After too long behind a keyboard trying to incrementally drive positive societal change, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. boom and echo through the back of my mind.


"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now the time has come to make real the promises of Democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood ..." (I Have a Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -August 28, 1963).

So today, right after a critical strategy call for alonovo.com (which holds the potential for badly needed development resources and a more robust method for more comprehensive social behavior data about corporations, I'm off to Jena, Louisiana to support the Jena 6.

Dear Zaadz Community -

While I remain focused on connecting corporate behavior to corporate profit, through alonovo.com,  I remain active in other areas (and I know you are as well). I received the following plea for help from a dear friend and hope that my Zaadzter's peers can help provide more visibility and resources for the effort.

Thanks in advance -

George

Chief Riley Rescue

 

 

Please forward this web site to every animal lover that you know.  We need as much financial support as we can get.  The homeless animal population in Texas and Oklahoma is overwhelming as you know.  We are updating the web site almost daily.  We have so many cats and kittens right now that I haven't had time to take pictures of them.  The work is night and day.  We also need volunteers.  We just had the most fabulous horse, "Shopping Spree" get killed. We are not a shelter.  We need foster homes for horses, dogs and cats. 

 

We appreciate any consideration and especially your prayers. 

 

Thank you very much.  All My Relations.  

 

Lil Chief

We're continuing to update and incrementally improve the alonovo.com experience, and recently addressed our learning area. We are continuing to evolve the page, and we will soon be adding a number of links to other research and community sites that are working to provide information about corporate behavior. Of course we'd love the feedback of the zaadz.com community.

--George

With a special thank you to Siona, Jessica and Terri, alonovo now has a formal relationship with zaadz.

This means that all of your alonovo.com purchases --from books, DVD's, Music, to Electronics (and yes, even my Nature's Path Soy Flax Blueberry Optimum Bars!) can benefit zaadz. We take our earnings from the Amazon transaction and share it with your organization of choice (from a list of over 70). When the organization is one that we have a formal relationship with, we share 100% of what we receive.



Now you can get important information about corporate behavior as part of your online experience. Make sure your purchases are directed at companies that are evolving to balance life, planet and profit.

--George

Hi All, 

Got back from a challenging trip to NYC. It is looking like we may soon be getting to a term sheet (an important step in receiving an investment in alonovo). Had a day of near rest (with plenty of work sprinkled in) and am now on my way to meetings in Los Angeles through Thursday afternoon, and then SF through 5/30.

 I did manage to hit some tape measure wiffle ball home runs (no steriods for me though!) during an east coast v. west coast Polisner match. Actually, I was the only west coast Polisner -it was fun to be a kid for a day (in between planes, trains, automobiles and high-stress meetings.

 Hope all my zaadz family are doing well. Please think positive thoughts for me as we work on closing a deal that will bring needed capital into alonovo.

 -George

 

Happy Mother's day to my oldest daughter (still can't believe you made me an official grandpa!, to my wonderful step-daughters, and to my wife and inspiration, my mother in law and all.

I'm on my way from New York to Phoenix later today after challenging meetings with private investors (alonovo venture) throughout the week and meetings in Portland, Maine on Friday and Saturday with a new possible important technology and subject matter partner. With my wonderful Polisner family today on Long Island, it is the shelter of loving respit from the fray which I re-enter later today.

Hope all my Zaadzster friends are well and even when untethered from the net, think about this, my extended family alot.

Peace, George

Last year at this time the alonovo.com venture was merely a concept. Many amazing people have guided alonovo.com, some have dedicated significant blocks of time to it and others like many of you are actively using it.

We have a long ardorous journey to evolve alonovo so that it may reach its vast potential and become more useful to all of you, and all those that we hope will come to use alonovo in the future. We know we must acquire more trusted data, improve the online shopping experience and we are looking to integrate with an existing social network so all of you that would like, can readily share information and perspectives with the rest of our community. We also want to fund educational and fun short features that can help everyone learn about the new social values led economy we are building together. Finally, we are continuing to work on closing a private equity or funding deal (don't worry --this isn't an appeal for donations!) --I have been working on that since August of last year and I am working on a couple of options that will allow us to move forward with our data and engineering plans to make alonovo a great place to visit.

So, with a special thank you to each and every one of the alonovo community, I wanted to honor the following people and companies that have been an important part of the journey (as you can see, it takes more than a village!)

