Thanks for helping "decode"

(Note to my cherished email subscribers: I'm not sure why the email posts are suddenly truncated, I'm working on it. In meantime, the Title links in your email should be live and take you through to the blog itself. Thanks!)

Thank you all who have been chiming in and pointing me to resources for the Decoding the Future of Philanthropy work. Proof of the wisdom of crowds. For those following along, here's what folks have been sending me:

Resources:

• post by Richard McManus on ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_5_web_trends_of_2009_structured_data.php The first in a series of posts by McManus on the top five Web trends of 2009,
• Several posts from Mario Morino at Venture Philanthropy Partners, especially "Here Comes the Sun"
  
• Steve Waddell from Iscale - and his thinking about networks and social network analysis, http://www.scalingimpact.net/content/strategic-mapping-and-visual-diagnostics-scaling-change
• Supernova's "Big Shift" presentation by Seeley-Brown, and Hagel II

Questions:

• I am interested in your take on the relationship between "augmenting" (from RWW) and the role of network design in "speeding the flow of tacit knowledge." The latter is JSB and Hagel's proposed new "leading indicator" of organizational performance.
• One thought where does interpretation of the data come in and the predicted sexiest job of the next decade, analyst/statistician?
• Agree w/tech/data being more available &visible but worry about the constraints of analytic/strategic thinking capacity

These are all very helpful! My colleagues at Duke and I are diving into the resources noted above and pondering the questions asked. I don't have answers yet (may never have them) but will try to keep these conversations going, please chime in if you have thoughts on the above!

Some more information on the project itself so you can stay involved (please!). We are working on a paper about the transformative (?) role of technology in philanthropy. The first draft will soon be ready to share and we're looking to publish the paper by the end of 2009. Our working title is "Disrupting the Social Economy." The work is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As part of the project there will be meeting hosted by the Duke Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society.

AND we want to engage in many, broader conversations than a single meeting can possibly foster. These blogs posts are derived from and feeding into the paper itself, we'll share the paper as widely as we can, we still welcome readers of this draft and those to come (send me your email address), and we'll try to use blogs, twitter, online sites as best we can - your advice on how to do this is welcome and necessary (again, please email me your ideas).

Your work is what will enrich this work enormously - if you are part of a "digital native" change network, are using data to advance a social policy agenda in ways previously not possible, are donating professional services and expertise through an informal network to make change happen - please, let us know what, how, and why you are doing what you are doing. If you are part of an online discussion, blog exchange, are holding a meeting, planning a conference, or putting together a panel discussion where the ideas we're addressing will fit, please be in touch - we want to share our ideas in those forums and learn from you. If you disagree with these posts, think we're missing key trends or drivers or change (or stasis) let us know.

Basically, it is fast moving conversation among many people, we're just trying to put some well-structured research and ideas into it and go along for the ride!

And, for those of you kind enough to "clamor" for part two and beyond of the "Decoding" posts, I'm working on them. My intended areas of focus for

• part two: cloud technology and peer to peer philanthropic and change networks.
  
• Part three: the possible conflict between the marketization of philanthropy as an industry and the real trajectory of a "networked information economy."
  

The work of Larry Lessig, Yochai Benkler and David Bollier are critical for part three - I'd welcome thoughts from them, those who've read their work, and those who can add to it or disagree with it....I'm reading as fast as I can, trying to understand the implications of these legal and economic frames for innovation, information, and production and their application to the social economy. I'd welcome anyone who wants to engage with me in an online chat about this stuff - electronically facilitated graduate seminar anyone? Anyone?

Thanks again for your help and insights.

Tags: philanthropy, socialeconomy, duke, lessig, benkler, onthecommons, technology, innovation, bollier