Context | Culture | Collaboration

Simon Staffans' "One Year in Transmedia"

2012-01-03T21:24:00.002-05:00

Transmedia designer Simon Staffans created an ebook entitled "One Year in Transmedia," a collection of his own and others' posts, and interviews with transmedia specialists, to present a comprehensive industry snapshot in 2011 and beyond. Simon asked me to give an interview on what I believe is the future of transmedia, and its applications to social change and social innovation. I was honored to have my interview close out the book.

Here is an excerpt of that interview. (For the full text and for the rest of the book (a worthwhile read), please download the book here.)

Q: A lot of transmedia evolves around ﬁction, around mythologies and fantasy and suchlike. Youʼre an advocate for transmedia activism; how do you feel transmedia can help when it comes to social issues?
A: [First, there] is a distinct opportunity here in using narrative and a designed experience to guide activists, inﬂuencers and members of the general public into your story universe and create engagement and action toward a solution. (When I analyze a story universe for social change, I think ﬁrst in terms of an ecosystem of issues, social and cultural conditions, communities and solutions-- and not only about the narrative arc of the story.) As a community of storytellers and activists, we can move beyond awareness and outreach to engagement and action. A great example this year was Medecins Sans Frontieres' "Starved for Attention" campaign, which used a variety of media, ﬁlm, video, objects and photos created by a number of authors and distributed via web, tablet, and real world installations to create a number of advocacy points that targeted a range of stakeholders and moved them in a nearly seamless fashion from story to their desired action...

Second, transmedia strategies, in allowing diverse and multiple authorship, have the potential to create better streams of participation for "local voice"-- i.e, voices coming from an affected community, to tell its own stories and participate in solutions-building. This year, I'd point [as examples] to 18 Days in Egypt, 3 Generations, [and] The Invisibles...

Third, setting out a transmedia strategy may be an innovative way to create a co-creation network and to build community-centered collaboration. Creation networks are an interesting way to think about two things: (1) combining community-driven solutions (bottom-up, grassroots) with resources and capacity (top-down, institutional)...

Fourth, transmedia answers the question, "How do you tell the story of a system?" There's a danger in social change when you tell a story from one perspective or from one node in the system. True social change comes when solutions are systemic, and transmedia itself is a social innovation that allows us to view our ecosystem and create stakeholder engagement around systemic change. The advantage to transmedia is that it helps us tell the story of a system by presenting multiple voices on a number of stories extending from the core over a number of distribution channels...

Q: How has the transmedia activism industry or movement evolved during the past few years?
A: When I ﬁrst started writing about transmedia activism and examining social action projects through its lens in 2008, there was no identiﬁable community of colleagues investing time, resources or thought into it. Today, it's still a relatively young construct-- it's more of a strategic framework than an industry or a movement yet-- but over the past 18-24 months, a number of creators and institutions have come to recognize the potential that transmedia has when applied to social change, and so there is interest in investing in tools and technologies that advance the ﬁeld. Philanthropic institutions like the Ford Foundation and the Sundance Institute have started funding transmedia projects, which is cause for celebration. On the other hand, we haven't yet built a ﬁeld in which there are a set of norms or business models. We have limited capacity globally, in terms of the numbers of strategists or practitioners who have experience in the design principles of a transmedia strategy, or the subject matter expertise in social innovation or social change. We need to build a community of practice if we're going to really create effective partnerships and implement sustainable solutions.

Q: What has been the most exciting or fulﬁlling or encouraging transmedia experiences youʼve encountered over the past year?

Aside from work I've been doing this year, MSF's Starved for Attention campaign and 18 Days in Egypt excite me for the reasons I stated above. Lance Weiler's "Pandemic"-- which debuted earlier this year and has inspired some interesting collaborations in social change for him--and his recently launched "Robot Stories" are really interesting. I love the work Breakthrough has been developing for their Bell Bajao campaign, which is rather less involved than Lance's work, but highly engaging and sometimes cheeky, always striking the right tone for the very serious subject of ending domestic violence. GMD Studios' work with the Smithsonian gives me hope that there are going to be more interesting transmedia collaborations between cultural institutions and experience designers. And the launch of the Mobile Media Toolkit (from MobileActive.org, for which which I sit on the Board of Directors) was particularly exciting in providing guidance on local, independent content creation through mobile phones. Finally, I was head over heels for PunchDrunk's "Sleep No More" -- while this is not a "social change" project by any means, it is one of the best immersive, interactive experiences I've ever had in New York City. I'm hoping someone will create a Hitchcock, Fellini or Jean Cocteau transmedia experience, or bring alive more Shakespeare plays, or other classic movie, theater or literary experiences soon.

Q: Do you see anything within the ﬁeld of transmedia that you are especially looking forward to in 2012?
A: I was happy Brian Clark addressed the question of business models at Henry Jenkins' site. The founding of StoryCode from Transmedia Meetup NYC is a positive development in this direction, and I'm hoping we as a community delve more deeply into discussions and answers on the evolution of business models and systematically supporting a community of practice.

I'm interested to see how we move forward on personal storytelling as an element of social change campaigns, whose potential is expanding with platforms like Cowbird; and the potential for effective content curation, as Vadim Lavrusik describes in his piece "Curation and ampliﬁcation will become much more sophisticated in 2012." In my own work in ﬁeld-building, I want to continue to align concepts of transmedia to social innovation and design. I would like to continue to work with nonproﬁts and institutions to themselves experiment with and adopt transmedia storytelling in both communications as well as program design. And I want to build on discussions that I started in collaboration with StoryCode this past fall on the potential of transmedia in emerging markets, for economic development and creative sector capacity, and community-centered solutions-building. We launched a series with Africa, and hopefully will also explore the Indian ﬁlm industries and Latin America in 2012.

On the content side, related to that last point, I'm looking forward to working closely with a forthcoming project called "Lakou Mizik," a transmedia platform for musicians in Haiti, and in continuing to build the platform around Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Q: If you would hazard a guess, where will transmedia be in 2015, and transmedia activism?

A: I think it's the way we'll all be communicating and creating rather regularly, so will we even need the term "transmedia" anymore? At any rate, in three years, I think "narrative design" will become an essential function across a variety of sectors (for-proﬁt and non-proﬁt), and that transmedia storytelling will be leveraged by more of the creative arts ﬁelds, like music, dance and theater, and by more cultural institutions. There will be more global efforts and projects, and more investment in
global co-productions in terms of creative content and ﬁnancial investment.

And I'm hoping we who work in the interstices between the creative and nonproﬁt sectors will have learned a lesson from the 2011 political revolutions and social movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, India, Mexico, the US and beyond. I hope we invest in the strong convergence between both (perhaps seemingly converse) individual storytelling and collaborative production, and look to
technologies and institutional structures globally that support free and secure expression, a vibrant civil society, and thriving cultural economies. I hope.

Where Is Your Line? Interview

2011-12-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

Where Is Your Line? is a fantastic campaign from Nancy Schwartzman, empowering youth leaders to end sexual violence. The campaign's blog runs a cheeky and informative section called "Badass Activist Friday." I'm proud to be included in the Badass club.

After reading this post, read about the campaign's latest success, the "Circle of 6" app.

Here's a repost of my interview with the campaign:

Lina Srivastava: Badass Activist Friday

It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and Just Start Doing.

Today’s badass is Lina Srivastava. Lina studied law at New York University and now has her own consulting firm for transmedia activism. As a consultant, she has been involved in the production of documentaries such as Born into Brothels and The Devil Came on Horseback. Currently, she is the organizational strategist for VODO and 3Generations, and member of the Board of Directors for MobileActive and Global Grassroots.

And here is what she had to say to us!

Your background is in law. Can you tell us about how you came from there to activism, and this specific form of it? Did you go to law school with activism as your ultimate intent, or did this career develop somewhere along the way?

I didn’t go the law school with a specific goal of activism in mind, no. In high school, I had developed strong passions for the arts and culture, and for human rights activism. As I moved through college and then law school, I did have a vision to work in the public interest field, but I wasn’t sure what form that would take. I had majored in biology in college and had done coursework in philosophy and bioethics, so when I went to New York University School of Law, my thought was to eventually dedicate my work to global public health policy. But because I had a science background, I got sidetracked into intellectual property law.

The practice of law never sat well with me, though, from the very beginning. I’m very glad I have a law degree– frankly, it gives me facility with legal constructs and strategic frameworks (my science background and legal education have given me the foundation for the strategy consulting work I do now) and gives me a sense of confidence as a woman running my own consultancy. But the subject matter, the endless hours of working, and the lifestyle all put me off. The most significant reason that I left, though, was the feeling that I wasn’t contributing to a larger social justice movement, to something for the benefit of disadvantaged communities. I’ve always felt obligated and driven to apply my experience and knowledge to create a more just, livable and fulfilling society. And I wasn’t doing that in the law firm.

So I resigned and took a year off to travel, write poetry, dance Flamenco — to reconnect with everything dear to me personally– and to think about what mattered most to me, and where I felt I could apply my skills most effectively to “change the world.” It was during that year that I connected back to the dual missions of culture and of human rights that I had developed in high school. The question now was how to combine those two.

The answer came three years after having quit the law. I had gone through an “apprenticeship” of sorts with Michaela Walsh, the Founder of Women’s World Banking and a doyenne of microfinance, and then my first Executive Director position of a Spanish foundation contributing to development work and access to education issues in India. I was subsequently hired as the Executive Director of Kids with Cameras, which was started alongside the documentary about it, “Born into Brothels.” Suddenly, the combination of the arts, media, and storytelling with rights, aid and development all fell into place.

That experience led me to understand the power of cross-platform content creation and distribution in social change. Cultural identity and cultural expression are too often overlooked as essential elements of social transformation, and so I eventually started working in transmedia storytelling, social innovation and design, examining how those constructs could help me best apply cultural assets to systemic change.

Can you explain to us what transmedia activism is and how it works? What is its specific approach and what do you hope to achieve by using this approach? What sets it apart from other forms of activism?

“Transmedia Activism” is a framework I conceived in 2008-2009 and have been refining since (with help from a number of great thinkers in the field). It is a construct for social impact through storytelling by a number of authors who create content for distribution across multiple forms of media, to raise awareness and influence action around a particular core narrative and set of solutions to a social challenge. A transmedia universe around a social issue creates a number of entry points for activists, influencers, policymakers and members of the general public to participate in dialogue, create shifts in perception or culture, and engage in direct action. The specific approach to creating a transmedia universe has to be customized to each social challenge — essentially, you have to start with the question, “What are we trying to change?” and then “Where does this fit into the larger movement or campaign?”

The advantage to transmedia activism (and more broadly, transmedia for social good) is that it helps us tell the story of a system. True social change comes when solutions are systemic, and transmedia itself is a social innovation that allows us to view our ecosystem and create stakeholder engagement around systemic change.

The other advantages to transmedia — and what I hope personally to achieve– is that because it’s a participatory co-creation framework, we are able to create avenues to source local voice and highlight locally relevant and resonant culture. The more perspectives to a story, the more human the story is, the easier solutions are to uncover. Second, it lets us use narrative more effectively as a tool in aid and development, human rights, and community livability.

Where do movements for feminism and social justice intersect with the different platforms for storytelling and creative expression? How do they engage with and benefit from one another?

All social movements throughout history, at their base, live and die on their stories. You need to bring a movement to its basic components: What is the challenge? Who is being affected? How do we create empathy? How do we posit and act on solutions? And where the feminism and social justice movements intersect with storytelling and creative expression is where they have been most able to bring people into direct action. This is true regardless of the media used or the platform over which the media travels. But we now have access to amazing and rapidly evolving advances in technology and communications platforms, and so we have the ability to spread messages, stories, and calls to action with speed and reach. So the movements need to get creative with how they talk about the “ecology” of their challenges and solutions, because people all along the spectrum of involvement and influence want to engage, want to contribute, and want to be part of the conversation. That’s what gets commitment. And that’s why The Line’s campaign, and particularly the “Circle of 6″ app, is so exciting.

Have you had to deal with any stereotypes or cliches when it comes to employing this mode of working? Transmedia story telling was made popular by, and is still mainly used in the context of computer games and comics. Have you had to break down any walls when it comes to using transmedia narratives in such a radically different way?

There are quite a few, yes, but the one factor I’ll talk about here is where platforms and technologies are seen as solutions themselves to social ills, not the vehicles or catalysts of social change. In the realm of transmedia activism, it doesnt make sense to fall too deeply in love with the technology before the solution; in other words, if your planned app doesn’t contribute to the solution for the community, don’t build it. It’s more important to look to the affected community than to the community of transmedia creators and their needs when you’re engaging in activism. Of course, creators need tools to do their job effectively, and new tool of media creation and production are essential to that, so we need to invest in field-building through those tools, as well as support and training for creators. But solutions for the affected community– hopefully articulated by the community itself– should take priority when thinking about the elements of a transmedia platform.

