Business projection
From espians
The 24 Weeks Project
24 weeks to deliver ESPRA, a tool for entertainment, communication and collaboration. ESPRA is an evolutionary platform offering shared services and resources enabling communities to communicate and work together. We started on the 18th May, and we are currently in week 8.
- The project is led by the Espians (members of ESP Metanational LLP) and is open to anyone that wishes to collaborate.
- Dates: From May 12th to October 20th, 2007.
- Location: Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA United Kingdom
- No limits to prospective participants, catering for all nationalities, languages, ages, etc. No discrimination, everyone's experience and skills are welcomed.
- Worldwide audience (with internet coverage or mobile phone access) and unlimited in time. The project will take place on the internet and, as we are expecting participants from all continents, the project will be living 24/7.
About ESP
ESP Metanational LLP was created seven years ago by Tav Ino. Throughout this time, the company has developed several software projects for various private sector companies, charities, NGOs and public sector clients. The diversity of its clients' domains is a source of pride for ESP. Possessing the experience of working across such wide-ranging areas establishes ESP as an open-minded service provider as well as setting the solid foundation for the IT knowledge and the commercial, economic and financial skills required to pull off 24weeks.
- Private sector companies: Adidas, Barclays, Ben & Jerry's, Canon, Carling, Deloitte, Ecotricity, Friends Provident, Green Awards, Guardian Newspapers, MasterCard, Newhall, Nokia, Npower Renewables, Triodos Bank, Waitrose.
- Charities and NGOs: BioIndustry Association, Greenpeace International & UK, Fairtrade Foundation, Field Studies Council, Groundwork, Green.tv, Hampton Court Palace, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Institute of Physics, Louise T Blouin Foundation, Marine Stewardship Council, Royal Horticultural Society, Soil Association, Stop Climate Chaos, TimeBank, Transport 2000, UNICEF, United Nations Environment Program, Vegetarian Society, WWF UK.
Many of the projects to which ESP contributed honour ESP's social and ecological ethos. Green.tv provides the best illustration: it enables individuals to contribute to ecological and social change around the world by heightening public awareness of our planet's issues. This Web TV broadcasting program was created in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme and Greenpeace International. It quickly became the first podcast of its category on itunes. Green.tv offers the perfect framework to sustainability and social justice-oriented content producers, with very high quality video encoding to satisfy its worldwide audience.
ESP Metanational's Objectives with respect to the 24 weeks project are:
- Drive the 24weeks project from beginning to completion.
- Deliver the ESPRA system with a 1,000,000 user-base by the end of the 24 weeks.
- Create the environment to enable the completion of critical collaborative tasks.
- Utilise the skills-base of the extensive and far-reaching Espian network in leveraging existent technological development to provide the unique 24week experience.
What does ESPRA do that current web applications can't?
The strapline reads: "24weeks -- creating an evolutionary tool for collaboration."
The blurb states: " 24 weeks to deliver ESPRA, a tool for entertainment, communication and collaboration. ESPRA is an evolutionary platform offering shared services and resources enabling communities to communicate and work together."
ESPRA will incorporate a number of unique features as follows:
- A scalable, internationalized tool to enable non-managed collaboration.
- Trust maps for enabling a whole range of capabilities including social search and information filtering.
- Reputation-based currencies for incentivising productive and/or creative activity fueling commons-based peer production.
- Unimessaging which combines blogs, forums, wikis and multi-user chat.
Let's look at this more closely. What do we mean by collaboration?
Collaboration is a tricky thing to define, though we know it is happening when we feel part of it and everything is going well. How often can we honestly say we have participated collaboratively? As children in a classroom, businesspeople around a boardroom table, employees in the same company working in different corners of the world, government civil servants, event-organisers and entertainers? Creating the conditions for collaboration to occur, is what Espra is all about.
Fifteen years ago, Tim Berners-Lee designed the basic platform upon which the internet as we know it has come into being. There have been attempts to redesign it, with web2.0 and web semantics, but the mechanism of implementation has been illusive, it’s almost like trying to alter the trajectory of the Gulf Stream. Tav Ino believes he and his team have the skills to design a new platform, “a parallel public infrastructure” in his words, and if that wasn’t hard enough, they’ve set themselves the rather extraordinary task of establishing it within 24 weeks! By the end of this period, all the elements of the Espra system will be coded, informed by the design requirements of a 1,000,000 user base. We believe this is the critical mass for the system to propagate across the entire net, completely transfroming the internet within three years and substantially effecting global culture.
