Connecting with communities via printing on demand

How Printing on demand project can nurture learning and build communities of interests and skills

Fanstatic how conversations and people can motivate you to get on with little pet projects ;-)

I recently Met Graham from 'poet in the city' at an event hosted by 'The National Council of Vountary Organisations' (NCVO) which does so much fantastic training and support for third sector workers at the coal face of social change.

Graham nurtures inclusive poetry, embracing London's rich ethnic, language and cultural divercity. Poetry events are held around the city across various indoor and outdoor venues (as far as I can remember Graham).

Straight away I thought, wow...what about linking poetry to other groups who use 'poetry in so many ways'...

...but that's me thinking about bringing everyone together!

Why wear Nike when you can wear pride...?..imagine a remixed brand, by the people and for the people!
When I think of Merchandizing in the third sector, straight away I think of community generated designs, integration of self-taught artists, and gathering all of this potential, initially under Creative Commons. Then this pool of content can be farmed and remixed to produce fantastic original pieces that can be atributed to the contributors!

This is the creative bomb that imploded in my head as Graham said, "I'm thinking about merchadizing".

I thought, fanstastic!

...what if?

What if 'poetry in the city' where to create T-shirt poetry and artistic rendering on T-shirts driven by their audiences for their audiences?

What if they co-produced funky branded pieces?

What if 'people couture' could be the new 'visual poetry?

What if co-merchandizing could be a project to be shared at events?

What if initial contributors could be initially identified through a Flickr Group?

What if they checked out threadless and collarfree to get an idea of this fanstastic new people power?

Otherwise, chasing bodies for T-shirts makes any charity look like any other commercial setup, intrusive and only wanting your £ove when you pay by credit card!

If this opportunity was embraced - then the organisation could get closer to the audiences so they become contributors in the development and creation of brand merchandizing - a bit like threadless, and collarfree.

For more details about the Printing-on-demand providers, check out the PDF I did for you Graham. I looked at the most established and well known ones. Please make sure you do a thorough web check on complaints and your 'communities copyrights' so that you can all benefit from your effort and no other hijack artists get to piggy back on your hard efforts...that could be a separate project ;-) first fatten up the piggy bank.

Get your own - Open publication

Resource(s) Reference(s)

competitions...

PDF reviewing print-on-demand main contenders
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/printingondemand

spreadshirt competitions
http://blog.spreadshirt.net/uk/category/competitions/

submit a t-shirt design idea (winner-exclusive print)
http://www.collarfree.com/

submit a t-shirt design idea (winner-exclusive print)
http://www.threadless.com/


opinions, reviews, tips about printing on demand contenders...

Cafe Press Complaints regarding print quality of T-shirts
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-fulfillment-services/t41579-2.html

blog about t-shirt designs & trends
http://www.cottonable.com/

Copyright issues about zazzle on techcrunch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/07/20/profile-zazzle/

5 Tips That Will Improve Your Online Store
http://www.cotygonzales.com/2008/10/15/5-tips-that-will-improve-your-online-store/

spreashirt blog...
http://blog.spreadshirt.net/uk/

self-promo & web - cafepress
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/learn/shop_promo

T-thirt forums
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-fulfillment-services/t41579-2.html

zazzle - rss
http://www.zazzle.com/sell/tools/feeds

zazzle - promo tools
http://www.zazzle.com/sell/promotion/tools

zazzle - referrals
http://www.zazzle.com/sell/incentive/associate

zazzle - promo tutorial
http://www.zazzle.com/sell/promotion/promotionbasic

even more about Ts
http://www.tshirtchat.com/

lenz on zazzle...about T-shirts
http://www.squidoo.com/zazzle101

Promoting your T-shirt designs..

Rumplo
http://rumplo.com/

about Rumplo
http://rumplo.com/help/general#1

Rumplo blog
http://rumplo.com/blog/ http://rumplo.com/help/general#1

Videos...
cafepress quick basic free store intro...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWJT4fUuP9w

spreadhirt - working with vectors...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9a14oWkESA

spreadhirt - designer views (preparing designs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghzLk4j0wCU

spreadhirt - company indie tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ5OBhlJEhQ

zazzle-intro (site & tour)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG4c7X_-ydk

zazzle - intro, about the company
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XdHfs3TyuM

World Aids Day Dec1st Draft Poster

CD4 Community Project Poster Work ;-) It's hard to give up your addiction to the 3rd sector. After doing my part-time work I spent two solid days and three nights collaborating with my wife to come up with a concept poster for Carlos Lopez G and his CD4 The Band.

