The Life of a Raven

I make a reasonable living, and I share a portion of my income with those in need, both through my church and through Heifer International. I like Heifer because they do more than just give aid... they provide livestock (cows, goats, chickens and so on) and training to the poor in third-world countries, with a requirement that the first female offspring be given to someone else in the community. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, give a family a cow and pretty soon everyone in the village has their own cow. (Well, assuming there's a bull around.)

Now I think this is great... my money doesn't feed a family for a couple days, it helps provide the seed that can pull an entire family or even community out of poverty by giving them an long-term advantage.

A few months ago, I learned of another organization that I like for similar reasons... Kiva. Kiva is a microcredit (Wikipedia) organization. Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to the poor who are unable to get a loan at a traditional bank. In Kiva's case, these loans are to small businesses in poor countries. (Made through local microfinance banks in the borrower's country.)

And the really fun thing about Kiva is that you're not giving your money away... you're just loaning it. You receive no interest, and it's always possible that you may lose the money if a borrower defaults on a loan. Barring a default, eventually your loaned money gets credited back to your account. Then you can loan it out again, or even (easily) request Kiva return your money. Out of the eight nine loans (just re-loaned another $25) I've made starting seven months ago, not one borrower has missed a payment.

One of the other fun things about Kiva is that you actually get to pick which entrepreneur you want to support. You can loan as little as $25, and your money gets pooled with other loaners to meet the amount being asked for. You can view photographs and summaries of what each business is involved in or starting up, how much money they want to borrow, and why they want to borrow it. It might be a farmer needing $300 to buy seed for this year's planting. Or a shop keeper wanting to expand her inventory. Or a taxi driver who needs to repair his car to say in business.

"It takes money to make money," as they say, and Kiva gives the poor entrepreneur the financial leverage necessary to get their business off the ground, take it to the next level, or get through a rough spot. It's not a hand-out... the entrepreneur pays back the loan plus interest, just like any other small business. The big difference here is that traditional banks won't extend credit to these businesses. The amounts are too small (sometimes only a few hundred dollars), and the return on investment too low. The microfinance banks are often non-profit and run to help this specific class of business. Kiva loaners help the microfinance bank stay afloat and able to help these businesses by providing interest-free capital to invest in helping small businesses.

If you're looking for a non-cluttering Christmas gift for someone this year, a Kiva gift certificate is a worthy choice. Unlike just donating money in someone's name and giving them a card, the recipient of this gift gets to choose how to disburse the funds, and when the loan is paid back, can loan it out again. Instead of a card pinned to a bulletin board, it's an ongoing involvement with an organization that helps change people's lives.

(For the record: I have never received paper mail from Kiva. Heifer sends me catalogs and regular requests for money, which can be kind of annoying. Kiva doesn't do that.)

I segment my personal life, and I segment my online life. At one time, I ran seven different blogs, all more or less about me. Blogs about my Netflix experience, model rocketry, my religious views, roleplaying games, photography and writing. I have trouble following a catch-all blog... someone who writes about every aspect of his life all in one spot. I may want to read about his roleplaying experiences, but I don't care about his personal life... what he had for dinner, how his date went, what's happening in World of Warcraft, why his job sucks, etc. I just want to know how that roleplaying game he's developing is coming.

Kind of like this... imagine that you pick up the newspaper to read reviews about the latest movies. But along with the reviews, you get all kinds of details about the reviewer's personal life, his opinions on politics and religion, a recipe for chicken pot pie. That's not why you went to the reviews column... you went for reviews, not for the reviewer. And sure, you can skip all that stuff, but it takes some time to determine which parts you actually want to read.

When I write a blog post, I am working under the assumption that I have something worth reading. (Egotistical, I know.) That my signal to noise ratio is high... if you want to read about a novice working through the process of learning photography, then my photography blog should be interesting to you. And it's focused... it's just about photography and doesn't have a lick of religious thought in it. But were you to read my religion blog... well, you'll see a totally different side of me. (That blog was short-lived and is no longer on the net, btw.)