Social networks and community-building is the product of the ESPRA platform. It is no understatement to claim that every individual who has access to the Web and uses Web services is a potential user of ESPRA whatever their nationality, language, culture, interests, identity, passions are. In addition, ESPRA combines actual Web best practices with the major issues that our planet is facing, to bring about changes that people want but as yet don't have the necessary tool or skills to realise.
Espra is that tool. 24weeks is the social engine that shall deliver that tool. ESP Metanational LLP provides the raw resource of skills and technology.
Sponsor Exposure
Sponsors may select the best way they may align their brand with 24weeks. Companies/individuals are invited to sponsor specific monthly events, such as the First 100 (see Appendix I), specific weeks, or the entire 24week event.
A Sponsor may wish to be a primary sponsor for the entire 24week project. This type of sponsorhip associates the logo/name of the company with the 24weeks banner, and so will be put on every page of the 24 weeks project website and on all the pages of all types of documentations released by ESPRA Metanational LLP throughout the 24weeks project. This sponsorship will also put the company's logo/name on the 24 weeks website's "Sponsors" page and the ESPRA Sponsor page for the duration of the 24weeks project. This Sponsorship also buys the opportunity to promote the company's name/logo at any 24weeks event (though the company must provide their own banners, materials, etc).
Alternatively, a Sponsor may wish to sponsor a single week of the 24week project. This type of sponsorhip will allow a company to put its logo/name on every page of the 24 weeks project website and on all the pages of all types of documentations released by ESPRA Metanational LLP during that week of sponsorship. This sponsorship will also put the company's logo/name above the other sponsors on the 24 weeks website's "Sponsors" page as a "Week Sponsor", giving the number of the week your sponsored.
We also offer involvement in the form of classical sponsorship. This type of sponsorship costs less than the week sponsorship as the service won't have the same coverage than the week sponsorship. Being a classical sponsor, the company's logo/name will be featured on the "Sponsors" page of the 24 weeks project website and in other documentations relative to the 24 weeks project as a "Sponsor".
And finally, sponsoring a specific monthly event exposes the logo/name of the company to participants attending the event. The logo/name of the company shall appear on all forms of documentation relating to the event, including dedicated webpages as well as banners on the day of the event. Because of the exponential growth of the user-base we can only offer rates for the more immediate event.
- We are aiming for a user-base of 1,000,000 by week 24 (3rd November), supported by multiple site-specific events throughout the world.
- On the horizon, we are targeting a user-base of 10,000 by week 15 (25th August), with a supporting event of 1,000 people at our London headquarters at Rich Mix. This event will utilise open-space technology and support an online unconference to launch applications based on the ESPRA platform.
- We are inviting 100 cultural creatives for week 10 (29th July) to network at the launch of the ESPRA platform.
Benefits to Sponsors of the 24 Weeks Project
Becoming a Sponsor of the 24 weeks project gives a cutting-edge image for your company, thanks to the innovative methodology of collaboration and state-of-the-art technologies.
24 weeks will be accessible on the Web, ensuring a worldwide audience. Your company will be seen all around the world, which could benefit its performance on local markets. Brand awareness is boosted by your presence on our homepage.
The potential audience of users of ESPRA is the prime motivator for Sponsorship. Take the social networks that can be found on the web today, such as YouTube or FaceBook. Such networks represent a conservative user-base of 750 million suscribers, roughly 1/10th of the world population. (Some studies report more than 1.5 billion suscibers to social networks -- see Appendix II.) ESPRA is a social platform like no other.
Participation as a Sponsor actively invites collaboration, and the opportunities for "peripheral benefits" should not be undervalued. Because of the experiencial nature of the 24week project, the barrier to innovation is lowered and feedback improvements to the Sponsor's own organisation from collaborators during the 24weeks will be freely offered.
How Sponsorship fits into the 24weeks Funding Drive
Involvement is teired, sponsorship offering the simplest form of financial involvement. Companies/individuals are invited to sponsor specific monthly events, such as the First 100 (see Appendix I), specific weeks, or the entire 24week event. This document covers Sponsorship.
