Groundswell

What we can know from example of Unilever

Unilever's example to incorporate the three elements of groundswell thinking into your organization:

• Take small steps that have big impact. The Dove team initiated a series of campaigns that were revolutionary in one area - innovating on the message with the Campaign For Real Beauty, listening go of message control with The Apprentice, and rethinking distribution with the "Evolution" video. The key was that they all had measurable success metrics that were tied to key marketing goals. These primed the pump for the more innovative, more challenging campaigns that came next
• Have a vision and a plan. Transformational thinking can be maddeningly slow. Rob and Babs demonstrated tremendous patience in getting executives to take small steps forward - in all, two year passed between the launch of the Campaign For Real Beauty and the "Evolution" video. But both Rob and Baba personally had a vision of Unilever's potential with groundswell thinking, a vision that kept them going through the rough patches. You should have in your mind a tree-year outlook of where you want to take the organization - and the simplest way to do that is to describe what the relationship with your customer will feel like in the future. 
• Build leaders into the plan. It took leaders like Rob and Babs to have the guts to take Unilever all the way to the top. The Dove team was relentless in hammering on one point - the need to let go and embrace emerging media and give the consumer a voice in the brand. Rob and Babs shared this vision and backed it up with persuasive and planning skills to drive innovative marketing to another level.

The Volga river

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage basin. Some of the largest reservoirs in the world can be found along the Volga. The river has a symbolic meaning in Russian culture and is often referred to as Volga-Matushka (Volga-mother) in Russian literature and folklore.

The downstream of the Volga, widely believed to have been a cradle of the Proto-Indo-European civilization, was settled by Huns and other Turkic peoples in the first millennium AD, replacing Scythians. The ancient scholar Ptolemy of Alexandria mentions the lower Volga in his Geography (Book 5, Chapter 8, 2nd Map of Asia). He calls it the Rha, which was the Scythian name for the river. Ptolemy believed the Don and the Volga shared the same upper branch, which flowed from the Hyperborean Mountains.

Subsequently, the river basin played an important role in the movements of peoples from Asia to Europe. A powerful polity of Volga Bulgaria once flourished where the Kama river joins the Volga, while Khazaria controlled the lower stretches of the river. Such Volga cities as Atil, Saqsin, or Sarai were among the largest in the medieval world. The river served as an important trade route connecting Scandinavia, Rus', and Volga Bulgaria with Khazaria and Persia.

The Volga, widened for navigation purposes with construction of huge dams during the years of Joseph Stalin's industrialization, is of great importance to inland shipping and transport in Russia: all the dams in the river have been equipped with large (double) ship locks, so that vessels of considerable dimensions can actually travel from the Caspian Sea almost to the upstream end of the river.

Connections with the Don River and the Black Sea are possible through the Volga–Don Canal. Connections with the lakes of the north (Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega), Saint Petersburg and the Baltic Sea are possible through the Volga–Baltic Waterway; and a liaison with Moscow has been realised by the Moscow Canal connecting the Volga and the Moskva rivers.

This infrastructure has been designed for vessels of a relatively large scale (lock dimensions of 290 x 30 meters on the Volga, slightly smaller on some of the other rivers and canals) and it spans many thousands of kilometers. A number of formerly state-run, now mostly privatized, companies operate passenger and cargo vessels on the river; Volgotanker, with over 200 petroleum tankers, is one of them.

In the later Soviet era, up to the modern times, grain and oil have been among the largest cargo exports transported on the Volga. Until recently access to the Russian waterways was granted to foreign vessels on a only very limited scale. The increasing contacts between the European Union and Russia have led to new policies with regard to the access to the Russian inland waterways. It is expected that vessels of other nations will be allowed on the Russian rivers soon.

                                                                Fishing.

By the way. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin enjoy some fishing on the river Volga in Russia's Astrakhan region August 16, 2011. Russia's two top leaders spent Tuesday fishing and boating on the Volga river in a rare, day-long private meeting, the Kremlin said. Medvedev and Putin went for a walk on the river bank in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia, did some spin fishing and then set off for a boat trip to take underwater pictures. Picture taken August 16, 2011.

Black sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean  seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch.

The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km² (168,500 sq mi) (not including the Sea of Azov), a maximum depth of 2,212 m (7,257 ft), and a volume of 547,000 km³ (131,200 cu mi). The Black Sea forms in an east-west trending elliptical depression which lies between Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania,Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south, the Caucasus Mountains to the east and features a wide shelf to the northwest. The longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km.