What project are you currently working on?

I’m working on a few at the moment. In the realm of transmedia and social change specifically, I’m the strategist for two start-up nonprofits, BYkids and 3 Generations, and am helping produce or providing strategic guidance for three projects; the first concerns systemic poverty and human rights along the US-Mexico border and in Central America; the second is about child homelessness and arts education in the US; and the third is about culture-based regeneration in Haiti with Haitian musicians. What I look for when I say yes to working with a project are: (a) Having at its core the use of local voice, in direct partnership with the platform creators; (2) Using the platform to move beyond awareness, to connect audiences and change agents to commit to a particular worldview, advocacy or action, by using these local stories and art; and (3) The potential to cross borders or silos using a number of platforms to foster transformation. I have a really great job and I hope this field continues to thrive.

Transmedia in Emerging Markets: Spotlight on Africa: Business, Film and Activism

2011-11-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

I recently have had the privilege to work with the new organization Storycode to create a panel series called Transmedia in Emerging Markets, to catalyze discussions around the potential role of transmedia storytelling to build vibrant cultural sectors and leverage local voice in developing economies, as well as current trends in investments, business, civil society programs and media production that may allow for transmedia business models to flourish in emerging markets.

We launched the series with a "Spotlight on Africa: Business, Film and Activism," which I curated and led at Storycode's presenting partner, the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Joining me for the evening were G. Kofi Annan, Hugo Soskin of 18 Days in Egypt, Franco Sacchi of the Nollywood Workshops, and Layna Fisher of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival. An important connective thread among all the presentations is the harnessing of local voice and local storytelling, and the tremendous economic and cultural possibilities arising from this.

The videos of the event are below. The program starts at 5:00 in the first video, so please click through to there. My introduction and discussion with Kofi starts at 8:00 minutes in the first video. Kofi brings us through a thorough discussion of the consumer base in Africa, and current activity in the technology, media and business sectors, as well as the role of local storytelling in presenting the diversity of images and stories in Africa.

Watch live streaming video from transmedianewyorkcity at livestream.com

Videos from Layna and Franco start at 9:20 in the second video. Layna speaks about filmmaking, distribution and the potential for transmedia to broaden the reach of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and interviews media creator Vicki Remoe about the state of digital filmmaking. Franco presents the history and richness of the Nollywood film industry, the second largest in the world. [Note: Since the audio quality of Layna's video is poor, her standalone video is embedded at the end of this post.]

A brief presentation of additional projects relating to storytelling and to transmedia activism concerning Africa starts at 45:00 of the second video. My discussion with Hugo begins at 49:30, and covers 18 Days in Egypt, the forthcoming transmedia activism project harnessing local storytelling from citizens and activists in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, as well as technological innovations in group storytelling.

Watch live streaming video from transmedianewyorkcity at livestream.com

[Layna's video from the evening]:

Lina Srivastava Presents Transmedia Spotlight on Africa

2011-10-31T17:41:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 7:00 PM

Film Society Lincoln Center

144 West 65th Street, New York, NY (map)

Join us for an exciting *first ever* discussion of Transmedia in Emerging Markets. Lina Srivastava leads a fireside chat with producers actively working in that space, including Hugo Soskin of 18 Days in Egypt, G. Kofi Annan of Annansi LLC, Layna Fisher of the Sierra Leone International Film Festival, and Franco Sacchi of the Nollywood Workshops. Focusing on transmedia/integrated media strategy and the potential for its use in business, film and activism, Lina and the speakers will present case studies from Africa. For more information, click here.

TEDxTransmedia Talk

2011-10-18T12:38:00.001-04:00

Video from my TEDxTransmedia talk at the MAXXI Foundation in Rome, 30 September 2011.

Announcing the SVA DSI Masters' Program, Fall 2012

2011-10-05T13:10:00.002-04:00

Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts is the first MFA program for designers and graduates in other disciplines who want to harness the power of design to create positive change and impact.

An inaugural cohort of 25 diverse, extraordinary students will become leaders in solving real world challenges, beginning in the fall of 2012.

Happy to be on faculty next year. See http://dsi.sva.edu for more.

Applications due January 15th, 2012

Transmedia Activism: Presentation at SilverDocs/TFI Transmedia Lab

2011-06-28T17:31:00.001-04:00

Transmedia Activism_SilverDocs presentation

View more presentations from lksriv

The End of Atrocity: A Manifesto

2011-04-22T12:04:00.002-04:00

This Manifesto is a fluid document, which we have begun to draft and will continue to refine throughout this project, with the participation of many. It is an organic process: all are invited to participate.
______________________________________________

“Never Again.”

These two words have become the most uttered and the least meaningful in a world that still witnesses genocide, crimes against humanity and atrocities. These two words were first said in the context of mass genocide, after the Holocaust in 1948, when the United Nations General Assembly passed the Genocide Convention. And we as a world said we would never let something like that happen again on our watch. We had a set of guidelines, a commitment, a promise.

And yet it happened, over and over again.

Throughout the history of our species, we have created divisions among people, based on region, religion, belief, economic advantage and political expediency. We have devised ways of creating a sense of “otherness” -- of peoples who don’t look like us or believe as we do -- that has made us capable of seeing the “other” as less than human. This has resulted in injustice, inequality, and in the worst cases, in premeditated massacre and ethnic and cultural cleansing.

What can possibly stop this?

The time has come to build a vision for a world without atrocity. Leaders as diverse as The Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King have shown us the need for vision to build a path to lasting peace and progress. But, to date, we don’t have a collective vision for a world free from atrocity. We’ve had conventions, treaties, sanctions, military interventions, technological interventions, social movements, cultural artifacts and discussions. But If we as a global community don’t have a vision of a better future, how will we really create one?

This Manifesto represents the collective thoughts of visionaries around the world on a promise and a path to build a vision for a world without genocide, atrocity or crimes against humanity.

FIRST: There is no “other.” We are all one, irreversibly connected.

SECOND: Human beings are members of a global community, and we are connected. If atrocity can happen to one group, it can happen to any other, because when it happens to one of us, it happens to humanity.

THIRD: We must achieve universal respect for each other. Each generation must find ways to explicitly affirm and reaffirm its commitment -- through ritual, story, technology or practice-- that each individual will accept responsibility for the well-being of each other individual in the world, regardless of who or where that individual is, and that each of the billions of the global masses is accountable to all the others for safety, security and life.

FOURTH: We have always been connected, but technology and communication now connects us directly in ways that reduce the “otherness” of people. Access to the tools of technology and communication must be used to help us grow our collection of stories of being human and will put a human face on that which we used to view as “other.”

FIFTH: There are always patterns and warning signs before an atrocity. Ensuring universal access to tools of technology and communication will help us collectively disseminate and listen to cries for help. We will pay attention to these patterns and signs and keep watching for them, to stem the possibility of devolution into violence.

SIXTH: We acknowledged there will always be hostilities, conflict, and perhaps even war. We must work toward building, supporting and enriching our growing culture of human rights-- through rational means of technology and networks, strong cross-border civil society interventions, institutional and governmental treaties and efforts, but also through cultural means, through humanism, emotion and sentimentalism, reflected in narrative, stories, art and media.

SEVENTH: We aim to create a new “soul” for humanity, one that is infused in a new path away from what we have been to each other and toward one that gives us the means to not inflict undue harm on innocent bystanders. We should aim to foster the creative in humans, and to encourage achievements that add to universal livability, prosperity and satisfaction, and we must invest in universal accountability and mass empathy to do so.

EIGHTH: Our history books and cultural narratives are a succession of leaders who led us to glory in war and subjugation-- and we’ve accepted it as the norm. We need to move away from that, to histories and narrative about the caring and nurturing of families and communities, of culture, art, commerce and design-- those things that bind a community to itself and create communities across borders.

NINTH: We must create and sustain balance among the genders, in roles of power and decision-making, and in true equality and respect. We must protect and integrate as equals those members of society we perceive as weaker, less successful, less worthy or capable, or living slower, simpler or lives connected to ideals that may differ with ours. We must invest in the economic prosperity of all, and acknowledge that any of our economic and political systems that create inequality in turn create instability and vulnerability.

TENTH, AND LAST: We aim to create and grow a global community that exists and works across national and regional borders, one that is at once bottom-up and top-down, that invests in commerce and institutions, as well as grassroots efforts and individual expression, and that embeds in subsequent generations a collective ethical code based on individual speech, shared and heard voice and reformed institutional leadership that moves toward end of atrocities.

[This Manifesto is part of the 3 Generations project, "The End of Atrocity."]

3 Generations is building a global vision on the end of atrocity

2011-04-14T10:00:00.003-04:00

Since the Holocaust and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, civil society has promised "never again" -- and still genocide and appalling atrocities have continued into the 21st century. We don't have a collective vision for how to build a world free from atrocity. And if we don't have a vision of a better future can we really create one? We need one. The End of Atrocity is a project from 3 Generations that is beginning to create a collective vision.

To launch, 3 Generations has filmed 14 world luminaries who are on the front lines of advocacy and asked for their individual visions. Visit the site to see the videos and share the work of creating a global collective vision for a world without atrocity.
The release schedule for the videos is:

April 14:
Peter Gabriel: Co-Founder, WITNESS and The Elders
Carolyn Forche: Poet and Professor, Georgetown University

April 15:
Alex Stark: Consultant and Teacher
Rachel Lloyd: Founder and President, GEMS
Scilla Elworthy: Founder, Peace Direct

April 18:
James Smith: Co-Founder and Chief Executive, Aegis Trust
Freddy Mutanguha: Director, Kigali Memorial Centre

April 19:
Stephen Smith: Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation
Brian Steidle: Frmr Captain, USMC; Consultant, Humanitarian Affairs and International Development
Jerry Fowler: Open Society Policy Foundation

April 20:
Ann Curry: Journalist, NBC
Kathy Freston: Author + Host, Oprah Winfrey Network

April 21:
John Prendergast: Co-Founder, Enough
Luis Moreno Ocampo: Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

April 22:
Manifesto: The beginning of our vision on ending atrocity.

How you can participate:

* Watch the stories at the website.
* Help share these visions: Send them to your friends via email. Share on Facebook. Post to Twitter: "3 Generations is Building a Vision for a World Without Atrocity: http://3generations.org/vision.aspx #genprev"
* Share your own vision: What does a world without atrocity look like to you? Send comments on
* Facebook
* Twitter
* 3 Generations' blog (via “Submit”)
* Your own blog (send a link to info@3generations.org)

[Note: Client relationship.]

Envision 2011

2011-04-06T01:30:00.001-04:00

IFP and the United Nation’s Department of Public Information have for the past three years partnered to present ENVISION: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries. This year's conference focuses on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, and all the screenings and panels -- featuring speakers ranging from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte to City Harvest's Jill Stevens-- will center on underlying issues such as food security, the role of women, and the role of film and documentaries.

In my role as a member of the Board of Directors of Global Grassroots, I am excited to participate on the conference's final panel, focusing on the role of women in alleviating poverty. The other panelists are Rebeca Grynspan, Under-Secretary-General, Associate Administrator, UN Development Program; Kennedy Odede, Founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities; Lynne Patterson, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Director, Pro Mujer; and Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women for Women International. I'm looking forward to a spirited discussion that explores community-centered, bottom-up efforts, local agency and systemic change, and one that also teases out the balance between efforts that create a silo for women's issues against those that create investment in women.

To learn more about the conference and other panels, please look here. Hope to see you there.

Tribeca Film Institute Launches New Media Fund | A Piece on Transmedia Activism

2011-02-24T18:57:00.002-05:00

Tribeca Film Institute recently launched the New Media Fund, to support innovative cross-platform projects-- an exciting and necessary development. I was invited to speak to them about Transmedia Activism and the role of cross-platform content in creating communities of change and practice. With thanks to them, you can read more here.

"No, no, not the Museum!"

2011-02-01T01:45:00.002-05:00

"I felt if the Cairo museum is robbed, Egypt will never be able to get up again." -- Zahi Hawass.

Egypt is in the midst of an uprising against 30 years of repressive rule and a flawed, corrupt governmental system, blocked avenues for political participation, and low employment and wages. This uprising closely follows the Tunisian revolution and is potentially one in a series of revolts and movements in the MENA region-- and perhaps in other regions, as well-- to fight for rights and the freedom to exercise self-determination and build livable societies.

