A group of internet visionaries, lead by Lawrence Lessig, launched today a letter making the case for a looser online copyright regime. The group includes authors like Tim O’Reilly and Clay Shirky (author, “Here comes everybody”), the leaders or officials of Mozilla, Wikipedia, Moveon.org, Sunlight Foundation, BoingBoing.

“To further support President Obama’s commitment to change, and to help make it tangible, we offer three “open transition principles” to guide the transition in its use of the Internet to produce the very best in open government.”

The “Principles for an Open Transition” are three:

1. No Legal Barrier to Sharing (law (copyright law) should not block sharing);

Content made publicly available in the course of this transition — such as President-elect Obama’s videos, or policy statements posted on the change.gov website — should be freely licensed so that citizens can share, excerpt, remix or otherwise redistribute this content without unnecessary complexity imposed by the law (…)

2. No Technological Barrier to Sharing (code (limitations on downloads, for example) should not block sharing;

A merely legal freedom to share and remix, however, can be thwarted by technological constraints. Content made publicly available should also be freely accessible, not blocked by technological barriers. Citizens should be able to download transition-related content in a way that makes it simple to share, excerpt, remix, or redistribute. This is an essential digital freedom. (…)

3. Free competition (no alliances should favor one commercial entity over another, or commercial over noncommercial entities).

Governments should remain neutral in the marketplace of ideas. Transition-generated content should thus not be made publicly available in a way that unfairly benefits one commercial entity over another, or commercial entities over noncommercial entities. For example, if video of a press conference is made available in real time to television networks, it should at the same time be made accessible in a standard, universal format for download and sharing (…)

This principles will have huge global impact if endorsed by the 44th US President.

Lawrence Lessig will be one of the keynote speakers at Cisco’s Nobel Summit next week. in Stockholm. I saw Lessig a couple of times, he is a fabulous speaker. I am now even more looking forward to his presentation

Lots more to say, but the beach is calling on this sunny Saturday.

(suggested by @pauloquerido)

http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/11/why-i-like-twitter.html

On his blog, Brian Solis, a Siicon Valley PR guru writes : “The social fibers that weave together this unique micromedia network is strengthened by the expertise, respect, trust, admiration, and commonalities. These fabrics bind the people who breathe life and personality into the global community as well as fueling the disparate micro communities that ultimately extend across the Long Tail.”

“Almost every single day, a passionate developer, b2b or b2c application company, or tech enthusiast will develop a new tool, service, or solution to make Twitter a more personalized, professional, streamlined, effective, and/or fun experience.”

Brian presents a comprehensive guide of more than 50 Twitter tools aready available.

Here is my selection of tools and applications that might be useful for public sector:

Twitt(url)y is a service for tracking popular URLs people are sharing on Twitter as a way to identify trends, topics, and new and interesting tools and services.

http://twitturly.com/

Favrd is a service that channels the most “favorited” tweets on Twitter. You can search by keyword and also see who else has favorited a particular tweet in order to identify like-minded contacts.

http://textism.com/favrd/

TwitLinks aggregates the latest links from the worlds top tech twitter users.

http://www.twitlinks.com/

Twist analyzes and presents trend comparisons and volume between keywords and tags on Twitter.

http://twist.flaptor.com

TweetPad provides a visual representation of Twitter feeds and statistics with dynamic typography.

http://silentlycrashing.net/tweetpad/

Twitscop is a trendcasting service that aggregates the top topics on Twitter and presents them in a visually rich tag cloud.

http://www.twitscoop.com/

TweetDeck is a must for any community manager, marketer or researcher tracking important and relevant conversations on Twitter.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

Gridjit is a social portal that lets you view your web universe in a more visually rich way.

http://www.gridjit.com/

Monitter is a dashboard for searching up to three keywords on Twitter and reviewing the results

http://www.monitter.com/

Tweet Later allows you to schedule tweets for a particular time and day.

http://www.tweetlater.com/

Tweetbeep is the Google Alerts for Twitter and is a “listener’s” dream service. It allows you to monitor conversations that mention you, your brand, related or competitive products, as well as links to your website or blog.

http://tweetbeep.com/

TwitterFeed connects your blog to Twitter and automatically feeds posts into the timeline with each new update.