The Black Sea has a positive water balance; that is, a net outflow of water 300 km³ per year through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange. The Black Sea outflow is cooler and less saline, and floats over the warm, more saline Mediterranean inflow -because of density difference due to salinity-, leading to a significant anoxic layer well below the surface waters. The Black Sea also receives river water from large Eurasian fluvial systems to the north of the Sea, of which the Don, Dnieper and Danube are the most significant.

How much online north american consumers trust sources of information about products or services

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal (Russian: о́зеро Байка́л,  Ozero Baykal; IPA: [ˈozʲɪrə bəjˈkɑl]; Buryat: Байгал нуур, Mongolian: Байгал нуур, Baygal nuur, meaning "nature lake") (Байкол - in kyrgyz translates as Rich lake) is the world's oldest lake, at 25 million years (possibly older), and deepest, averaging 744.4 metres (2,442 ft).

Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water.

At 1,642 metres (5,387 ft), Lake Baikal is the deepest and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. Similar to Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of 31,722 km² (12,248 sq mi), less than that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to Buryat  tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal, rearing goats, camels, cattle and sheep, where the regional average temperatures vary from a minimum of −19 °C (−2 °F) in winter to maximum of 14 °C (57 °F) in summer. Lake Baikal is nicknamed "Older sister of Sister Lakes (Lake Khövsgöl and Lake Baikal)"

The first European to reach the lake is said to be Kurbat Ivanov in 1643.

In the past, the Baikal was respectfully referred to by many Russians as the "Baikal Sea" (Russian: Море Байкал, More Baikal), rather than merely "Lake Baikal" (Russian: Озеро Байкал, Ozero Baikal). This usage is attested already on the late-17th century maps by Semyon Remezov. To these days, the strait between the western shore of the Lake and the Olkhon Island is called Maloye More (Малое Море), i.e. "the Little Sea".

According to 19th century traveler T. W. Atkinson, locals in the Lake Baikal Region had the tradition that Christ visited the area:

The people have a tradition in connection with this region which they implicitly believe. They say "that Christ visited this part of Asia and ascended this summit, whence he looked down on all the region around. After blessing the country to the northward, he turned towards the south, and looking across the Baikal, he waved his hand, exclaiming 'Beyond this there is nothing.'" Thus they account for the sterility of Daouria, where it is said "no corn will grow."

Lake Baikal is in a rift valley, created by the Baikal Rift Zone, where the Earth's crust pulls apart. At 636 kilometres (395 mi) long and 79 km (49 mi) wide, Lake Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia (31,722 km²/12,248 sq mi) and is the deepest lake in the world (1,642 m/5,387 ft). The bottom of the lake is 1,186.5 metres (3,893 ft) below sea level, but below this lies some 7 km (4.3 mi) of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8–11 kilometres (5.0–6.8 mi) below the surface: the deepest continental rift on Earth. In geological terms, the rift is young and active—it widens about two cm per year. The fault zone is also seismically active; there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every few years. The lake is divided into three basins: North, Central, and South, with depths of about 900, 1600, and 1400 m, respectively. Fault-controlled accommodation zones rising to depths of about 300 m separate the basins. The North and Central basins are separated by Academician Ridge while the area around the Selenga Delta and the Buguldeika Saddle separates the Central and South basins. The lake drains into the Angara tributary of the Yenisei.

Its age is estimated at 25–30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes, in that its sediments have not been scoured by overriding continental ice sheets. U.S. and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Longer and deeper sediment cores are expected in the near future. Lake Baikal is furthermore the only confined fresh water lake in which direct and indirect evidence of gas hydratesexists.

Techniques for talking with the groundswell

There are lots of ways to talk with the groundswell. But for simplicity, we've narrowed them down to the ones that are the most common and most effective. Here are the four that we will explore in more detail:

• Post a viral video. Put a video online, and let people share it. 
• Engage in social networks and user-generated content sites. Creating a personality within social networking sites like MySpace is one of the simplest ways to extend your brand reach.
• Join the blogosphere. Empower your executives or staff to write blogs. Integral to this strategy is listening to and responding to other blogs in the blogosphere - and that's one way talking with blogs is different from issuing press releases.
• Create a community. Communities are a powerful way to engage with your customers and deliver value to them

Lake Turgoyak

Turgoyak (Russian: Тургояк) is a lake in Chelyabinsk Oblast, near the city of Miass, Russia. It has a surface of 2638 hectares. The water of the lake has a great transparency (from 10-17.5 m). The quality if the water is comparable to that of Lake Baikal.

A megalithic monument is found on an island in the lake (Vera island), as well as ruins of a monastery.