Very soon into the revolt, the Egyptian government took the drastic step of shutting down access to information and communications systems (save landlines). As of this writing, reports are that all access to servers and mobile phones have been shut down, as well. Rather than inhibit protest, this has coincided with and may have added impetus for a swelling of protest, with people gathering en masse in the hundreds and thousands. (The extent to which this is a tech or a social media revolution has been debated by commentators for days-- and will continue to be so. But similarly to what I've written before, for the moment this argument, while worth studying in the abstract, is besides the point.) This fight is playing out on the streets. The protesters are fighting no matter which technologies are available, willing to put themselves at risk to protect what is important to them. And one of the things they took to the streets to protect was their museums.

One of the most enthralling moments happened when images started circulating through AlJazeera and social media of protesters forming a human chain around the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Archaeologist Zahi Hawass said, "all the inspectors, young archaeologists, and administrators, are calling me from sites and museums all over Egypt to tell me that they will give their life to protect our antiquities. Many young Egyptians are in the streets trying to stop the criminals." The sight of people committing themselves to possible harm in defense of what is on the one hand a series of inanimate objects and on the other, the cultural legacy of millennia, touched the hearts and minds of people across the media universe. As Thomas Campbell, Director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, stated said, "If [the Egyptian Museum] is damaged through looting or fire, it would be a loss to all humankind."

(Standing in solidarity at the Really Free School, London)

The Museum was, however, looted and reports started to trickle out of institutions around the country being robbed and vandalized. Whether these sackings were an expression of rage or seizing an opportunity to grab gold and treasures, they're more likely to be the acts of thieves and looters and not acts of politico-cultural destruction akin to the bombing of the Buddhas of Bamiyan or the siege of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This didn't make reaction any less swift and poignant.

What makes these reactions particularly noteworthy is how deeply universal and human was the choice to protect the institutions, in the midst of all the unrest and chaos. The cultivation and preservation of cultural heritage--no matter how varied that heritage may be in modes of expression across societies--is a concept most individuals and societies understand (even if it is not always afforded concrete support). Our modes of cultural expression are contoured, dynamic signifiers of our cultural identity. The means by which we--as communities, cities, regions, countries or groups of individuals--express ourselves, and the means by which we distribute, curate and preserve that expression are essential elements of how we forms our societies.

Rebuilding, regeneration and revitalization, then, are all deeply tied to cultural identity. As the revolt wears on and the protests grow stronger in Egypt and potentially around the world, those of us who think about social innovation and transformation should think more deeply and constructively about the role that cultural expression and heritage play in creating societies that are fair, just and stable, and tailor efforts to incorporate cultural identity in concrete ways.

I have to note here that historian and archaeologist Alex Joffe has written a piece castigating Zahi Hawass' quest to repatriate Egyptian antiquities as "misguided or at least poorly timed," and calling into question the intentions of a "vast, impoverished underclass" that "seems less taken with either the nationalist narrative of Egyptian greatness that stretches back to the pharaohs, or the intrinsic value of antiquities for all humanity, and more intrigued by the possibility of gold and other loot." I am regrettably not informed or qualified on the issues surrounding repatriation and preservation to weigh in on this line of the argument, even while acknowledging that these issues must be dealt with if considering cultural heritage as an element of societal rebuilding. In this post, though, I'm drawing a point about the intersection between culture and post-conflict reconstruction and--taking exception to the term "underclass"--Joffe's second point about this demographic does intersect that notion, particularly in terms of the ability of a society to support both the needs and priorities of its community, while broadening a national narrative to include all members regardless of economic status.

Whatever stage of economic development a community is in, culture is an essential building block, just as important to progressive and actualized societies, as technology, governance, finance and the other "hard" elements. Tunisia and Egypt could represent clear points in a global revolution in politics, technology, finance, media, culture. It is too early to predict where we as a global community are headed, but what is clear is that almost nothing in our current systems and structures will remain the same. The hard work of fighting for or ensuring rights and creating livable communities doesn't go away after protests end. Out next challenge as a globe will be to focus and support efforts at community livability around the world, so that no society remains in danger of not recovering. Although the discussions around these efforts have centered around technology, information, social media and open systems that promote transparency and access, we need to look at all of those factors through the filter of culture and identity. And we need to make sure our models incorporate heritage, history, memory on the one side, and contemporary forms of cultural expression on another.

Laser recreations of The Buddhas of Bamiyan, Hiro Yamagata

Looking ahead to 2011: Projects, people, organizations and companies to watch

2010-12-31T15:56:00.012-05:00

Looking ahead to 2011, I've been thinking about the people, projects, organizations and companies I've worked or connected with this past year. There is amazing work going on around the world that is effective, game-changing and necessary, and I'm feeling privileged and grateful to be a part of at least some of it. There are a number interesting projects in various sectors that I will be keeping on my radar to see their continued growth and impact. Explore (by clicking on each name for its link):

These organizations and projects creatively and effectively use culture, narrative and media to seed movements:
3 Generations
Who is Dayani Cristal?
BYkids
Sanjhi
The Line Campaign
Artist as Citizen
Aspen Institute Global Initiative on Culture and Society

The following are rich networks and initiatives that create spaces for collaboration, knowledge or online action:
Mobileactive
Purpose
ThinkState
Jovoto
Business Innovation Factory

These will be gamechangers in transmedia, media distribution and social networking:
VODO
Kleiner Perkins sFund
Mirada
Seize the Media
Power to the Pixel
CrowdCentric/Social Media Week

These organizations dedicate themselves to working with vulnerable populations dealing with intractable problems, by leveraging and enhancing local solutions:
Global Grassroots
Mandala House
Princess Umul Hatiyya Foundation
Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group
Eastern Congo Initiative
Villages in Action

Interesting innovations in diplomacy, peacebuilding and development, respectively:
Independent Diplomat
Peace Dividend Trust
UNICEF Innovation
FrontlineSMS:Legal

And a special nod to some exciting original work by:
Hybrid Realities Institute: A new institute dedicated research around the effects of technology on the individual in the context of Society, Business and Politics.
Business Model Generation: A simple, elegant methodology for business model innovation.

Finally, here are a few that I don't really know about yet, but am excited to learn more about:
Ethnos Project:
Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability: (no website yet: Project of Demos
Akshay Trust
FreeDimensional

The list is extensive, but it takes many more than I've cited to join in together and get the work done. As we mature and progress in all the fields and sectors under the umbrella of "social change," I hope to see more cross-sector collaborations based on knowledgeable deep-dives that are context-specific and culturally-appropriate, and leverage global innovations and local solutions. As for me, I will continue to work in strategy, planning, culture and transmedia--to advocate for projects in which culture is a foundational element of community transformation and resilience, through projects, writing and collaboration.

(Note that I currently work or have worked with a number of these listed above. I hope that doesn't count as bias, but as more intimate knowledge. Please send me an email, however, if you want more details.)

"The Invisibles": Pushing the Needle Forward on NGO/Artist Collaborations

2010-11-09T09:30:00.009-05:00

Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal have partnered with Amnesty International to make four compelling short films that highlight the journey tens of thousands of people take every year from Central and South America, through Mexico, and onward north in the hopes of reaching the United States. People who are driven by poverty and a dearth of economic opportunity and social support in their own countries, take this trip motivated by hope and the basic need to provide for their families. As the films recount, along the way they encounter dire, life-threatening risks. This journey is one of the most dangerous in the world.

Watch all four films on their dedicated youtube page (in Spanish, and in Spanish with English subtitles.) Watch the first film in the series, Seaworld, here:

'Seaworld' (Film 1 of 4 from 'The Invisibles' series) from marc silver on Vimeo.

This series of films demonstrates the potential of direct collaboration between NGO, activist, filmmaker and actor, and advances the art of activist film making by concentrating on and striking a balance among community-centered narrative, a commitment to aesthetic resonance, and to tying content directly to action.

First, the films and the action campaign are created through a collaboration of established entities, but the campaign's foundation is community-centered storytelling that builds context through narrative. The migrants directly tell us their own stories--ones that show the human side of the issues and create a narrative thread directly through to underlying issues, demonstrating the actual cost to individuals of human rights issues, poor economic systems and the lack of community-building societal structures. They tell their stories as they want, and they are depicted with the respect they as participants in this campaign merit.

This respect shines through not only from the storytelling itself, but also because the filmmakers have invested in creating aesthetically engaging content. The creation of four individual, yet aligned short films that place importance on the form of the films as well as their function grounds these films and the issues that are depicted in both "activism" and "film making": This is film making that advances the art of activism through a deep, precise attention to the art of storytelling.

Finally, the films' platform is built to create a direct link between the films and the campaign, making the content a conduit to action, even before the films' launch. During interviews with migrants, Amnesty International registered the experience of abuses against the migrants. Following the films' release, both Amnesty and the filmmakers, through the Resist Network, are moving to use the film in policy advocacy-- for example, Amnesty is using the films during the Global Forum on Migration and Development to call on the Mexican government to "establish a clear action plan and to collect and publish nationwide data on abuses against migrants and on the action taken to hold those responsible to account."

This campaign is evidence that the best way to create and reach an audience, and to subsequently turn them into committed participants engaged in dialogue and activism, is to create aesthetically excellent, engaging film making and digital media. And finally, this series of films provides a concrete sense of the spirit and resilience that underlies the migrants' despair-- and due to this, among many other reasons, these are people you can't ignore.

[Disclosure: I am a partner on the social engagement strategy team for the Resist Network, one of the partners in creating these films. I am not a member of the films' production team.]

Welcome to the debate, Malcolm

2010-09-27T19:53:00.009-04:00

Malcolm Gladwell's article "Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted," revisits an argument it seems like we in the activism community have been having for quite a while. While it can only be good to open the debate up to the masses who read the New Yorker, Gladwell misses the target. In the debate on digital activism, Gladwell and most commentators on `social media for social action' elevate the "digital" as opposed to the "activism." Digital tools are now a permanent part of our toolkit (whether we're managing discrete actions, campaigns or movements), and can be leveraged effectively whenever they are appropriate and accessible. Sometimes they're necessary to a campaign and sometimes they are not (particularly where their use would jeopardize the safety of the activists or the viability of the campaign). But that's it. They're tools.

Gladwell's distinction between hierarchical vs. decentralized movements is a very necessary one-- but the claim that all offline activism is centralized while all campaigns that rely on digital tools are ad hoc and without direction, is a rather sweeping and strange argument. All campaigns within a movement require strategy and stewardship, through communications structures that are either horizontal or vertical. Again, the tools might allow for new forms of communications which help create flatter campaigns-- but thinking that successful online campaigns don't have centralizing nodes is a bit naive. Furthermore, despite his exploration of social movements, Gladwell's dismissal of decentralized networks as automatically ineffective can't have taken into consideration examples of the communications networks that underpinned historical wide-sweeping movements like the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, The Underground Railroad, or the network of safe houses for Jews in WWII. (And anyway, isn't there some truth that those of us who try to organize campaigns hope that elements will in fact decentralize and embed to become cultural norms?)

By continuing to argue the merits of "twitter activism," I think we're all now starting to miss the point. The way a campaign engages empathizers, influencers and activists-- whether based on what Gladwell notes as weak or strong ties-- is really more a matter of strategy-- issue identification, context, methodology, desired action, outcome, etc. Use and application of digital tools is a tactical concern-- important, but not the endpoint. And so Gladwell creates a false distinction when he claims it is the nature of the tool that creates strong or weak ties. I would argue it's the content and the context that determines and strengthen ties. The medium is not the message here.

Social Media Won't Save the World... But It Might Make the Job Easier

2010-09-08T13:16:00.000-04:00

Social Media Won't Save the World... But It Might Make the Job Easier

View more presentations from lksriv.

Transmedia Activism in Action

2010-07-22T15:52:00.003-04:00

Having first written about Transmedia Activism two years ago and, after spending much of last year working alone or with partners and clients to build out the framework (more to come on that later this year), I am gratified to see the concept take off in a number of realms. One of my favorite moments came at Lance Weiler's DIYDays in April of this year when a participant told me my work sounds like transmedia activism, asking me "Have you heard of it...?" There's a simple thrill that comes from having one's ideas move past oneself and into other people's theories and projects.

A few weeks ago came a second thrill when Robert Pratten of Zen Films-- a creative thinker on the methodology and practice behind transmedia-- sent me a proposal he presented to Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco for a transmedia campaign aimed at increasing support and donations for the organization. He cites our work on the transmedia activism framework as inspiration for building out his campaign and adapts part of the framework directly to his strategy. The proposal is a good, real-world example of how transmedia can enrich a charitable organization's communication platform. (A sustained transmedia effort, which starts to build content and context around systemic issues, can also help in the organization's programming and direct impact-- and I would be excited to see where the organization takes this strategy in the future.)