http://www.twitterfeed.com/

Twiffid shows what your Twitter friends are blogging about.

http://www.twiffid.com/

TwitThis is really a potentially powerful and game-changing service, if it gets traction. If you’ve ever visited a site or blog and have seen or used the “share this” or “email this” feature, TwitThis is similar in concept.

http://www.twitthis.com/

OutTwit seamlessly integrates Twitter into Outlook. You can update your Twitter status directly from Outlook and receive your friend updates as Outlook messages

http://www.techhit.com/OutTwit/

EasyTweets is a solution for pre-scheduling tweets.

https://easytweets.com/

Twubble can help expand your Twitter network. It searches your friend graph and introduces and recommends new people who you may want to follow.

http://www.crazybob.org/twubble/

Twellow is a Yellow Pages for finding people who matter to your business or industry, by category.

http://www.twellow.com/

Twitter Karma is an interesting and also very useful tool for visually identifying those whom you follow, who do or do not follow you, and the relationships that are mutual.

http://www.twitterkarma.com/

My Tweeple is a Twitter follower/following manager that provides a one-stop dashboard for who you’re following and who, in turn, is following you. The service allows you, with a single click, to follow, unfollow, or blog people (or tweeple)

http://www.mytweeple.com

TWInfluence allows you to measure Twitter influencers, not just by followers, but also by reach, velocity, social capital and centralization. It also publicly ranks the top 50 influencers in each category.

http://www.twinfluence.com/

TwitterGrader measures the relative power and authority of a Twitter user by calculating the number of followers, the power of the network of followers, the pace of updates and the completeness of a user’s profile.

http://twitter.grader.com/

Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers.

http://www.twittertise.com/

Twittad is a micro ad network that connects advertisers to Twitter users to create opportunities for paid product placement and website promotion directly on a Twitter user profile (usually as a background image.

http://www.twittad.com/

twInfluence allows you to measure Twitter influencers, not just by followers, but also by reach, velocity, social capital and centralization. It also publicly ranks the top 50 influencers in each category

Ping.fm, Feedalizr and Hellotxt are tools for central update of your status and read your friends’ status across all main microblogging and social networks all at once – all from one dashboard.

BrightKite is a location-based social network that connects directly to Twitter. In real time you can see where your friends are and what they’re up to.

http://brightkite.com/

TwitterLocal is the ideal service for quickly finding active voices within a specific city, state, postal code as well as the vicinity, ranging from 1 mile to 20. Ideal for local government and community engagement.

http://www.twitterlocal.net/

Twitzu is an event invitation management service for Twitter. You can create an event, broadcast it to followings and manage RSVPs. Fantastic tool to promote online or offline public sector events.

http://www.twitzu.com

LiveTwitting is a streamlined solution for livetweeting (covering) conferences. An easy way to cover conference sessions. Blog readers can follow your session coverages in real time, and its easy to format and republishLiveTwitting provides an efficient and elegant solution to record, edit and repurpose the stream, and mark topics, segments, and speakers. Example: media democracy day vancouver

Public sector leaders and webmasters should discuss how to engage with micro blogging. During the last three hours, browsing all this sites, I came to an obvious conclusion. There are no shortage of tools available to measure, search and analyse Twitter posts, to manage communities and publicity, to publish and promote events, to manage online reputation. First movers will learn by doing and can create new services. I believe TwiiterGov here is to stay.

Published at The Connected Republic

Published on The Connected Republic

A lógica de rede e da rede permite menos barreiras à entrada e a emergência de uma nova liderança política. São boas notícias para a democracia. Há menos barreiras à entrada, há mais liberdade.

Acredito cada vez mais no fim do paradigma do lider político como um “rambo” obcecado com o comando e controlo, que usa o “spin” e todo o poder (real e projectado) para impor o seu rumo. Esse tipo de liderança impressiona pela sua eficácia e será sempre do agrado de alguns. Não tem sucesso nas empresas e tem sucesso limitado na política. É um modelo do passado, que cria dependências, tolhe a iniciativa, inibe a sociedade civil “não controlada”, na qual cria um lastro de cresente desconforto.

O nosso tempo pede líderes diferentes, que prefiram a “orquestração” ao “comando e controlo”. Que se vejam mais como sensores do que como magafones. Que prefiram a verdade ao “spin”.

