Really Simple Social Action (RSSA)

This page will describe some examples of how RSSA might be used for supporting Social Action Networks.

Philanthropy

In the aftermath of September 11, people donated $2.4 billion and 175,000 people volunteered. Similar responses happened after the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. There are 1.4 million non-profit organizations registered in the United States, and millions more Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) world wide. Despite the tremendous organizational interest in helping, and the public's willingness to help, it is not always clear that the good intentions of the donor are translated to good effects.

The word "Philanthropy" can be seen as "Love of Humanity." Unfortunately, this has been reduced to a transactional notion of checkwriting. Beer companies thrive on ads whose plots can be reduced to: "See the babe. Drink our beer. Get the babe." Fundraising promotions can all too often fall into a similar plot: "See the misery. Send us money. Make the world a better place." This in turn triggers a [Promotional Network] model of mailing lists, phone calls at dinner time, and a competition for scarce donor funds. Rather than focusing on fundraising first, RSSA will allow people to focus on [Whats working] first. The current model of fundraising creates competing "stovepipe" organizations who are not incentivized to work together - if organization A makes organization B look good by accepting their improved pattern of activity, then they lose fundraising potential. By focusing on patterns of uplift instead of organizations, those organizations who are the most effective [trustees] of the action and who contribute the most to improving it would thrive. Thus, RSSA allows us to transition from [promoter networks] to [attractor networks].

There are many, many other actions other than sending money that can be used philanthropic interests from the "love of humanity" perspective, which we call these [Patterns of Uplift] RSSA will be able to support this patterns in an [Uplift Pattern Language] . [After Action Reporting] will allow people to learn whether their good intentions were indeed carried out, [efficiency], as well as whether these had their intended results [efficacy].

GivingSpace will be a testbed [SANbox] for prototyping philanthropic social action networks.

Epidemic of Health

[Jonas Salk], inventor of the Polio Vaccine and founder of the [Salk Institute], came to the conclusion that the way out of the mess our health care system is in is to create an [Epidemic of Health].

“It is possible to create an epidemic of health,” said Jonas Salk. The convergence of the Internet, global communications, and medical technology have created an environment from which dramatic new advances in health care and enhancement may emerge.

The contagion for this epidemic is healthy people. In any population, there will be some who have maintained their health, and serve as role models for those who have not adapted as well. These people may be healers, or simply people who exude enough vitality that others can benefit. Healthy people are contagious in face to face settings. The Internet can leverage their presence around the globe.

The vector of this epidemic is information. It can build electronic communities, share research, communicate knowledge, locate resources, share needs, and build an evolutionary path to cope with future needs. In order for this to be shared, access to the network must be global.

The world can be the population affected by this epidemic. As a result of the herd effect, even those without direct access to the network can benefit.

The virulence of the epidemic of health can be assured because of the universal need for health. Improving health can be a win-win situation for all concerned. Health is not a commodity subject to supply and demand curves; neither is information.

The hospital, said Peter Drucker in 1973, is “one of the most complex social institutions around.” Systems of hospitals are even more complex. The intervening twenty-two years of technology, health care reform, and cost pressures cause even greater complexity. Compounding these levels of complexity are global issues which make the problem of global health care seem insurmountably complex. From a traditional point of view, perhaps they are. This complexity can be addressed by innovative techniques. By combining the dynamics of an epidemic with global communications, major changes can occur.

To quote Salk: “Only a few are needed to visualize and to initiate a process that would become self-organizing, self-propelling, and self-propagating, as is characteristic of evolutionary processes.”

We will be exploring ways of using RSSA to support personal health spaces as nodes in the Epidemic of Health as part of an [attractor network]. These will include a notion of a Personal Health Record and the accompanying [Health Ensemble]

[HealthSpace.name] will be a prototype [SANbox] for exploring this approach.

Political Actions

(Include something on personal democracy forum, sunshine foundation, etc )