In addition, interested companies/individuals may buy licences for the restricted use of the ESPRA code before it is made public at the end of the 24 week period, thus providing them with a market advantage over competitors when the ESPRA system goes global. More details on request.
Further, companies/individuals may buy shares in ESP. More details on request.
Appendix I: The First 100 Experience
- Date: Sunday, 29th July from 1pm-5pm
- Location: Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road - London E1 6LA United Kingdom
ESP is inviting a select, highly connected group of extra special people to take part in emergent simultaneous processes. This group of amazing people who do amazing things who we call the first 100 include conceptual thinkers, social entrepreneurs, sustainability campaigners, corporate executives and cultural creatives. They will enjoy an entertaining and informative afternoon of networking, social art, collaborative activities and an exclusive preview of espra, breakthrough software for changing the world.
The experience will take place on Sunday the 29th of July 2007 at the Rich Mix Cultural Centre, a short walk away from the heart of London's East End, the famous Brick Lane. The nearest tube station and mainline station is Liverpool Street.
The event will begin at 2pm, however for those arriving earlier, a light lunch will be available from 1pm where guests will be able to network over delicious food and drink. Next will be a presentation starting at 2pm, followed by a breakout session facilitated for creativity, collaboration and fun. Afterwards, another presentation will be followed by a further breakout session concluding at 5pm. Afterwards, guests who wish to can wind down with a chillout session for more networking and discussion to conclude at 6pm. Those who want to make an evening of it will be invited to join us in partaking in some of the best of London's nightlife.
If you have been invited to be a member of the first 100, RSVP your attendance or that of your representative by email to evangineer at espians.com. If you cannot attend, please let us know in sufficient time so that we can give your place to another deserving amazing person.
Appendix II: Market Research of Social Software
blaa about youtube and facebook here
Appendix III: Sponsorship Terms and Conditions
COMPANY SERVICES
This Agreement shall constitute Sponsor's understanding that Espra Metanational LLP sole obligation is to promote the Sponsor's marketing message by displaying its logo, banners, taglines, text links or articles approved by the Sponsor on 24 Week's website and Espra's website. The global message of the sponsor will herein be defined by the word "Image".
The submission of a signed or confirming email Sponsorship Order by Sponsor to the Company is construed as an acceptance of all the rates, terms and conditions under which Sponsorship is offered at that time. Any and all modifications to this Sponsorship Order are not valid unless acknowledged and accepted in writing by both the Company and the Sponsor. Unless otherwise specified on the Sponsoring Order, Sponsors agrees that the Company may, but is not obligated to, display Sponsor's identity across the entire Espra network or on specific site(s). The Company may, at its option, modify the start date of a Sponsoring Campaign(s) if the there are issues that are out of the Company's control. All rates quoted herein through written communications, including email correspondence are only valid for thirty (15) days from the date of such statement. If no agreement is reached within this time frame the Company reserves the right to change the rates.
DELIVERY MEASUREMENT STANDARDS
The Company will use commercially reasonable efforts to deliver the Content stated in the Sponsoring Order in accordance with this Agreement and will use commercially reasonable efforts to deliver the Content beginning with the start date and ending with the end date, and will make commercially reasonable efforts to provide such Content throughout the term of this Agreement unless otherwise instructed by the Sponsor, in writing prior to the Campaign start date.
Unless otherwise agreed upon in writing, all invoices created by the Company for work performed and delivered shall be in accordance with measurement and tracking described in the Sponsoring Order.
PAYMENT TERMS
All payment terms will be agreed to in advance and noted in the Sponsoring Order. The Company is under no obligation to perform agreed upon services until payment is received. Payments can be made in any currency.
It is the Sponsor's responsibility to validate its Content placed on the Site. The Sponsor must report any discrepancies related to its image to sponsor@espra.com. All discrepancies related to the Sponsor's image must be reported as fast as possible.
IMAGE STANDARDS AND INDEMNIFICATION
All Sponsors are subject to the Company's approval. The Company reserves the right to reject, discontinue, or omit any Image (as described under Company Services), or any part thereof. This right shall not be deemed to have been waived by acceptance or actual use of any Image by the Company. The Company may reject any Image that the Company feels in not in keeping with reasonable standards outlined herein. The Company is not liable for errors in Image position and/or placement, or typographic errors of any kind.