Thing is, this new "social media," specifically Facebook and Twitter are on my mind, are confusing that. They assume that all of my "friends" are equal, and everything I have to say is equally applicable to all of my "friends." There's no "family only" setting on Twitter. No "roleplayers only" tag on Facebook. If you "friend" or "follow" me, you get it all, and pretty much the only way to not get it all is to completely disconnect from me.

To me, that's entirely broken. Not everyone I want to converse with wants to converse with me at the same level and about the same things. Twitter's driving me crazy with status updates about who's eating what for dinner and with whom. I really don't care. I might care for two or three people, but not the majority of the people I'm following.

And it's seriously affecting what I say. I always write for an audience... a roleplayer audience, or a family audience, or a close friends audience. My "audience" on Twitter doesn't fit a clear-cut category by which I can filter my thoughts. I don't know who I'm writing for, because I don't even know most of them, and I don't know what their interests are.

To properly use Facebook or Twitter, I feel like I need three or four accounts on each... my "Wichita network" account, my "roleplaying network" account, my "local tech people" account, and so on.

Maybe it's because I'm from the world of Usenet and mailing lists... I seek out people based on their activities. Not based on geographic location alone (just because we live in the same city doesn't mean we have anything meaningful in common). So I blog based on what I do, I seek people out based on what they do, and I look for real-life friends who are involved in the same activities I am. And using Twitter does not count as an activity.

I suppose I'm looking for relationships, both online and offline, with people who will enrich my life... I'm busy "doing things" (important things!) and I'm not a big socializer. I'm the type of person who wants one or two good friends and that's all I need in terms of socialization. I'd much rather have coffee with one good friend than coffee with a crowd of people I barely know. But I do want to participate in larger communities of people who are involved in my hobbies. I like to "talk shop".

So where do we, the old guard of Usenet and mailing lists, fit into all this new "socialness" in which being connected seems to be more important than to whom I'm connected or why?

I'm not really sure. I don't actually use Facebook. I have an account because I wanted to be connected to certain people, but I've never really even figured out how to use it in a way that's beneficial to me.

I use Twitter quite a bit, but I haven't seen a return on the investment of time... it's like an all-day chat about nothing important. As I've used Twitter, I've noticed that the people I'm most interested in getting to know better are people who have the same interests.

I'm right on the verge of taking an axe to my friends lists on both services, politely but firmly cutting myself off from people who are just "social fluff" on my radar, and keeping those people who I find really worth the time. But then I'm afraid that my "follow" list on Twitter will be so sparse that there's no reason to be using Twitter at all. Which might not be a bad thing.

Shea Sylvia talks about social media douchebags. (She uses mildly foul language, but it's okay, 'cause she misspells it.)

As a consumer, and a long-time player in online community (since 1986), think the real value in social media to a business is in being real with your customers. And real isn't about this new product, or that new sale... real is about what's going on in your head, what you're doing to make the world a better place for somebody. Why you and your business make a difference. Being real gives people a chance to care about you and your business beyond "what can your business do for me?", and when they care, they're more likely to be good customers.

Social media is social... if you're not being social, then you're not doing it right. You have to stop thinking about marketing and promotion and think about interacting with people. That's the big game-changer that the internet has brought to marketing... interaction. It's not a billboard, it's not radio or television. It's not one-way, it's two-way. And if you can't enter into a two-way relationship with your potential and existing customers, then social media isn't for you.

They need to tweet more, but I think Bamboo Stix has a good start... they talk about trying to find their signature dessert, their struggles with slow business on Mondays, dealing with their sushi chef injuring his hand. Yeah, they throw in their lunch specials and stuff, too. But they feel like real people. Because they are.

Kansas schools must teach employable skills to each K-12 student. After graduation, each student should be prepared to earn a living wage with skills which employers need.