Craig's Blog

Is email going out with 2011?

Posted on January 6th, 2012 by Craig Newmark

Here's the deal, folks: I just counted, and over the course of 2011, I received around 162,000 emails and sent about 34,000. This is an impressive decrease from the previous years where I had a constant number around 200,000 coming in and 50,000 going out.

If I were to guess, I'd say that I've sent somewhere in the low thousands of messages via social media. These numbers made me wonder if other people were noticing a decline in their email use, and whether there was a correlation with social media use.

I took a look at a few articles and studies, and according to ComScore's 2010 Digital Year in Review, email use dropped 59% among Internet users ages 12 to 17 in 2010. Users ages 18 to 54 have reportedly turned away from email, as well — many are instead communicating through social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. An increase in email use, however, was visible in the 55+ age group, who used web-email 15% more in 2010 than in 2009. The report also went into detail on what sites people spent their time on: it illustrated that time spent on webmail sites declined while social networking sites increased considerably.

These numbers align with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's prediction, when he said, "We don’t think that a modern messaging system is going to be email," at a press conference in San Francisco. One article from Nielsen Wire refuted that there was a decline in email use but instead noted an increase, but also acknowledged that the increase may be attributed to social media, itself:

 It actually appears that social media use makes people consume email more, not less, as we had originally assumed – particularly for the highest social media users. Intuitively this makes some sense.  Social media sites like Facebook send messages to your inbox every time someone comments on your posting or something you’ve participated in, and depending on your settings, can send updates on almost every activity.  Also, it’s perfectly logical that as people make connections though social media, they maintain those connections outside of the specific platform and may extend those connections to email, a phone conversation or even in-person meetings.

On the flip side, an opposing article, Who Says Email's Dead? explains that it isn't the death of email, but more of a shift:

Since the rise of social media many “experts” have claimed that email is dying and won’t exist in 10 years. In fact, email is not fading, it’s evolving. According to a new comScore study on U.S. consumers, the number of users accessing email via their mobile devices has been growing significantly every year. And email remains one of the most popular activities on the web, reaching more than 70% of the U.S online population each month, said another ComScore study.

Have you noticed a decline in your email consumption? As we enter a new year in this era of technology, what do you think will happen to email over the course of 2012, and so on?

16 People and Organizations Changing the World in 2012

Posted on December 26th, 2011 by Craig Newmark

I recently invited people to share blog posts explaining How You Will Change the World in 2012 for the new Social Good Blog Series I launched earlier this month. Changing the World requires planning and it's important to think about what problems really need solving. I wasn't sure what kind of response I'd get to this call for big ideas. You all didn't disappoint.

I hope you enjoy reading some of these ideas as much as I did! I'm sharing a taste of what people shared here and a link to each person's post so you can read their full reflections.

