About Worldbridges

What is Worldbridges?

Worldbridges is a network of individuals and organizations that use live, interactive webcasting and other new media technologies to help people connect, learn, & collaborate. Our 'community of communities' includes  WebcastAcademy.net, EdTechTalk.com, Webheadsinaction.org,  Educationbridges.org, EFLBridges.net, Pusanweb.com, and many other sites in  various states of development.

Values

   We value civility and respect, open source collaboration, fair distribution of income, and a sense of world identity.
Read more details about our Goals & Values.

 History (short version)

Worldbridges began as a vision of a global network of homegrown webcasting.  After years of experimenting with non-interactive webcasting and trying to envision how a homegrown webcasting network would function, production of live, interactive webcasts actually began in May of 2005. Since then, a variety of sites, shows, and communities have evolved.  In addition to helping this new media of webcasting evolve and developing our component communities, Worldbridges is currently focusing on creating the policies and infrastructure that will be required to support significant scalable growth.
For a much more detailed history of Worldbridges, take a look at 'The History of Worldbridges - Long Version'.

Financial & Organizational Structure
Worldbridges financial structure aims to provide the fairest possible compensation to those who do the work of managing the sites and producing content.  To accomplish this,  Worldbridges is organized into Divisions that are managed as independently as possible within the context of Worldbridges goals and values. We are also in the process of forming Eduationbridges which will function as a non-profit corporation.
More detailed information about our Financial & Organizational Structure


Licensing

All Worldbridges materials are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. 
More about Worldbridges Licensing.

Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines for Worldbridges Communities will be posted soon.

Community Structure Possibilities

Trustees
 -(relatively long term appointment),
Trustees select  chairperson and Trustee Panel
all except chairperson can hold managerial positions (Chairperson can produce content)
ultimate arbiters of Worldbridgyness/community standards - serve as judiciary
responsible for hiring the management coordinator (x year term)
CP Community  approval of manager required
Community nominates new members
Trustees are selected/replaced by entire Trustee Assembly

 
Managers (Coordinator, Techies (CMS/Hosting), Editior, Networkers, etc.)
Receive most of community generated income
Management Coordinator builds Crew in conjunction with Triad, oversees entire Management Team


 Content Producers
- all those who have been given publishing rights and maintained active status
   (perhaps including active consumers/participants)
- approves management coordinator
- in some communities,  will be provided with space to include their own income generating ad code
- select a Community Rep to serve on Triad, perhaps a community council to address content issues/moderation, make community donation/investment proposals, etc.

Joining the Worldbridges Team


This page will contain information about how to help build Worldbridges.
For now, you can learn more about Worldbridges here, and contact us here.

Privacy Policies

Privacy Policy Statement

This applies to all web sites owned by Worldbridges LLC.
A list of websites covered by this statement is here.

Our postal address is
Worldbridges LLC
PO Box 16540
Hooksett, NH 03106

We can be reached via e-mail at manager@worldbridges.com
or you can reach us by telephone at

For each visitor to our websites, our web server automatically recognizes no information regarding the domain or e-mail address.

We collect aggregate information on what pages consumers access or visit, no information on consumers who browse our websites.

The information we collected is used for internal review and used to improve the content of our websites.and is then discarded. 

With respect to cookies: We use cookies to store visitors preferences.

If you do not want to receive e-mail from us in the future, please let us know by or unsubscribing from any newsletters to which you've subscribed.

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our web site to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. 

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information [including proprietary information] that we maintain about them.

Consumers can access this information by e-mail us at the above address. Consumers can have this information corrected by sending us e-mail at the above address.

With respect to security, w have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above addresses or phone number, state or local chapters of the Better Business Bureau, state or local consumer protection office, The Federal Trade Commission by phone at 202.FTC-HELP (202.382.4357) or electronically at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm.

Site List

Site list


Worldbridges Terms of  Use and Privacy Policies apply to all domains listed below (some of which may not yet be active)

Worldbridges Community Assembly Agenda - September 23





  •  Help Wanted
    • - Give a remote mini-presentation
    •  - Lead a follow up webcast session
    • -  Stream a webcast session

Worldbridginess  What does Worldbridgy mean?   http://www.worldbridges.net/node/3570
How does 'Worldbridgy' apply to politics and religion

Worldbridges Summer Workshop Webcasts

Town Hall Tentative Agenda

Worldbridges WishList

Webcast Academy

Newmediaguides.com

Drupal Stuff

Custodian Duties and Assignments

  • Differences between manager and custodian?
  • Assignment terms?
  • Custodial Tasks - spam cleaning (users, comments, posts),  glitch patrol,  reporting questionable content, handling updates [based on instructions from CMS Team)

Educationbridges

 
Upcoming Conferences

 Updates on...