Another thank you to Robert for sharing this presentation, here:

Transmedia Activism And LowLifes

View more presentations from Zen Films.

Pelis Con Misión Social

2010-07-15T10:52:00.005-04:00

An article about social mission film and Transmedia Activism from the beautiful Spanish design magazine Yorokobu.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

...and Access for All: A Piece for WeMedia's Tabula Rasa

2010-05-04T10:26:00.001-04:00

WeThink - Access for All - Final

Shirts and Boobs

2010-04-28T18:42:00.011-04:00

There was a little tremor felt through the networks that use Twitter and Facebook for organizing toward "good," due to two rapidly conceived movements that aimed to clothe people or disrobe them, depending on the fight.

On Monday, "Boobquake" faced off against Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, who had the previous week declared, "Many women who do not dress modestly...lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes." As a cheeky (no pun intended) protest, scientist and feminist Jen McCreight proposed that on Monday, April 26, women would dress as immodestly as they desired to see if it really increased the number of earthquakes. As a protest, this was an interesting proposal and potentially brilliantly flippant. At first, it seemed to echo the effective pink chaddi campaign in India last year.

But Boobquake very soon went awry. As Kendall Thiessen said in his twitter stream, "Once you introduce boobs, you KNOW the kind of response you are going to get. Clearly the message was lost." It was indeed. The Facebook page for Boobquake-- while admittedly attracting a lot of attention and leveraging angry humor in a really smart way-- soon turned prurient and irrelevant, having nothing at all to do with Iranian women or women's rights at all. For a movement that was about supporting women, it kind of missed its mark, and turned into a denigrating force instead.

Boobquake's hijacking had been anticipated by "Brainquake," a counter-protest organized by Negar Mottahadeh and Golbarg Bashi. This protest faced off against Boobquake benevolently-- Negar and Golbarg both hold respect for Jen and her ideas and intentions-- but placed the protest back squarely into respect for women and women's rights, and even more importantly, back into the realm of Iranian feminism, which was at the core. The Boobquake vs. Brainquake debate turned into a late-night tweet session among tweeters @ideasurge @negaratduke @faizahm @john_weeks @shrutisinha @maymaym and myself, @lksriv.

Then, on Tuesday, Jason Sadler of iwearyourshirts.com announced he was heading up a campaign to collect and send 1 million used t-shirts to disadvantaged populations in Africa. This is a really bad idea, running the gamut from useless intervention to wasteful effort to condescension and disrespect. Mashable caught the idea up and ran with it as an effort perfectly made for "social media for social good" (a concept I've had trouble with in the past). As I write this, the effort is being ably covered by @tmsruge @meowtree @Katrinskaya @TalesFromthHood @texasinafrica @santis and @alanna_shaikh. These aid and development professionals have deconstructed the idea and fleshed out its implications and potential consequences. In some cases, they have offered constructive criticism and alternative ideas. (I am particularly drawn to investing in community-based needs assessments, and an idea proposed by TMS Ruge, to invest in capacity-building local textile and clothing manufacturing.) To Jason's credit, he has currently agreed to a teleconference to talk about his idea-- either to justify it or to field other, more sustainable, practical and respectful ideas.

The takeaway from these two seemingly unrelated campaigns, though, was the following:

1. Benevolent intentions coupled with poorly-aimed initiatives result in efforts that ultimately undermine the communities that are their target.

2. Lack of local context or cultural context is a major contributing factor toward failure.

3. Social media is a powerful tool to thoroughly and rapidly vet a development idea or campaign. (See Christopher Fabian's piece on 1 Million Shirts, "How to Fail Fast and with Scrutiny"; and Negar's piece concerning Brainquake, on social media and feminism.)

4. But social media in its present forms is limited in its ability to create a sustained, long-term effective movement, whether in the development context or the political realm.

To that last point, Kendall had at one point in the twitter debate asked, "What is the last social movement that got picked up on social media that didn't devolve?" While I can think of a number of nonprofits that use social media effectively to communicate their activities, programs and thought leadership, I couldn't think of an independent movement that didn't burn out or peter out quickly.

So, in the end, social media as currently practiced on sites like Facebook and Twitter doesn't lend itself to cultivate deep observation or patient movement building. (Think about Haiti, post-quake. The social media world has moved on.) Social media, then, is really best for short bursts of awareness-raising, directed actions, soliciting donations arising from particular events, and for creating contacts and building networks. Sustained movements require conscious awareness, engagement (which includes proactively managed social media tools), cultivation and active personalized stewardship, and investment in impact.

(Just one more thing: Despite the name of this post, I absolutely hate the word "boob" as slang for breast. Just had to put that out there.)

Design strategies for social change in emerging markets

2010-02-20T15:47:00.004-05:00

I did an interview about design strategies toward social change in India for the new vlog Designwala, a platform to raise awareness of design methods in the emerging world, and to highlight design ideas to rethink public services that will lead to more sustainable and efficient models. In this excerpt, we talked about opportunities for Indian designers in the fields of service design, information design and systems design to create cross-sector relationships and communication channels that foster a climate of creation, innovation, societal resilience and risk taking in a primarily risk- averse culture.

Voice vs. Avenues for Voice

2010-01-29T16:34:00.003-05:00

In response to a Twitter exchange among Digital Democracy, Emily Jacobi, Sam Gregory, Audacia Ray and myself, Brian Conley posted on his site a further discussion on using the word "voiceless" to describe populations in disadvantaged communities.

I've always disliked the phrase "giving voice to the voiceless." The term "voiceless" in the context of social change is pejorative, and the phrase connotes a power balance that we should try to disown. Besides, it just doesn't make any sense: As Emily says on her own website, "I’ve never met a person without a voice. Not in a refugee camp, slum or rural village, not at a guard desk or janitor’s station in a hall of power."

My own comment to Brian's post contained this: "If we seek to truly collaborate with people... to advance positive social change, we need to shift our thinking about who contributes to the “project.” It’s much more helpful to think of each other as equal partners who bring to the table various assets... For example, one partner might bring access and resources, while the other one brings local learning, stories and knowledge [cultural assets]. I’m not naive enough to believe that in our current system...there isn’t a power advantage in being the one in control of the financial resources and of the avenues that distribute information. But we have to learn and teach a different perspective on what is contribution, what are valuable assets and resources, and who plays what position on the team?... Yes, there are people who don’t know how to exercise their voice or don’t have the courage, and yes, there are a number of people lacking relevant knowledge or information. But that’s true for any group of people, disadvantaged and privileged alike...[But] calling people “voiceless” discredits their ability to contribute. All of us need to recognize participation and contributed assets as valuable tools, not for our own fundraising or report writing, but as leverage to effect positive change."

This series of posts brought back to mind a conversation I had a few years ago with Uzodinma Iweala, the author of Beasts of No Nation, to talk about "voice" in art, media and fiction relating to social change issues. I had met Uzo at the PEN American Center's World Voices Festival where he spoke about his aim to provide avenues for the voices of his protagonists, and the work that goes into constructing aesthetic frameworks (the community's or the artist's) around the subjects. He was very clear that, as an artist, he does not and can't provide "voice." He argued that, on a wide scale, we as artists, activists or media creators, need to create new tropes because our frames of references come from the privileged and from a top-down perspective. On an individual scale, we have to look at efficacy of voice-- the question of more voices vs. more effective voices (or blanket awareness vs. influence): Just because there are lots of voices doesn't mean they are effective. He therefore focuses his writing around "voice shaping," allowing his characters to speak outside of stereotypes. He resists making value judgments against others' perspectives-- "You can't blame someone for growing up with a certain framework"-- but instead focuses on his responsibility as an artist to to create new frames of reference. And each piece of work related to an issue transforms its frame of reference in an iterative process, an ever-growing body of work that provides firm grounding for shifting perspectives, through character, plot or setting. It's the role of the artist to break down the constructs and expose humanity. And it's important for an artist to move beyond what dehumanizes a subject, and look at them for their daily problems and daily lives, and provide context. This shifts the angles and puts pressure on the frames.

There's a rich analogy here for social change. As a change agent, you also are not speaking for someone else. You are primarily serving one of two functions in relation to people in an affected community: either acting as their proxy or working in collaboration with them. You might be providing access to avenues that disseminate their voice, and that's your role in the project. Either way, they're not voiceless. I think we need to shift the angles and put pressure on the frameworks in relation to communities involved in change.

An unfolding story of a crisis: Aggregating information in response to natural disaster in Haiti

2010-01-15T01:29:00.006-05:00

In response to the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, Ushahidi quickly built an online information resource platform for Haiti, which lets people on the ground pinpoint on a map specific places where help is immediately needed and to provide updates and stories via text, email, tweeting and an online form. The site also provides photos, videos and news about shortages, response and threats.

The earthquake was massive and catastrophic, with Red Cross estimates of 50,000 dead at this writing, and many more displaced and missing. Those on the ground believe one-third of the country's nine million people could need emergency aid (John O'Shea of GOAL). The country, already the poorest in the Western hemisphere, is going to require a huge influx of aid as well as debt relief, and efforts at reconstruction and regeneration in the longer term. These are things that will be managed (hopefully) on a global, governmental and NGO/institutional level. Beyond this, there are also opportunities for citizen action and donation, suggested at aggregation sites such as The Clinton Foundation, the Green Family Foundation, and MobileActive.org*.

But in this case, Ushahidi's site is a bit different. While a comprehensive and managed platform- a great example of the power of media and information to support immediate need in crisis situations- it is nevertheless heartbreaking to read, especially from a distance, aggregating not only necessary resources but also virtual cries for help. People trapped under rubble, families looking for the missing who may not be found, churches and homes and hospitals crumbling. All these calls for help and for action- verified or not- are detailed in the site's Reports section. Because international aid is as of this writing hampered, access to sites such as Ushahidi's platform might be the most effective way for people to activate on the ground. For the rest of us, the Reports unfold the story of the crisis in real-time, through firsthand accounts and requests for assistance from the actual people on the ground and in need, moving us from remote viewers to passive (or perhaps 'active' in the case of a few) participants. Perhaps this lens will work in an way that moves beyond short-term awareness, to influence a sustained reconstruction and regeneration effort and for preventive measures and just treatment that will reduce risks associated with other crises.

(This post excerpted and cross-posted at the Resist Network.)

*Professional affiliation

Mission Media in 2009: Presenting Ideas, Images, Stories + Solutions

2009-12-31T19:35:00.003-05:00

As 2009 comes to a close, we celebrate our collaboration on the Transmedia Activism site and the launch of our new transmedia design consultancy that is thriving as we turn to 2010. To mark a good year for us, we give props to some great, innovative initiatives by others working at the intersection of media, arts, culture and social change. Each of these projects immerses us in a new world through a compelling story, crosses sectors and disciplines to create a rich experience, and/or presents a new idea or solution designed to lead to positive change.

This is not a "best of" list as much as it is a survey and an appreciation. (A list isn't our usual m.o., since our usual pathway through ideas grows in a spherical, not a linear, direction.) After enjoying the following projects we found particularly noteworthy (presented in no particular order), please add projects and sites that inspired you.

+ 3 Generations**
3 Generations works with survivors of genocide and crimes against humanity to provide opportunities for them to share their stories. In April 2009, the organization launched a beautiful cross media platform that is a study in storytelling as well as a tool for activism that distributes global information about genocide and details “cultural regeneration” as a crucial part of recovery process. The organization launched its new multimedia online platform to create a narrative thread that highlights our common humanity, presenting survivors' stories, news and information, and culture-based initiatives, such as documentary film, oral history, witness testimony, creative writing, narrative film, fiction and photography.

+ Pray the Devil Back to Hell Global Peace Tour 2009 and International Peace Day
On September 21st, 2009, individuals and organizations around the world celebrated the United Nations' International Day of Peace. As an extension of Pray the Devil Back to Hell's September Global Peace Tour, Fork Films, Film Spout and the filmmakers organized a series of successful community screenings to spur discussion and create support for international peace-building efforts. (Special mention to the curriculum the filmmakers created for inclusion with the DVD to support discussion and learning about women, peace and security.)

+ Hope House/Kids with Cameras House Parties**
On October 2, 2009, 75 hosts celebrated Gandhi's birthday by holding house parties around the world and raised more than $25,000 to support Kids with Cameras' construction of Hope House, a facility that will provide a state-of-the art learning environment and a safe haven for up to 100 girls from Calcutta's red light district--the area depicted in Born into Brothels-- to live, go to school, and develop the strength and skills to change their own circumstances. The organization has created a thorough and easy to manage party/screening hosting kit that they continue to provide to interested donors and supporters.