The lake is a popular tourist destination with resorts and holiday camps.

Listening to the groundswell: what it means to you???

Listening is perhaps the most essential neglected skill in business. Whether you choose to start a private community, engage a company for bran monitoring, or just use the available tools to do rudimentary listening on you own, your organization must get started. Here are six reasons why:

• Find out what your brand stands for. You know the message you're trying to get across. How is that different from what people are talking about
• Understand how buzz is shifting. Start listening, and you have a baseline. Keep listening, and you understand changes.
• Save research money; increase research responsiveness. If you do a survey once in a whale, listening is more expensive. But if your company has a regular research budget, some of it should go to listening.
• Find the sources or influence in your market. Who's talking about your product? Are the bloggers more influential, or are the discussion  forums? Are thousands of people watching videos about it on YouTube? Once you find the influencers, you can cultivate them.
• Manage PR crises. If your company is going to suffer an assault from the groundswell - a negative YouTube video, a rapidly spreading blog, bad buzz on forums - you'll hear about it earlier if you're listening.
• Generate new product and marketing ideas. Your customers use your products and services all the time. They generate lots of intelligent ideas about those products and services, and they will offer those ideas to you-for free.

Arkaim

 (Russian: Аркаим) is an archaeological site situated in the Southern Urals steppe, 8.2 kilometres (5.1 mi) north-to-northwest of Amurskiy, and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) south-to-southeast of Alexandronvskiy, two villages in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, just to the north from the Kazakhstan border.

The site was discovered in 1987 by a team of Chelyabinsk scientists who were preparing the area to be flooded in order to create a reservoir, and examined in rescue excavations led by Gennadi  Zgdanovich. At first their findings were ignored by Soviet authorities, who planned to flood the site as they had flooded Skarlet earlier, but the attention attracted by news of the discovery forced the Soviet government to revoke its plans for flooding the area. It was designated a cultural reservation in 1991, and in May 2005 the site was visited by then-President Vladimir Putin.

Although the settlement was burned and abandoned, much detail is preserved. Arkaim is similar in form but much better preserved than neighbouring Sintashta, where the earliest chariot was unearthed. The site was protected by two circular walls. There was a central square, surrounded by two circles of dwellings separated by a street. The settlement covered ca. 20,000 m2 (220,000 sq ft). The diameter of the enclosing wall was 160 m (520 ft). It was built from earth packed into timber frames, and reinforced with unburned clay brick, with a thickness of 4–5 m (13–16 ft). and a height of 5.5 m (18 ft). The settlement was surrounded with a 2 m (6 ft 7 in)-deep moat.

There are four entrances into the settlement through the outer and inner wall with the main entrance to the west. The dwellings were between 110–180 m2 (1,200–1,900 sq ft) in area. The outer ring of dwellings number 39 or 40, with entrances to a circular street in the middle of the settlement. The inner ring of dwellings number 27, arranged along the inner wall, with doors to the central square of 25 by 27 m (82 by 89 ft). The central street was drained by a covered channel. Zdanovich estimates that approximately 1500 to 2500 people could have lived in the settlement.

Surrounding Arkaim's walls, were arable fields, 130–140 m by 45 m (430–460 ft by 150 ft), irrigated by a system of canals and ditches. Remains of millet and barley seeds were found.

The 17th century date suggests that the settlement was about co-eval to, or just post-dating, the Indo-Aryan migration into South Asia and Mesopotamia (the Gandhara grave culture appearing in the Northern Pakistan from ca. 1600 BC, the Indo-European Mitanni rulers reached Anatolia before 1500 BC, both roughly 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) removed from the Sintashta-Petrovka area), and that it was either an early Iranian culture, or an unknown branch of Indo-Iranian that did not survive into historical times.

Some interesting things about Groundswell

We created an acronym for  the four-step planning process, starting with these questions, that you should use to build your groundswell strategy. We call it the POST method, for People, Objectives, Strategy, and technology. Post is the foundation of groundswell thinking - a systematic framework for assembling your plan. Let's walk through the four steps in a little more detail:

• PEOPLE. What are your customers ready for? What's important is to assess how your customers will engage, based on what they're already doing. Skipping this this step and making guesses about your customers might work, but you might also build a whole social networking strategy only to find that your customers are more likely to write reviews than join social network.
• OBJECTIVES. What are your goals? Are you more interested in talking with the groundswell for marketing, for example, or in generating sales by energizing your best customers? Or are you interested in tipping the groundswell internally to help your employees work together more efficiently? 
• STRATEGY. How do you want relationships with your customers to change? Do you want customers to help carry messages to others in you market? Do you want them to become more engage with you company? By answering this question, not only can you plan for the desired changes up front, but you can also figure out how to measure them once the strategy is under way. You'll also need to prepare and get buy-in from people within your company who may be threatened by changes in these customer relationships.
• TECHNOLOGY. What applications should you build? After having decided on the people, objectives, and strategy, you can move on to pick appropriate technologies.

