go small or go home

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.

For years, I’ve been lamenting the declining power of protest marches and public demonstrations. As a teenager, I did my time picketing against clearcutting in British Columbia’s old growth forests, marching for peace and joining the crowds calling for a coordinated and government-backed strategy on HIV/AIDS. But, as I’ve come to realize in a painful, I’m-growing-old kind of way, these types of protests just aren’t as effective anymore, particularly in the Western world. Perhaps we’ve all coccooned ourselves in our comfortable, wired-up homes and can’t imagine venturing out to challenge an issue that seems inevitable to us anyway. Or perhaps governments and other decision-makers have learned to ignore the protests altogether, choosing to only notice movements that affect their popularity in the polls.

(If I sound a little jaded, forgive me. I live with a cynic.)

However, the online world has grown to accommodate dissent, as well as commerce, gossip and networking. And why not? If we can use new media for every other aspect of our lives, then it stands to reason that we can use it to push ahead with social change too.

Internet users in censor-plagued China have found ways to skirt the government bans on what information they can access as well as what information they can disseminate. And in Iran, in the midst of an escalating conflict over the recent election, journalists and ordinary citizens have found a way to bypass Internet clampdowns, bravely issuing reports via Twitter.

Use this as your Facebook photo

Want to get involved? The Utne Reader has posted a comprehensive guide on how those of us who live outside of Iran can help, with online tools, of course. Simple acts like changing your Twitter location and Facebook picture can help the people of Tehran get the word out. Because in this new world that we are just learning to navigate, nothing is more important than listening to the voices that are straining to be heard.

Let’s face it, artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians and other creative types frequently have ideas that, while outlandish to some, seem perfectly legit to them. Today creatives are using online communities not only to connect with like minded people, rather they are putting their ideas front and centre so that others can help make them happen.

You want to make a documentary about trying to reunite the band, the Kinks? Or what about flying to Iceland to photograph fjords?

Kickstarter is a funding platform that helps bring to life ideas and endeavors put forth by artists, writers, designers, photographers, musicians, filmmakers and others. The website lists each project and allows others to share the project information through email, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or to grab a widget and promote the project (as seen below) with the hope of garnering more support. Pledges are $1 minimum.

One of the projects is We Scream: Voices From The Ice Cream Underground, a documentary short that explores the subculture of ice cream truck owners and paleteros (cart vendors) in Los Angeles.

Don’t tell me you’re not the least bit curious about what’s behind the old painted truck buzzing down the street, mechanical nursery rhyme standards filling the air, a gaggle of kids chasing after it. Pretty sweet way to support the arts.

The other day I was having a conversation with my sister about how social media could be used by an organization to fortify connections between a community and its customs and traditions, while showing those outside the community the power and continued relevance of these traditions.

She told me about Dr. Heather Castleden’s research work which was undertaken in collaboration with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. As part of this research, she co-developed a digital story which tells of the place of her own story within the richness of Huu-ay-aht First Nations stories she came to know.

“Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling,” says Leslie Rule of the Digital Storytelling Association. “Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights,” she adds.

I like Dr. Castleden’s idea expressed in her digital story (after the African saying, it takes a village to raise a child) that it takes a Nation to raise a researcher. In other words, it isn’t the academic at the centre of the story anymore or the one with all (if any!) of the answers.

Digital storytelling, like the technique of “photovoice” (see Go Small’s March 31st post called Giving Ugandan girls a “photovoice”), gives subjects more power to be the creators of their stories and hopefully influence policy decisions being made that have a direct impact on them and their communities.

The Digital Storytelling Association along with the Center for Digital Storytelling has some useful examples to illustrate how this technique is being used by organizations related to the arts, education, family, health, and identity. 

WARNING: These stories will both uplift and tear your heart out.

With widespread layoffs, budget cuts, foreclosures and a generally depressed (who wouldn’t be) economy, not-for-profits are getting creative like never before at raising money.

United Way’s Give 5 viral fundraising campaign for vital services and programs for families most affected by the economic downturn is one example that proves the age-old adage that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Yet, in this instance it feels more appropriate to say, the tough get creative.

Fact is, at no other time in history has it been easier in terms of the availability of low-cost social media tools for not-for-profits to reach audiences. Yet at the same time, given that many donors are tightening their belts and that there are many other organizations out there using the same channels to reach people, it is also one of the most difficult times for organizations to attain their fundraising targets.

Down $800,000 in funds raised from last year, the United Way of Northeast Florida is feeling the pinch of the economic downturn as are the communities they serve. For that reason they’re targeting a new generation of donors who might never have donated to the organization. Using social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, United Way is broadening its reach in hopes of generating interest from 20 to 30 year-olds looking to make a difference without breaking their piggy-banks.

This viral campaign is asking new donors to donate as little as $5 and then to e-mail the link to five friends. Being asked to give  a small sum is viewed in this instance as no small thing because that $5 might be used to help a homeless family pay for an evening meal. With that kind of payback, it’s hard not to give.