+ Disrobing for Climate Change
2009 saw a lot of people taking their clothes off to get you to act about climate change and environmental degradation. Greenpeace (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HNnWnfOkzg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOikDujAdTc&feature=related) and 350.org (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdz555JBIwY) did PETA one better in getting our attention. While not always effective (we've heard a few people say they would support global warming if it meant watching models take off their clothes-- besides being a sort of distracting, though not unpleasant visual while trying to learn about fluorocarbons), we give kudos to each for their originality, engagement and targeted action-setting.

+ Behind the Veil
Through online videos and interviews, the Globe and Mail's series Behind the Veil tells the story of the women of Afghanistan, who live under conditions of constant violence and repressive social codes. As the Globe and Mail editor notes, "Like us, these women hoped the intervention of the outside world would improve their lives; like us, they have been largely disappointed. In fact, for many of the women of Kandahar, what was to have been a march toward a brighter future has turned into a retreat back to the past and in some cases, back to the burka." But the site moves beyond a mere effort to raise awareness by not presenting only all that is wrong in these women's lives-- it too creates a connective narrative thread between the women and the larger world around them by exploring "places where our lives intersect around family and work, around their hopes for the future that aren’t much different than ours."

+ The Age of Stupid
This was perhaps one of the most innovative and robust cross platform campaigns of the year. On May 22, 2009, The Age of Stupid team launched the "Indie Screenings" (http://www.indiescreenings.net/) distribution model, which allows anyone to purchase a license to screen the film. Licensing fees are set on a sliding scale according to the purchaser's means, and licensees can charge for tickets and keep the profits. (The film's distribution model generated 682 screenings in the first four months and approximately £55,000 in revenue.) The film's launch on May 22 was followed by a panel discussion about climate change, which was broadcast online. Add the green carpet, carbon footprint stats and the soundtrack that includes Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Boots Are Made For Walking, and you have some pretty good karma released.

+ The End of the Line
This documentary's Take Action page and information handouts at screening were direct, to-the-point and easy to follow. The question of overfishing is given its due in stark, clear terms and the solutions to that are presented in the same way. Moving beyond "ambient awareness," the film's engagement and action plan can claim a direct link between its efforts and the decision of Marks & Spencer, one of the largest chains in the U.K., to turn its back against unsustainable fish.

+ Resist Network**
This initiative has created a participatory social action platform dedicated to rectifying divisions brought about borders and walls through the idea of resistance, and presents content toward the fight against systemic poverty and issues related to forced migration. The site engages participants to contribute crowdsourced ideas toward an upcoming film on the US/Mexico border wall and systemic poverty, and presents videos, art and infoactivism ideas and solutions.

+ Chez Bushwick**
This interdisciplinary arts organization has created a cross‐sector coalition dedicated to creating and demonstrating social impact in the neighborhood of Bushwick, using cultural assets that are distributed across a variety of channels.

+ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Mapping Initiatives
An amazing site rich with vital information employing media-rich maps that document historical and contemporary accounts on global genocide. The site features the World as Witness, which provides citizen reports of genocide and related crimes against humanity ongoing today, using the web and Google Earth. With ongoing updates from at-risk areas, you can see on the ground reports of both who is targeted and efforts of response to the violence. The site also has Google Earth maps of key Holocaust sites with content from collection demonstrating the scope and impact of Holocaust. (This work started before 2009, but is ongoing and noteworthy -- so we are including it.)

+ Human Rights Watch Multimedia
The organization relaunched its website this year, building on thirty years of work utilizing both investigation and targeted advocacy in defense of human rights around the world. Noteworthy for both the scope of their work and impartial reporting, their recently relaunched and more easily navigable website in 2009 sets their rich media resources squarely at center stage and presents a rich area with podcasts, audio, photo essays as well as crucial textual documentation on diverse array of topics, such as maternal mortality in India, living with landmines across the globe, Burmese resistance to government dictatorship, and Burundi’s criminalization of the LGBT community.

+ Living Galapagos
This bilingual, interactive, multimedia storytelling site produced by students at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism explores humans' impact on the Galapagos Islands. The beautifully made site uses a map platform to guide the user to discover the devastating results of environmental degradation, the introduction of non-native species, illegal fishing and unsustainable tourism.

+ Wasteland
Bombay Flying Club, an independent media company in Denmark, this year launched the Wasteland project, a series of web documentaries about industrial pollution, with the first film presenting the story of illegal coal collection workers in Jharkand, India. The site is gorgeous-- almost too much so, relying heavily on the seductive power of imagery over the solidity of information or ideas-- but is compelling in its fully-realized storytelling elements and presents stories of people most of us (even we savvy activists, mediamakers and academics) rarely consider.

+ Digital Democracy TV
This fledgling organization develops information and mobile- and internet-based communication tools to address the needs of vulnerable members of communities where they work, aimed at strengthening social bonds and fostering networking and civic participation. They've created a rich cross-media approach to engage participants, donors and beneficiaries, concentrated primarily through their video blog, broadcast online, as well as their website and social networking sites.

+ Filmmaker-in-Residence (NFB)
A collaborative cross-media project initiated by The National Film Board of Canada, this innovative project places mediamaking into the hands of citizens. For the first project, the filmmaker is detailing the stories and challenges related to health care and is working with doctors, nurses, researchers and patients to access and create media.

+ Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films
Long at the forefront of innovation of documentary form in digital era, particularly with an array of tools using social media/networking or as they say “activism 2.0.” Absolutely tireless with ongoing important updates sent via website, twitter, Facebook on contemporary political issues, from health care to war in Afghanistan, Greenwald and company recently launched Brave New Educators, generously sharing footage and resources from the recent documentary Rethink Afghanistan: http://rethinkafghanistan.com/ for university students to analyze critically and remix with complete freedom. In Los Angeles, USC’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy and Occidental College both partnered this fall with Brave New Films.

+ Open Youth Network
A program of the Department of Interactive Arts and Media at Columbia College designed “to help bridge the digital participation gap by educating girls and urban youth to use emerging technologies, games and social media so they can make a better future for themselves and their communities.” It partners with community organizations, non-profit media centers, schools both in Chicago and nationally. Check out the site especially for great blogs from the youth participants.

+ Tactical Technology Collective
This Bangalore-based international NGO helps human rights advocates use information, communications and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy, through a rich series of resource guides, toolkits, events and web-distributed videos-- including the effective "10 TACTICS" site, http://infoactivism.org, which details ways for rights advocates to capture attention and communicate a cause, including a film documenting inspiring info-activism stories from around the world and a set of cards with tips and advice. Chapters of the film and cards are serially released on the website every week.

Special Mentions:

TED, for their distribution of video talks, which cross the spectrum of ideas dealing with technology, design, arts/culture, science, global concerns. TED talks are consistently interesting and inspiring insights into cross-sector discussion, and innovation and innovators.

Pop!Tech, for its dissemination of ideas via their information platform, linking an interdisciplinary and global network of those interested in ideas around the social impact of new technologies. The site features videos from broad ranging areas of arts, technology, design with special focus on innovation with concrete outcomes for positive social change. Pop!Tech, besides sponsoring a conference and platform, places great emphasis on collaboration and cross-media project-based solutions-building throughout the year through its sponsorship of innovation fellows and an innovation lab.

Business Innovation Factory Story Studio. Another rich collection of videos featuring stories of innovation, the BIF website is a great model of spreading ideas for social innovation with material organized by innovator, theme, and channel.

P.O.V. for presenting interesting mission media and documentaries supported by a direct-action online platform which is engaging and entertaining.

Social Edge from the Skoll Foundation for links to multiple blogs on social innovation, as well as a rich stream of information via Twitter.

Stanford Social Innovation Review Rich with ideas and solutions-based social innovation projects, in text, podcasts and a blog.

Changemakers This site features storytelling from around the globe that is focused on grass roots, community-based change.

Think Social, a non-profit initiative supported by The Paley Center for Media dedicated to advance the use of social media in the public interest.

And finally, a special mention to these academic projects:

Iraqi Doctors Project. A university undergraduate class multimedia project led by IML Associate Director, Virginia Kuhn, and documentary filmmaker D.J. Johnson, which saw students remixing Johnson’s documentary film into a variety of audio-visual essays based on their particular academic area of study/interests. The result was a model we used in the Rethink Afghanistan remix class this year.

Negarpontifiles. From her site http://negarpontifiles.blogspot.com/ and twitter feeds @negaratduke, Negar Mottahedeh keeps us updated on latest news from Iran, but also all things interesting and innovative in social media and education. (And she organizes the twitter film festivals as well, now in its second year! http://twitfilmfestival.blogspot.com/)

(** Note: professional affiliation)
(Cross-posted here)

Born into Brothels, Five Years Later

2009-12-01T09:00:00.006-05:00

One of the pivotal points of my career was serving as the acting Executive Director of Kids with Cameras from 2004-2005. I started working with Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski and Geralyn Dreyfous in the organization's start-up phase, and while they were in the throes of the wildly successful film festival run of Born into Brothels.

The documentary, which would eventually win the Academy Award, was a clear demonstration of the power of film to be a strong persuasive element of a campaign for social action. And the film, along with the experience of working with the board and staff of KwC, showed me how one might harness the power of cultural assets in creating engagement and demonstrating social impact.

This December marks five years after the theatrical release of the film. This past summer, Sameer Padania of WITNESS, asked me to revisit the film during a screening at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. I hadn't seen it in nearly three years, and it struck me how relevant the film still is, continuing to be a great example of craft and visual artistry, and of a mission media film that expertly centers is message through story, character and plot.

Social change, at its very basic foundations, begins with a shift in perception. Born into Brothels demonstrates that shift at two levels: within the film and with the film. Within the film, Zana and Ross explored how direct, personal engagement might open up avenues of expression and how visual language and the arts lead to shifts in the children's self-perception and their ability to question and ultimately accept or reject their circumstances.

With the film, KwC's staff and stakeholders participated in creating what was ultimately an organically grown cross-media platform (the film, two websites, a book, the children's photographs, exhibits, speaking engagements and the nonprofit organization) that harnessed the audience's passion and commitment and engaged them toward action, donation and volunteerism to change circumstances faced by the children in the film and those like them around the world, through arts education and stewardship. The organization's work to scale its photography workshops to other locations inspired a number of other individuals and organizations to put cameras into the hands of children and affected populations around the world.

The film continues to present relevant questions about what is possible through individual action, direct and personal engagement, the act of listening, working within and against local systems, and the use of the arts and storytelling in exploring new circumstances and identity. To this day, people tell me the film inspires their own projects and organizations. And Kids with Cameras still gives back to the original community in Calcutta. The organization's leadership remains in close contact with most of the children (now entering adulthood) and the KwC website has updates on them. The website also has information about the organization's cornerstone project, to build Hope House, which will provide a home and center for the girls of the red light district to learn and develop life skills that will break their cycle of poverty, while still remaining close to their families. In Geralyn's words, the home will be "a place to foster creativity, arts, mentorship and education for the children of prostitutes who want a different day for their children." The organization continues to remain dedicated to the core value demonstrated in the film, to work toward self-expression through arts education and stewardship, challenging the status quo for a new generation of kids.

Transmedia and Social Change at MIT's Futures of Entertainment Conference

2009-11-21T19:37:00.004-05:00

It was exciting to see a discussion of the application of transmedia storytelling to activism and social change at MIT's Futures of Entertainment conference. My own work exploring and writing about this topic a year and a half ago was inspired by Henry Jenkins' work in transmedia and I'm very happy to see that the topic is starting to be discussed on a larger scale.

In the time since I published my work, I have partnered with Vicki Callahan of UWM and USC to create the Transmedia Activism Design Group. Our aim is to create a community of practice that moves the creation and distribution of media, art and cultural assets from awareness to action. One of the primary strengths of transmedia activism is that it allows social change itself to be the hub of a campaign, with media (in whatever form, be it digital, online or real-world) providing the vehicle to generate commitment, engagement and action. As one participant at Futures of Entertainment said, media is a powerful vehicle for education and dialogue. Participatory co-creation of media, paired with a robust multi-platform distribution strategy, is one of the best and most innovative ways to have people connect to a cause, by opening up avenues for dialogue and providing an educational experience about workable solutions to real-world issues-- and also by harnessing the talents of an engaged audience to commit to action through creation, donation, knowledge-sharing, and action (through volunteerism by laypersons and solution-building by experts).

We have begun applying the framework to a variety of projects, by filmmakers and nonprofits. One dynamic example of the possibilities of co-creation and multi-platform distribution is the project (currently in production) Boomtown Babylon, which brings together a variety of filmmakers from around the world to present stories, issues and solutions for the extreme effects of global urbanization.

