Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork
A few dozen of us had a fabulous weekend here in Chicago, at the first-ever Omidyar.net Members Conference. I blogged the conference in my new and WordPress-improved PeaSoup personal weblog. Will be upgrading sCNN to WordPress as soon as there’s time, btw.
Meanwhile, the weekend was full of learning and connecting, and the result is that there is tons of work to be done on sCNN. I wore myself out facilitating and participating simultaneously, but the good news is that much is coming clear. For instance…
PROTOTYPE: While I keep trying to believe that this whole endeavor is settled, I learned that in software lingo, it’s probably closer to a prototype than a finished production. It’s alpha version at best, still far from beta. I’m taking some comfort in this acknowledgement. That there is much yet to do need not diminish that there is much done and learned here, too.
PURPOSE: For something just more than a year now, I’ve struggled with what sCNN really wants to be. Really *IS*. I figured that out on day three of the conference: sCNN exists to feed the good that already is! …to feed money, resources, people, attention and energy (not necessarily in that order). …to feed technology tools, models, experience and support. …and to feed the stories of individual initiatives to more and more would-be givers and collaborators, via tech like RSS syndication feeds!
PEOPLE and WORKSPACE: The other big thing step forward is a partnership that was formed among several people and projects, and the creation of a shared workspace at Omidyar.net. That will let all of our projects move forward individually, but be informing and informed by the work and progress of others. From the sCNN perspective, it means more potential suppliers of project news and more users of the expertise that is developing here.
Stay tuned here for some more specific project, people and resource links that turned up along the way.
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