National Park Taganai

“Picturesqueness and originality of mountain landscapes” were terms used by numerous scientists, travellers, artists and writers when referring to the mountains Yurma, Taganai, Itsyl of the southern Urals. These beautiful places,  frequently compared with well-known alpine landscapes, are known as the “Russian Switzerland” and the “Ural Tyrol”.
In order to preserve these unique nature wonderlands of the southern Urals, in 1991 the first nature national park in the Urals - “Taganai” was established. “Taganai” is located in the western part of the Chelyabinsk district, adjoining the northern suburbs of the town Zlatoust, and it covers an area of 564 sq. km.
The park stretches from north to south 52 km and from east to west 10-15 km.
“Taganai” includes some small ridges of the  southern Urals - Big Taganai, Yurma, Itsyl, Middle Taganai and Small Taganai.

Here are preserved many ecological systems in practically pristine condition - mountain tundra and meadows, sparse growth of trees at the base of mountains and relic forests. The beautiful nature of the park has always attracted the attention of many tourists from all over Russia.

Within the park are situated ancient mineralogical mines - Akhmatovskaya, Nikolay - Maksimiliannovskaya, Eremeevskaya, Zelentsovskaya, iron -Tesminskii and Taganaiskii and copper - Evgrafovskii and Nadezhdinskii, whose mineral samples are exhibited in many mineralogical collections in different museums around the  world. In "Tagnai" it is possible to find more than 70 kinds of minerals and stones.

In the territory of “Taganai” the largest deposit in Russia of the beautiful stone “Taganaiskoe”  - aventurine (the local name - taganait) is situated.

Located in the park are 8 geomorphologic (including well-known the ridge “Otkliknoi”), 4 geological, 2 botanical and 6 hydrological natural monuments, as well as natural-landscape zones - mountain tundra, middle tundra, southern tundra, mountain taiga, coniferous - broad-lived forests, and forest-steppe.

Bordering on the park is a watershed between the two largest river basins of Russia – the Volga-Kama and the Ob - Irtysh basins. The park’s river network divides into the rivers Big Kialim flowing into the Caspian Sea in the south and the Kusa with its numerous tributaries and a few small rivers - Shumga, Big and Small Tesma and Black flowing into the Arctic Ocean in the north.

The park contains many mountain streams - the most well known of these is the Belyi Klyuch (White stream) on the eastern slope of Mt. “Two-headed Hill”.  Water in these streams is weakly mineralised and in summer the water temperature does not exceed +16OC, however in the “White stream” - only from +3OC up to + 4OC.

In the Kialimskaya ravine (of tectonic origin), is situated the “Big Moss Bog” (a natural monument), that covers an area of 36 sq. km and it is the fifth in size from the 12 largest bogs in the Chelyabinsk district.

The park represents a mountain system of sub-meridianal ridges. In the western part the Nazminskii ridge (height reaching 884m asl) and its northern continuation, the ridge “Dlinnyi Mys” (Long Cape) with an average height of about 600 ì are situated. In the central part is located the Taganaiskii mountain massif, consisting of three ridges – the 20 km Big Taganai with four peaks, the Two-headed Hill (1034 m in the south and 1041 m – in the north) and the ridge “Otkliknoi” (1155 m), Kruglitsa (1178 m) and Dalnii Taganai (Distant Taganai), (1112 m); Middle Taganai (height – 959 m) and Small Taganai (height – 1033 m). To the northeast, the ridge Big Taganai passes in the ridge Yurma.  The park is bounded in the east by the Ural ridge (930 ì) passing in the north to the ridge Itsyl (1068 m). As usual the upper part of the mountains is rocky and inaccessible with rocks of amazing shapes and abrupt slopes. The “Otkliknoi” ridge is the most impressing. On the slopes of the mountains Kruglitsa and Itsyl is a continuous conglomeration of large boulders (local name – “kurum”). These stone taluses “flow down”, forming at the foot of mountains “stone rivers” – the largest of which is the 6 km Big Stone River with a width of 100-200 m. in the saddle between Two-headed Hill and Middle Taganai.