UnLtdWorld

UnLtdWorld empowers people to generate greater social impact in the real world by enabling them to share, shape and build knowledge, markets and communities through social networks.

Has some interesting functionality:

Neighbourhoods - users can easily see other members who have similar interests, who interact with the site in a similar way or could potentially be a relevant connection.

Let's Meet Up - through this feature a member is able to communicate a city they are going to, and when they'll be there. All members in that location receive a notification on their profile, and consequently have the possibility to contact that user if they feel it would be valuable to meet up.

Shout Box - A mini-blog for members to share opinions, stories and relevant links.

Comment Wall - A forum built into each users profile for other members to post comments for that user. A user has the possibility to set different access level options.

Favourite and Share Content - The option for users to save relevant content to their profiles or to share content with friends.

Created by a UK-based Nonprofit:

UnLtdWorld is a project of UnLtd - the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. UnLtd's mission is to reach out and unleash the energies of people who can transform the world in which they live. We call these people social entrepreneurs.

Funded by....

                                       

Comments

[Philippe Bradley]

Yawn. YASN [Yet Another Social Network]. Seriously, what value could these guys possibly add compared to a large, non-niche platform that allows groups to form, but more importantly, has others around not yet in the 'scene' that the for-good groups forming can attract. An isolated social network really isn't much good compared to that, and you could even make the argument that they simply dilute the environment and effort others put in, and waste the attention (a limited resource!) of activists, both current and potential.

I wish people would stop developing web stuff out of boredom. Stop, think objectively about whether you're adding value, if no, then don't do it - save your resources and ours, for something more innovative.

[phil]

Philippe, it does seem that the space is getting crowded with these walled garden community sites. What do you see as the alternative? Blogs, yes. Anything else what would speed the formation of social networks for social good?

[Alberto Nardelli]

Thanks for the review, and to others for their comments.

I'm the chief strategist at UnLtdWorld, and wanted to respond to Philippe's comment - there are actually differences between sites:

Most non-niche social networking sites are networks, so effective within circles of acquaitances, UnLtdWorld aims to be a community, so to foster new connections efficiently. To go beyond the people you know.

Context - the site aims to create a "social market place", so to dynamically connect for example social entrepreneurs to potential clients and supporters, or listings of resources driven by those that which actually use these resources, enabling relevancy to emerge.

Purpose - try joining a group around a specific cause on a generic site, and to evaluate the quality of conversations, most will be self-promotion, with comments not adding much value.
Most sites enable to broadcast information - e.g. I go to a part upload a photo and share with all my friends, and within that framework work well.
What is at times needed is to match content and people based on common values, aims, relevance etc... make it easy for a donor to find projects related to the issues they want to support, of for a social entrepreneur to find a service in their local area.

To be brief the dynamics, economies and consequently the impact and implications, between sites are actually different (for example you would use Facebook differently than how you use LinkedIn, and blogs have rather different dynamics all togehter), and complete one another.

Said all that UnLtdWorld is actually not a walled garden, but built on an architecture that will enable in time users to share their "network" and the relation (between members and content) on other sites and vice-versa.

The site is still in closed Beta, so lots is still needed, and to improve, so do keep the feedback, and hopefully constructive ideas coming. Do let me also know if you'd like an invite, as would love to know your thoughts (ideally post having used the site).

[phil]

Alberto, thank you for your thoughtful response.