Diabetes, charity and community with action - Diabeticlifewon.com

The ability to turn one's shortcomings into advantages is what makes humans really free in this world. Mark-John Clifford is one of the examples of such people. He is a former Investment Banker. In 2008 September, he was diagnosed with Diabetes, and instead of being consumed with pity and lying still he decided to turn this into an advantage. After looking for social communities related to diabetes, he came up with the idea to create his own.

"I visited a multitude of communities, but they were all missing something and that was action. I decided that to make action happen the communities needed a facelift and a new place for communities," says Mark.

To implement the idea, Mark had chosen one of the popular community network creation services ning.com. Despite the popular advantage of zero budget start-up, the service proved to be very limiting for community development.

"Prior to Dolphin we were using the ning.com platform here in the US, which was good but did not give us a great deal of freedom," points Mark.

This is when Mark's son-in-law, being a programmer, told him about Dolphin community software.

Dolphin

After studying the software functionality Mark decided to stay with it.

"I found it to be exciting and clean and very adaptable to what we wanted to do, but we could not afford it since we are on a very limited budget," says Mark

Due to the charitable nature of the project and lack of funds, Mark decided to negotiate special terms with BoonEx. One of the BoonEx sales team members volunteered to donate software to the project.

"I wrote to the staff there, and presales contacted me. He at first was planning on donating the free version, but then I guess after talking to the powers that be, and the fact that we needed two licenses they decided to donate 2 sets of Dolphin licenses for our organization (one for adults and one for kids site)," explains Mark.

"This meant we could run the kids and adults site on the same platform but with different .com addresses. We were excited, since this was making us viable now for the first time," continues Mark.

The software, connected with persuasive skills, helped Mark move much closer to implementation of his idea. After minor changes to the default version, the sites were up and running.

"The only thing we have changed is the layout and some of the wording since we are not a dating site," remembers Mark.

Using Dolphin Mark's sites run live chat sessions as well as live interviews. They also host their own radio show.

"We like Dolphin because it is clean and gives us options that no one else has. Like video chat and video messaging plus posting a video profile. No one else does that and it makes us stand out from the crowd," summarizes Mark.

Currently, the sites are still in testing mode. There are about 35 members for the adults' and 50 for the kids' site. Mark already has agreements with about 100 members to switch to his sites from other communities.

"Our expectations are that everyone will want to switch over to this format in the future and we will be known as the leaders of that. We are encouraging everyone we know to switch over now, since this software is so easy to use and so great with service. The people would really be happy on here," hopes Mark.

Interview

Tell us more about yourself, what do you do, the history of your team, how your idea came to mind?

I am a former Investment Banker. In 2000 I started a non-profit for animals and gave that away to the volunteers in 2006. Then in 2008 September, I was diagnosed with Diabetes and I started looking into social communities. I visited a multitude of communities but they were all missing something, and that was action. I decided that to make action happen the communities needed a facelift and a new place for communities.

Why dolphin?

I found out about Boonex and the Dolphin Software from my Son-In-Law who happens to be a programmer. He told me about the software, and I looked into it. I found it to be exciting and clean and very adaptable to what we wanted to do, but we could not afford it, since we are on a very limited budget. Our budget is $0.00 for the most part.
I wrote to the staff there, and a sales representative contacted me. He at first was planning on donating the free version, but then I guess after talking to the powers to be and the fact that we needed two licenses they decided to donate 2 copies of Dolphin licenses for our organization. This meant we could run the kids and adults site on the same platform but with different .com addresses. We were excited since this was making us viable now for the first time.
Prior to this, we were using the ning.com platform here in the US which was good but did not give us a great deal of freedom. Dolphin does, plus we now have our own server with Terrabyte Hosting which we are very happy with.
John Miller and the crew there have been very helpful in getting us up and running quickly. We like Dolphin because it is clean and gives us options that no one else has. Like video chat and video messaging. Plus posting a video profile. No one else does that and it makes us stand out from the crowd.

What did you change in the default version?

The only thing we have changed is the layout and some of the wording, since we are not a dating site. We are a non-profit for diabetics and we are only interested in getting diabetics news and information from our site. We are not into dating or setting people up. Our main focus is running the non-profit to aid members in getting the help they need. We run live videos, and auctions. We run pictures and live chat sessions as well as live interviews.
We also host our own radio show so it ties in nicely with this software.

What is the status of your project now? Provide statistics.

We are still building both communities. At this time we have roughly about 35 members for adults and 50 for kids. There are over 100 members spread out over different communities that have to be re-signed up on our platform. That will be done next week. By the end of 2009 we plan to have over 100,000 members for adults and the same for kids. I would like to get more but realistically that seems the number.
We plan to announce our awareness campaign next week from our new site and build our new site based on that topic. Also, our TV show and Radio show will be hosted and supported from our sites on Dolphin software.
We encourage all members of other Dolphin sites to join our community and bring to us some new ideas for what we fight for, which is diabetes. We need the help, and I am sure our members would enjoy it.
Hopefully, by the end of 2010, we will have 900,000 adult members and 500,000 young adults signed up and active on our platform. We would also like to add a 3-d platform by the end of 2010 with Boonex's help.

What are your expectations about the project?

Our expectations are that everyone will want to switch over to this format in the future and we will be known as the leaders of that. We are encouraging everyone we know to switch over now, since this software is so easy to use and so great with service. The people would really be happy on here. The project we are working on is two parts. We work with adults and kids.
The adults range in age from 18+ and the kids go from 5+. This gives us a broad range in ages. We cover it all with information, nutrition, physical activity and psychological activity. We are in the process of starting a diabetic challenge right now where for the next 26 weeks for adults and a year for the kids, they will work towards goals to make themselves healthier and better to fight diabetes.