Domino Theory Blog

@topplers

I've been using twitter for over two years. It's been amazing watching it grow, especially the last few months. Funny that all that time I never saw the obvious connection between twitter and my goal of advancing the concepts in Domino Theory!

I set up the topplers account on twitter last fall, but it sat idle until recently. Lately I've been enjoying putting out quick messages on twitter. When I think of something regarding Topplers/Domino Theory it's easy to shoot that out. But, even more interesting is the notion of retweeting (RT) and replying (@xxx) other people's tweets that have something to do with Domino Theory. Most are random act of kindness kinds of things.

Sure, it's cool to see what others are doing. But, there's more to it than that. What if all these people could somehow track their impact? What if you took one small act, a tweet, and could see that it lead to another act, that lead to another, that ended up doing something really cool. It's a PERFECT example of what we mean when we say "Setting Big Things in Motion."

It would be cool to brag that tens of thousands of people were following Topplers on twitter - and there are ways to make that happen. However, that's not the strategy we're following.

The idea is to tip a few dominos and see what happens. If it ends up with a bunch of people following Topplers that's great. Or, when we eventually have more dominos ready for people to pass on to each other maybe the twitter world will gobble them up? That would be good too. But for now, this is just one more step in the grand experiment I started called Domino Theory - now a production of Topplers (cool).

here's the link to follow us on twitter.

2009 Domino Award Winners

One of the things I am most proud of is the Domino Award. It was an idea that I came up with a few years back: get computer science students at the University of Colorado (my alma mater) to see how others have impacted the world, encourage them to do the same, help them along the way, and track their progress.

This year was the third year of the award. As topples go, at times it looked like the dominos weren't going to fall this year, but thanks to help and support of my partner in crime Professor Clayton Lewis, they tipped. And now, we have two more young minds in this world thinking how they can make a big impact!

Special thanks to this year's judges:

Assoc. Professor Ken Andersen
Professor Clayton Lewis
Ret. Professor Evi Nemeth
Kelly Anne Shuster (pervious winner)
Ben Whaley (previous winner)

Here's the official announcement that Professor Lewis put together. I look forward to seeing how these dominos tip in the years ahead!

Finally, we're hoping to expand the program and are looking for financial support. Even small amounts help. If you are interested please contact me.

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Computer Science students Michael Ton and Jonathan Mai were recently named recipients of the 2009 Domino Award. The Domino Award is given annually to Computer Science students for an outstanding essay honoring the impact that other computer scientists have made on modern society. Essays were judged for their ability to clearly communicate how the honoree's work set in motion a "series of dominos" that changed the world. The award is based on Domino Theory:

... a framework that helps people understand that no matter how large or small your hopes and dreams are, you can meet them by seeing the world around you as a set of dominos. Sometimes the dominos need to be "set up", other times the dominos are just waiting to be tipped over. Either way, one tip leads to the next, and before long something big is happening. No longer will you be saying to yourself, "Oh, I just can't make a difference so why try." All it takes is one small strategic action to Set Big Things In Motion!

The Domino Award was created by serial entrepreneur and CU Computer Science alumnus Herbert Morreale (BS 1991) and CS Professor Clayton Lewis.

Winners receive a $500 cash award and an all expenses paid trip to the next Telluride Tech Festival, a "Celebration of the Past, Present and Future of Technology".

Ton's essay recognized William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen, inventors of the transistor, while Mai's reviewed the career of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.

Clayton Lewis
Professor of Computer Science
Scientist in Residence, Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities
University of Colorado
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~clayton

Topple Video

It's been a while since I posted a video. I like to post them because they convey important Domino Theory concepts. A few that stand out in this one:

• Setting in things in motion is fun, and people of all ages "get it"
• Sometimes no matter how much work you put into setting off a chain reaction it might not go as you had hoped (several places in this topple fail to fail despite the obvious expertise of the creator).
• There are different elements in a topple (towers, bridges, tricks, etc.) These are very impactful but harder to setup.

I want to eventually see Topplers go out to schools and setup topples like this. But, while doing so explain to the kids that the world is just like a set of dominos. Each of us is sets things in motion all the time. But, we can learn to do it with purpose, and get better and better all the time to increase our positive impact on the world.

How Dominos Move From Person to Person

I was recently asked about the mechanics of tipping dominos.  Here's you go:

Five Steps:

1. You get a domino. 
2. You register the domino.
3. You learn about the history of the domino and it's "purpose" (how to keep the topple going).
4. You "TIP"the domino (pass it on).
5. When the domino is registered by the next person, you confirm the registration.

