NED Meet Sohodojo, Sohodojo Meet NED
November 18th, 2005
Mark Grimes said:
Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn
It’s not every day someone says I don’t go far enough out of the box…I think I love you.
He, he… back at you! 
OK, you’ve put something very interesting out there, and here’s a thought back. At one stage the ad agency I owned had a humor based flash web site that had 2-4 million visitors a day, and just shy of one million double opt-in eamil users. Still have the email list (probably 50-60% good) and own the URL, it just needs to be plugged back in. With the right story-driven and game-oriented alternative markets multi-player game built, I could seed it with tens if not hundreds of thousands of players…instantly.Gads.
Hey Mark,
Sure, eyeballs are good… good, for a kick-start. The true challenge of your proposal is not to squander them by presenting a less than engaging and ‘addictive’ user (shopping) experience.
It would be exciting and challenging to launch this site with a ‘best guess’ at what such an alternative shopping experience might be. But then the race is on, or the eyeballs won’t turn into engaged minds. We would need an aggressive applied research and development effort to tune and evolve this experience-oriented eCommerce site.
Lots of time and money has gone into refining marketing and sales strategies for the Big Is Good World (Globalization 2.0 corporations to use Friedman’s term). The success of your ad agency is certainly dependent on your knowledge of this domain. And lots of creativity has gone into refining game design. (Sure, there are lots of creative individuals in gaming. But fundamentally the computer gaming industry is the film industry of the 21st century feeding an increasingly small number of mega-scale game publishers.)
Precious little time and energy, however, has gone into researching and developing the theories and technologies that will buttress the marketplaces of the Small Is Good World (AKA Globalization 3.0, to reference Friedman’s flattened world of empowered individuals).
The Big Is Good World is never going to be the source of this applied research and development. We have to do it ourselves. And your proposed eCommerce site is an ideal ’sandbox’ in which to collaborate on contributions to this important work.
For our part, here’s what Sohodojo has to offer. It took us 2.5 years to get IRS approval of our 501(C)(3) status as an independent, non-profit applied R&D lab supporting solo and family-based entrepreneurs and their microenterprise networks in rural and distressed urban communities. It took that long because we had to get a precedent-setting decision in which the IRS worked to understand the nature of an entrepreneurial community ecosystem, and to understand Sohodojo’s role as an ‘outsourced’ R&D lab supporting this emerging class of new network enterprises.
Concurrently with working with the IRS, we developed Sohodojo’s Advisory Board to include ‘idea infection points’ into prestigious business schools, digital media programs, research centers for simulation/gaming technologies, and the Open Source community. We can bring these resources to the table, together with our own strong skills in software design and development.
The success of the G3 or Small Is Good World alternative marketplaces won’t just happen through good intentions of its developers nor through the participation of its initial like-minded customers. These marketplaces will succeed and be sustained by offering a more compelling, more rewarding (in more dimensions of need than just ‘more stuff’), and yes, more FUN alternative than competing markets that appeal primarily to a ‘more stuff = more happiness’ consumer purchase decision model.
What’s our next step?
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
NED Meet Sohodojo, Sohodojo Meet NED
November 18th, 2005
Mark Grimes said:
Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn
It’s not every day someone says I don’t go far enough out of the box…I think I love you.
He, he… back at you!
OK, you’ve put something very interesting out there, and here’s a thought back. At one stage the ad agency I owned had a humor based flash web site that had 2-4 million visitors a day, and just shy of one million double opt-in eamil users. Still have the email list (probably 50-60% good) and own the URL, it just needs to be plugged back in. With the right story-driven and game-oriented alternative markets multi-player game built, I could seed it with tens if not hundreds of thousands of players…instantly.Gads.
Hey Mark,
Sure, eyeballs are good… good, for a kick-start. The true challenge of your proposal is not to squander them by presenting a less than engaging and ‘addictive’ user (shopping) experience.
It would be exciting and challenging to launch this site with a ‘best guess’ at what such an alternative shopping experience might be. But then the race is on, or the eyeballs won’t turn into engaged minds. We would need an aggressive applied research and development effort to tune and evolve this experience-oriented eCommerce site.
Lots of time and money has gone into refining marketing and sales strategies for the Big Is Good World (Globalization 2.0 corporations to use Friedman’s term). The success of your ad agency is certainly dependent on your knowledge of this domain. And lots of creativity has gone into refining game design. (Sure, there are lots of creative individuals in gaming. But fundamentally the computer gaming industry is the film industry of the 21st century feeding an increasingly small number of mega-scale game publishers.)
Precious little time and energy, however, has gone into researching and developing the theories and technologies that will buttress the marketplaces of the Small Is Good World (AKA Globalization 3.0, to reference Friedman’s flattened world of empowered individuals).
The Big Is Good World is never going to be the source of this applied research and development. We have to do it ourselves. And your proposed eCommerce site is an ideal ’sandbox’ in which to collaborate on contributions to this important work.
For our part, here’s what Sohodojo has to offer. It took us 2.5 years to get IRS approval of our 501(C)(3) status as an independent, non-profit applied R&D lab supporting solo and family-based entrepreneurs and their microenterprise networks in rural and distressed urban communities. It took that long because we had to get a precedent-setting decision in which the IRS worked to understand the nature of an entrepreneurial community ecosystem, and to understand Sohodojo’s role as an ‘outsourced’ R&D lab supporting this emerging class of new network enterprises.
Concurrently with working with the IRS, we developed Sohodojo’s Advisory Board to include ‘idea infection points’ into prestigious business schools, digital media programs, research centers for simulation/gaming technologies, and the Open Source community. We can bring these resources to the table, together with our own strong skills in software design and development.
The success of the G3 or Small Is Good World alternative marketplaces won’t just happen through good intentions of its developers nor through the participation of its initial like-minded customers. These marketplaces will succeed and be sustained by offering a more compelling, more rewarding (in more dimensions of need than just ‘more stuff’), and yes, more FUN alternative than competing markets that appeal primarily to a ‘more stuff = more happiness’ consumer purchase decision model.
What’s our next step?
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
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