go small or go home

The buzz at my home lately has been about the latest addition to our family: The iPhone. I suppose you could say we are late bloomers. While many of our friends and colleagues were already texting, tweeting, blogging, podcasting and posting photos on Flickr from their iPhones, we were standing on the sidelines giving the newest, cool gadget the come-hither look. Yet, as soon as Apple released the first iPhone in the summer of 2007, we knew it was only a matter of time. Over two years as it turns out.

A funny story. While purchasing his iPhone, my fiancé was debating about whether to get the 16 or the 32 Gigabytes phone. The difference was $100. Even the guy at the store said 16 would be more than enough to do what he needed to do, yet he wasn’t convinced. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Why would you want to get 32 Gigabytes when 16 is enough?

Him: Well, because… because it exists!

Giga comes from the Greek γίγας, meaning ‘giant’. A Gigabyte is about 1,000 Megabytes and has about a thousand times the capacity of a floppy disk. It is a word that has kept its original meaning while taking on an aura of holiness in the tech world as if bigger is always better.

It was during the iPhone purchase that I began calling them  ‘gigafarts’ instead because I thought all this talk of BIG was over the top and that Gigabytes needed to be taken down a couple notches. Let’s face it, if they were called gigafarts, then would we really think they were so special? Would we still want 32 rather than 16 of them?  I suspect not. I do understand the idea of wanting more space simply because it’s available. Having said that, I wouldn’t drive a minivan without a gaggle of kids nor would I live in a mansion all by myself. That leads me to my next point.

Apps can ruin your life! There are so many and one can waste time trying them out. I will not download the Zombie Pizza app because I am not into playing games on my phone, but I might download an app like Seafood Guide that teaches me what fish are endangered due to overfishing. By the way, this is one of many iPhone apps that are enabling not-for-profits to reach out to the public using social media.

GoPlanit.com’s Pet Earth game has players imagine the Earth as a virtual pet to take care of. A portion of the game’s retail price and ad revenue goes to planting trees. People Against a Violent Environment has three apps to bring awareness to different forms of violence. Domestic Violence Awareness, Sexual Assault Awareness, and Child Abuse Awareness apps help raise funds for these causes and increase social awareness.

As more not-for-profits become familiar with social media and begin to see what it can do for them, more apps will come available. So instead of playing Zombie Pizza on the busride home from work we might be donating to a local charity or planting a tree.

As I write this, world leaders are in the final stages of negotiations for a deal that will either reduce carbon emissions to a level that is safe for humanity, or they won’t.

Here at Go Small we write about how not-for-profits are using social media to get their message out, draw attention to issues that are important to them and those they serve, and even attempt to “save the planet” on a good day.

Well, in case anybody still wondered whether social media had the right stuff to connect people, disseminate knowledge, make stuff happen,  COP15 UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 should answer that question with a resounding YES.

Leading up to the climate change talks, NGOs like tck,tck,tck and 350.0rg mobilized hundreds of thousands of people worldwide through social media using Flickr, Facebook and YouTube to make it a cinch for them to listen, think and act. Tck, tck, tck’s website asked visitors to Watch Live what was happening and Add Your Voice. Viewers watched justin.tv for updates and texted observations, engaging in a dialogue with others. YouTube and CNN teamed up to host a live climate change debate whereby people asked leaders and activists questions.

The direct call to action from 350.org caused students, teachers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents to come together in Copenhagen, Bangladesh, New Guinea, Ireland, New Zealand, Thailand, Australia and elsewhere to show their support for reducing emissions by 35o parts per million, thought by many scientists to be the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. They did this by capturing the symbolic number “350″ in painting, carving, candlelight, landscape design, or in various human configurations. These photos were then posted to the 350.org website, Flickr and ended up on countless blogs and Facebook pages.

Halfway into the two-week conference, 100,000 people gathered in the streets of Copenhagen for a candlelight march — reportedly the largest climate protest to date. I know it happened because I saw it on Flickr and YouTube. This observation leads me to believe that, contrary to popular opinion, the revolution WILL be televised.

350.org asked people worldwide to partake in a one-day fast yesterday in support of all those who are suffering and will suffer from lack of food as a result of warmer temperatures and a disruptive climate. The following story is from Mohammed Yahia who fasted.

I just had a little daughter and right now she’s 55 days old. I want her to grow up in a world where she doesn’t have to fight for her very existence. I want her to be able to grow up and live a happy, fruitful life like I did. And I want to see her grandchildren, and make sure they have a good fulfilling life too.That is why I’m fasting today.