We invite anyone interested in delving deeper into transmedia and social change to share comments and questions further at the Ideas Exchange at http://transmedia-activism.com.

Building Cultural Engagement for Change through Media and Narrative

2009-07-30T12:53:00.010-04:00

The discussions on issue fatigue at both on my site and ArtTribes Network, and later at SocialEdge, prompted me to start looking at the flip side of fatigue, which in the case of social issues is engagement, participation and commitment. This is also a thread I've been examining in the engagement frameworks I've been co-creating, for Transmedia Activism, which looks at how one uses cross-platform distribution of content, co-creation networks and shared authorship to engage activists toward change; and for Modeling Global Change, which uses design thinking, user experience and structured narrative to examine partnership, influence and stakeholder collaboration toward parallel action and systemic change.

The same constructs which were discussed around combating issue fatigue can be used in creating a cultural movement around an issue. In particular, building platforms that allow for (1) storytelling and communication, and (2) effecting and demonstrating impact, allow for continuous commitment to the movement. Media and narrative play significant roles in creating and building these platforms.

It can be difficult to develop and retain engagement using cause-related media or social media for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the dearth of financing opportunities and access to distribution in the case of film, and the consistent effort and facility with short, quick messaging and branding required in social media. Creating a sustainable engagement platform within your existing structure takes time, creativity and dedication. But it's also easier to disseminate information than ever before, since the internet, web and mobile technologies allow for more connectivity and access.

There are a few foundational questions to be asked before building a cultural movement through the use of media and storytelling. Here are the three most basic:

1) Who's the audience? Are you preaching to the "unconverted"-- that is, are you bringing in the previously disengaged or the merely aware to a social movement to strengthen its numbers and potential? Or are you preaching to a choir of engaged and activist members?

The fact is that the more people are exposed to stories around a cause and the ideas behind theories of change, the more likely that change will be effected or you'll influence the people who can help create impact. But there's a difference in how you influence previously disengaged participants vs. active participants. The messaging and stories for the unaware need to be more basic and should be targeted toward entry and inclusion. Also, the burden of influence and persuasion is higher, while you risk that return on investment may be lower in terms of actually creating change.

The Story of Stuff is an example of a viral media piece that successfully engages at the lower end of the engagement spectrum, bringing "newbies" into the discussion of consumption and climate change while also engaging more knowledgeable or activist participants. Moving further along the spectrum, the film Citizens at Risk presents a more complicated story and presupposes deeper knowledge, yet is still successful and effective in presenting the issues.

2) How will you create connection? How do you pull people in, wherever along the line of the engagement spectrum they sit? Creating the basis for empathy can be a challenge at times. Nick Kristof has noted that humans respond to the suffering of individuals rather than groups. This is a difficult obstacle to overcome when you're dealing with crises or conditions that adversely affect large numbers of people, whether climate change or mass atrocities or access/rights issues. People tend to tune out. On the other hand, people respond to compelling stories and sharp narrative. So there is great worth in storytelling to raise awareness and promote activism. But there is also risk in making a story a "hero's" story and focusing on a champion, to the exclusion of the situation and the impact. In gaining and retaining attention, the use of any media (film, art, social media) needs to be sparse, consistent and targeted and, more importantly, to create a personal connection.

Charity:Water (which uses viral and social media with great effectiveness) , and 3 Generations (which doesn't use social media, but houses its content only on its website and in partnership with The Hub at Witness) each present interesting examples of how you can use stories to create empathy, through stories that are intensely human and deeply empathic.

3) What are you trying to change? That is, what impact do you want to see and create?

It is through the loop of Issue-->Engagement-->Action-->Change that effective cultural movements move. And media (social, journalistic or arts-based) can be used at every step of that equation.

To a certain extent, the question of what you want to change should really be question number 1, every time you set out to create a movement or a program or an intervention. In the two frameworks I've been co-creating, Transmedia Activism and Modeling Global Change, we've based the frameworks on the core value of putting the social change issue first. It's important to build your platforms to both create and demonstrate impact. Institutional funders and individual donors alike would rather contribute to and participate in initiatives that make a difference and do it well.

If you can show your impact-- whether through a powerpoint presentation, a good Facebook Causes page or Twitter campaign, or a good narrative-- you're more likely to succeed in keeping attention and obtaining resources that will sustain your efforts. The use of narrative and storytelling, whether in video, photo or text form, or through personal interactions, bolsters qualitative success metrics and impact measurement, and puts a human face on change efforts and successes. (After all, what are we working towards if not a positive shift in the way lives are led and social conditions met?) Social media offers a day-to-day alternative to annual reports, press releases and grant reports in showing direct impact in a consistent, immediate way. Hope Phones, for example, has been using Twitter to good effect in the mHealth movement, showing how mobile phones contribute to assisting community health workers efforts. Using social media to present not only the issue (and not the "ask") but for donor engagement (the "thanks") and the impact can help maintain participation in the movement and may also keep effort and messaging anchored in the "change" part of the equation.

Transmedia Activism Presentation

2009-06-22T20:54:00.000-04:00

Transmedia Activism

View more OpenOffice presentations from lksriv.

Transmedia Activism site has launched

2009-06-15T15:48:00.002-04:00

The website for transmedia activism is now launched and open-sources the basic framework to be strategic and proactive in the use of media to create social impact. The framework encourages addressing social change first when using actionable content (essentially flipping the model of media first, outreach second), for collaboration on issue identification and storytelling between activists and content producers, and for embedding transmedia strategy from the start of a campaign.

Before creating a campaign, three foundational areas must be explored:

A. Social Change- what are you trying to change?
B. Storytelling- what is the narrative thread?
C. Resources- what do you have?

In setting up a campaign, these areas are explored and used as the basis for a plan:

A. Audience Segmentation- who are you engaging?
B. Resources- what do you need?
C. Story Universe Strategy- how do you define the story?
D. Content Strategy- how will you craft and distribute content?
E. Partners and Stakeholders- who will participate?
F. Engagement- how do you engage toward change?

With thanks to Vicki Callahan for all her help in creating the site, taking stewardship of the model and disseminating the framework.

The Stop Rape Now Campaign

2009-06-10T20:14:00.002-04:00

Two years ago, Eve Ensler, Founder of V-Day and author of the Vagina Monologues, addressed a United Nations panel on sexual violence in conflict zones, asking “What is it about rape that isn’t grabbing people’s imagination, isn’t seizing people’s conscience or isn’t getting people to stand up?” As a result of that meeting and subsequent advocacy work by a number of UN-related agencies and governmental actors, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1820, demanding complete cessation of sexual violence against civilians in conflict and post-conflict zones.

On the first anniversary of the resolution's passage, an interagency initiative of the United Nations is ramping up its campaign to seize people's conscience and engage them through a dynamic web campaign that allows participants to demonstrate support for the primary points of the resolution: Mass rape is not a necessary outcome of war; and sexual violence is a security problem that requires a security response, and is not simply a gender issue, but an issue that bears on the sustainability of peace agreements and post-conflict reconstruction.

The campaign's action toolkit is simple and manageable, yet engaging. The most viral part of it is the photo upload action, which in this case is more effective than an online petition would be. Site visitors are asked to participate by taking a photo of themselves with their arms folded in an 'X' and uploading it to a generally geolocated spot on a global map. As more photos are uploaded, the site becomes rich with images of people resisting and supporting with the solidarity of repeated gestures. For an issue that hasn't received the attention and intervention it should have in the past, this campaign is one good entry point to rectify the oversight.

Transmedia Activism Workshop at the Open Video Conference

2009-05-28T11:45:00.003-04:00

The Open Video Conference, in New York City on June 19-20, 2009, will bring together artists, activists, academics, technologists and entrepreneurs to explore issues of transparency, collaboration and decentralization in online video. On Day 2 of the conference, Vicki Callahan (Founder of the Conceptual Studies program at Universty of Wisconsin at Milwaukee), Lotje Sodderland (creator of Planet of Slums, a multi-authored web documentary in production) and I will conduct a hands-on workshop on Transmedia Activism, entitled "Creating a Cross-Media Platform for Social Issue Campaigns." We will explore parts of the transmedia activism framework specifically related to online video creation and distribution, and how the strategic use of those tools advance a social change campaign.

The conference promises to be engaging and thought-provoking. Conference speakers include: Clay Shirky, Ted Hope (Film producer, Adventureland), Lance Weiler (The Workbook Project), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues) and Sam Gregory, Program Director of Witness. Hope to see you there.

(Cross-posted with Feminism 3.0.)

Transmedia Activism and Planning

2009-04-16T08:15:00.001-04:00

Beth Kanter has written a very interesting blog post taking my article on transmedia activism one step further, looking at business planning and networks. Three very interesting points have arisen from her post so far:

First, Beth poses a question about business planning to build and facilitate co-creation networks, which, as I commented on her site, drives home the point that for organizations to use storytelling to effectively engage and energize community, they have to build/position their internal capacity and create external networks to manage co-creation in the first place. (The underlying problem that remains is how do you do this with minimum cash and resource outlay while still ensuring maximum outreach and stakeholder/network stewardship?)

Second is the question of how someone carrying out a transmedia activism campaign can balance managed vs. organic growth of the story universe. Since I've started looking at strategic planning for this process, I've found it helpful to proactively plan the process while still allowing room for inclusion of unsolicited content and organic growth of the story universe. (As I noted there, though, content creation from a number of decentralized authors raises aesthetic, technical and ownership issues, among others).

Third is the question of influence of content creators vs. content sharers (and how do you measure that influence?). Beth posts a very interesting graph by Gary Hayes that weights being "perceived" more heavily than creation-- so sharers wield more influence than creators. I agree with that in spirit: I don't view content creators as having "less" influence than sharers, but impact and participation are linked in this process so it is dependent on sharing, distribution and entry points into the story universe. But creators wield a separate kind of influence on this process in the ability to shape the content and its effect on perceptions.

3 Generations: The Power of Storytelling in Social Change

2009-04-14T13:17:00.001-04:00

Three Generations helps survivors of genocide and crimes against humanity tell their stories, and provides an avenue for the world to hear them. The organization is built on the principle that storytelling transforms lives. As Jane Wells, the organization's Founder, says in a blog post for The Hub on WITNESS, "[s]tories remain with us long after conflicts and wars have ended, not just as evidence, but also by giving a human dimension to the often unimaginable."

Three Generations relaunched its website last week in conjunction with April's Genocide Prevention Month activities, creating a beautiful and simple storytelling platform that honors the victims and survivors of atrocities. Particularly noteworthy is that the organization, while curating and editing its content for aesthetic and technical value, endeavors to take away other filters and allow the storytellers to recount their experiences "without agenda, as they would like to tell them." This makes the content that much more compelling. Three Generations' video shorts, stills and text together provide a strong example of how storytelling can be effective (and rapid) in translating the "unimaginable" to audiences-- and how spare and evocative content can draw viewers directly into another's world (and engage them into deeper change efforts).

(Note: Three Generations is a client.)

SXSW Observations

2009-03-19T11:09:00.020-04:00

The SXSW Interactive and Film festivals in Austin, Texas, were a whirlwind of ideas and activity, and the small but significant segments devoted to nonprofit and social innovation issues presented food for thought. While most of what I saw left me generally hopeful (perhaps because I didn't hear much about our current economic or funding crises), many of the panels made me think we still have challenges in the social change sector in the way we do our work, how we define it, and how we aim for change. Here are a few brief takeaways from the panels and hallway conversations:

As a sector, we still have work to do to clarify the distinction between charity and social good/systemic change. The "Social Media for Social Good" panel, in particular, led off with stories of fundraising and good deeds on behalf of individuals, as opposed to scalable social change. I'm not making a value judgment against fundraising here (had they titled the panel "Social Media for Fundraising," I would have had less of a problem with the focus-- though I will continue to argue the prevailing system of fundraising needs a major overhaul). But I and a few other attendees later voiced the view that charity is an entry point, not an endpoint, in sustainable social change. In other panels, I heard general discussions of impact measurement, but no discussion on how nonprofits and activists could set up or measure those metrics-- or fundraise to pay for the time and effort it takes to carry out impact measurement. There was little discussion about presenting evidence of change, even in the storytelling panels- and only heard one mention of the need to make a specific connection from engagement to actual change. (With regard to the storytelling panels, most of what I happened to see concentrated on ad-driven and brand-supported storytelling, so I won't discuss that now.)