CD4 The Band uses music as a vehicle to create awareness about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. Their collaborative arm CD4 Community project uses music workshops as a vehicle to share life experiences relating to HIV.

So if you're reading this please let others know about the Dec 1st event at the Spirit Club in Manchester where CD4 The band is playing. I've been ousted from the house PC so I've had to use the laptop to link to my wife's flickr account www.flickr.com/illustrationcoo - to get to the draft and not the latest version. Anyway, most of the elements are there about the message.

Build Upon one anothers work - The Creative Commons way

Share your creativity - enable people anywhere to re-use from your work, learn and recreate...or find licensed work to enrich your creations
In a recent post I discussed the licensing of the Outcomes star under creative commons. In this article I examine the more creative areas for your projects.

All of us in the non-profit/charity sector are looking to spread our message in as economic a manner with a greater impact. If you have to do the marketing and need to look for content for your next campaign, why not give and take?

Share your creative wealth and Set your work free to grow some legs & let it travel new routes with creative commons refined copyright license approach, or even find licensed work that you can integrate into your project to really make it fly!!!

It's free and you won't need to hire expensive lawyers, hurrah!

You select the flavour of the license via a click through process and voila, you get a link to the page with the corresponding icon, like the one I recently acquired at the top right hand corner of this page. If you are farming creative snippets go straight to the search section to find the type of media or content that is available. But before you do that find out more by watching the video and checking out the licenses below .

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uTjpghGjjfo



Six types of Creative Commons licenses:
(read below or go straight to the summary page -
http://creativecommons.org/license/)

1.Attribution
(Gents toilet like icon):
All creative commons licences require attribution, this means that others may share your work as long as the credit you.

2. Attribution ShareAlike
(Gents toilet like icon & circular arrow to left):
Adds to attribution the condition that any derivative works fall under the same license conditions as the original.

3. Attribution no Derivatives
(Gents toilet like icon & an equals sign):
Adds to attribution the condition that no derivative works can be made from the work. In other words, you could include and build upon the work without altering the original. Say you can a 'diagram' or 'chart' within a report as long as you attributed the work.

4. Attribution Noncommercial
(Gents toilet like icon & $ with a stripe):
Adds to attribution the condition that those reusing the work cannot do so in terms of profiting commercially from the work. The interested parties may have to contact the license holder to re-negotiate the license and work something out.

5. Attribution Noncommercial ShareAlike
(Gents toilet like icon, $ with a stripe & circular arrow to left ):
Adds to attribution the condition that those reusing the work cannot do so in terms of profiting commercially from the work and that the new work that has built upon has to be released under the same licensing conditions if the party interested in the work is to use it.

6. Attribution Noncommercial No derivatives
(Gents toilet like icon, $ with a stripe & an equals sign)
Adds to attribution the conditions that those reusing the work cannot do so in terms of profiting commercially from the work and that no derivative works can be made from the work. In other words, you could include and build upon the work without altering the original. Say you can a 'diagram' or 'chart' within a report as long as you attributed the work. And on top of that those reusing the work cannot do so in terms of profiting commercially from the work.

You can see as you go down the licenses the levels of restriction that you can
apply.

There are literally millions of people already sharing their work to be remixed.Check out the video about the general creative commons licenses.

Farming for content to use in a project?...well -you can search for it

If you are farming for content and looking to remix or be rmixed, then search the creative commons website. The CC search engine searches various platforms that have integrated CC licensing for their contributors to release works under the CC license.

If music is your thing (hey you fantastic guitarist from Rod/zio) go to ccmixter.
If it can be made to work for the music industry, as some artists are embracing,imagine what it could do for you? Check out the video, it even includes shorts snippets to video licensing.

http://www.youtube.com/v/1e2WMlL6jlI&hl=en&fs=1

What about a primer on the whole thing ?- watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/v/tBnJBKnibyc&hl=en&fs=1

You can also see a videos about creative commons in the following languages:

Spanish
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=OUo3KMkOETY
[for my friend Carlos Lopez G & his victory over HIV]

Portuguese (brasilian)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xPRFCk63Y
[for the talented brasilian guitarist from Rodzio - Northampton]

Apologies for the bias but these additional languages are for my native fellow south & Central Americans.