Líderes assim são capazes de captar a imaginação, de atrair gente de todos os quadrantes, ansiosa por participar, disponível para dar o seu contributo.

Líderes assim vão dominar a política do Século XXI

Em 2004, Howard Dean, hoje líder do Partido Democrata, não chegou a ganhar as primárias a John Kerry, mas fez história ao mobilizar milhões de dólares e milhares de voluntários através do seu site. Nesse mesmo ano de 2004, Barack Obama era eleito Senador pelo Estado do Illinois. Escassos quatro anos volvidos, um candidato outrora desconhecido não só arrasou o poderoso establishment da invencivel Hilary Clinton como irá (estamos a horas de o confirmar) prestar juramento como 44º Presidente EUA, no próximo dia 20 de Janeiro de 2009.

Já quase foi dito sobre as razões do espectacular sucesso de Barack Obama. A sua capacidade oratória, o seu carisma e capacidade de sedução, a genialidade da sua campanha, o apoio entusiástico da juventude, a vontade de mudança e a conjuntura económica. Tudo isso é verdade. Mas tenho para mim que um dos mais espectatulares sucessos de Obama está na forma como revolucionou a utilização da internet numa campanha politica. O que Dean tinha inaugurado, Obama levou a um patamar nunca visto. Nada será igual nas campanhas.

Primeiro: o impacto da internet no financiamento da campanha. Enquanto as campanhas do passado dependeram sobretudo do apoio de pequenos circulos de “wealthy and well-connected patrons”, Obama recebeu donativos de dois milhões de americanos, a maior parte dos quais de pequeníssimos montantes através da internet (como apoiante registado, fui assediado semanalmente a contribuir). Esta mudança tem um inegável significado politico: a habilidade de um candidato angariar dinheiro de pequenos doadores é já um importante sinal da sua legitimidade política. A partir de agora, um candidato que não conseguir angariar dinheiro desta forma será visto como largamente dependente de grandes financiadores (e dos seus “vested interests”).

Segundo: pelo uso magistral das redes sociais (Web 2.0). Por exemplo, o numero de apoiantes de Barack Obama no Face Book atingia hoje 2,438,270 supporters. O site do candidato vai ao ponto de disponibilizar um simulador, que permite que cada um calcule o impacto da sua politica fiscal no seu orçamento familiar.

Terceiro: mais que um mero site, estamos perante uma plataforma colaborativa, aberta e descentralizada. Onde cada um pode desempenhar um papel, organizando eventos de campanha, encontrando apoiantes seus vizinhos, etc. Numa lógica “wikipedia” e “open-source software”, o site de Obama não só permite como encoraga cada aderente a desempenhar um papel na campanha. Uma mobilização a uma escala sem precedentes que só o cariz descentralizado e aberto da web 2.0 permite – num mundo “comando e controle” isso seria impossivel.

On his keynote speech, Geoff made the case for social innovation. There is a growing convergence of governments, business and civic society around the need for acting together.

Here are the ten thesis on Social Innovation, presented by Geoff:

1. The world has a deficit of social innovation. Existing models are inadequate to cope with ageing population, climate change, equality, diversity, drugs, well being, etc.

2. There is a widening gulf between business and society. It’s a mismatch between how economy grows and how society develops.

3. There is no shortage of creativity. There are many promising projects and we can learn a lot from them.

4. However, something is missing: the system for turning promising ideas to scale is inadequate and far inferior to those in science and business. That’s why there is this deficit.

5. Many fields can contribute methods and insights to social innovation. How to set the conditions to innovate? How to scale and to difuse?

6. We need better ways to design, incubate and supply new ideas and models – feed by crisis, curiosity, combination. We have to do that trough funding, incubation, putting problems, competition, fast testing, prototyping and mobilizing front line users.

7. Large scale impact depends on better ways to spread innovations and mobilize demand, using capital, commissioning and collaboration.

8. Demand and supply need to be linked by intermediaries. We both need the bees and the trees. The bees have great ideas but no power, the trees have great power, but no ideas. Social Innovation exchange is a good way to cross pollination networks.