Similarly, many of the proposed solutions that panelists discussed throughout the festival would largely affect the same socioeconomic strata as the attendees. Besides the panels devoted to mobile applications for social good in developing regions, there wasn't much attention to scaling solutions to other socioeconomic classes. Neither was there much discussion of ground-level innovation and scalability of those solutions, except in those same panels. And as Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org pointed out, there was far more attention given to development and marketing of more applications and more products, and less to the development of enabling and instilling platforms along socioeconomic fault lines for existing products and services.

On the numerous discussions about social media, it appeared that some people position social media as a discipline itself. To state the obvious, social media is a tool and a platform to enable and enhance communications. I'm not sure why social media is still being pulled out from larger communications strategies (for surely the novelty of social networking is wearing off by becoming ubiquitous?), but if so, we need to start seaming it back in. The only exception to this would be the discussions on access, diversity and participation in social networking. Proposed solutions mostly centered on the creation of affinity groups, which seem to belie the point of integration on the web. If affinity groups connect immediately to larger, cross-participatory groups, this strategy may work. Simply creating silos may solve the access and participation problems-- but this won't go far in terms of integration and the cross-cultural dialogue that the web is otherwise well-suited to provide.

The good news is that, despite the economic and cultural challenges we face, I felt a general sense of action and positive movement. The panels I most enjoyed and would revisit are: The Ecosystem of News: Change V2 (Lawrence Lessig inspiring discussion of his newest project, www.change-congress.org) and the three panels devoted to mobile technology and social good, Appfrica; Mobile Web for Good; and Mobile Ubiquitous Banking.

Is Fundraising Dead?

2009-02-27T08:22:00.003-05:00

Maybe, maybe not. At the very least, in this climate of limited resources and jittery giving, traditional fundraising techniques are not serving well. We in the social issue community are rethinking how we ask, how we give and how we generate both funds and impact. The exercise of reevaluation is revolutionizing the field-- and traditional fundraising techniques are starting to look outdated.

Larry Keeley of Doblin spoke a few weeks ago at the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at the Ontario College of Art and Design, about the role designers play in innovation. He called on us (designers and non-designers alike) to engage in platform thinking to conceive and prototype new futures. Within the context of design and innovation, Larry defines platforms as integrated offerings that create a unique and holistic user experience only loosely controlled by the platform owner. And even in the midst of a recession, Larry argues, there's never been a better, more dynamic time to engage in innovation and platform thinking, given both the widespread availability of tools and the current societal will to collaborate.

I've been thinking about platforms ever since that conversation. In the context of sustainable social change generally, the most effective platforms are integrated offerings that scale globally and across sectors, creating movement toward a just and equitable future shaped according to local values. Those platforms need supportive platforms that allow for dynamic and sustained resource generation and community engagement (through communication, storytelling and demonstration of impact). The following platforms look like they will emerge as the strongest ways to move the needle forward:

1) Donor engagement: Creating donor-centered infrastructure, in which donors' expectations and goals are directly integrated into the core of an initiative's mission and programs. This applies most often to high-level donors, requires active stewardship and communication-- and is akin to a partnership model.
2) Peer-to-peer fundraising: Funds are raised through grassroots networking, individual to individual. Twestival (Twitter-based fundraising for charity:water) is the most recent example of this. (Beth Kanter presents a thorough look at this effort on her blog.)
3) Open source activism: This is a phrase used by musician, activist and filmmaker Justin Dillon (Call and Response) to describe his efforts to increase participatory action and idea generation for social change.
4) Open source philanthropy: Increased availability and sharing of information in and among key stakeholders. GFEM has created a media database to connect media projects with funders on an open platform. Larry Keeley has also worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to innovate philanthropic giving and due diligence.
5) Impact investing: Creating global investment portfolios that maximize both financial return and non-financial benefits of scalable solutions to social and environmental problems. (A more grassroots example of this is HopeEquity.org, which creates micro-endowments that generate interest on capital.)

(Thanks to Michael Dila and Robin Uchida of Torch Partnership, a brilliant strategy and innovation firm and a sponsor of sLab, for inviting me to attend the sLab series. The exposure to Torch's work on cross-sector collaboration has enriched my own strategy practice. Thanks also to Jill Finlayson of the Skoll Foundation and socialedge.org, who has inspired our cross-site dialogue about issue fatigue, fundraising, media engagement and donor engagement platforms.)

Storytelling for Change: The Most Significant Change technique

2009-02-13T08:15:00.011-05:00

Sean Howard made me aware of an innovative storytelling tool geared toward change/needs assessments, called the Most Significant Change (MSC). This technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation that can be applied across a number of social issues.

The process--invented by Rick Davies nearly 14 years ago to meet challenges associated with monitoring and evaluating a complex participatory rural development program in Bangladesh-- involves the collection of significant change stories from participants and staff at the field level, followed by systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by designated stakeholders or staff. Once changes have been captured, various people sit down together, read the stories aloud and have regular, in-depth discussions about the value of reported changes and emerging patterns of focus. When the technique is implemented successfully, teams of people focus their attention on program impact.

This is the basic process:

1. Start and raise interest
2. Define domains of change
3. Define reporting period
4. Collect SC stories
5. Select most significant stories
6. Feed back results of selection process
7. Verify of stories
8. Quantify
9. Secondary analysis and meta-monitoring
10. Revise the system

I am particularly interested in the MSC technique because of its similarities to Appreciative Inquiry, a technique for change or growth strategy and organizational design that I like within in my own strategic planning practice. Also, Sean and I have been working together to create a program geared toward systemic change, using innovations in design thinking, visualization, user experience, organizational design and storytelling. We've been researching successful models of communication and evaluation- and the MSC technique is interesting in terms of systemic change. As Sean pointed out, the MSC technique has most often and successfully been applied vertically within organizations, but there are also valuable outcomes from that can arise from bringing external stakeholders into the process, such as enhanced donor engagement and partnership evaluations, which the user manual acknowledges in its section entitled "Innovation: Network Alternatives."

(Part of this comment is cross-posted from the ResistNetwork. Image taken from Rick Davies' blog.)

Summary: "Preaching to the Converted": Engaging Your Audience and Combating Issue Fatigue

2009-01-29T17:36:00.003-05:00

I moderated an online discussion on ArtTribesNetwork, on engaging your audience to combat issue fatigue. The discussion participants were from The Fledgling Fund, Cinereach, the Center for Social Media at American University, The Skoll Foundation, Global Grassroots, The Tiziano Project, the NYC Leadership Academy and the Miami International Film Festival, as well as two independent filmmakers (Brian Glazer, Producer of What We Got: DJ Spooky’s Quest for the Commons, and Marilyn Perez) and a social media expert (Howard Greenstein). We fleshed out some interesting ideas during the hour.

The transcript is online at ArtTribesNetwork.com. Here is a brief summary of the discussion:

Causes of issue fatigue
We briefly discussed causes of issue fatigue (also calling it compassion fatigue or psychic numbing). One reason audiences might disengage from a cause is their perception that there has either been no effective activism strategy put into place, or that there is no effective intervention or forward movement arising from activist efforts.

Another currently relevant reason is the economic crisis that affects our interests at home, which cause audience members to focus less on “distant” issues.

Similarly, issue fatigue hits audiences for causes that are large (hitting vast numbers of people) and/or “removed” from audience members’ daily lives faster than for issues to which they can relate personally or which center on one person in particular.

Keeping issue fatigue at bay
Discussion participants detailed their recommendations for keeping their audiences interested and committed. While you can’t necessarily apply the same questions and strategies to social issue media projects that have disparate or unique goals, the participants did come up with an overarching framework for most social issue media campaigns.

(1) Start with
(a) An exceptionally committed outreach team
(b) Sufficient resources to carry through your outreach and engagement plans
(c) A select, interested audience that will help you move the issue forward by engaging in activism and increase audience numbers by spreading the word, and
(d) Clear outreach goals for each audience segment.

(2) Given that issue fatigue hits when audience members feel disconnected, audience members must feel as if they belong to the movement and feel ownership over the outcome of activist efforts. Our participants talked about the importance of creating a personal, emotional connection to the cause through
(a) Visual imagery,
(b) A strong narrative that focuses on the story of one affected person (be that a witness, victim or survivor), and
(c) The opportunity to contribute through user-generated media.

(3) Social issue media campaigns built on slow, collective and continual action are most effective. The more people are exposed to the message through multiple media, the more likely they'll be to respond and/or take action. Therefore, campaigns must provide a pathway to action through creative opportunities for engagement.

It helps to engage in transmedia efforts, by continually creating and delivering new media, information, technologies and opportunities in order to maintain attention, through multiple distribution channels (traditional as well as digital and online), along with the opportunity to engage personally and collectively, in the real world.

(4) To communicate with your base, participants agreed that web 2.0 tools and social networks create an instant, global audience and deliver media and information most effectively. Digital communications tools are particularly useful for convening people virtually; sharing information, resources and referrals; getting attention; and inviting participation. In addition, you can encourage your audience to promote your message to their contacts in their own words.

(5) Audience members respond when the issue is highlighted in the local or national press, as this keeps driving and creating new interest in the issue.

(6) Finally, audience members also respond when they see their efforts are working. Therefore, participants encouraged providing feedback loops and impact measurements.

MediaRights.org article on transmedia activism

2009-01-20T18:28:00.001-05:00

MediaRights, a project of ArtsEngine, Inc., maximizes the the impact of social-issue documentaries and shorts within its community by helping filmmakers reach audiences, educators and librarians bring films into their classroom, and nonprofits and activists integrate media into their campaigns. They recently published my article on transmedia activism at their site. Thanks to Kasmore Rhedick, the online editor, for a great editing job.

User-generated mashups changing the face of copyright law

2009-01-15T13:36:00.002-05:00

ZDNet published a piece today about copyright law and the need to adapt IP laws to the Internet-driven cultural shift towards user-generated related content and participation. Brad Lichtenstein (friend, colleague, filmmaker, and the original inspiration for my work on transmedia activism), who is active in thinking and writing about the commons, posted a comment on his site about participation and the public domain. Thanks to him for continuing the conversation.

Generating mashups (fair use derivative works) and the use of orphan works are two very pertinent legal issues currently facing social change media. While most people don't dispute the rights of artists and creators over their content and the ways that content is used or disseminated, I wonder if, in thinking about media for social change, we should revisit "fair use" in the context of educational or charitable purpose or some analogous purpuse. (Or if someone already has?). The Copyright Act currently allows for performances of a non-dramatic or musical work in educational or religious assembly contexts. What if that notion were expanded beyond performances to include mashups, derivative content, sampling, or use of orphans works? I'm not certain that would be a popular stance, but perhaps it's worth exploring.

(For more information about legal issues surrounding user-generated content, The Center for Social Media has a number of great papers and discussions on its site.)

Riptide Communications - a new affiliation

2009-01-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

Riptide Communications provides press, public relations, and strategic communications services to groups and individuals committed to progressive social change, designing and executing effective media campaigns that play a pivotal role in promoting international human rights, peace and social justice, worker and immigrant rights, and environmental justice and public health causes. I am pleased to announce Lina Srivastava Consulting is now affiliated with Riptide Communications, to lend counsel on strategic planning, storytelling, new media and innovation, and to access their talents on press and public relations.

ResistNetwork: Share your ideas on social change

2008-11-25T18:59:00.002-05:00

ResistNetwork has a page seeking ideas for social change, to collect and spread information about websites, online resources, articles or tools. I am part of the team that is curating the page-- the other team members are Jess Tyrrell at Germination, Wai Mun Yoon and Marc Silver. Take a look and send in a message to socialchange@resistnetwork.com.

More on transmedia activism

2008-11-02T21:49:00.003-05:00

Paul Hawken's book about the "movement of movements" of activism to create change, Blessed Unrest, has been influential in the field of social justice-- and in my thinking on systemic change and local solutions-building; networks and linkages; and emergent vs. direct strategies.

Now Hawken is spearheading a film about the individuals involved in the movements described in the book. This is transmedia activism in action: The film is being produced through a purely participatory model and created entirely on the film’s website, where the film's production team will allow users to generate, edit and "select" the content that will eventually be synthesized into one central narrative. To fit completely into the transmedia activism model, the film would be distributed across multiple platforms-- though the distribution strategy for the film is still unclear.

(Thanks to Sameer Padania, director of The Hub, WITNESS, for our discussion about Hawken's project. The Hub is another brilliant example of how transmedia activism can work to raise awareness and inspire action.)

Breathing Earth

2008-10-22T12:04:00.002-04:00

My colleague, Juan Carlos Zaldivar (creator of Art Tribes Network) sent me the link to Breathing Earth, a website mapping real-time simulated CO2 emissions, birth and death rates and population by country. It's a brilliant website on its own and could be a great inspiration for use by third sector organizations to map a number of social change issues, including income inequality, mass atrocities, human rights data, environmental degradation, etc.