• Intimate and personal conversation is a powerful means for revealing the truth. Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn and MomsRising, shared her idea for a citizen’s movement to create real change. "When I watch our leaders and media, the focus seems to be primarily on our political differences… Perhaps we could help lead the leaders out of this destructive political bickering we find ourselves engaged in again and again, despite the earnest desire many have to find common ground. Perhaps here in our local communities with 6 people of good will who hold different view points, we can begin to discover how we can have a meaningful conversation that will help us exit this hall of mirrors." Check out the rest of Joan's post to learn more about her Living Room Conversations project.
• Jim Moriarity, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, shared how Surfrider which is comprised of 250,000 supporters and 84 chapters across the U.S will Change the World in 2012 by protecting the coasts through engaged activism and by scaling effective ideas across a connected learning network. "A network becomes stronger, more valuable and more potent when it consistently learns from itself," said Moriarity.
• A thought-provoking question is often the best conversation starter. Rabbi Josh Feigelson thinks that we are forgetting how to ask universal questions that matter to all of us regardless of our religious beliefs or socio-economic background. "In 2012, I want to change the world through better conversation. I want to help college students create the space for conversations that matter. I want to help diverse groups of people find commonality by embracing their diversity," said Feigelson. So here's what he's doing: Rabbi Feigelson is leading a national project with his colleague Sheila Katz called Ask Big Questions which is housed at Hillel International. The program will be on 13 college campuses and will bring thousands of college students together for these kinds of conversations which will take place in person and on social networks. Read the rest of what Rabbi Feigelson has to say about asking Big Questions. I think he's on to something here.
• David B. Crowley, President and Founder of SCI Social Capital Inc. thinks we need a National Civic Communication Corps to ensure everyone "equal access to the digital information and resources that have become the lifeblood of our economy and crucial to our civic life." His organization is launching the National Civic Communication Corps in the fall of 2012 with partners in Chicago, Minnesota and San Antonio. Read David's plans for the Corp.
• We face a lot of challenges on issues of Women's Rights. Caroline Crosbie, Senior Vice President at Pathfinder International, shares why she feels 2012 is The Year to Change the World for Girls and Women."How do we address all of those needs, from skilled birth attendants to HIV care, education to unsafe abortion, early marriage to family planning? I believe 2012 is the year we’ll start to make radical change on all of these issues." Read how Caroline hopes to scale Pathfinder's successes and lessons learned.
• Creating lasting change requires personal commitment. Sahmie Sunshine Wytewa challenges the community to make a personal commitment in our own networks, in a post on Inspiring Women Towards Leadership. In 2012 she hopes to "provide opportunities for women to nurture their talents, restore confidence, and guide and inspire each potential leader to share their experiences with one another."
• Changing the world is serious business, but sometimes the most helpful thing to increase your community's impact is to have a little fun. Lesley Mansford, CEO of Razoo.com, says that she remembers when fun was at the center of charitable giving like local bake sales or community potluck dinners in her post Joy (of Giving) to the World in 2012.  "My goal for 2012 is to bring some of that analog joy to digital fundraisers; to bring the sense of togetherness, accomplishment, and yes, the sense of FUN back into giving," said Mansford.
• When you are working on a lot of exciting changes it can help to keep a list. Claire Diaz Ortiz, the head of social innovation at Twitter and author of Twitter for Good shares her list with us. She's got a lot on her plate for 2012 including writing a new book, hosting a Twitter for Good Unconference, raising funds for her organization Hope Run, supporting Global Citizen Year wherever she can. If you’ve read Twitter for Good, you know she spends nearly a whole chapter diving into the way that Global Citizen Year has used Twitter. And for good reason. Read more from Claire.
• Even though it's been a tough year for folks with all of the human rights abuses happening in Egypt and Syria and record foreclosures here at home, Susan Gordon, Director of Nonprofit Services at Causes remains hopeful for 2012. Why? because  over the past year, she's seen passionate activists use their tools on Causes for real, off-line impact. For example, Eric Ding funded his first cancer research study from donations through the cause he started from his med school dorm room. In 2012, the Causes team hopes to take this to a whole new level. You can see a sneak preview of their new pledge feature at www.causes.com/itcanwait. You can also read more of Susan's post here.
• Susan Marenoff, President of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, shares her vision for the museum's future in a post about Inspiring Our Youth in 2012 and Beyond. This year the museum will welcome Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle Orbiter, continue it's educational programming, and inspire youth to be curious and think big.
• The Unites States has a lot of room to improve when it comes to global education and David Potter, Chief Development Officer at iEARN-USA, shares his vision for global education in his blog post, America’s Educational Exceptionalism. David writes about the collaboration model of the Connect All Schools consortium. In David's mind, "if we set a goal in 2012 to internationalize education for all US students, future generations of Americans will be outward-looking, locally and globally engaged, multilingual, and empathetic."
• Wayne Parcelle, Executive Director of the Humane Society of the United States wants to change the world for animals in 2012. One of his big goals is to increase the adoptions of homeless pets and end the abuse of dogs at puppy mills. Read more about Wayne's goals on his blog.
• Bessie and Claude DiDomenica over at Secretary of Innovation, share their ideas about building bridges and making connections by sharing "the beauty and diversity of life as a reminder that everything is part of the Web of Life."
• Microfinance and peer lending services are an interesting model for alleviating poverty. Daniel Kreps wants to help low income communities through a Community Development Banker Corps. Read more about Daniel's social enterprise idea.
• Jim Lair Beard wants to convince people to take more action on the ground in his post Frying Pan. Check out his ideas about how Change Will Not Be Downloaded.
• Moritz Bartl is taking an interesting approach to changing the world in 2012 with his Hackerbus project. He's going to be visiting hacker and maker spaces across Europe, doing interviews, and promoting Creative Commons and open data. Happy Trails, Moritz.

Aspire to Inspire

Posted on December 19th, 2011 by Kim Petersen

The past four years have been mind-blowing in the Petersen household, here in Southern Orange County. We are all running around, working hard, trying to earn a dollar and then turning around and spending $1.50, thinking that extra $.50 would come from somewhere. It never does.

It didn't always used to be this way. My husband worked for 25 years as a mortgage and real estate broker, owned his own companies, and we were fine until the whole economy shut down starting in 2008. That is when reality hit us in the face. What are we going to do now?

We had to start borrowing from friends and family to help pay our bills. We built up the balance on our credit cards. Meanwhile, my husband spent time volunteering with the police department's search and rescue division and went back to school to earn his Doctorate of Theology. We were planning for the future, but we really needed help in the present.

In 2009, we started buying reduced-price groceries from a local nonprofit. By the end of the year, we could no longer afford to do this. At the time, my 11-year-old son was signed up to go to a local food pantry to serve with his bible study group, so I attended with him. This opened our eyes to a whole new world – the world of serving others and not just ourselves.  What a reality check!

Our family soon decided to join our son by volunteering at the pantry. At this agency, which receives food from the Feeding America member: Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, we stocked shelves, boxed food for needy families, and trained new volunteers. I was so happy my boys were learning the art of serving others.

After a couple months of volunteering, I felt God wanted me to ask for some food assistance. Well, I was not raised knowing anything about food pantries, and never thought of asking for groceries. This was very humbling! But my family found much comfort from the food pantry's leader, Rana Muncy, and the other volunteers who were there to help.

We started receiving our groceries at the food pantry around March 2010, and were able to get boxes of good food every 30 days. This food pantry works hard to be able to meet my dietary restrictions, and we save about $500 month on groceries. My sons are always so anxious to get the food home so they can see what they got! They are never dissatisfied; it is food that God has blessed us with.

Things are starting to look so much better for my family. Eric, my husband, has just started to work as a medical device representative for his brother, who is an orthopedic surgeon in Florida. We are slowly but surely starting to dig ourselves out of the deep financial hole that has been created, but we still need a little assistance from the food pantry.

I am so moved by the help my family has been able to receive, and the opportunity to give back.  The giving at the food pantry – through the support of the folks from Feeding America and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County — has really anchored our family to reality.

Now I know that life is not about earning as much as you can so you can spend as much as you can so that you can acquire as much as you can.  The more you give, the more blessed you are in return. We've learned you need to aspire to inspire before you expire.