There’s a new video on TED’s website by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita.

I think one of the interesting lessons to take away from this presentation is that the science of prediction relies on understanding the position of many contributing influencers - not just thought leaders themselves.  Bruce makes the point that leaders can’t possibly keep up with flow of information.  Leaders may be ambiently aware of issues (and sometimes not even that), but are not directly plugged in.  This is because consuming information and making informed decisions is nearly impossible when the information surrounding those issues begin to multiply.  It’s information overload.  So leaders rely on (hopefully) smart people to help them make decisions for them.  And so, the real key is to understand the strata below the key influencer.

And if the strata below the key influencer is so critical, then one good way to have an issue heard or a belief practiced is to hopefully “bring on board” a critical mass.  At the very least, understanding the motivations of those strata will help you better understand where things are going in your environment.

Deep!

Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to randomly be kind.  Sometimes, literally just “being there” is enough to make people happy.  A couple of us Akohans are currently at the Netsquared Montreal presentation, being schooled by a 12 year old on the 2D engine called “Phun”.  It’s not so much the content (which is awesome), but the fact that we’re here, hanging with the local Montreal community that’s making a difference.  Sometimes, just “being there” is “kind” enough.  I guess the point is that we all get super tired at the end of the day, but sometimes, there are tons of local meetups with people doing great things, from not-for-profits to interesting ideas that can change the world.  It’s always good to seek these out and hang out.  You might meet cool people, you might learn something, and you’ll help build a community - which is a great vessel for spreading kindness.

… just sayin’ :).  (I so don’t do this nearly enough!).

As Akohans, we love the idea that everyone can be an agent of change. We also know that people don’t need Akoha to be Akohan

As a company we are working to create a fun platform that provides a structure for players to be inspired to complete acts of kindness, a social and viral mechanism for those acts to spread throughout the world and a business that can support a variety of people and organizations goals for spreading their acts of change.

But the principles behind Akoha are beliefs that don’t require someone to play our game.

1) We believe that everyone has within them the ability to make a difference in the world.
2) We know that spreading kindness is fun, should be documented & celebrated by sharing those stories with friends.
3) We believe that we can aggregate many small acts to improve the world to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Together we can use technology to bring together other like minded agents of change and empower them to band together to be capable of tackling even the largest issues facing our world. We sometimes refer to this as the “Wikipedia of World Improvement” — where everyone can participate and together we can accomplish more then anyone of us could alone.

So when we see stories like this we smile - because everyone can be Akohan. No cards needed

I (Sean Power, community gardener for Akoha) will be in San Francisco this week to spend some time at Web 2.0 Expo and meet Akoha players and play some missions in the area.  I’ll be organizing a get together, but I’m still in the process of putting it together.  Expect to see an announcement coming up shortly, including some out-of-town blog posts this week.

Wherever you are, let’s get some Akoha missions played this week!  Keep up with the RSS feed, check out the Community feed and follow us on Twitter for inspiration, questions and guidance.

TED curator Chris Anderson humorously suggested title “Bill Gates releases more bugs into the world at TED” which got a laugh from the audience as Bill released some malaria-free mosquitoes into the theater. The presentation instead was an incredible introduction into the work that the Gates Foundation is doing in two of its areas of focus.

As the first TED 2009 presentation to go online I wanted to share it with the Akoha audience.

Bill Gates did an incredible job talking about two of the many issues the Gates Foundation has focused on. Malaria and Education reform. As the largest philanthropist on the planet, Bill leads his foundation in a metric & results based approach to some of the worlds largest problems.

You can hear him talk about these issues in the following TED video.

Very few of us will ever have the resources to undertake the massive social issues that the Gates Foundation is tackling. What struck me during the presentation though, was the thought that it is very possible that Gates may be one of the last great large philanthropists.

The type of organizational structures that are required to tackle the challenges of this century will most likely be lot’s of small organizations using new technologies to collaborate, engage and inform. There will be a role for major organizations like the Gates Foundation - but the future of change may very well be each of us.

Already the world of philanthropy is following what David Weinberger calls “Small Pieces Loosely Joined Together” model that refers to the organizational systems that have given us Wikipedia, Open Source Software, the blogosphere and the Internet itself. As David mentions in one of his chapters about the Web - Hope.

Hope - The Web’s hyperlinked architecture is connective and based on shared caring. It thus reflects the basic structure of morality. Hope is in order.

The optimism that Gates has in our ability as a society to face these challenges should not be a luxury afforded to the wealthy or priviledged. We have within each of us the ability, the tools & technologies to make a difference.

We hope Akoha will play a role in parts of this sea change of hope, but equally important is that we each feel empowered to make a difference.

There are more TED 2009 talks that will be coming online over the next few months. We’ll be posting some of our favorites including the small presentation I was able to share with the TED audience about the inspiration & history of the Akoha project.