More details...

Getting a Domino
Someone TIPS one to you.
You request one by sending email to info@topplers.org
You sign up for a Toppler's Event (announced via the blog or Facebook).
Order one online (coming soon).

Registering a Domino
Done at topplers.org.  Takes about a minute.  Has the option of being totally anonymous. 

Learn about the Purpose
Every domino has a purpose.  The hope is that the people that receive the domino will read the purpose, see the history of notes collected regarding the domino's journey, and feel inspired to pass on the domino (and possibly request more dominos).

TIPPING
This is the best part - the joy that comes with keeping the topple going.  Some people hand it directly to a person with a personal request to help expand the topple, others pass them on anonymously.

Confirming Registration
After the domino has been TIPPED and then registered by the new owner, a message is sent to the previous owner confirming the TIP.  After this, you can track the domino as it continues on it's journey, knowing that you made you made it all possible.

The topplers.org website makes this all possible, but it's a very basic "first cut."  We have a new site in the works - stay tuned.

What's Up?

Time for an update on Topplers and Domino Theory...

News from the Board:
We continue to meet weekly and make excellent progress pulling together all the things we need to bring Topplers to life. This includes: 2009-2010 strategic plan, IRS filing for non-profit status, simple one-pager describing the organization, and requirements for topplers.org v2.0. Our lawyer recently provided his first round comments, and it looks like we can officially file in the next week or so. At that point, all our attention will be on the v2.0 requirements, and lining up people to help build it.

2009 Domino Award:
Topples is proud to sponsor the Domino Award at the University of Colorado. This years winners were both freshman: Mike Ton and John Mai. They wrote outstanding essays honoring someone from the field of computer science, and were judged for their ability to clearly communicate how the honoree’s work set in motion a “series of dominos” that changed the world. There will be separate post to the blog regarding the Domino Award (including links to their papers).

Twitter:
Yes, twitter is all the rage these days, and now Topplers has joined the fun. Follow us at http://twitter.com/topplers. It turns out that twitter is a great avenue for Topplers to communicate that there are dominos all around us waiting to be tipped into motion, and that people are doing it all the time!

Facebook:
We're here too. In fact, Facebook has become the main communication channel for Topplers lately. We'll keep the blog going, but for now Facebook is the best way to stay up-to-date on what we're up to. We have a group on Facebook with about 140 members. We'll be moving that to a Facebook "page" shortly. The move from a "group" to a "page" gives us more functionality. Once it's ready we'll make the announcement (shortly) and you can "become a fan."

Volunteers Needed:
Topplers is currently an all volunteer organization. We currently have needs in the following area:

• Graphic design skills to help with the look and feel of our blog and website
• Copywriters to help clean up establish a standard for our content
• User-experience professionals, web developers and programmers of all types
• to help us design and build version 2.0 of the website
• Social media and community experts to help us with facebook, twitter, our
• blog and other cool ways to connect with and grow our community

Domino Theory
Herb continues to develop new thoughts on Domino Theory. He's planning to share some of that on the blog in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

It’s My Birthday

Normally I don't draw attention to my birthday. But this year is different.

The first public thing I did was signup for a "birthday wish" on Facebook. How it works is that all my friends get notified that I have made a wish to have 10 people donate $41 dollars to the Red Cross (I could have selected another charity). It took me less than 5 minutes to set up the wish, and as of right now 4 people have donated more than $100. Pretty cool. In addition to the money that I raised for the Red Cross, I received nice messages from friends, some who I haven't spoken with since high school! Amazing how generous people are. Even the people who didn't donate saw that I did, and might be motivated to do the same when their birthday comes up. I wonder how much money will be raised for charity on Facebook because I got over my hangup that I should not advertise my birthday? I wonder how many people think, "Herb's always up to something these days, maybe I'll do something too?" I'm not trying to say I'm Mr. Popular and influence people with my coolness (far from it!). My point is that I took less than 5 minutes and already have $100+ going to the Red Cross to show for it.

