People: Tom Munneke - Giving Space

Saturday, December 20, 2003 - 03:20 AM

To sow the seeds of a global self-organizing, self-propagating infrastructure which allows the creation, discovery, commitment, and fulfillment of meaningful giving opportunities within a trusted environment... Asking the question, "What is the simplest thing I can do which will have the maximum global humanitarian uplift?"

"Life is a gift that comes bearing a gift, which is the art of giving"- Dee Hock

Tom's Blog. Papers on GivingSpace Topics. Heather Wood Ion. Uplift Academy.

Why do you call it a "space?"
Most people think of dealing with complex problems by creating a "system" to manage them. These systems are typically based on a needs assessment, which is used to create requirements, which are then broken down into specifications, and turned into a solution. In order to manage such a process, we need to define an authority which manages the process to insure that the needs are met by the solution.

When things are sufficiently interconnected, however, this process breaks down. There is no one correct way to do things, and there is no single authority which is able to decide the right solution for all interactions. A space is defined by its connectivity...all the things which can be connected together define the space. GivingSpace is thus defined by the set of all the people and organizations which can be connected. This forces the question, how are we going to understand and manage this new form of connectivity.

The web is a space, it is not a "system" in the above sense. Imagine that the web were designed as a "system" which had a "user friendly" interface to all information in the world, as defined by a robust body of experts, deciding how to organize all its information. This would provide many job opportunities for the organizers, but the web would not have the same vitality and growth that we have seen.

GivingSpace aims to create this space with a few simple initial conditions, in much the same way as the web was created with a few simple initial conditions (URL, HTTP, and HTML). It is a space within which many different systems may emerge.

Many charity portals have failed with the .com fallout. How is GivingSpace different?
GivingSpace is not a portal. It is an open set of standards and an infrastructure upon which any charity or not for profit organization may find useful for its activities. In the same way as the web was an open platform upon which many other organizations emerged, GivingSpace is an open platform upon which can be used for innovation.

Studies have shown that less than one percent of donations come via online. Why?
The main problem is that organizations are not connecting. There are hundreds of thousands of charities and humanitarian organizations out there, many of which have online giving capabilities. But the donor must find the site, then click down a menu of options to get to that site's specific giving opportunities.

GivingSpace flips this around, allowing the opportunity to emerge as the "top" unit of reference. The opportunity, and the transformational energy associated with giving to it, is what drives GivingSpace activities. Those who offer the most meaningful opportunities to give in the most trusted manner will be the ones which thrive in GivingSpace.

Is GivingSpace a non-profit corporation?
GivingSpace is in its early phase of development. It is now under consideration as a project for an established 501(c)3 in the United States, which would allow it to accept tax-advantaged donations. A business plan will be developed, and depending on the progress and acceptance of the ideas of GivingSpace and the Advisory Board's recommendations, GivingSpace may become a not-for-profit organization by itself.

Will GivingSpace compete with existing on-line activities?
Not in the sense of going after the same donor funds as other non-profits. Because it seeks to create a means of frictionless philanthropy, those organizations which are able to deliver the most trustworthy giving opportunities with the lowest overhead and greatest trust. This will trigger a shift of power from fundraising to trustraising. Organizations may find that much of their activities are "friction" which frictionless philanthropy will tend to remove. The competition, therefore, will be directing an organizations resources towards their program goals, and building trust with donors.

Who will be the major beneficiaries of GivingSpace?
In addition to the recipients, it will be those who create, discover, and fulfill the most trusted and meaningful opportunities to give.

The Uplift Academy [archive: Uplift Academy] is the focal point for the coordination of Uplift activities in GivingSpace.
Our goal is to connect people and communities around the world according to these positive core values to create a global cascade of uplift. We seek to create a self-organizing, self-propagating platform on which people and communities may discover and replicate ways of uplifting themselves and others.

Uplift may take many forms, such as personal relationships, fair trade opportunities, education, health, charitable giving, and many others. These patterns of uplift and their successes become part of the shared knowledge, so that successes can be replicated in ever-greater numbers.