Worldbridges Terms of Use

We will be posting the Worldbridges Terms of Use soon.

Worldbridges Town Hall - 2006-12-17

Worldbridges Town Hall
December 17, 2006
Download mp3

 
We had our first regularly public meeting to discuss Worldbridges - the community, the company, the possibilities for evolution.  Below is the agenda we used.  Please share your thoughts by commenting on this post.  Next Town Hall scheduled for Dec. 31 (time to be announced).

- Welcome
    What is Worldbridges?

   What is a Worldbridges Town Hall?

The Company
- 2006 Budget Review
- 2007 Budget Projections
How is the company going to generate revenue?
Possibilities:

Non-Profit EducationBridges
 - separate entity that coordinates efforts

Worldbridges Governance

- Some thoughts about  Membership, Partnership, & Shareholding
- Membership - costs & benefits [1/365/24, a vote, member discounts)

- Commercial Partners - interact, evaluate, drive traffic, member discounts,

- Distribution of Income
    - Shareholders xx% (dividends)
    - Managers xx%  
    - External Investment & Donations

Community  Custodian

 Worldbridges Attribution Fair Use License

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things that didn't get discussed - topics for next Town Hall (Dec. 30, 1900GMT)

Worldbridges Town Hall - January 25, 2007


Worldbridges Town Hall
January 25, 2007
A meandering discussion about our To Do list
Download mp3
 

Agenda below

Design Issues - We want to be pretty!
  • External graphic consultant vs. community generated graphics
  • Overall design integration across websites

Worldbridges Consulting Services

  • Services offered
  • The Flynn model
  • Worldbridges 'certification'
  • What's in it for WB certified consultants? What's in it for WB?
  • Project management systems

Educationbridges - Non Profit

  • What decisions need to be made to finalize formation and proceed?
  • Project proposals / grant request system
  • Timeframe, next steps

Community/Channel Management - i.e. EdTechTalk

  • What does it mean to be an 'EdTechTalk' show? - benefits, requirements
  • How do membership decisions get made?
  • Standards and Specifications
Assorted other issues
  • Channel Update
  • Timelines for Development
  • The Server Disaster of 2006 - Lessons learned from the Losar Attack
  • Worldbridges Currency
  • Site Custodian updates
  • Governance update (executive, communities, memberships)
  • Chat Logs (moderator access)

History of Worldbridges (Long Version)

Worldbridges started as a grad school vision of how internet based multimedia technologies could be used to create a global 'people's webcasting network'. It was 1993 and  I had returned from a year of teaching English in Thailand to begin a Master's program in Training & Learning Technologies at the University of New Mexico.On the first day of that program I was given an email account and introduced to 'gopher'.   I was blown away with the possibilities.   I still felt the full 'Wow' of travel and  intercultural discovery as I contemplated how the internet could be used to help people connect, learn, and collaborate.  My first major project required that I create a multimedia presentation (basically a narrated slide show... using real slides since this was pre-Powerpoint) on some learning program.  My project was called 'Worldbridges'.

  [At this point, I sorted through some old boxes and actually found the slides from that project.  It turns out that it was called 'World Explorer'.  I've been remembering this part of the story incorrectly for years.  It's still appropriate to begin my Worldbridges story here, because this is when the convergence of intercultural interaction with online interactive technologies first happened for me.]

 After I finished my Master's program, I headed back to Asia and started teaching English at a university in Pusan Korea.  Worldbridges didn't evolve in any significant way, until a friend of mine opened up one of Korea's first 'Internet Cafes' and I built my first website (called Pusanweb ) as a way to promote it.  The site didn't gain much traction until I bought the camera that changed my life -  and discovered the power of personal images. .

 As I continued learning about basic web design,  I came across Real Producer and discovered how easy it was to produce and publish audio online.  This was another 'wow' moment for me, as I envisioned  everyone having their own global radio show within months. I registered Worldbridges.com in October of 1997 with the thought that this could eventually be home to a people's network of this kind of homegrown webcasting. I started experimenting myself with this kind of media.

    I produced my first piece of online audio in December 1997, shortly after a major currency crisis hit Korea and later published my first video on the same topic.