Another thing about my birthday…

In 2007 I was thinking about my upcoming 40^th birthday. At the time I was working at Me.dium (now OneRiot) as the CTO. In many ways I loved the job, in others, well… After a particularly difficult time in the Feb. 2007 I was thinking, "I'm going to be 40 in about a year, I hope that the second half of my professional life is defined by making the world a better place vs. deal with shit like this." For the next several months my thoughts turned more and more to doing something with my thinking about Domino Theory. Eventually the time at Me.dium came to an end in Oct 2007, about 3 months before my 40^th bday. This gave me a once-in-a-life time opportunity to step back and examine my life as I approached THE BIG 40. Once again, it seemed like dominos were everywhere I looked. During this time I started this blog. And, as one who believed in Domino Theory would expect, big things got set in motion.

Today I'm 41. I'm one of 5 founding board members of Topplers – the result of asking myself what I was going to do to make a big impact. I know for sure that I've impacted people's lives (they've told me). I also know, that the domino topple I set in motion is only going to grow bigger, with more energy, and more impact.

I'm more comfortable not talking about my birthday. But, history has shown, if I get out of my comfort zone it tends to be a good thing. So there you have it… A blog post announcing my birthday. Happy Birthday to Me!

Thinking - Dreaming

At times domino theory and Topplers seems poised to change the world. At other time it feels like simply a neat idea (and there's nothing wrong with that). I wonder what will happen? I think about this a lot..

I guess it all depends on what other people want - what they dream about.

I hope that someone reading this realizes that domino theory, myself, and Topplers are here to help you accomplish something you never thought possible. Martin Lurther King had a dream. What's yours?

Tipping Dominos for Cameroon

Today, the family and I went to a screening of Volcanic Spirit. It's a inspiring story about runners in Cameroon, Africa. If you're interested here's a link to the official website for the film.

The screening was a fund raiser for COREDEC - Community Research and Development Center of Cameroon (located in Ngaoundere, Cameroon). Our host was Brenden Schwartz, a volunteer for COREDEC. Before the showing the film gave a short presentation about his work, and it was at that time that I realized that COREDEC should be the recipient of the funds we raise while performing the Feb 3 Topple.

From the program they handed out today:

COREDEC is looking forward to bolstering its activities with new items including: computer literacy classes, the creation of a women and infant care center, scholarships for the region's poorest students, and support for rural schools which are fighting malnutrition and educating children at the same time.

When we designed the Feb 3 Topple we decided it would benefit an organization who's mission is to support education and improve literacy. After a little research we decided RoomToRead was a good choice. However, COREDEC has a similar mission and tipping a few dominos in their direction is certain to have an even bigger impact.

It’s ToppleTime!

Fellow Topplers,

Please join us once again on February 3rd as we have some FUN the first Tuesday of each month and tip some dominoes. February's event is another "random act of kindness" experiment designed around the larger concept of Supporting Education, which is one of our favorite causes to get behind.

Here's what we're doing:

• On February 3rd, a group of us will be placing several $5.00 gift cards randomly around the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Boulder Colorado. Each uniquely numbered gift card looks like a domino (see picture below) and has instructions for the recipient to use the card, reload it, and pass it on.
• For every domino set free in the wild we're making a $5 donation to RoomToRead.org – they work throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls and establishing computer labs.

It's our first test of using gift cards vs. actual dominoes and hope that it will be a success. At the very least, we'll put a few smiles on some faces, have some FUN, support RoomToRead.org, and just maybe a few of these dominos will find the right people at the right time… Inspiring them to set even bigger things in motion.

If you'd like to participate then we have two easy ways for you to get involved:

1. Get your own group together and tip some dominoes at your local Barnes & Noble on February 3rd. Email info@topplers.org by Jan. 28 and we will send you some numbered cards that you'll need to attach to the gift cards that you buy.

2. Send us a few bucks and we'll go tip dominoes on your behalf. $20 buys you (3) dominoes that you can register and track on Topplers.org. Also, for every domino you purchase Topplers will make a $5 donation to RoomToRead. Here's a link to send us money: http://www.typepad.com/t/app/public/tj?__mode=tip_confirm&id=1494590&user_id=2414336 [NOTE: this goes to the Domino Theory Tip Jar because our Topplers.org merchant account with PayPal is still being setup – thanks for your patience].

Thanks for your help as we continue to build momentum and take Topplers to the next level. Anything that you can do to help us spread the word (emails, blog, twitter, facebook, etc...) is also really appreciated.

Happy tipping,

Team Topplers

Obamino

Big Dominos Tip Smaller Dominos - Smaller Domino Tip Bigger Dominos - Millions of Dominos Tip All Around Us.  What will you set in motion?