GivingSpace Creating an Information Space for Generosity

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GivingSpaceCreating an Information Space for
Generosity

• Tom Munnecke
• tom_at_givingspace.org
• Jan Hauser
• Human Generosity Project
• Banff, Canada
• August 27, 2001

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The GivingSpace Mission

• To provide a self-organizing global
  infrastructure which allows the creation,
  discovery, commitment, and fulfillment of
  meaningful giving opportunities within a trusted
  environment.

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The Creation of a Space

• What was often difficult for people to
  understand about the web was that there was
  nothing else beyond URLs, HTTP, and HTML. There
  was no central computer controlling the web, no
  single network on which these protocols worked,
  not even an organization anywhere that ran the
  Web. The web was not a physical thing that
  existed in a certain place. It was a space
  in which information could exist.
• Berners-Lee, Tim, Weaving the Web, The Original
  Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide
  Web, Harper San Francisco, 1999, p. 36 and 209

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Evolution of the Web
Fitness Function is Consumer Attention
e-Bay
Internet Protocol is a Constraint
Excite
IP
IP
Yahoo
URL HTTP HTML
Simple Initial Conditions
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What Berners-Lee didnt do

• Assign web site numbers by category (100-199
  Physics, 200-299 Chemistry, etc.)
• Assemble panels of experts to organize the web
• Create a master web administrator to control the
  web
• Define pigeonholes to categorize the right way
  to structure information
• Try to solve all problems with the initial
  conditions
• Control the evolution of the web
• Succumb to proprietary forces and closed systems

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Can we create a space within which philanthropy
can exist?

• What are the simplest initial conditions?
• What drives its evolution?
• What are the constraints?
• These answers define GivingSpace

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Evolution of GivingSpace
Fitness Function is Transformational Energy
???
Trust is a Constraint
???
Trust
Trust
???
Identity Internet PML
Simple Initial Conditions
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What is unique about GivingSpace?

• Based on meaningful giving opportunities
• Self-organizing trust mechanism
• Open system
• Scalable to global proportions
• Driven by transformational energy
• Generative space-the more people use it, the
  bigger it becomes.
• Starts with simple initial conditions
• Supports Trustraising

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Critical Tasks

• Trust
• Lots of interaction
• Limits of trust will limit growth
• Encourage trustraising
• Feedback
• Lots of it
• Expected part of interaction
• Appropriate transparency
• Allows self organization, Order for free

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Current Projects

• Forum to discuss and refine the concept
• Forum at www.givingspace.org
• Defining Trust Mechanism
• Jan Hauser jan_at_janhauser.org
• Defining a Philanthropic Markup Language
• Mik Litz michael.litz_at_oneworld.net
• Forming the Organization
• Tom Munnecke Tom_at_munnecke.com

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GivingSpace Advisory Board
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GivingSpace Technical Advisory Board
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Current Assumptions of the Philanthropy Industry

• There is a finite pool of donor resources
• Fundraising is key determinant of success
• Funds and resources flow one way from rich to
  poor
• Organizations take a slice of the donation as
  payment to support operations

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Focus of IT in Philanthropy Today
Donor Pool
Fundraising is focus of Internet activities today
Fundraising
Philanthropic Organizations
Program Activities
Recipient Pool
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Focus of GivingSpace is Program Activities
Donor Pool
Fundraising
Philanthropic Organizations
GivingSpace allows direct interaction with
recipients
Program Activities
Recipient Pool
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The Transactional Fallacy
(c)
Gross Domestic Product


Transactional Analysis Sell more tobbaco and
treat more lung cancer (f)
Sum of Tobacco Transactions (b)
Sum of Lung Cancer Treatments (e)
(g) Personal Health
Transformational Analysis Smoke tobacco and get
lung cancer
(a)
(d)
Person buys tobacco
Person gets treated for lung cancer
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Median percentage of funds collected by
commercial telemarketers that go to charity
Source Chronicle of Philanthropy Survey, April
5, 2001
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How organizational size affects what charities
receive from solicitors
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System is tipping

• Smaller organizations serving poorer recipients
  get 25 the donation efficiency of larger
  organization serving richer recipients
• Survival of the fittest favors larger
  organizations serving richer recipients
• Is this what charity is all about?

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Sample Donation through Commercial
SolicitorDonor Fundraiser Provider Pattern
Donor gives 100
Telemarketer takes 83.30 commission
Charity takes 5.01 Overhead
100
16.70
11.69
Recipient gets 11.69
Donor never knows what happened to donation
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Sample Donation through trustee modelDonor
Trustee Pattern
Donor has feedback to assess trustworthiness befor
e and after donation.
Donor gives 100
Trustee takes 15 service fee
10015 service fee
100
Recipient gets 100
Trust Management System
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Scale of Giving
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Trustraising and scale of giving

• More transformational feedback
• Less risk
• More scalable
• everyone in the world could give a smile
  tomorrow at zero cost
• Allows trust amplification to higher levels of
  giving
• Less corruptible
• Mailing shoes in two different boxes to Kenya
  will make it through the postal service. One box
  will be lost in transit.
• More accessible to poorer people and smaller
  organizations