If Sponsors intends to provide the Company with Image via third-party tag, Sponsors agree to provide the Company with a sample of each and all image contained within the third-party tags. Failure to do so will be deemed a breach of this Agreement. In the event the Company's relationship with its affiliated partners is damaged or lost as a result of a breach of this condition, the Company reserves the right to recover any and all monetary damages.
Sponsors agree to confirm the correct function of all Image supplied to the Company within twenty-four (24) hours of the Sponsor's campaign start. If no confirmation is received within this time frame, the Company will assume that the Image is functioning properly. All problems related to image should be immediately brought to the attention of the sponsorship officer thanks to the following email adress, sponsor@espra.com.
INDEMNIFICATION
All Image has been accepted and published to the representation that the Sponsor is authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. Sponsor agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates or other Sponsors and their respective affiliates, employees, officers agents, directors and representatives ("The Company's Indemnified Parties"), harmless from all allegations, claims actions, causes of action, lawsuits, damages, liabilities, obligations, costs and expenses (including without limitation reasonable attorneys' fees, costs related to in-house counsel time, court costs and witness fees) (collectively referred to as "Losses") indemnify, defend, and save the Company harmless from any and all liability for any claim or suits for libel, defamation, violation of rights of privacy, plagiarism, attorney's fees, trademarks, copyright infringement, unauthorized content (including illustrations, text, representatives, sketches, maps, labels, or other copyrighted matter) contained in Image or the unauthorized use of any person's name or photograph arising from the Company's reproduction and publishing of such Image pursuant to the Sponsor's submission thereof.
Sponsor understands that the Company in due diligence cannot monitor all of the Company's Sites and affiliate sites for appropriate content and the Company may not be held responsible for the content of any of the Company's Sites and/or affiliate sites. If the Sponsor reasonably determines that the placement of any Image by the Company hereunder harms the goodwill or reputation of Sponsor or disparages or brings Sponsor into disrepute, including, but not limited to association with web sites that contain indecent, illegal, misleading, harmful, abusive, harassing, libelous, defamatory, or other offensive materials, then the Company shall use commercially reasonable efforts to remove such advertisement promptly following Sponsor's notice thereof to the Company; provided, however, that if the Company reasonably believes that removal of an Image from a site will have a material impact on the Company's ability to deliver Content in accordance with the Advertising Order, the Company may condition such compliance on Sponsor providing an extension of the campaign dates.
Sponsor guarantees that data regarding businesses or users gained by this campaign will be only used for legal purposes and Sponsor will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Company's' Indemnified Parties from any and all losses, liabilities, claims, obligations, costs, expenses (including without limitation reasonable attorney's fees) Losses which result from any claim of damages brought or sought against the Company's' Indemnified Parties that alleges consumer data gained by this campaign was used for any purpose in violation of any applicable laws. The indemnity obligations of this paragraph are contingent on the Indemnified Parties of the Company giving prompt written notice of any such claim. Independent Parties of the Company will have sole control over the litigation or settlement of such claim. The provisions of this Paragraph shall survive the termination of this Agreement.