Reference(s) Resource(s)

Creative Commons website
http://creativecommons.org/

Outcomes Star - embracing the open organisation

Sharing an openly adaptable framework to assist service users on the road to final 'outcome' destinations

In my previous posts on engagement & trust and customer/client contributions to organisations' reach and wellbeing I sign posted various approaches that organisations and companies are undertaking to 'open' up their organisations. This enables them to open up their business processes so that they can be co-developed and co-shared with their various stakeholders, clients or service users.

Co-development, co-sharing expertise in a spirit of openess does a heck of a lot to engage those very publics and peoples whom you want to recruit to help transform lives. It all sounds quite far away and woolly when you can't see an example.

Outcomes Star Second Edition Released - keeping alive sharing & remixing under CC
Homelesslink has kept alive the spirit of an 'Open' organisation by maintaining the creative commons license on the Outcomes Star. This enables orgainsations and individuals to build on each other's efforts to create a better world so that knowledge doesn't become stagnant and is open to new creative possibilities.

The Outcomes Star in a nutshell
The Outcomes Star in a nutshell is an 'outcomes' framework that enables organisations to chart and measure the progress in terms of change (on a scale of 1-10) along several key dimension. These key dimensions are dictated by the sector for which it was developed. For example there are currently two flavours - homelessness and mental health.

Get your own - Open publication

Get your own - Open publication

Remix The Outcomes Star to suit your organisation
The Outcomes Star guides are released under Creative Commons (modify, attribute, no commercial profit) license. So if you can benefit from this, that would be fantastic.

About the Outcomes Star
Originally commissioned out to Triangle Consulting for its development to the London Housing Foundation. The mental health version, to my understanding, was co-developed between Triangle consulting and the Mental Health Providers Forum (MHPF). This mental health model, to my knowledge, still remains with the two mentioend before. The homelssness Outcomes star project has now been handed over - if you can put it that way, to homelesslink. There is an online system to support the Outcomes Star, and this has been developed by Jellymould Creative.

Resource(s)/Reference(s)

Outcomes Star - Main website
http://www.homelessoutcomes.org.uk/The_Outcomes_Star.aspx

Outcomes Star online System
http://www.outcomesstarsystem.org.uk/

homeless link - the new guardians of the Outcomes
http://www.homelesslink.org.uk/

Triangle Consulting - The research organisation hired to put together the star outcomes
http://www.triangleconsulting.co.uk/home/2008/5/8/recovery-star-published.html

Mental Health Providers Forum - Co-developers of the Outcomes Star Mental Health
http://www.mhpf.org.uk/

Creative Commons - open licensing for a co-constructive and creative future
http://creativecommons.org/

Print What You Like from webpage - visually

No more horror webpage printing this halloween - or let alone the rest of the year

Yes, you can excorcise your printer from the ghouls of the horried browser printer setup with "printwhatyoulike.com".



It's so easy and what is even better it's free. Check it out!







What's more you will be kind to your wallet, printer and the environment. use the deliciously easy visual way of selecting what you want to print.



Resource(s)

www.printwhatyoulike.com - free

Harvard Business School Revisiting Customer Contributions to Business Success

Why would you want to pay for a 12pp. article on customer/consumer collaboration with the development of products and services when you can tap into these minds on the web for free?

I So after having finished an article on 'conversations-engagment-trust' that weaved in elements of collaboration and co-development I go into London Waterloo today to find the October issue of Harvard Business Review having an article titled, 'The Contribution Revolution: Letting Volunteers Build Your Business' - and the price in sterling? It's like bying a whole book!!!!






(HBR: web image & mobile photo...notice the layout difference in the editions)


Can't we work out a model of how collaboration works out by 'creating our own frankenstein' and learning from others for free?

Get your own - Open publication

http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/wisdomofcrowds

Even the McDaddy of economics of distributed and open innovation, Dr. Eric von Hippel, has his books for free on his website as well as his research papers on the subject. Others have posted models which are easily available, as well as lovely PDFs...see below! Well, I can always strive to do my bit for the 'open spirit' ;-)

Before you explore the resources I leave you with the thoughts of Clay Sharky

Models, References & Useful Resources - for free!!!