During the writing of this post I’ve been listening to justin.tv and periodically checking updates on 350.org. It now appears that the talks have resulted in failure. At least, 350.org is reporting that the wishy washy deal would lead to 770 ppm and not 350 ppm as they hoped.

OK, so in the words of Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s lead singer, maybe the deal is just “bullocks.” Even so, this exercise has lead to something fundamental and social media is at the heart of it.

On the tck,tck, tck website Jason Mogus’ explains that “civil society has…come together like never before.” In his post titled Climate Shame but we’re Not Done Yet he goes on to say, “Tonight and over the weekend we speak with one voice in response to this climate shame with a mass “home page take-over” of dozens of major websites around the world.”

We shall see what happens next….and where and when the next revolution will be televised.

Coming to the end of a year makes me yearn for lists. Not just Christmas lists, 2010 to-do lists, and New Year’s resolutions (a bit early for that…), but lists of things we saw from not-for-profits over the past year that made us think, wow. Over the next month or so we’ll be bringing you our top five lists in a few categories related to social media.

Whether you’re wearing toe socks or those comfy hand-knitted slipper socks with the leather soles that you buy at the season’s craft fairs (or your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s woolen lumberjack socks), these lists will be sure to knock your socks off. So, here goes…our  first list of video picks.

These days with a little will and collaborative effort it’s relatively easy for not-for-profits to produce and post their own videos. Tech is cheap and amateur videographers abound. The difficulty is in creating something that cuts to the essence of what your organization does and in a way that is slightly edgy, but not annoyingly so. Short (not insubstantial) and visually arresting…no three-ring-circuses. The other challenge of course is getting people to download it, another ball of wax altogether.

Go Small has come up with a killer list of five videos we simply LOVE. Please note we almost never use caps! Or exclamation marks.

Peace it Together

Amnesty International

Oxfam

H2oil

charity: water

Tell us your favs.

Go Small recently came across the work of an artist who uses both traditional and online media to weave narratives using an endangered species as the main character, in this case, the humble bumblebee. The artist, aptly called “Bumblebee,” uses abandoned newspaper stands and telephone booths in the real world to represent pages of a story called “The Story of How Things Came to Bee.”

The narrative is captured in pictures and words on Bumblebee’s Flickr site and the pictures contain notes (if you scroll over the bees). These notes can’t be seen on the street, however, there is a map that shows the locations of the newspaper stands so the online viewer can step outside (providing they live in the city!)  and travel to each spot to see these scenes for herself.

Looking at an almost obsolete industry from the perspective of an endangered species gives the viewer a deepened sense of vulnerability, the passing of time, the ephemeral nature of technology, and of the preciousness of life.

A wonderful way to work with both traditional and online media to create a complete and compelling storybook of ideas and impressions.

The ‘newspaper stand’ is soon becoming a forgotten way to communicate with the public. With more online news subscriptions being made, newspaper companies are leaving these structures abandoned. -Bumblebee

In a previous blog post we wrote about Go Small’s participation in Resilient People + Climate Change. The conference looked at ways to strengthen psycho-social resilience among communities and organizations in the face of rising global temperatures.

Here are some quotes by panelists that were tweeted during the two days:

Culture is a collective narrative across neighborhoods.-Mike Littrell, Cultural Mythologist, Conference Co-Convener

We need to return to historic documents, myths and legends to learn about survival and building our resilience. Survival must incorporate tools not only for the body, but for the mind and spirit as well.-Carl M. Hild, Associate Professor, Public Health Administration, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK

We can learn resilience from the Squamish Nation, who have lived & survived great trauma. We can become witnesses by listening, observing, learning from the land and returning to community to share our stories.-Nancy Bleck, Photographer and Instructor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC

We must learn to reconnect with the world and the environment, and women will take the lead on doing this.-Carl M. Hild, Associate Professor, Public Health Administration, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK

Let’s talk about creating a new emergent, hybrid, global culture, telling new tribal stories.-Glenn Albrecht, Professor of Sustainability, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

What are the characteristics of a resilient individual? Making connections and building deeper levels of trust amongst networks and friends.-Sanjay Khanna, Climate Change Writer and Conference Co-Convener

Besides presenting some powerful ideas for how we can continue to live together on the planet into the future, the conference made me question how to further deepen interactions and strengthen networks both online and in real time.

Essentially social media isn’t about learning the technical aspects of Web 2.0, it’s about finding ways to connect and explore what’s important to us. Stuff that makes us tick, laugh, think, learn, understand each other, grow…. That is why I use the word “malleability” in the title of this blog post because it’s true new media can be hammered into many different shapes without breaking!

Yet often we are so caught up in the “how to” that we forget why we showed up in the first place. These observations spurred us to create a list of questions that in the coming days and months we hope to explore.

