Open Standards, Yes We Can
I don't know about you, but I am a big fan of open standards, particularly when my bladder Direct Messages me with the hashtag #urgent. Open standards (see picture above) guide me to a place where I can @reply in a hurry.
In the non-profit technology community, open standards of a different variety could help us all become more effective at what we urgently need to do: raise money, recruit and coordinate volunteers, promote events, create profiles on social networks, generate reports for grant-makers, and the list goes on.
In June, I hosted a discussion about Collaboration and Competition on Social Edge in which the topic of open standards for the nonprofit sector was raised.
In response to a comment from David Wolff, I wrote:
"When a sector comes together to create a standard, anything from the diameter of a bottle cap to protocols for mobile devices, businesses and consumers in the sector benefit. Businesses reduce their costs because manufacturers don't have to build custom factories / product lines each time they sign a contract. Consumers also benefit. Anyone who has fastened a Pepsi cap onto a Coco-Cola bottle and then ridden their bike home knows what I'm talking about ... Sometimes collaborating in one area raises the bar of competition in another. Chris Messina recently made this point at the NetSquared conference as it relates to open standards for managing one's identity online, '... [Social networks] should compete on the quality of the service that they're providing, as opposed to just their lock in.' Have a look at this interview, Building a Ubiquitous Social Network - Interview With Chris Messina for more information."
Jo Davidson then replied:
"I agree with you Peter, a single universal standard would be the best way to work collaboration into competition, setting everyone up on a level playing field to bloom and grow."
I replied to Jo:
"The beauty of widespread adoption of universal standards in the social sector is that they could be used to both compete better _and_ collaborate better, depending on one's personal preference. I envision the adoption of open standards for nonprofits and philanthropy leading to dramatic and meaningful collaborations that can form on the fly. Rather than bringing the boards of multiple organizations together to have conversations about sharing data and knowledge, the data would already be exposed and already be interchangeable. The collaboration question becomes when and how, instead of if. Coming up with the standard, to ensure that it reflects as much nuances in the form of the data and knowledge is difficult. But the process absolutely can and should be done, across the social sector and in business as well. ... Open data is a powerful force that can drive both collaboration and innovation. But a collaborative and innovative mindset is critical to ensuring that the open data that emerges is rich and reflects the best interests of everyone involved."
Where to go from here
The nonprofit technology community is filled with many bright minds and innovative thinkers. For better or worse, this passion often gets channeled toward one-off projects that benefit a single organization or a coalition of organizations.
I would like to see the brightest minds and most innovative thinkers in the social sector come together to create open standards that lift all organizations making use of the social web. The open standards that I'd like to see developed and adopted would help social benefit organizations seamlessly publish rich information about their donation opportunities in a structured format, helping major grant-makers and citizen philanthropists make smarter choices about their giving. I'd also like to see open standards developed and adopted that help organizations publish rich information about their volunteer opportunities and the events they are hosting, helping individuals connect with service opportunities and events effortlessly. Finally, I'd like to see open standards developed and adopted that help nonprofits fill out their social media profile once and have it syndicated everywhere and anywhere on the fly.
From a technological perspective, these are modest goals. Where they become difficult to achieve is at the level of organizational culture, grant-making priorities, and leadership. I understand fully that this conversation has been launched on many occasions over the years. I'm hoping that in 2009, we can overcome cultural, funding, and leadership barriers to create a non-profit sector that charts its own course toward open standards, open data and collaborative innovation.
If you are interested in participating in the open standards and open data conversation, please leave a comment on this blog post.
The next time your nonprofit's stakeholders collectively Direct Message you with the hashtag #urgent, you'll be able to @reply with a simple message: Open standards and open data are helping you respond quickly and effectively.
Tags: net2, nptech, openactions, socialactions
Comment
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Comment by Peter Deitz on August 19, 2009 at 10:28am - Hi Sahila, Thanks for writing up your extensive thoughts on competition vs. collaboration. If you haven't already, you may want to cross-post these insights on the SocialEdge discussion I hosted, Collaboration vs. Competition.
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Comment by Sahila ChangeBringer on July 28, 2009 at 1:40pm
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I dont have much knowledge about Open Standards in technology (except that wherever possible I use Open Source software), but I'd like to comment on the idea of open standards and collaboration across all of society.
I know that I'm probably preaching to the converted here, but I think the Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' competition model our economic and social worlds are built on is leading us to extinction, dragging with us much of the planet's other inhabitants. I dont believe we can afford to be participating in that model, at any level, any longer and the sooner large businesses and governing institutions can accept that reality and move into collaboration, the better. For some more ideas around this, I'd recommend that people read Peter Senge et al's "Presence"... which really is a distillation of the knowledge contained in most of the world's spiritual (not religious) traditions, especially in the indigenous cultures.
Competition is killing too many of us, and the fact that we still have to fight each other for basic life-giving and supporting resources such as food, water, shelter, clothing, moving up the scale to education and medical care etc, is a completely immoral and unjustifiable state of affairs in the 21st Century.
Juxtaposing the consumerism and waste of the west with the poverty and death in the east for example - where is the sanity in that? Taking it down to the most basic level, how can the west justify the idiocy of multiple brands of laundry detergent lining supermarket shelves, for example, when its confronted daily in the media about the reality of life and death struggles undergone by billions of other people in other places on the planet? Within its own borders, how does the US justify the growing gap between the haves and have nots, and the lottery system that's in place that determines whether or not a child will be given the opportunity to mature into his/her full potential?
It seems to me to be a completely irrational economic argument that the free market and competition are the mechanisms that best encourage prosperity. You only have to look at the pyramidic wealth structure that exists in the west, notice the fact that 90% of the wealth is controlled by 3% of the population to realise that competition actually costs uncalculable amounts of money, resources, time and energy in lost human potential and 'ambulance at the bottom of the cliff' measures to contain the societal damage and dysfunction of a system which is in reality, the ultimate pyramid and Ponzi schemes combined... Remember the Reagan and Thatcher economic battle cries of the 80s - be patient and wait for the trickle down effect? How many years of economic decline does it take before people realise there never has been, and never will be, a sharing of the profits from the top down to the middle and bottom.... Running out of people and resources to pull into the bottom of the pyramid? Easy - sell the 'dream/fantasy' offshore and suck people into the pyramid from there - globalisation.... Limited resources on the earth? Easy - start claiming ownership of the water and the air and the fuel and the medicinal plants and the trees and the minerals and make people pay for use and access... Natural resources becoming rare or too expensive from which to make a profit? Easy - start making plans to go off planet - see http://www.abundantplanet.org/home
Nothing in all of this about equity, stewardship, collaboration and sharing ... and none of this will change until major businesses and governments turn their backs on the current paradigm, turn their backs on the idea of competition being a good thing and commit to equity and sustainability....
- Sahila ChangeBringer
communications, personal and organisational change facilitator, social justice advocate and activist
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Comment by Sean on July 17, 2009 at 10:28am - Peter - Great post. This is something that seems to be on everyone's mind and seems to be tried now and again. I would love to participate and see what is possible. If for anything, it to be a learning experience of how different groups/orgs classify their information.
Social Actions
Vision
A world formed by acts of generosity, empathy, and creativity.
Mission
To make it easier for people to find and share opportunities to make a difference.
Method
Openness, inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation at every opportunity.
Learn more
A world formed by acts of generosity, empathy, and creativity.
Mission
To make it easier for people to find and share opportunities to make a difference.
Method
Openness, inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation at every opportunity.
Learn more
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