What does 'crowdsourcing' mean for business innovation?http://ideaflow.corante.com/archives/2006/06/05/what_does_crowdsourcing_mean_for_business_innovation.php

The FLIRT Model of Crowdsourcing - The Updated Model and Background

http://www.samiviitamaki.com/2007/05/06/the-flirt-model-of-crowdsourcing-the-updated-model-and-background/

Overcoming Mass Confusion: Collaborative Customer Co-Design in Online Communities

http://userinnovation.mit.edu/papers/Piller_etal_JCMC_2005_collaborative_co-design.pdf

The Contribution Revolution: Letting Volunteers Build Your Business - Harvard business review -October 2008 Issue 12p.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0810C

Geeks in Toyland - how lego tapped into passionate consumers to innovate

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/lego.html

The Power Of Us - Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938601.htm

Cambrian House, Home of Crowdsourcing

www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/0IyWUff/

Scoble on Fast Company TV - Using croes to preduct outcomes - predictify

http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/using-crowds-predict-outcomes-predictify

Faces in the Crowd: Brett Snider

http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/advertising/

Eric von Hippel - wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_von_Hippel

Eric von Hippel - free papers

http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/papers.htm

Eric von Hippel - free books

http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/books.htm

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

The Wisdom of Crowds Vs Blink...The aggregate & averaging of opinion to model accurate predictions Vs the think slicing instictive discrimination of the individual

http://www.slate.com/id/2111894/entry/2112065/

Gladwell - author of Blink

http://www.gladwell.com/blink/

Ross Mayfield...Participation Ladder

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/470424239/sizes/m/

Ross Mayfield...Power Law of Participation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/171420476/sizes/m/

P.S Forrester has got a couple more that you can google to satisfy your curiosity

Engagment and trust - unerstanding the conditions - opensource way

PDFs that are available for free also sketch out an architecture of trust & engagement - it starts with a conversation
Information Communiation technologies are ever growing new tentacles and new ways to attempt to strike conversations. These intended interactions are directed at leading invididuals into an unerstanding of how organisations and companies can transform people's lives. Ofcourse, you always have the dark side. Where conversations don'e really exist - rather, monologues, as the case has been for mass media marketing. The fantastic viral video, the break up, couldn't put this more poignantly.

But how do we look at conversations & trust (before we get to the PDFs)?

Connecting Values & Connecting with people - loving people and how you can connect them?
love is the killer App by Tim Sanders (wikipedia), resonates with my philosophy. Really caring and being passionate about what you do, and seeing that what you do can help make a difference to others is a fantastic way to live. I always look at being a conduit. This is one of my main callings, to be a conduit so as to connecting people with other people and resources to help them transform their lives. 'Love is the Killer App' validates those human qualities that go beyond the ego and looks at making an interpersonal difference that ripples along to touch other invididuals, just like in the movie 'pay it forward' (sorry for this plug, only £2.99 at amazon).

As some of the chinese wise men have said over the centuries, a good conversationalist and a good conversation is about genuinely listening twice as much as you talk.

Can we idealise the type of people we wish to converse with?
I love talking to a variety of people. One type are those, who are modest people who love to be, think and do - driven from their hearts and values. This short sentence forms part of the type of emotional DNA snippet (eDNA) element or sequence that interests me. These are just a few qualities/characteristics. The more of the charactersitics I put together, the better the picture I obtain with that particular type. There are others who are growth led and want to learn from every opportunity that comes along. Putting together these unusual suspects, you can see how quickly you can build a unique group of individuals. These are called, Personas (wikipedia) link.

I will sign-post personas, and a non-profit model which I initiated and which I will co-develop. So you can see the importance of who you want to talk with!

Enough 'type talk' look, learn, and hopefully you will share with me and we can start helping out together

What follows are previews and linkt to the freely available PDFs that have been uploaded to issuu

Democratisation of publishing - content & its impact on the attention and digital landscape

Get your own - Open publication

Wemedia link
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/wemedia_audiencecommunityparticipation

The 'Trust Economy' in a turbulent time, is more essential to undersand than ever

Get your own - Open publication

Trust economy link
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/trusteconomynetwork


Citizen - Innovator, how citizen knowledge is helping create wealth & revenues

Get your own - Open publication

citizen innovator link
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/userengamenetinnovation

cocreation - let your customers give you a hand with envisioning the future

Get your own - Open publication

co-creation link
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/cocreation

open source marketing - bringing your customers into your marketing efforts

Get your own - Open publication

open source marketing link
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/opensourcemktg

How the above leads to engagement of the digital/real life consumer - check out the customer engagement report by Cscape

Get your own - Open publication

link to Cscape customer engagement report
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/digitalconsumer

What are your principles and do they stack-up? and how do you fair against the 95 theses of the landmark manifesto - cluetrain (only 8pp)
http://issuu.com/williamdoust/docs/cluetrainmanifesto

How a manifesto has stimulated so much conversation

A clue about conversations? Jump on the train...on the cluetrain
I've been aching to write a blog post, but been so busy working and accumulating topics through my 'serial reading'. I guess taht I make up for my book's carbon footprint, and feel better about it being offset by my not owning a car and minimising travel to a yearly milk round.

