Third Tuesday Toronto - Darren Barefoot on Building Pyramids for Good

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Our speaker last night at Third Tuesday Toronto was Darren Barefoot talking about building pyramids for good - using pyramid schemes and web strategies (such as memes and other viral marketing) to effect change in society and otherwise do good.

He talked a lot about earning "Stacies", a concept he developed to help measure good done for people, the environment, and society. He describes the Stacies concept here in his Gnomedex talk. Much of the content of tonight's talk is here also since it was adapted from his talk at Gnomedex called "1100 Stacies."

Some related links:

His personal site: www.darrenbarefoot.com
His work site: http://www.capulet.com
He developed this Second Life parody page: Get a First Life
A meme for doing good: www.nothingbutnets.net
GiveMeaning - Created by a friend of his--create your own fundraising campaign - 1200 active projects; 700 projects completed

Random, related notes:

Tools to do this - reducing in complexity; becoming easier to use

Another example of a meme on the web: PostSecret - secrets submitted anonymously; started just as a Blogger blog

Easy to create a social community on Facebook or Ning.

Free the net.ca - free wifi in Vancouver - friends of his
Vancouver.freethenet.ca

Building pyramid schemes of good:

Need authentic story to tell. The Web enables micro donations to charities. People like him with tech skills can help enable others to collect donations.

Discussion following question from audience: the future of the internet will be a virtual world--like Second Life but easier for everyone to use. World of Warcraft have numbers of active users way beyond SL. We have been dreaming of having a virtual world for a long time. Currently marketing in SL is a waste of money; however a great way to hold meetings without the travel that harms the environment.

Question about donating micro increments of time towards a charitable project e.g. Kiva - micro loans to people - the people are vetted. Viral nature doesn't necessarily continue. How do you make this sustainable.

He suggests editing a Wikipedia article. Get your kids to write, monitor, edit a Wikipedia article--helps teach them critical thinking. Also a powerful social media. Plants seeds which grow.

He also is writing an ebook called Getting to First Base: Social Media Marketing Strategies and Tactics. Being sold in November. http://www.capulet.com/ebook. Register before end of month - $29 ($59 after).

Incidentally, Darren also blogged about Blog Action Day covering the same topic as I did over at SLAW, the challenge of being environmentally friendly while pursuing travel. He has a few ideas on reducing travel which I will give some thought to.