Real Life Community

I’m sitting here in the shuttle to JFK having finished an awesome trip to NYC and I’m thinking about community.

In our industry that word gets thrown around a lot, but I’m not talking about our product, I’m talking about our process.

This thing that has happened over the last few years has been special. A global ecosystem of people – no of friends – has been created. Friends defined not by their knowledge of each other necessarily, but in the knowledge of a shared idea. A shared belief perhaps. That by being more open and connected we can achieve new, better things.

Better ideas, better friends, better businesses, better governance… maybe even eventually a better society.

I have met these people everywhere I go. From Amsterdam to New York City. They are individuals and groups with unparalleled openness to new people and new ideas. They have opened their homes and minds to me and the others around them. It has been amazing to watch.

We all seem to recognize our common hopes in each other instantly. Hopes about the social web, about our work and maybe even in a new kind of global social consciousness.

People like @askfrasco who let me stay in her Greenwitch Village apartment for almost a month. @Brett who invited and introduced me to almost everyone in New York – especially @tedmurphy, @mikepratt & @hellyeah1. My old friends (old in both age and length of friendship) @globalcitizen and @bryanthatcher who lent me their offices and reminisced about past parties and work. One of the first people I met in the US tech scene, @gregarious, who showed me his old family home and introduced me to new friends like @rogerwu @themaria, @suzymae, @skyle and @technosailor. And by extension their introduction to @hermannm who had us over for a random dinner party.

All these people (and these are just some of the ones in NYC), have all shown me this new kind of person. This new community. I hope that this collective survives the faded Web 2.0 bandwagon and the defusing funding surge to turn into something more important, long lasting and profound.

A new kind of global collective that seeds our ideas in the general, mainstream public to change the people around us – one at a time. To help them to discover the kind of global village we know exists. Because after all, the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed… yet.

Happy new year my friends.

DataPortability Logo Competition

As many of you may know Red Hat recently sent a Cease and Desist claiming that our DataPortability logo was too similar (Identical, in their words) to their Fedora Logo.

While the claim is arguable, we have decided that rather than dispute the issue, we would take the advice of community members to hold a Logo Competition to replace the current logo with a new one.

So I would like to announce the “DataPortability Logo Competition”.

Brief:

The logo should:

• Be distinct, unique and easily identifiable
• Remain clear and identifiable at small sizes (e.g. 16×16)
• Convey the concept of moving/owning/syncing data
• Aesthetically fit in with a broad range of site/application designs
• Provide a clear silhouette that can be rendered in multiple colors

As part of the submission, you must be willing to give up all your rights to the copyright and donate it to the community via the DataPortability project.

Submissions can be made via JPG/GIF/PNG however please be prepared to provide high resolution/vector graphic versions of your work.

Prizes:

The main reason for getting involved, of course, is simply to help the community create an important Trust Mark for the emerging Data Portability conversation. As a bonus, however, we are accepting prizes from any vendors who would like to donate to the effort.

Current prize list:

• iPhone from Jive Software
• Weeks ad space on Techcrunch! Thanks to Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch
• A Month ad space on either CenterNetworks (www.centernetworks.com) or
  HTMLCenter (www.htmlcenter.com) thanks to Allen Stern
• $100 from Bub.blicio.us thanks to Brian Solis
• $100 of Compete Credits to get access to premium reports thanks to Jay Meattle at Compete.
• $500 and a “I’d sync that” T-shirt from Plaxo thanks to John McCrea
• An A0 Trendmap from Information Architects
• $100 from HedgeHog Lab
• Free Ticket to Plugg (worth €500) thanks to Robin Wauters

2nd and 3rd Prize will be:

• An A0 Trendmap from Information Architects

If you would like to donate prizes to this competition, please email me. I will update this post to mention sponsors and prizes if any offers come in.

Voting:

The co-founders of the DataPortability project, along with the steering group, will make a short list. We will then provide a web-based voting system for the community to make the final choice.

If you have a solid web-based voting solution you can recommend for that stage of the competition, please email me sooner rather than later.

Submission Details:

• Submissions should be made to the Flickr pool.
• The deadline for submissions is March 11 2008

Legal Advice:

Once we have a logo (or at least a short list) we would welcome legal help/advice/sponsorship regarding TM and/or Community Marks so that we can ensure the logo is free and clear of IPR entanglements. If you are a legal firm and would like to sponsor this part of the process, please email me.

Spread the word:

Please help spread the word about this competition so that we can get a great cross-section of contributions and create something the community can be proud to use across the web.

Comment re: Red Hat:

Please do not flame Red Hat for their letter. It is likely that the decision to send the C&D was made by one legal person and is an honest and generic attempt to protect their TM. As a group, we hope to work with all vendors/organizations to play nice and create a healthy DataPortability enabled Internet. We welcome Red Hat to join us.

Please note that while this competition is going on, DataPortability Action Groups will continue to do the real work of promoting best practices and standards for interoperability of personal user data. Watch the timeline for updates.

Don’t forget to submit your logos to the Flickr Pool.

.
Chris Saad,

Co-Founder and Chair, DataPortability Project

Update: You can Digg it here to help spread the word!