The time machine exists and you can use it to see the evolution of conversations
I'll have that big nice papaya, three mangoes, and that small bunch of bananas, I said to the fruit seller in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in my Venezuelan accent (which everyone thought was Cuban!). The guy in this small market village told me $20 (Mexican pesos). 'Cuanto?' - how much?... I said in a voice of utter disbelief and a mocking grimace that went across my face like a cloud goes over the sun in an English summer's day!

'Come on', I said in Spanish, the market is about to close, and you can tell from an accent that I'm not from here. I know about tropical fruit, and know that it is not worth as much as you claim. You know what?... I'll give you eight pesos and we can make it a fair deal . And why not make this act an official welcome to me as a tourist.? The guy laughed in his string top, shorts and plastic flip-flops, shook my hand and proceeded to handover the bag while I with the other handed him the money.

I've done the same bartering process in Istanbul, some parts of Mexico, and Venezuela, including some commercial entities who give you discount when you buy higher quantities (half a doze jeans, shirts etc.)

But we know the contrast right?...Smooth talking 'double glazing sales' routines and 'call centre operatives'
These are conversations that we don't want to have because basically we feel that we are going to get done over and we are just another number, another target. There is no real want for a conversation, just to empty our wallets to fulfill quotas. It's no ones fault, just a manifestation of the mindset that reflects the supporting process of mass manufacturing.

Our comfort with the web, broadband penetration, and the technological possibilities have given a rebirth and a multitude of possibilities for new genuine conversations
Our desire to socialize and connect with others has been hard-wired into our DNA for thousands of years. There is no denying that. And so has our desire to share insights, life stories, and our humanity. Where we meet doesn't matter, what matters is the genuine and frank conversations that we can share.

Reading and reflection on these issues that were 'hidden from plain sight'...at least to me
How this whole lovely 'back to basic' conversations and dialogues (now over the web) was highlighted to me initially around 2003 by 'The Clue Train Manifesto' - that seemed to manifest the discomfort with business as usual. Whole set of tools have evolved over the last decade to continue to refine capture and 'leverage' these conversations in order to allow 'peer influence' to help us make appropriate choices.

The FREE Cluetrain Manifesto (online PDF) - took me on a reading journey of discovery
This post, just focuses on how the 'clue train manifesto' has had such an influence of the many authors who I've recently been busy reading to see how business has embraced these new tools.
Read it, and let me know how it has transform your outlook and mindset - I want business un-usual!...one that genuinely cares and wants real conversations.

In the meantime, here are the books I read recently that were definitely influenced by the manifesto. And as you can see, I have too been greatly influenced.

Connect with TES for education-ning?

...or can your school roll it's own - also no cost?
A few weeks ago there was news that the Times Educational Supplement (TES) was launching its TESconnect socialweb. The site enables teachers to network, share teaching and lesson planning resources.

My first thought was great, but my second was, what took them sooo long?

Why was there a need for a study to confirm the trends? In fact, a quick web search would have revealed the tens of dozens of teaching socialnetworks already setup at Ning.

Ning enables anyone on the web to customize & launch their own social network. If you can use word, powerpoint and navigate on your PC you can use Ning.

So why did we have to wait for the study 'The Digital Staffroom: How social networking and resource sharing are transforming teaching', involving 5,000 teachers across all aspects of the teaching profession, to highlight workflow & productivity issues within the sector?

Ning was featured as far back as february 2007 in Wired magazine (online). Why are we such laate adopters when it comes to the socialnetworks and the socialweb?

Resources/links

TESConnect - launch news
http://www.tsleducation.com/newsrelease_220808.asp

TESConnect
http://www.tes.co.uk/

The Thing That Is Ning - wired magazine online (feb 2007)
http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/02/the_thing_that_.html

Ning in education - Using Ning for Educational Social Networks site
http://education.ning.com/

Ning - create your own socialnetwork website
http://www.ning.com/

Improved web video players branding & functionality

Metacafe and Viddler enhance their free offerings...
A couple of posts ago I wrote about managing your multiple video uploads with tubemogul. What's really fanstastic is that those Youtube clones are also coming up with some fanstastic new ways of branding your content and engaging your user across your video's timeline.

