Bono: His Sphere of Influence & Social Change

Posted by John Minnihan - 14/11/06 at 01:11:19 pm

The story behind how Bono decided to "…help" has been told before.  This post is about how serious that help has become, to the point that it (and he) are at the actual and spiritual center of a series of initiatives that will positively affect tens of millions of people, and perhaps even hundreds of millions.

Here’s a great graphic from the NYT illustrating the four organizations which Bono leads, co-founded, or to which he lends his celebrity:

Wow.  I love U2 and would enjoy meeting Bono as a fan of his music.  I passed simple fandom a while back, though, and now would be humbled to meet Bono – the man driving this sphere of influence & social change.

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Popularity: 24% [?]

Referrals vs. direct visitors

Posted by John Minnihan - 10/11/06 at 01:11:18 pm

Here’s a statistic that I find very interesting: 94% of freepository’s visitors hit us with a direct URI. That is, there’s no referral. They know about freepository already, so they type in the URI.

visitors.jpgFreepository is a unique name; while it is possible some visitors simply typed it in randomly or accidently, well.. they probably meant to type it. This means that someone told them about Freepository, and they are checking it out.

Are these simply return visitors, who having found Freepository before now type the URI directly into the browser? Half true. Exactly 50% (a long term trend) of our visitors every day are new visitors. It is reasonable to conclude that these visitors have been told about Freepository, and are typing it into their browser directly as a result.

This is very interesting and represents a very highly pre-qualified visitor base. Referrals from other websites is certainly good; referrals from other people is outstanding.

Thanks.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Vote

Posted by John Minnihan - 06/11/06 at 03:11:01 pm

If you live in the US, don’t forget to vote tomorrow.

If you don’t like where we’re going, vote.

If you don’t like where we’ve been, vote.

If you love where we’re going and where we’ve been, vote.

The only way to change or endorse directions is to vote. So vote.

And while you’re at it, tell your future leaders what you want to see changed.

Here’s a re-publishing of a message I received this morning from ONE:

The ONE Campaign

Dear John,

Tomorrow, as American citizens, we will vote. But as ONE members, we can do even more. We’ll show our elected leaders — whoever they turn out to be — that we’re a large, organized group of voters who put our commitment to global poverty above party lines — and we ask them to do the same.

Before the Congressional leadership meets to set the priorities for the new Congress, you can make sure they know global poverty is a top priority when you cast your ballot. Please sign the ONE Voter pledge, to show you’re going to vote with the fight against global poverty at the top of your agenda. And tell the next Congress that you’re sending them to Washington to lead that fight.

We’ll deliver your signatures and comments to the leadership of the new Congress.

On Election Day, like every other day, there will be over 1 billion people around the world living on less than $1 a day. But unlike every other day, ONE voters can begin a chain reaction that will create hope and opportunity for the world’s poorest people. 2006 is the first year we’ve been able to cast our votes together as members of the ONE community. This is an historic opportunity.

Voting is just the start; together we can show our leaders that a grassroots force is emerging they should not ignore. Republicans and Democrats alike will sign the ONE Voter pledge side-by-side, because our commitment to ending extreme poverty cuts across partisan divides. And together, we will send a powerful message to leaders of the new Congress that we want them to make the fight against global poverty a top priority.

Sign the ONE Voter pledge and we’ll deliver your signatures and comments to the leadership of the new Congress.

Thanks,

Josh Peck, ONE.org

Watch behind- the-scenes interviews
with Don Cheadle, Pastor Rick Warren, Jack Oliver, Mike McCurry and Tom Brady.

For more information on how to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty with people of other faiths, check out The Global Summit on AIDS & the Church, (Nov. 30 – Dec. 1) in Lake Forest, California.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

History Lesson

Posted by John Minnihan - 06/11/06 at 01:11:49 pm

Not sure if you knew this, but Budapest got its name centuries ago from a man who had been exiled from Nepal by the royal family.

He was a close friend of Shakyamuni, and when Shakyamuni began to experience enlightenment, this friend – whose name was Dave – started questioning him repeatedly about how to meditate, what he should wear, and about details of the white elephant. This went on for weeks, and no matter what Shakyamuni told Dave, Dave would continue with a new barrage of questions.

Finally, Shakyamuni’s father, who was a powerful man in Nepal, had the Royal Guard forcibly remove Dave from the kingdom. They took him, on horseback, far away, traveling many days over thousands of miles. Finally stopping in modern-day Hungary, the Royal Guard forced Dave from his horse and admonished him to stay there. They turned back toward Nepal, but stopped a few miles later to mark the spot where Dave now lived.

They erected a sign that stated simply “Buddha Pest” with an arrow pointing toward Dave. And the rest is history.

…thank you, thank you very much. I’ll be here all week.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

Beautiful November Evening in Denver

Posted by John Minnihan - 05/11/06 at 09:11:19 pm

This is a very simple post about a very simple topic: the weather. 

It is absolutely beautiful tonight, after having been an equally fantastic day weather-wise in Denver.   We did typical autumn-weekend stuff: raked leaves, cleaned the garage, planted the flower bulbs that will sprout & blossom next spring…

Great fall day all around.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

DropSend’s “For Sale” Announcement & Curious Chatter

Posted by John Minnihan - 05/11/06 at 10:11:27 am

Last evening, DropSend announced that it was For Sale.   Ok, fair enough.  But then a few hours later, it blogged about already receiving several emails expressing interest, including "…one from Geoffrey Arrone (from Flock)".

This strikes me as a bad move.  If in fact there is interest being expressed via email, those persons communicating with DropSend probably had an expectation of confidentiality.  Since I didn’t see any of those messages (why would I have??), I can only speculate about how I would react in a similar situation.

I left a similar comment for Ryan Carson on his blog.  As I said there, I wish him well, but I suggested he reconsider the public discussion of what should be – at this point at least – confidential business discussions.

Ryan has since posted about getting picked up by TechCrunch, where Mike is also questioning the Flock disclosure.  It sure looks like Ryan is seeking publicity above substance here.   

This may backfire on Ryan.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Novell & Microsoft

Posted by John Minnihan - 02/11/06 at 03:11:22 pm

Microsoft and Novell are entering into a very deep relationship whereby each will provide technology and sales support for the other’s products, agree not to pursue patent claims against each others’ customers, and work to create technology that allows Suse Linux and MS Windows to better interoperate.

Continue reading Novell & Microsoft…

Popularity: 3% [?]

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