David says of the Netsquared Innovation Fund process:
Advocacy is appropriate and good. Mobilizing your network to help you win by making your network part of the process is also appropriate and good.
Mobilizing your network to game a voting process suggests a weak understanding of how communities and social networks create real change (as oppose to raising a buck).
I thought about blogging about the projects I voted for, with details on why I voted for the projects I voted for. But then the flood of "vote for this" and "vote for that" started in the blogosphere and by email, and I decided that I didn't really want to enter into that space.
There are a very large number of very good and totally deserving projects on that list. I was hesitant, frankly, about the whole idea about a semi-public balloting process. I like the idea of having the widest range of people vote on projects, but I found myself tempted by the "oh, she works on that, I should vote for it" voice, which I tried to temper as much as possible, and focus on whether or not a project fit the criteria. I think I mostly failed at objectivity.
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Comments
Thanks for your comments (and
Submitted by marnie webb (not verified) on
Thanks for your comments (and for casting a ballot). I think everyone (frankly) fails at objectivity. We're hoping that a larger voter pool will help to manage and offset some of that in way that would be very hard with a closed group of judges.
Michelle, I fell into the
Submitted by Beth Kanter (not verified) on
Michelle,
I fell into the same trap - and it was really hard to be objective - that's why I didn't share my slate, but shared everyone elses ..:-)
I just couldn't figure out
Submitted by Amanda Bee (not verified) on
I just couldn't figure out how to log in (I think my registration is under my old LINC address) so I wound up skipping it, thouhg I pretty much would have just voted for my friends.
I actually wish more folks had just given the run down of their chosen slate, for the sake of seeing a snapshot of what you think is valuable about this work or that.
It is easy to read the profile of FamilyFarmed.org and say "ooh, these guys sound great" but without knowing what folks I trust and who know them better think of their work, of their willingness and capacity to collaborate, and their grasp of the community they're working with, I have a hard time filtering the signal from the noise.
David[0] makes some good points, which is exactly why I wish I'd seen more slates. If I get an email from whoever saying "vote for this project" I'll just delete it. It is called Getting Things Done. If someone smart writes up the slate of projects they're voting for and skips over anything substantive in their review, I'm a lot more likely to call them out on it.
I still think it was a good idea, though, and I found out about some new endeavors.
[0] http://socialsource.blogspot.com/2007/04/netsquareds-high-school-popular...
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