Blog Ryan

Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.

- Bill Drayton

We are still in the planning stages of our new project, Maya Jade, but I have to admit I can’t recall being more excited about a project. The basic idea behind the project is to take humanitarian expeditions down to Guatemala (other countries to follow) and allow the volunteers to participate on a wide range of service projects ranging from health and education to gardening and micro-enterprise. We have a million ideas flowing through our heads about how we want to tackle this new project. I am particularily excited about the potential use of the internet and social networking to grow support for our cause. The production of a top class website for Maya Jade is going to be crucial to our success. I envision expedition participants logging onto the website prior to the expedition and sending out customizable greeting cards to their friends and families inviting them to join or sponsor the expedition. Likewise after the expeditions I can envision them uploading their own photos and again sending out greeting cards - this time telling about their experience and once again encouraging them to get involved. I would hope past participants would be excited to promote the foundation via adding their trip photos to flickr, creating myspace and squidoo pages about their trip and even youtube videos. Of course, we would also have past participants have blogs on the website chronicling their trips. The website will also need to be very user friendly for donations and spell out customized monthly sponsorhip opportunities.

As I just read on Ashoka: “All ideas must be user-friendly, understandable, ethical and capable of engaging wide spread support.” I’m thinking that a cms (content management system) will be best for Maya Jade - not sure if wordpress or mod x is the right choice. Anyway, I’m just anxious to get moving with this new project and would love to hear people’s ideas for social entrepreneurship and how to leverage social networking to grow a cause. 

McCoy told you the other day that he and I have formed a new non profit called Maya Jade. We have a lot of big plans for this new venture that will hopefully combine my background in leading tour groups to Latin America with his business savvy and result in some great service opportunities for the volunteers who choose to accompany us on this great adventure.

Anyway, today I stumbled across an intriguing list of non profits who are excelling at using the internet to further their causes. I hope to learn from each of these oranizations.

Apparently there is a game of blog tag going around the internet and it appears I have been hit. Although I’m not sure where it started it appears that Shawn Collins tagged Scott Jangro who tagged Jeremy Palmer who tagged Brad Pace who tagged ME. So, if I understand the rules correctly I must share 5 things most people don’t know about me and then tag 5 other people somewhere out there in the blogosphere.

1. I moonlight (day job is internet marketing) as a tour guide to Latin America. I lived in Guatemala and Belize for a time and fell in love with Latin America - I now typically lead 6 to 8 tour groups (ranging in size from 20 to 100) per year. Most of my trips are Mexico, Belize and Guatemala but I also lead cruise ship groups at times and include additional stops in Grand Caymen, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Jamaica.

 2. My wife and I have raised our kids (3 with a 4th on the way) bi-lingual (english - spanish).

3. I get interview requests to discuss NBA Basketball on the radio all around the globe - particularily when Draft time approaches.

4. I helped start an orphanage in Guatemala that now houses over 100 children ages newborn to 16. I expect everyone that reads this to get involved and help:)

5. I was recently recruited by the CIA to be a “covert operative” but declined when told I would need to spend my first assignment in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

 Ok, time for me to tag some people:

Ryan McCoy, Dave Bascom, Moiz Khan, Ryan Ewer, Gilbert Lee