In 1998, I attempted 'virtually live' coverage of events, by reporting from the Nagano Olympics (images only).  By the summer of 1998, I was starting to feel burnt out - with my job in Korea and with the overwhelming task of trying to manage my existing websites while build this envisioned webcasting network.  I decided to quit my job, shave my head, and go to India for a while to contemplate the next chapter, for me personally and for Worldbridges.  After some quality offline time, I decided to give Worldbridges a shot. I bought a new laptop and video camera and headed back to Bangkok to begin bridge buidling with the Worldbridges Manifesto and the Travelbridges plan.   It was a great few months that included covering The Asian Games and building Worldbridges Tibet, but it didn't take long to realize that Worldbridges wasn't going to be  generating signficant earnings anytime soon.

  I headed back to Korea in 1999 and ....

...to be continued

Goals & Values

 Our goals include :

Values

Financial & Organizational Structure

Financial & Organizational Structure

Worldbridges Financial structure aims to provide the fairest possible compensation to those who do the work of managing the sites and producing content.

Worldbridges is organized into Divisions and those divisions are further divided into sub-units (cooler name pending).

Currently, the following Divisions exist:

EducationBridges -

Koreabridges -

TibetanBridges -

Within the context of Worldbridges values and goals, each division of Worldbridges is managed as autonomously as possible .  Similarly, each sub-unit and/or show is managed as autonomously  as possible from its parent division.  Certain management functions and financial responsibilities must be met, but how that is accomplished is up to each management team.

The management team of each division and sub-unit needs to include the following roles/functions:

-  Security & Backup - make sure that all software is updated &  patched, maintain passwords and a list of who has access to which parts of the site, maintain current backups of all  site content, subscribe to Worldbridges Security update newsletter.

 -  Treasurer - coordinate receipt and distribution of all income

  - Scheduling/Event Posting - coordinate access to webcast streams, post information about shows and events

  - Coordinator/Network Liaison - oversee operations, maintain relations with parent division and sub-divisions.


Each Division needs to pay its operating costs or 10% of  gross income (whichever is higher).  Operating costs will be determined by the portion of server resources dedicated to that division. The rest of the income is distributed to managers and producers.

Income can be earned by donations,  sales of products or services, and/or advertising. Division teams can decide to use income from profitable sub-units to fund non-income generating projects within the division. (i.e extra income generated from EdTechTak is used by the Eduation Division to fund Personal Learning Space). Accounting should be meticulous and transparent.

 Worldbridges reserves the right to place up to two 120x120 pixel banners (one of which is visible on the top screen view) on any site considered part of The Worldbridges Network and up to a 15 second audio intro attached to the beginning of audio and video files.  Cross promotion of Worldbridges shows is very much encouraged.

Corporate Ownership

Legally speaking, 100% of WorldbridgesLLC shares are currently held by Jeff Lebow.  Approximately 7% of these shares have been set aside for those who either invested financially or made significant contributions of time and energy along the way.  Shares will continue to be set aside for those who do so, but there are no plans to distribute income to shareholders.  Instead, income will be distributed to those doing the work and re-invested in infrastructure and operations.   The value of being a shareholder resides in having a vote in corporate decisions.  Ownership should evolve in a way that reflects the global nature of the company. Shares are not transferable and upon death of a shareholder,  their shares will be returned to the corporation for redistribution.

Ownership of Sites

Network Owned Sites - These are sites that are owned by Worldbridges and will remain part of the network regardless of management changes.

Independent Affiliates (Hosted and Non-hosted) - These sites are owned by individuals that choose to be part of Worldbridges.  Hosted affiliates pay for storage space and bandwidth.  Non-hosted affiliates pay for streaming services only.  Independent Aaffiliates can choose to leave the network at any time and Worldbridges reserves the right to terminate our relationship with affiliates at any time.

Licensing



All Worldbridges materials are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.  Worldbridges reserves the right to maintain an archived version of any materials produced by member sites, even after a network affiliation has been terminated.

Worldbidges 2006 Budget

Lastest Look at the Books...

EXPENSES
Server Hosting 7,377.40
Merchant Acct/Bank Fees 775.71
SubContractors
5,902.50
Domain Purchases 2,197.62
Equipment 360.82
Taxes & LLC Reg. 325.00
Communications 159.99
Software 70.45
Misc 396.07
Second Life 359.32


Total Expenses 17,924.88


INCOME

Advertising Income 9,175.85
Hosting Income 280.00
Webcasting Income 9,300.00
Contributions 22.23


Total Income 18,755.85




Total Income 18,755.85
Total Expenses 17,924.88


Total Earnings 830.97





Copyright & Licensing

Materials posted on Worldbridges websites are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License unless otherwise indicated.