Branding With Viddler - a whole new level!
What is there that you can't customize and brand with the viddler player?
You can visually select your colours via ineractive colour weels to change: background, player shading, player colour...and even the very colour of the player controls!...and don't even remind me about branding with your logo. Check it out!

Metacafe is getting with the FX
PLYfx - is what metacafe labels as the new way of mega pimping your video player & video experience to a new level. Metacafe now allows you to add custom effects, tittles, speech bubbles,animation and hyperlinks to any part of your video in any part of its timeline. check it out.

So now you can build a consistent image with your projects and squeeze much more out of your tight budget, so that you can enhance your front line services even more, and still look professional!

Resources
Viddler's branded player preview
http://www.viddler.com/learn-more/#build-your-brand

Metacafe's PLYFX
http://blog.metacafe.com/?p=165

Mindsets: keys to growth & development

...and not just in the workplace - according to researchers & psychologists

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, is based on her continuous research at Standford University. It reveals that individuals with an open attitude to growth and developmen have a stronger likelihood to evolve. And this 'mindset' enables them to quickly adapt to circumstances and learn from their mistakes by seeing these as opportunities for that very growth. The New York Times has an interesting summary.

These findings are also supported by research shared in the book, tribal leadership, which I mentioned in a previous post.

If you have an organisation that is led by values, and corresponding individuals are recruited to reflect these philosophies and a desire for growth and sharing, then you will have something really, really great. These statements are corroborated by the fantastic book called spiritual capital.

These finds are worth reading - if you can borrow the books, otherwise it may be worth bying to share! well worth reading.

PrimoPDF - a good & free PDF writer

This PrimoPDF writer is almost perfect, but not quite...

In one of my previous posts relating to the issuu flipbook platform that converted PDFs to Flipbook format (and was free) I promised that I would write a post on a free and reliable PDF writer.

I've been using PrimoPDF for two months after having some problems with my previous pdf writer when printing webpages to pdf. So I went to the credible and reliable download.com owned by Cnet and Ziff Davis publishing (ZDnet.com), and checked around. After some googling and seeing other opionions I decided to give it a go. I still use it to this day.

The only thing that bothers me about PrimoPDF is that it constantly tries to connect to the internet. I've let it a few times but updates did not inform me of the changes. download.com checked it for malaware, etc. and said that it was squeaky clean.

If you aren't happy with your current pdf writer's ability to print webpages to pdf, then give PrimoPDF a go. Once installed it becomes anothe printer that you select to print to.

As part of this series, I'm examining open source components that facilitate a publishing work flow that culminates in a PDF format. Look out for the next open source reviews that will help your non-profit maximize resource and minimize unecessary expenditure. In the meantime check out the PrimoPDF screen shots, and if you like PrimoPDF download it from download.com.

PrimoPDF Printer Dialogue (from firefox Print option)

PrimoPDF Dialogue (when making PrimoPDF default printing device)

Resources & References

Review on this blog of the issuu flipbook online platform (PDF converter)

http://www.download.com/

http://moourl.com/zdnetprimopdf

http://www.primopdf.com/

Stickam - The Live Community beta invite to Payperlive

Stickam - The Live Community webcam broadcasting channel is to launch the Payperlive service which will be a god send to charities

With claimed stream views of over 1,979,095,XXX, as of 2 July 2008, 23:44PM GMT (London 00), Stickam has officially opned its beta invite to Payperlive. This service then has a large audience and has been explored by individuals in various communications roles.

Love the YouTube info-ads, loved the 'narrowcast' on Stickam
The best appeal I could find with google was a UNICEF appeal called StickAid which sarted in 2006 and has continued for the lat two years. YouTube appeals were put out there as 'adverts' to seed the community and invite them to the broadcast. The technique of inviting the crowd to spread the word has resulting in growiing donations.
The initial 24 hour webcam-athon raised initial donations for UNICEF reaching £500 pounds, through to £3,500 in 2007. How much did they raise in 2008?

Maybe a bit of snooping on YouTube would give this away. You'll find the first link clue at the end of the article.

So check out stickam and sign up for the PayPerlive beta if you feel your charity could benefit.

My firends who run CD4 community project are giving stickam broadcasting a go for a live concert to be aired from Sheffield Sunday july 27 18:30(London GMT 00). We'll go live, fingers crossed, hopefully no technical glitches with the WIFI connection.