9. Every city, every region, every country should cultivate its own capacity to innovate solutions its own social problems.

10. We need to bring all these elements together so that social growth to mach economic growth.

“We need to start thinking on a new Lisbon Agenda”, said Geoff. A new Lisbon Agenda to mobilize the hearts and minds of all the European innovators. An agenda with the aim of spread innovations in all aspects of society. The current financial crises, the ageing population, the threat of climate change; all these major challenges will require new innovative answers. I couldn’t agree more .

Traditional programs and policies, built around silos and on a command and control mood, are not longer sustainable solutions. All this major challenges requires structural transformations on the way we live and on the public sector works. Europe’s most intransigent problems demand solutions depending on cross-sectoral cooperation and innovation. That’s why social innovation must be a key priority: new solutions are needed and this solutions must involve citizen’s participation.

As Geoff said, Europe’s in this century will depend on its ability to innovate in all sectors and across all society. And for Europe to become a beacon of social innovation, European leaders must understand the challenges of a connected and collaborative world and have to give users “voice and choice”. As Charles Leadbeater explains in his recent book, “we are what we share”. That’s why the Social Innovation Exchange is an excellent platform to learn about innovative experiences across the world.

From “Next Rev” to “Notre Rêve”

“Social Innovation – The Next Rev” was the “motto” of the Lisbon International Congress. Discussing this compelling concept with the Portuguese First Lady Maria Cavaco Silva, a big supporter of the third sector in Portugal, she told me social innovation should be not only the “Next Rev”, but mostly “Notre Rêve”. And we don’t need to wait to make “our dream” to happen. On a connected world, all of us can make a difference. But we should do it together, in collaboration. As Geoff said, “all of us are smarter than any of us”.

Publicado em The Connected Republic

Professor Anibal Cavaco Silva, the President of the Portuguese Republic, participated in the conference, which focused on the application of social innovation in three thematic areas: education and employment, health and quality of life, and communities and participation.

The goals of the Conference were: to show what Social Innovation is, where and how it happens, to inspire the existing and potential changemakers and to accelerate Social Innovation in Portugal and in the World.The venue was the auditorium of the Gulbenkian Foundation, an excellent auditorium with a window overlooking the Foundation beautiful gardens. The Portuguese President Cavaco Silva, opened the event. On a bold speech, the Head of State explained why social exclusion is an area to which he have given special attention since the beginning of his mandate as President of the Republic. “I put forward for a civic commitment for social inclusion, I carried out the campaigns of the Route dedicated to this theme, I assumed as a main concern the identification and the dissemination of good practices in what nowadays is known as the third sector, that of social economy”, he said. “I congregated with organizations of voluntary workers dedicated to the development of new management skills in private institutions of social solidarity, or to promote networks of mutual aid and cooperation, with the objective to share donated goods or food products received daily”.

The President explained how Social Innovation is instrumental: “It was an unforgettable experience which helped to perceive the extraordinary impact that social innovation can have in the answer to the identified social needs, and to understand how a new generation of social responses is being developed that breaks away from the traditional means of intervention. It is urgent, however, that this new generation of social responses is extended to the problems which are late in being overcome.”.The Portuguese President emphasized “the problem of ageing associated to the pressure for early inactivity, especially that resulting from the recourse to early retirement or unemployment of thousands of workers who are too young to go into retirement, but already too old to resume a professional activity. The waste of human capital that this event represents is manifest, but the indignity and lack of respect for the human being which it reveals is intolerable.” Prof. Cavaco Silva advocated “the promotion of the principle of active ageing, with recourse to innovating remedies that provide flexibility to the transition from active life to retirement. The knowledge and experience accumulated throughout their professional lives would thus be valued, with benefits accruing to society and to them. This is a clear example of Social Innovation which should be urgently materialized.” How? “It is important to create platforms of assessment, dissemination and monitoring of the good practices of social innovation and, at the same time, develop a culture of cooperation, structure a network in which performers and organizations may share, and promote the new answers for the new social needs”, concluded the Prof. Cavaco Silva In Europe, ageing well will clearly be one of the most urgent themes on the political agenda of this decade. The combination of pervasive connectivity, collaboration and innovative social policies will be instrumental to tackle this fundamental challenge.

Publicado em The Connected Republic