AUTHORIZATION
Unless specifically stated in the Sponsor's Order, Sponsor hereby authorizes the Company to promote and distribute Sponsor's campaign via any electronic media (including website placement, search listing, and/or email marketing) as the Company in its discretion deems appropriate to meet Sponsor's performance objectives. Sponsor agrees to allow and/or assist the Company to alter, resize or otherwise modify creative only as necessary for distribution through the various channels list above.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES
The Company shall not have any liability to the Sponsor for lost profits or other consequential, special, indirect or incidental damages, based upon a claim of any type or nature (including, but not limited to, contract, tort, including negligence, warranty or strict liability), even if advised of the possibility of such damages. In any event, the Comapny's total obligations and / or liability can never exceed the charge for the advertisement in question. Except as expressly set forth herein, the company makes no other warranties to Sponsor and disclaims all warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
FORCE MAJEUR
The Company is not liable for delays in delivery and/or non-delivery in the event of an act of God, actions by any governmental or quasi-governmental entity, Internet failure, equipment failure, power outage, fire, earthquake, flood insurrection, riot, act of terrorism, act of war, explosion, embargo, strike (whether legal or illegal), labor or material shortage, transportation interruption of any kind, work slow-down, or any condition beyond the Company's control affecting production or delivery in any manner.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Parties have disclosed or may disclose to each other information relating to each party's business (including, without limitation, data and other information pertaining to publisher sites, affiliates and vendors that are or have been part of the Company's Sponsors), all of which to the extent previously, presently or subsequently disclosed to each other in "Proprietary Information." Proprietary Information does not include information that each party can document (a) is or becomes (through no improper action or inaction of each party or it Representatives (as defined below)) generally known to the public, (b) was in its possession or known by it without restriction prior to receipt from the other party or (c) becomes available to a party from a source other than the other party or its Representatives having no obligation of confidentiality. ("Representatives," when used with respect to either party, means that party's affiliates, agents, officers, directors, consultants and employees). Parties agree (i) to hold Proprietary Information in strict confidence and to take all reasonable precautions to protect such Proprietary Information (including, without limitation, all precautions each party employs with respect to its most confidential materials), (ii) not to make any use whatsoever at any time of such Proprietary Information, except for the purpose of evaluating the results of Advertiser's advertising campaign, (iii) not to copy any Proprietary Information for any purpose whatsoever without written permission for each party, and (iv) not to divulge any Proprietary Information or any information derived there from to any third party or employee, except those of each party's employees who have a legitimate "need to know" and are bound in writing to the restrictions herein. Each party will be responsible for a breach of this Agreement by any of its Representatives. Each party shall promptly notify the other party upon discovery of any unauthorized use or disclosure of Proprietary Information and will cooperate with the other party in every reasonable way to help regain possession of such Proprietary Information and prevent its future unauthorized use.
PROPRIETARY RELATIONSHIPS
The Company has proprietary relationships with its affiliates that further extend the Company's network. With the exception of reasonably documented, preexisting relationships with the Company's affiliates or relationships entered into in the ordinary course of Sponsor's business, Sponsor agrees not to solicit, induce, recruit or encourage, directly or indirectly, any affiliate or partner of the Company that the Sponsor knows, or has reason to know, for the purpose of offering to or receiving from products and/or services, including, without limitation, purchasing advertising directly from any of the Company's affiliates. Sponsor understands that in the event of a breach of the foregoing representations by Sponsor, the Company shall be entitled to injunctive or other equitable relief as a remedy therefore, without the necessity of posting a bond with respect thereto. Any such relief awarded shall be in addition to any appropriate relief which may be awarded in the form of monetary damages, and the Company shall be entitled to monetary damages to the fullest permitted under applicable law. The foregoing remedy is a material, bargained for basis of this Agreement and has been taken into account in each party's decision to enter into this Agreement.
CHOICE OF LAW AND VENUE
It is agreed by both parties that any dispute or controversy arising out of or relating to any interpretation, construction, performance or breach of this Agreement, shall be exclusively governed by English law without respect to conflict of law provisions. The parties further agree to submit to personal jurisdiction in the courts of ------------- as such courts shall serve as the exclusive venue for all dispute resolution. The prevailing party of any litigated dispute arising out of or relating in any way to this Agreement shall receive its reasonable attorneys' fees, costs and expenses incurred resolving the dispute as part of the judgment.
PRESS RELEASES
Sponsor is willing to collaborate with press releases and/or be mentioned as a Sponsor in a Company's press release.
ENTIRE AGREEMENT
This Agreement, together with the Sponsoring Order, which is incorporated herein by reference, constitutes our entire agreement, supersedes all prior oral and written agreements, and may not be amended or modified except in writing being acknowledged and accepted by both parties. This Agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts, facsimile copies, or email confirmations, each of which shall be deemed an original, and all of which together shall be deemed one and the same instrument. In the event, that any of the provisions included herein are held to be unenforceable, the remaining portions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect. Any notice or report required or permitted by the Agreement shall be made by Espra Metanational LLP, facsimile to then operating facsimile number or business address, or verifiable email.
Failure of either party to require strict performance by the other party of any provision shall not affect the first party's right to require strict performance thereafter. Waiver by either party of a breach of any provision shall not waive either the provision itself or any subsequent breach. SURVIVABILITY
Sections "Limitations of Liability", "Indemnification", "Confidentiality" and "Choice of Law and Venue", shall survive in perpetuity after the termination of this Agreement by either party; "Proprietary Relationships" shall survive for six (6) months from such termination.
