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As to the contents of your meeting, ubantu sounds fine. Just a few things though. I’ve never used it but would be willing to learn.

I use wordpress currently as you know. You can see training videos here:

As to eco credentials I use Dreamhost as you can see on the about page:

And the user interface is quite similar to wordpress for ease of use:

As for costs open office is open source software comparable with Windows xp (if not better by virtue of being free.)

http://www.openoffice.org/

you can use this site to boost storage along with utilising gmail’s free space for as many accounts as you choose to create. http://www.adrive.com/ that will get you an extra 50Gb for each free account you register.

You can also integrate wordpress to automatically backup all data to a gmail secure account every hour. Doesn’t cost a thing.

I’ve started making this yesterday for a friend to help promote his new book coming out in the states. http://www.retailhell.co.uk/?page_id=2 and to generate new stories from the public on retail hell for his new volume and to sell copies to various groups of retail staff I admin over on facebook. I’m currently running a charity fundraiser that has attracted over 2000 contributers on facebook.

As for collaboration I was hoping to test this out with you…

Just got my account today and was itching to try it out…

This site incopoprate many of the features we spoke of and a few more besides. While it’s not much to look at it serves a practical purpose for the staff I work with and the theme will be tailored over time.

There are donate functions, visable and otherwise (chip in vs buy me a beer)

Maps and videos. Email and all for nothing. Well practically.

oh and http://bubbl.us/ to go with the cloud.

I have created searching4shelter.com and .info

I have created the group “The Million Penny Marathon”

Renamed the group “The Million Penny Marathon: The Ultimate Facebook Fun Run

I have created the cause (which has the ability to measure a donation revenue stream)

Since The race started at 00.00 20/6/09 and with minimal effort or input from myself and 4 others the membership has risen from 0 – 761 members on 24/7/09

It could easily have been a thousand with a few simple nudges but I pretty much wanted to see if it could grow organically and sustain it’s own momentum and I had to tweak the sites and also learn about a few other functions that can be utilised on facebook.

That done and the mungodo test site built for the staff I am now suggesting that I think it’s concievable to get an visual link ad like this…

According to facebooks own stats it has over 250,000,000 users and a roughly 18.6 million of them in the U.K the second largest ammount in the world and amng some of the most active.

Which breaks down as:

15+ million above the age to sign a monthly mandate. 18+

5+ million 18-24

5+ million 24-34

3+ million 35-44

1+ million 45-54

665k 55-64

268k 65+

(less 2+ million under the age of 18)

http://www.checkfacebook.com/

Millions of U.K users interacting daily on the internet, affluent, socially engaged, self proclaimed fans of various groups, direct marketing with the aid of facebook volunteers.

Short term…

A visual link ad to this many potentail users live feeds if members of the group hit the share button (calculated on basis of current growth achieved):

1 user on average 120 friends

1 x 120 = 120

750 x 120 = 90,000

1500 x 120 = 180,000

3000 x 120 = 360,000

6000 x 120 = 720,000

120,000 x 120 = 14,400,000

Which means that potentially everyone in the U.K currently on facebook could recieve a text link visual ad with a link to our site and our logo on display and it would be a referral from a friend, an endorsement of sorts of the charity.

It would increase our google page rank (increased hits to site and links form facebook a highly goole rated site)

That increased audience could contain future donors in a perfect target demographic.

On the basis of the engagement through the group or cause page the potential for the soft sell nudge towards a donation over time remains an option. Contact is availabe to people’s facebook accounts, applications could be marketed providing future revenue streams, data mining possibilities, increased brand awareness in a challenging year and as many other uses as could be thought of when user contact and engagement is a long term proposition in a direct way.

The cross promotional activity maintains a certain level of growth with minimal input but with a concerted effort I believe gains could be made short term that could potential build this to a self sustaining mechanism for growth. A viral ad. A critical mass ensuring a wide coverage for our efforts and costs.

A buillt in revenue stream through the searching4shelter site (with conditions and only the hook a visual to hang the group upon where long term monies could be made) also a bit of good P.R possibly.

I’m currently working on shopping4shelter.com and affiliate laced site where profits from referrals and shopping activies can generate income for shelter.
Amazon refferals, ebay, etc

One off “ASK” possibilty at Christmas with the chipped in widget coupled with an event invite through facebook.

Several million members 50p each as a seasonal gesture?

What would the cost of link referrals from Google be to direct that much traffic to our website.

This is a minimal cost.

1 person’s efforts on track for 1000 people in 1.5-2 months with only slight activity and engagement

Builing the group and cause are the key

The cause can monitor direct donations (if any to be honest) through the cause (semi-) directly.

Users can be encouraged to succeed with prizes of Shelter T-Shirts each month for the user with the most recruits (can be monitored through cause age)

Group and Cause name can be ultimately changed

I have saved the profile facebook.com/shelter.org.uk and made that a holding profile with admin status over the group and cause as well

If this can be used to generate interest it can legitmately at a point of sufficient membership become an official shelter group and be used as it was seen fit to be by others.

The current Shelter group memebrship is 17k (since Chris Norton (Wales) wrote at 21:12 on 02 August 2007) – 23 months

My group 761 with just me doing a little work (since 20/06/09) – 1 month.

Official Shelter memeber’s leaving.

Million Penny Joining.

I have already beaten St Mungo’s penetration at 214 members in their group with 6 admins currently working on it and which has been live since March.

more than http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crisis/6447117653?ref=search

more than http://www.facebook.com/ShelterUK?ref=search (live since dec 08)

Combined Shelter uk group and fan page membership 2285 after nearly 2 years.

I’m on track for 1000 in 1.5 months (albeit with help from a few commited supporters: about 2 hours support from 4 others.)

I think this can be used to promote Shelter and would like to discuss it more.

There are other things that I think the mass of this group could be used to generate for Shelter.

We have a dis jointed web stratergy so I hear. I don’t know. The webs a big place and I have spent some time on facebook wondering how it could be harnessed for Shelter’s needs. Advertising, Revenue, R.R.

I think this multi part plan has the potential (nothing more or less) to do that more effectively (deeper reach) than previous Shelter efforts on facebook.

If you’re planning to go travelling, paying off debts or just trying to live in London on a wage less than a million hopefully you’ll find some useful ways here to minimise your costs and jet off on your next adventure (well seriously who in there right mind pays off debts these days?)

Just hit add comment to send in your suggestions and save your fellow fund raisers a few pounds! (Hell maybe they will even buy you a drink at the next social if you save them enough money!)

We could have an application like this: http://www.communitychannel.org/chugger and use the revenue from people who HATE chuggers to raise money for the charities. =)