Posted by Shaun Callahan
Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:14:00 GMT
Less than 48 hours ago I was contacted by a friend who let me know that a wonderful display of human caring and kindness was happening and a Groupsite was helping facilitate an amazing effort to achieve something special.
I thought, “Perfect, this can be our Groupsite Success Story for this Wednesday’s post”.
Then I heard and understood the true magnitude of what was happening.
Monday night on the 5:00 news in Baltimore, WBAL TV ran a brief piece about a special young man named Johnny Rozema which said:
“A Baltimore County community is working around the clock to make a dying child’s wish come true.
For Holly and John Rozema, the week before Christmas couldn’t be more heartbreaking. Their 10-year-old son, Johnny, was given just days to live.
Johnny has been fighting a rare form of lymphoma since April. The Make A Wish Foundation had arranged for a family trip to Disney World last week, but Johnny never made it to the park.
“I thought for sure we had lost him. I carried him out to the ambulance,” Johnny’s father said.
Johnny is currently at John’s Hopkins Hospital, but one of his last wishes is to die at home.
His home has been under construction and is a mess, his family said. But the community decided to step in and give the Rozema’s something special.
“There’s a miracle happening here,” said Cindy Norris, the leader of a small but determined group who call themselves Johnny’s Angels.
Norris said she’d never met the family before this week, but she put her life on hold, as many other volunteers did, to help finish the renovations before he gets home.
“Donations have just come in from everywhere, from one e-mail I sent out. People are dropping out of the sky,” Norris said.
Everything from drywall and electrical equipment to paint has been donated, Norris said. Crews are working around the clock to get the house finished and furnished in time for Johnny’s arrival, but they could still use help from the community.
The group has registered the family at Wal-Mart and Target so people can buy them bedding and kitchen supplies, as well as other essentials they need. The group also posts what’s needed on a daily basis on their Johnny’s Angels Web site.
The family said they are overwhelmed by the generosity and are holding onto their faith and belief that Johnny’s wish will come true.”
Johnny passed away today.
The community continues to send their prayers, kind words and donations and are completing their amazing effort to support the Rozema family.
If you wish to make a donation or share a kind word, please visit the Johnny’s Angels Groupsite.
Thank you.
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Posted by Shaun Callahan
Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:01:00 GMT
The following CollectiveX success story was contributed by Andrew Moffat of Ottawa:
The following CollectiveX success story was contributed by Andrew Moffat of Ottawa:
“I used Linkedin Contact Manager (LICM) to download MY PLAXO contacts (after all it’s suppose to be my contact database for life). I also use LICM to download my contacts from Linkedin. I do this because these “networking” sites do not provide members with tools to actually network or do business collectively. They also do not let members actually understand their members (i.e. who they are, where they are from, profession, etc.)
So, we have been using Yahoo.Groups. Interesting…even a nice try. However, it falls short of being social networking. I am not a believer in mass mailing except when you have a piece of info that is relevant to the group, such as in a venue that will enables users to actually interact with each other.
In total, I have been looking for a place for months, and I belong to 20+ sites. Then, I got an invitation to belong to this site. I almost did not accept…aghhhhh! Would that have been an error! When I saw what CollectiveX could achieve I was hooked (and it only took 5-10 mins of reviewing the site).
I really like that CollectiveX has taken a group rather than the individual-centric approach. The idea that we would do social networking outside the context of a group (collective) is insane.
Most of the sites like Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace, etc. only want you to get your friends to join. They want the profiles (the email addresses). They are at best enhanced contact databases and rarely provide the tools/functionality required to truly network. In fact, most do whatever they can to discourage networking – to the point of restricting or deleting accounts.
Facebook has come the furthest trying to provide tools. However, since it has been so focused on a youth/family market, it does not serve the business community well. The addition of wWdgets is great in theory. However, there is so much garbage that the focus and message of sites can become confusing. The other issue that makes no sense is that INDIVIDUALS spend all their time trying to build connections looking for opportunities. With no context we keep adding contacts, hoping that one of them or one of their contacts might expose an opportunity. However, we are spending 80% of our time adding contacts and with only 20% of the time available to participate in actually getting to know our contacts. Then, we get reprimanded by the sites claiming they want to facilitate our networking activities.
The group-centric approach ensures that people of common mind are able to quickly find each other and get on with working the opportunities. For those that want to be islands onto themselves…you have lots of Social Networking sites to stroke your egos. For those that really want to explore, network and truly execute opportunities, there is CollectiveX.
Now, to the point: I sent invitations from PLAXO and within 45 mins of hitting the enter button I was locked out of my account. I approached support and to date I have not received an answer and I have not been allowed access to my account. For those of you on Plaxo, it would be interesting to see if my account still exists. I guess no; as I was getting 50+ add friend requests a day. btw (and I know that most of us have experienced this) Linkedin restricted my account 6+months ago…because out of 4k invitations (I have a number of friends that do not/will not do social networking) I received 5 IDKs. Out of the 5 IDKs two are actually contacts…they hit the IDK by accident and then asked to connect with me. I wear the Linkedin restriction as a badge/reminder of what social networking is not about.
Clarence…Thanks, you have restored my faith. CollectiveX is awesome and I look forward to contributing significantly to its evolution. I also plan to ACTIVELY promote Collectivex as the example of how social networking should be operated.
To you and your entire team…Well Done!!”
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Posted by Shaun Callahan
Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:37:00 GMT
When people see my title, CIO, they think I am responsible for overseeing all technology at CollectiveX and assume I know how it all works. Wrong.
I don’t care “how” it works. CIO stands for Chief Involvement Officer. I care about “why” it works. And that means I care about why people choose to share, communicate and network through Groupsites powered by CollectiveX compared to everything else they could be doing with their time.
Starting today, each Wednesday we will let someone from one of our Groupsites powered by CollectiveX share how we are helping their group work.
On Mondays, I will share a quick thought on how a manager of a Groupsite can help increase the amount of engagement they are seeing from members of their groups.
On Fridays, I will share a tip for Groupsite users on how they can increase their personal involvement.
Since this Wednesday, here is what Eric Levenson from Maryland shared about how one of his groups works;
“Nearly six weeks ago I setup a “virtual meeting room” using CollectiveX by sending out invitations to my immediate family,—- basically my late grandparents 4 daughters, their children and grand children, nearly 20 of us total.
CollectiveX has given us a place to share ideas, links, family photos (new and old), and to keep in touch with each other at all hours of the day—- since we span from coast to coast. We especially like the calendar feature. We have posted over 100 special events (mostly birthdays and anniversaries) and we all find ourselves checking the upcoming events to see what special days are on the horizon. Cousins that I spoke to a few times a year, I now connect with on a weekly basis!
After thanksgiving, our first family event since we setup the website, people posted pictures from the day. It was expecially nice for those who were not able to attend, but felt “in the loop” by reviewing our highlights from the day.”
Want to share a Wednesday story about how your groups work? Drop me a line at shaun@collectivex.com.
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