David Feldt Proud father. Entrepreneur. Builder. Catalyst. Accelerator. Guide.

Two Powerful Examples of How Social Networks Are Changing How We Connect, Share and Take Action Collectively

The past few days have been a personal emotional roller coaster and has given me the opportunity to reflect on how social networks are fundamentally changing the way we individually and collectively share, collaborate and consume information and how we have the power to take collective action.

Let me share two experiences with you - one the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the other a social experiment in collective fund-raising.

1. Mumbai terrorist attacks: 

Although I live half a world away from India, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai over the past three days have been very personal to me. Beyond the global tragedy of the event,  I had several friends and family of friends who were innocent victims of the attacks - some miraculously escaped; some paid with their lives.

I, together with 10s of 1000s of others, searched for information on what was going on in Mumbai and found the following sources:

• A New York Times blogger providing eyewitness updates via his blog
• Twitter search using #Mumbai, #Chabad and #Nariman tags. This lead me to connect and share directly with people who shared my concerns and had something to say and contribute
• IBN live video streaming which gave a local view of what was going on
• Mumbai attacks Wikipedia page that grew organically over time
• Mumbaihelp blog that provided ongoing valuable contact information and lists of injured
• 1000s of Flickr and Youtube feeds

All of this connection, sharing and collaboration happened spontaneously.  People simply reached out in a time of need and started using the social tools at their disposal - Flickr, Youtube, blogs, wikipedia and Twitter. There was no government or corporation control or management, only the power of a global network of connected people.

Here's the map showing the global distribution of 400+ people who interacted with me on Twitter and who clicked on links I provided. The countries in red indicate active connection, linking and sharing:

2. Tweetsgiving

A concerned group of people came together collectively to do something about the lack of schooling in Africa.  Through their  Epic Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization,  they had the excellent idea of creating  a Twitter celebration of gratitude and giving called Tweetsgiving.

The goal was to raise $10,000 in 48 hours, using the power of the social web, to build a classroom in Tanzania.

TweetsGiving ran from Tuesday, 11.25.08 (12pm EST) to Thursday, 11.27.08 (12pm EST).

Thanks to the following group of people and 366 contributors on Twitter and beyond, Epic Change helped raise $10,696 in 48 hours!

Stacey Monk	@StaceyMonk	Founder of Epic Change
Avi Kaplan	@MeshugAvi	Project Manager
Matt Blasi		Web Designer & Developer
Vincent Hunt	@VincentHunt	Logo Designer
Carrie and Dave Kerpen	@theKBuzz	Buzzworthy Marketing
Sarah Evans		Public Relations

It doesn't end there. Here's an excerpt from their site ...

The Giving Continues

If you missed TweetsGiving 2008, don’t worry, you may still make a donation using the ChipIn widget, or at http://www.EpicChange.org/donate to support the work that Epic Change does transforming compelling stories into social change. Each $10 donation made through this widget will now add a book to the school’s first library, which you may inscribe with a personal tweet of gratitude.

In addition, as the holiday season approaches, we hope you’ll consider giving gifts from the Epic Change Gift Shop, which is a valuable source of income for our partner school in Tanzania. Epic Change cards and gifts feature the artwork of children at the school, award-winning photographer Tim Llewellyn and West Hollywood candle designer Timothy Jay.

Epic Change makes loans to changemakers like the school’s founder, Mama Lucy Kamptoni, then collaborates with them to transform their hopeful stories into the income they need to pay back loans and create sustainable income streams to support their efforts. By buying these gifts instead of fruitcake and toasters this year, you are directly supporting the efforts of a woman in Tanzania who used to sell chickens, and used her income to build a school that now serves 242 amazing kids like Gideon, Glory, Pius and many more. Please consider making a contribution today or buying a gift from the store!

Epic Change believes compelling stories are assets that hopeful people in need can use to transform their own communities. Just look at how much good your stories of gratitude have done, and imagine what else is possible.

Profitably Tapping into the Twitter Global Conversation

During my eight years as a professional derivatives trader I quickly learned that one of the most important predictors of success was being able to tap into the deal flow and information flow in order to make successful, rapid trading decisions.  There were so many sources of information and my trading success relied on finding the right information, talking to the right people and being able to synthesize the information rapidly.  This is the adrenal rush of trading where your success is tied to how quickly you can filter signal from the noise.

More than a decade later the Internet has democratized information sources and trading platforms. The average investor / day trader / speculator can now trade successfully without the need to access an expensive Bloomberg or Reuters terminal.

One of the most innovative Web 2.0 tools that has emerged in the past month is StockTwits. It's a powerful mashup that uses Twitter's global conversation as a very powerful source of information flow.  It elegantly filters the conversation and allows you to track your favorite stocks, listen in to the conversation that is happening around those stocks and add your own point of view.   It was developed by Soren Macbeth and Howard Lindzon.  Find them on Twitter here and here.

To contribute to the conversation one simply needs a Twitter account and add a "$" symbol in front of the ticker symbol you're talking about in your tweets.  Stocktwits automatically tracks your tweets and categorizes them into the correct ticker stream.  For example, here's a comment I made on $GM.

StockTwits also shows the most active contributors, the most active stock comments and provides external links to Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, WhaleWisdom and WikiInvest.

Bottom line:  This is a must-use tool if you're interested in trading stocks profitably.

We'll see more and more vertical business applications as Twitter continues to expand as a truly global conversation platform.

Welcome to the Future NOW

Sprint has a really interesting new site to promote it's mobile broadband offering.  It's called "Sprint NOW" and it is a futuristic personal information / news dashboard made of a screen full of cool visual widgets giving you a snapshot of our World now.

There's a broad range of widgets showing, for example, the current National Debt, email sent , forests cut down, energy usage across the globe, new cases of malaria, today's top Google searches and Youtube videos.

When I first saw it, I imagined this being projected up on a huge digital display in my home similar to a scene from "The Island", "Minority Report" or "Ironman".  I imagine myself going up to the display and customizing the data simply using my hands.

There's no hard sell from Sprint - just that soothing synthetic female voice telling you the current time, a stunning glimpse of how diverse and interesting our world is and how this diverse information can be presented in real-time NOW.

Change : The Power of Choice

Nov 4, 2008 - Today is all about change. Obama's Campaign is all about "Change." McCain has picked up on this theme too.

We have the power to change the World and, perhaps more importantly, change ourselves.

How? By applying our G-d-given ability to choose. Our Freedom of Choice. It's what defines us a human beings.

Here's what Jim Rohn has to say about Change:

"Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish; we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, "The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves." We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today. Those who are in search of the good life do not need more answers or more time to think things over to reach better conclusions. They need the truth. They need the whole truth. And they need nothing but the truth.

We cannot allow our errors in judgment, repeated every day, to lead us down the wrong path. We must keep coming back to those basics that make the biggest difference in how our life works out. And then we must make the very choices that will bring life, happiness and joy into our daily lives.

And if I may be so bold to offer my last piece of advice for someone seeking and needing to make changes in their life - If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every area in your life - and it all begins with your very own power of choice."