Joey Shepp, Nadeen Sakowski, Ethan McCutchen, Lewis Hoffman, Hooman Rabieh, Matt Cowley, Martina Polisner
Amy Weiher of Weiher Creative
Shari Aaron of Fresh Marketing
Carline Kaplan of Kaplan Communications
Kent Wagner
Dr. Kevin Danaher
Judy Rudrud, Nina Utne, Paul Demko and the UTNE Reader
Kathryn Schulz, Kendra Howe and Sarah van Schagen of Grist.org
Joel Makower, Green Business Journal
Elinor Mills, CNET
Joe Sibila of Meadowbrook Lane
The CSR Wire Team
Graham Hill of Treehugger
Bob Christy
Andrew Hoppin of Good Storm and CivicSpace Labs
Michael Knapp and Brandt Kurowski of Green River
Ellis Neder of Sway Design
Ernie Hancock, Dr. Mike Newcomb, Bob Christy, Reverend Jarrett Maupin, Jarrett Maupin Sr. and Mike Thomas
Marc Sussman, WLIB New York
The Trellon Team
Brent Emerson, Adam Bernstein and Ben Connelly Electric Embers
Joe Magid, Grassroots For America
Suzanne Stenson O'Brien
Bob Hornsby
Peter Bessen and Karen Black
Joe Sandler
Dr. John and Alice Tepper Marlin
Steve Lydenberg
Max and Margot Bollock
Ron Zucker
Alpesh Patel
Dr. Jon Gelbard, Conservation Value
Professor Dara O'Rourke
Professor Charles Derber
Professor Noam Chomsky
The KLD Research & Analytics Team
Randy Paynter
Dorinda Moreno
Bob Gelman, BGA Media
Dr. Ralph Williams
Denise Hamler of CoopAmerica
Kara Kapczynski and Erik Dorr
Susan Fassberg
Cecile Petrak
Randy Kasper
Mikko Hal
Charles Jenks
Deborah Schneider and Kirstin Falk, NPC
Jim Fournier
Adbusters
Jane Covey and the entire United for a Fair Economy/Responsible Wealth Team
Margo Baldwin, Chelsea Green Publishing
Kevin Jones, xigi.net
Dan Carol
Peter Leyden, NPI
Mari Margill, Business Ethics Network
Andrew Grossman and Thomas Gensemer
Janice Kollar
Greg Steltenpohl and Jon Ramer, The Interra Project
Sean Sheehan, New American Dream
Brian Rawson, Oxfam America
Tizzy Cornish, GoodStorm.com
Brenda Plant and Tom Liacas, ethiquette.ca

Each of you in a different way has touched this effort in an important way. As alonovo.com grows, our ability to influence corporations will grow. We will let business know that we want them to minimize pollution, treat people and all living beings well, behave in an ethical manner and disengage from the political process. Together we can and will demand better.

So once again, thank you all for helping to catalyze the new social values driven economy. Together we are creating a brighter future so that future generations can celebrate Earth Day too.

With Heartfelt Appreciation,

George
alonovo.com

Over the course of my life I have developed a love of language and communication. This was not the case in my younger years. While growing up I tended toward the language of mathematics -equations were wonderful as opposed to the 'A-E-I-O-U ... and sometimes Y' that english offered. People that have had a remarkable influence upon my life with regard to language either directly (my father Albert, Dr. Ralph WIlliams, Terry Tigner) or indirectly (Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, Authors Bruce Courtenay, Barbara Kingsolver, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Tom Robbins) have instilled a passion for communication which is severely constrained by my lack of structural capability and knowledge of fundamentals.

Nevertheless, I often think about names for emerging technology and fields of study.  I had the honor of being invited to a Conference in San Francisco earlier this month called the 'Sheaves Conference'. It brought together a number of people that I admire and respect that are working to evolve our society toward a compassionate, sustainable and balanced world. People such as Greg Steltenpohl and Jon Ramer from the Interra Project, Brad deGraf of Books We Like, Bruce Boston from CNET, Stephen DeBerry of Omidyar.net, Kevin Jones and Tim Fruendlich of Good Capital, Rupert Ayton of CDSF, Andrew Hoppin from GoodStorm, Karl Burkhart from the Evolver Project, Greg Wendt working on an online community calendar standards project, Nicole Lazzaro of XEODesign, Dan Siegel and Jenny Yancey of YouthGive, Peter Kaminski of Socialtext, Susan Fassberg and other amazing people that have dedicated their life (and in many cases have sacrificed large private sector compensation) to do good leveraging community-building, economics, technology and game/role playing.

As I started to reflect -the term 'Sociotechonomist' emerged as a way to describe the work that integrates social networks, technology and economics.