Useful links

Stickam
http://www.stickam.com

Stickam's Payperlive
http://www.payperlive.com/request

StickAID 2008 - July 18, 2008 - UNICEF...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MdX5HYHG1Q

StickAID 2007 - The Build Up... charity event 24hr done by Stickam representatives
http://mefeedia.com/entry/stickaid-2007-the-build-up/4460800/

CD4 community project Live concert
http://moourl.com/cd4concert

Flipping out over FlipMags - the eMag eVolution

So excited that I made an 'Issuu' out of it and started this post at 01:24am (GMT 00)


My sweet wife who works at homlesslink was working from home today researching web 2.0 and social media related content with regards to how these could be deployed effectively in the third sector.

I was finishing a blogpost about a free PDF writer, when she excitedly told me about the Free Issuu flipmagazine publishing platform. I got so overwhelmed that I decided to do this post instead, although the articles are kind of related as you shall discover.

Issuu Turns your PDF into a flippable eMag that can be embeded almost everywhere - for free!!!
Issuu gives anyone the ability to upload a PDF document and publish it as an online flippable/page turning magazine. Their tag line ‘Read the world, Publish the world,’ is based on building within the platform a community which shares commonn interests and 'reads'. But what's really, really powerful about Issuu is that you can 'embed it' into social networks/platforms like FaceBook, MySpace, orkut, Blogger, Friendster, TypePad, LiveJournal, or or on a webpage of your choice, either as a mini or as a link to a cutomized & larger version.

Other Free embedable 'enhanced PDF viewers' don't stack-up
Some may argue that Scribd and DocStoc offer poorer possibilities. But I must confess that I'm completely won over by Issuu's well thought out design, navigation and layout of the whole platform. But if you need your bases all covered, you've got the other two and if you have a teen market you want to reach you could check out Flip.

Well, afterall it appears that you will need a good free PDF writer to output your magazine design work...stay tuned. Meantime, check out the samples below.

Below is an embedded mini-mag to give you an idea...

But that's not all check out the quick tour that follows, to give you a better idea about how it works.

Image one Issuu magazine before zooming in...




Zommed Issuu magazine with tools




Issue magazine embed option - also notice facebook icon




Issue magazine embed code customisation view




Final embed code (as HTML option)




References & Further Reading
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/06/finally-a-web-based-pdf-viewer-that-does-not-suck-issuu/

http://dn3sxsw.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/talking-issues-with-martin-ferro-thomsen-of-issuu/

http://www.spellboundblog.com/2008/03/02/issuu-interesting-platform-for-online-publishing/

http://www.flip.com/

http://www.scribd.com

http://www.doctoc.com

How can a leader be effective in an organisation with multiple tribes?

...given that every organisation is a microcosm of tribes!

'why is it that you go into some companies and leaders seem to do everything wrong and yet that company does well and you go into sother companies and leaders seem to do evrything right and yet and nothing good happens?

The question and answer posed by Dave Logan to an interview with Stuart Varney on Fox, is that, 'it's cultural and has to do with these naturally occurring groups that happen within organisations'.

The book titled, 'Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright'explores organizational echo systems that are made up and run by tribes consisting of between 20 to 150 people.

Tribes coallesce into groups through shared mind-sets and worldviews about work, life and the cymbiotic relationship that culminates in work ethos or lack there of. And this is reflected in the language indivduals use to describe their current experience.

The heart of Tribal Leadership -on the level..erm, stage
Logan, King and Fischer-Wright designate the mind set stages as follows: "Stage 5," or the "Life is great" stage, is a plateau beyond "We are great" (Stage 4) and even further up on the scale of cultural improvement than "I'm great" (Stage 3), "My life sucks" (Stage 2), and "Life sucks" (Stage 1).

The goal as tribal leaders is to create more effective organisations and climates that nurture teams and individuals and to achieve this you've got to get them to stages 4 and 5.

Stages 4-5 are where real team-work whose fundamental foundation is shared values and these are based on triadic-relationships that releases individuals from the confines of 'lone ranger' hero roles that require so much energy and are typical of stage 3. At stage five you no longer consider competitors, but the possibility of how far can you go.
Stage 3 heroics, and you can read between these lines and imagine the mind sets and corresponding baggage that forms part of the make up of typical stage three archetypes. The main challenge is to demonstrate to this tribe that channeling their efforts collaboratively will reduce burn-out, nurture relationships and achieve even greater results. But they need to see this with a different mind-set.