What are your chief reasons for using social media?

What wisdom do you find through online connections?

What do you really want to know that you don’t already know?

Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better. –Avinash Kaushik, Google’s analytics evangelist

Not sure I agree with this statement, but it made me laugh when I read it and it’s a good starting point for this blog post. I suppose it’s true that social media is like teen sex in the sense that the more practice a person has at something, generally speaking, the less effort and more fun that person has. I could extend the metaphor by saying social media can make neophytes into bumbling idiots, lose confidence in our ability to perform, but I think you get the point.

Let me put it this way, you wouldn’t expect to play tennis a few times and suddenly become as good as Serena Williams. When you first start playing most of your time is taken running after the ball that you didn’t hit, trying to get it over the net and cursing each time you don’t. The same goes for social media. When you put the time in and put the time in and put in the time… eventually you begin to see some results.

This is a lesson that many not-for-profits are learning as they integrate social media into what they do. Although it is often an uphill battle for organizations that are strapped for resources, I constantly marvel at how so many have risen to the challenge presented by these new technologies to come out stronger, more savvy and creatively charged.

As technologies keep changing, not-for-profits must learn new stuff  just to keep up. Organizations often have a hard time adapting to constant change and as a result sometimes give up trying.

Remember that social media is an imperfect beast so try not to strive for perfection. Better yet, think of the infamous Nike slogan “Just do it” and you’re more than halfway there.

Social media archetypes are inserting themselves into time-tested traditions making it difficult to tell which came first the pumpkin or the tweet. Twitter’s “fail whale” sign for when the social networking website is over capacity carved into a pumpkin (posted by Ryan Deal on mashable.com) is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

As we fumble around with these new technologies, make mistakes, lose patience, experience hair-pulling frustration at having to “learn” newer ways of communicating, what stays in the end more than their thing-ness is how they represent tangible human needs to reach out, socialize, make our voices heard.

Not such a scary thing when it comes right down to it.

Happy Halloween!

Go Small is contributing to PR + social media activities for Resilient People + Climate Change, a unique two-day event around the theme of human resiliency in the face of climate change.

In the lead up to COP15 — United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009, two people, a writer and cultural mythologist, decided the time was ripe to talk about the psychological and social aspects of climate change and to use narrative, storytelling and organizational preparedness to help foster resilience in these areas.

“We are living through a planetary transition that is desperate for a new narrative,” says Michael Littrell, cultural mythologist and co-convener of the conference along with writer and Huffington Post blogger Sanjay Khanna.

Conference speakers include Glenn Albrecht, Australian environmental philosopher who will be featured in an upcoming issue of NY Times Magazine, Carl M. Hild, an expert on the impacts of climate change and public health, and a recipient of the Alaska Public Health Association’s Long-term Service Award, and Victoria Hykes Steere, Iñupiat and human rights lawyer, Alaska, U.S.

We are thrilled to be part of this event, which takes place October 21-22.

Last week Go Small attended Timeraiser, a Canada-wide event that brings together not-for-profits and those looking to volunteer. Combine this with a silent auction of local artwork where people bid volunteer hours instead of money, adding to it wine, good food, music and conversation, and you have a winning evening.

Timeraiser was founded in 2002 by a group of friends who wanted to create a way for people to find meaningful, relevant volunteer gigs. For the past seven years they have succeeded at making volunteering not only fun and exciting, but sexy as well. In their video they refer to the event as “speed dating for volunteerism.” There’s an exciting buzz to the event that makes you feel as though giving back to your community is cool.

Operating in six cities across Canada, Timeraiser uses both traditional print advertising in the form of brochures distributed around the city and social media such as YouTube. In addition, their user-friendly website takes visitors through an easy step-by-step process of how to raise a little time for a cause you believe in.

The city’s second annual event was sold-out, which means potentially hundreds of hours will be offered up to Vancouver charities in the areas of arts and culture, social services, health, youth…. A big plus is that participating artists are paid in dollars for their artwork. Since its creation, Timeraiser has invested $295,000 in the careers of emerging artists and generated over 45,000 volunteer hours.

Here are photos of the event courtesy of photographer Marlis Funk from imagingbymarlis.com.

Twestival is a short-term and creative way for volunteers around the world to connect both online and in real time to raise money for local charities. Twestival Local is taking place in cities worldwide between 10-13 September, 2009.

The first Twestival Global started with one tweet last January 2009 and one month later over 200 cities were hosting events to benefit Charity: water.

Here in  Go Small’s city of Vancouver, the charity BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and their “Be a Superhero” campaign will benefit from local ticket sales.