music, gaming, education and knowledge management industries.
Geoff Meredith has spent 25 years on the leading edge of technology and software development as both a CTO and a consultant.
Rochelle and Geoff are the team behind the popular Twitter tag search engine Twemes.com.
Sustainability
How much will it cost to launch your idea?
Development costs for 10000Tweets.com should be reasonably limited. The team has done some preliminary specifications, and feel that a prototype could be developed in 3-4 weeks. Ongoing operation costs include bandwidth and hosting costs for the website, as well as a small support contract if we're unable to solicit voluntary assistance.
In terms of sustainability, the site should be able to use its own communications mechanism for an annual fundraising drive that should cover its minimal costs.
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Comments
What a great idea, and moreover, a great way for those who are not in marketing or are not tech savvy to raise funds for their organization. I recently helped my father in setting up something for fund raising, and he wanted to do it himself, not have me do it for him. More people want to learn , not just hire someone, I think this project might be really helpful.
Good luck from a fellow Canuck.
Lisa
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