Being a Multilingual Tribal leader who has been through the stages helps...
A tribal leader needs to be multilingual, and can only therfore coax and coach people into higher stages by understanding what behaviours need to be tansformed and what corresponding activities need to be undertaken within those mind sets including relationship building.

An organisation that consistently outperfomrs others as though it is on steroids, according to the authors and their research, are those that nurture and promote the majority of the invididuals within an organisation into stages 4 and 5.

The authors have created the tribal working model based on a study 24,000 people in over two dozen organization over an eleven year period.

But there are chances for tribal member to relapse into lower stages...
Tribal Leadership acknowledges the fact that negative external circumstances within organisations can trigger relapses that will spiral people down into lower stages. They authors provide examples of 'dot coms' that exprienced problems, went down the tubes and so did invididual with their corresponding behavioural responses to the crisis. The authors stated that they didn't know how to remedy this situation.

According to the book called 'Afluenza', by oliver james, he exaplains that extrinsic drivers are the very malady that propels people to depression and negative behaviour (this books quotes, tons, and tons of research). Individuals driven by extrinsic values define themselves by their title, achievement, bank account, CV, mortage, holidays, etc. As soon as circumstnaces arise that will shatter the status of this external driven because those very things that define him wil be taken away, then they will spiral ino lower stages.

As a leader within an organisation you have to understand each mindset, the corresponding language, the triggers and the leverage points that will propel people into higher stages of effectiveness.

This book is a definite must read ;-) I thoroughly recommend it.

Related books, articles & references...
Author's intervieved on fox business news - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yybxMVkTH2A

How to Succeed? Make Employees Happy (Time Magazine)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1818183,00.html

Guiding leaders to advance firms' tribes to higher values
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/books/20080224_Guiding_leaders_to_advance_firms_tribes_to_higher_values.html

Tribal Leadership website
http://www.triballeadership.net

Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (US)
This niche site has some interesing research related to 'job satisfaction and well being'
You have to go through the search results to pick out the gems
http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/search/search.html?query=%22job+satisfaction%22

Google Scholar also produced some results that need to be filtered when loking a the terms Stress and profitability
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=stress%2Bprofitability&hl=en&lr=

Afluenza by Oliver James (Paperback - 27 Dec 2007) (link to my amazon)

Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Pete Sanders and Tim Sanders (link to my amazon)

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (link to my amazon)

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter... by Daniel Goleman (link to my amazon)

Multiple Video upload getting you down?

Upload video once from one site to many...and track what's working and what's not

Today's web wondering's and curiosity has sprung this gem called Tubemogul.




Tubemogul.com allows you to submit videos to multiple video sites for which you already have accounts. You can view all the analatics within one dashboard, with a whole hog of features that are best to be seen. You are then in a position to examine what works and what doesn't and tailor your future deployments accordingly. At the time of typing this post, if you select five video sites, and upload one file, then this counts as five (5) deployments, which is your monthly limit. If you request further, apparently an amicable arrangment can be reached.

If you are a social enterprise and/or a charity, I would appeal to the support team of Tubemogul to extend this when needed by stating what you are doing to transform peole's lives.

Track with your analystics which ad-sharing video sites such as revver, metacafe, veoh, and blip.tv to name but a few are helping you create self-sustaining funding avenues. Let people know more about how you make a difference with your video channels, and each view will help you get along that much further.

Resources
http://www.tubemogul.com
http://www.tubemogul.com/about/features.php

EveryClick Blue Search Engine now a Widgetbox Widget

You too can now help raise money for ActionAid with Everyclick
I've updated the "everyclick" search box to make it travel better...starting with one click!
Just add the widget to your blog/webpage and together we can make a difference ;-)




The old "javascript/html" widget may look visually that is missing the "get widget" tab, but it is more powerful than that ;-)





It pops a window so you can either copy the code or transfer it to other blogging platforms or web 2.0 aggregators ;-) Click & give it a go ;-)




Alternatively you can add this particular search engine to the others on your browser:
simply go to...
http://www.everyclick.com/williamdoust

And on the landing page you will see on top-right-hand-corner...'add to search bar'
Click that and it will sort it out for you ;-)

Or...if you want to get your own:
http://www.everyclick.com
...and make 'everyclick' count...for the benefit of a charity ;-)
Imagine, going about your searches making a difference. Fantastic!