Tag: sustainability
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Web-native social change project # 5: 1BOG.org
Tags:
collective purchasing,
environment,
social market,
sustainability,
technology for change,
web 2.0,
Web-native projects for social change,
,
1Bog: alias, 1 Block Off the Grid. Solar energy at it best. Collective purchasing for green home improvements at its best. Social markets an entrepreneurship meet green living, this meeting happening on the Web.
1Bog is run by Virgance, a successful Bay Area "incubator" that builds and owns "social enterprises, preparing them for Tier 1 venture capital investment" (Virgance.com).
As a combination of "activism and capitalism" Virgance, founded by Steve Newcombe, a successful "serial entrepreneur", and Brent Schulkin, activist and filmmaker, is at present working on 4 projects, ranging from a network of environmental blogs to a project empowering sustainable consumers and a very tasty Facebook preview of what is defined "the American Idol of social change" (more soon).
1Bog appears to have all it takes to be a winning model: it is about connecting entreprises to individuals and individuals among themselves, and using the Web to do so; it is about about an environmental and surely a demand-growing issue, or rather "good" like that of green improvements, specifically solar energy; it is about constructing a "social market" and generally harvesting the benefits of a transparent market encounter around a sustainable "good"; it is finally about generating a critical mass.
It all starts from Post Code and e-mail. Subsequently, when enough homeowners interested in green improvements are aggregated, 1Bog "uses collective bargaining power to negotiate group discounts and group financing options on their behalf", launching a request for proposal to screened installers. The aims are thus becoming visible:making the process of buying solar panels easier, cheaper and safer while creating a market for partners in the solar industry.
The rest of the equation is composed by a rich set of information and practical solutions to problems associated to the costly process of greening our lives: the site area dedicated to solar financing provides with a good set of solutions including suggested partners, municipal contracts, home equity and even peer-to-peer lending through Lending Club.
If you want to visualize some of the activity going on check the section on solar cities. If you want to learn more about solar, check the solar university. The Blog is also quite up to date and an interesting "volunteering" page suggests way of being helpful, starting from "volunteer 5 minutes". All pretty nicely crafted, including the funny "About" slideshow.
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Is the eBay for charity arrived?
Thanks to NetSquared I came across IDonateToCharity.org.
I am generally very interested in every platform or Web 2.0-like site centered on philanthropy, activism and positive social change, as in my research I am trying to map the turbulent emergence of the non-profit Web.
Well, I will surely keep track of this "charitable auction website". NetSquared sees it as the "Next big fundraising idea", allowing anyone (individuals, charities)to raise charity money through donation or online auctions pages.
To me is more another confirmation that auction-based models work and might have different, interesting facets (See the "reverse auction" site BidPlaza, so popular in Italy) and that connecting philanthropy and markets is increasingly possible, if not necessary. (See the Danish MyC4, EBay's Microplace and to some extent Kiva, organisation that I am personally studying)
I will keep this tracked, as at present very little if no reaction from the blogosphere and generally the Web.
Surely, we are in front of a good, potential expression of state-of-the-art approach to fundraising. If they just could improve the look-and-feel of the platform, so NOT catchy at the moment...
The sustainability of the "Virtual"
Just one year ago Nicholas Carr posted on his blog, Rought Type, this question from Tony Walsh: is a virtual world like Second Life sustainable ecologically?
"Walsh notes that on average there are between 10,000 and 15,000 avatars in Second Life at any given time, a number that's growing rapidly. He wonders: "How much power do 15,000 human beings consume daily compared to 15,000 avatars?"
Math helps us discovering an astonishing result.
An avatar consumes 1,752 kWh per year. By comparison, the average human, on a worldwide basis, consumes 2,436 kWh per year. So there you have it: an avatar consumes a bit less energy than a real person, though they're in the same ballpark.
1,752 kWh is much less than the average in citizen in a developed country, but much more than the average citizen in a developing country, 1,015 kWh. More or less what the average Brazilian consumes every year...
...Dave Douglas from Sun translated this calculation into CO2 emissions as well.
Time for our thoughts on the sustainability of technologies...Even the Web...Even OUR Social Web