Cross posted at arttribesnetwork.com

Participatory Media and Tapping into Technology: Repurposing McKinsey

2008-10-10T17:32:00.007-04:00

In thinking about storytelling and content creation to promote social change initiatives, I revisited an article published late last year by The McKinsey Quarterly called "Eight business technology trends to watch." The article details emerging trends in the use of technology—particularly internet-based and related tools—that will continue to transform markets and business in the for-profit sector in the coming years. Four of the detailed trends, grouped under the heading "Managing Relationships," provide a good discussion point and analogy for participatory media for social change agents. These are:

1. Distributing co-creation
2. Using consumers as innovators
3. Tapping into a world of talent
4. Extracting more value from interactions

The article recommends that businesses should proactively shape these trends to increase wealth and economic value by using internet-based technologies, and social networking and communications tools. The authors recognize that technology alone can't unlock value, but must be combined with a new way of doing business, the most relevant of which is to foster "co-creation networks."

In the face of the current financial crisis, the tightness of funding to the third sector (which is already stretched for dollars and paid talent) makes it necessary for social change initiatives to create new economical and effective ways of “doing business,” and to be creative and aggressive in minimizing their cash outlay while maximizing their reach and building their audience. But while funding may be low, the social and political will to be engaged and “do good” is strong and continuously growing. (Paul Hawken’s writing on that in Blessed Unrest describes the networks arising from this will to improve societal conditions.) Combine the available technologies with the existing will to do good and business model innovation, and the trends outlined above might be adapted for third sector initiatives to increase return on social change initiatives. Here’s a brief description of how the trends might apply:

1. Distributing co-creation and 2. Using consumers (or, “beneficiaries”) as innovators

Just as corporations have started to harness marketing techniques to inspire product and service innovations from the collaboration between in-house developers and external stakeholders, so too can a social change initiative work with its stakeholders to encourage or solicit innovations in program or service delivery, raising awareness and inspiring action. The first two trends deal with building a co-creation network (and relate to the August 4th post below regarding transmedia storytelling).

The McKinsey Quarterly article notes that the Internet has become a “widespread platform for interaction, communication, and activism. Consumers increasingly want to engage online with one another and with organizations of all kinds.” The Internet and related Web 2.0 technologies have opened up new and cost-effective ways for social change initiatives to communicate with their base to raise awareness and inspire action. You only have to look at the number of causes and groups on Facebook, Twitter and similar sites to see the burst of social networking activity by third sector initiatives. Accessing stakeholders and beneficiaries to foster a co-creation network requires a similar technological effort—and has the added benefit of expanding the engaged audience and moving them from awareness to action. (There is another potential benefit in terms of fundraising organizations, in that engaged audiences are more likely to donate money; an engaged stakeholder is more likely to donate in kind, as well.)

External partners can offer objectivity, knowledge of market trends and insights on the ground—particularly in locations remote from a nonprofit’s corporate office—that can help shape program development and allow nonprofits to delegate and decentralize innovation (and, depending on the structure of the relationship, lessen costs). Companies that involve customers in design, testing and marketing get better insights into customer needs and behavior. Similarly, social change initiatives that involve their stakeholders and their beneficiaries in program design, testing and marketing can inspire “loyalty” and adherence to mission and vision, speed up development cycles and improve accountability. Keystone provides a good example of employing co-creation to work with its beneficiaries in South Africa and the Philippines (where it has ground staff, as well) to create and implement programs that enhance organizational efficacy. Keystone also works with like-minded organizations in strategic collaborative partnerships that have agreed to support testing and application of the model.

There is one caution here, also inspired by the article. In opening up innovation to stakeholders and beneficiaries, you must be sure that you are not overly swayed by “information gleaned from a vocal minority,” and also that you continue to pay attention to both short- and long-range needs of your organization and beneficiaries.

3. Tapping into a world of talent and 4. Extracting more value from interactions

The third and fourth trends allow for more effective work flow, both internally and externally to an organization. In terms of tapping into external talent, interactive technologies allow cost-effective outsourcing to specialists, consultants and independent contractors. “As more and more sophisticated work takes place interactively online and new collaboration and communications tools emerge, companies can outsource increasingly specialized aspects of their work and still maintain organizational coherence.” This could be especially useful to nonprofit organizations, no matter what size, but particularly for small- to mid-range organizations. Because of the problem of financing—and despite what I can see as an increasing number of conversations about the need for more foundation and donor funding to support administrative activities—nonprofit organizations are more stretched than ever. Nonprofit staff members often wear more than one administrative hat to keep within budget. I’m not certain how many nonprofits outsource or off-shore their administrative activities—or even how many create partnerships with other nonprofits to share back office or program/service delivery functions—but since interactive technologies are making it easier and less costly to integrate and manage the work of outsiders, a number of functions (including innovation as described above, and administrative tasks, such as finance, IT or operations) can be outsourced here or abroad by nonprofit organizations.

Relative to enhancing communications within an organization, or between an organization and its external partners, “[t]echnology tools that promote interactions, such as wikis, virtual team environments, and videoconferencing, will enhance managerial innovations—smarter and faster ways for individuals and teams to create value through interactions…” For most social change initiatives that are leanly staffed with personnel who are more mission-aligned than well-compensated, building a smarter, faster operational system will make it easier for them to do their jobs and to focus more on the actual work of social change and program delivery. This combination will also make an organization more attractive to funders, while creating an environment in which program and service delivery can thrive. A nonprofit organization can improve its staff’s productivity in the realm of program delivery while relieving staff members of some of the day-to-day pressures that come along with working in the nonprofit sector, by investing in interactive technologies and the training to have staff and stakeholders adopt and use them.

Transmedia Activism

2008-08-04T23:52:00.004-04:00

One of the members of The Art of Social Change, Brad Lichtenstein, wrote last month at www.onthecommons.org about his newest documentary project, What We Got: DJ Spooky's Quest for the Commons, for which the film's creators are using a transmedia storytelling process to craft the film and its outreach strategy. Transmedia storytelling is a concept first described by Henry Jenkins. In his blog entry, Brad paraphrases the process' definition as: "Transmedia storytelling, also called multiplatform or enhanced storytelling, is storytelling across multiple forms of media. By using different media, it attempts to create "entry points" through which audiences can become immersed in a story franchise's world. The aim of this immersion is decentralized authorship across multiple new media forms like television, movie theaters. video games, the internet, and mobile platforms. By encouraging the sharing of assets and user generated content, transmedia conveys a complex story through numerous media sources."

There is a pure marketing benefit that arises from multiple entry points into a media property-- and in allowing your audience to participate in creating content and new platforms to distribute it. Even more interesting is the door this opens up for cause outreach, though (particularly in the context of this site). Nonprofits and creators of social change media have a challenge in making their content "sticky" and, in a crowded field with limited funding or distribution channels, it takes significant resources and expertise to first, create audience awareness and, second, inspire/prescribe action. There is a real and distinct opportunity for activists to influence action and raise cause awareness by distributing content through a multiplatform approach, particularly in which people participate in media creation. (A multiplatform approach would involve real-world, web-based or mobile content delivery of a variety of possible media, including feature-length narrative or documentary films, short films and clips, streaming or downloadable video, photography, blog posts, articles, spoken word content, exhibits, benefits and events, etc.)

Nonprofits engaged in social change initiatives should view storytelling as a necessary component of mission-fulfillment. (I know, as if the stretched, underpaid staff of any nonprofit doesn't have enough to think about.) It's well-established that for any individual institution, engaging your audience-- whether that's your beneficiaries, funders (existing and potential), board members, community or other stakeholders-- requires that they convey clearly, precisely and artfully what they do, how they do it, where their services/programs are most effective and necessary, and why they should be supported in your efforts to continue or grow their work. In the larger view of systemic change, though, storytelling takes on an even bigger role, where a well-told story creates a shared experience and helps illuminate all the factors (root cause and symptomatic) that effect social change efforts at both the global and local levels, creating a comprehensive, connected, "best practice" view of achieving progress.

Looking at this issue in the simplest of terms, one of the best ways to have people connect to a cause is to expose them to a variety of accessible media properties over a number of distribution channels-- which opens up avenues for dialogue and provides an audience with an educational experience about workable solutions-- and then work with the most creative and engaged audience segment to facilitate the creation of their own content that further explains the cause and inspires action around it. This kind of participatory social change art is not a new concept. The Theater of the Oppressed, a company established in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, engaged its audience as "spect-actors" -- participants who could both act and observe-- to learn how to solve social problems and constructively fight against oppression they encountered in their daily lives. (Today, there are still companies that use this theater form, such as the Aarohan Theater in Nepal which creates interactive theater in which the audience analyze social problems they face and act out possible solutions.) Another interesting example is the upcoming documentary Resist. The film's creators have set up the ResistNetwork website to start the film's outreach throughout its making, and to invite people to contribute stories of change that may end up in the final product or ancillary media.

To have a nonprofit's stories heard and to have an audience connect with cause, nonprofits should think about whether they can conceive and execute on a multiplatform approach. Leaving aside the question of funding (there are still relatively few funders who support media outreach initiatives with any consistency), a nonprofit would need a clear, defined, sustainable strategy and the attendant resources to create appropriate, compelling content and distribute it. As Brad points out in his blog, his journey through this process of transmedia storytelling has changed him from a filmmaker to a content producer. Nonprofits dealing with social change don't need to get into the business of content production or multiplatform distribution-- but it is a digital world now. It's likely time to add storytelling to the task list.

Republished from The Art of Social Change, at ArtTribesNetwork.com (http://www.arttribesnetwork.com/group/theartofsocialchange/forum/topic/show?id=1996069%3ATopic%3A7220)

Outreach for Cause: Discussion on Social Entrepreneurship and Documentary Filmmaking

2008-07-15T00:31:00.011-04:00

http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/marketing-communication/stories-of-change

I participated in a thorough and valuable discussion-- Stories of Social Change-- at the Skoll Foundation's discussion platform, about the intersection between social entrepreneurship, systemic change and filmmaking.

Quoting a post on web platforms for documentary distribution/marketing, "from the perspective of a nonprofit, social entrepreneur or activist, there is a distinction between marketing for a film and marketing for a cause. What I've found from consulting primarily on the nonprofit/cause side of the fence is that filmmakers, distributors, marketers, etc., don't always pay enough attention to marketing/outreach on cause. Outreach for film and for cause are related but different-- and should involve different strategies for information dissemination and audience engagement... [and] it's the responsibility of the social entrepreneur/activist to make sure the cause is marketed and awareness-raising is tied to a film (which is true for any distribution vehicle)."

Article about Filmanthropy

2008-07-07T20:32:00.002-04:00

http://www.entrepreneur.com/worklife/successstories/article195142.html

I wish the authors had spoken a bit more about investor returns and effective business models (particularly given the publication) beyond the need to limit budgets and conserve resources. But there are still kernels of wisdom here-- particularly for non-filmmakers who are not used to film budgets. Film financing is often a conundrum for non-industry people who are trying to figure out their use of media.

Republished from The Art of Social Change, at ArtTribesNetwork.com

Article from AIVF's The Independent Magazine

2006-08-01T15:47:00.005-04:00

From http://www.independent-magazine.org/

Getting Perspective: AIVF interim executive director's view from the inside

When I came to work with AIVF in February, I don’t believe the Board or staff could have predicted that AIVF’s situation would spark a debate about the possible meltdown of an entire industry. AIVF’s Board retained me through a referral from the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, charging me to maintain the organization’s operations following a change in leadership and to rebuild systems that had fallen into disrepair. Being a newcomer to this industry (I am a lawyer and nonprofit management consultant, not a filmmaker or media arts professional), I was able to assess AIVF’s viability as a business in isolation from larger industry questions. After working with the Board and staff for a few weeks, we all quickly learned how deeply troubled the organization really was. Its operational systems, accounting and financial support, and technological capacity were all outdated and barely functioning.

Although aware of the internal and external difficulties facing the organization, neither the Board nor the staff wanted to go down without a fight. So we’ve searched for long-term solutions and necessary resources, and we started on the task of devising necessary changes to AIVF’s service model. We also sought an influx of cash via donations or earned revenue, to help us finance necessary changes in infrastructure as well as programs and services. More importantly, additional financial resources would enable us to lay the groundwork for a long-term plan to revitalize the organization in a way that engaged the community and articulated AIVF’s mission—namely, to service and improve the professional lives of independent media artists. Reaching these goals, though not impossible, has proven challenging.

As Brian Newman, Jim McKay, and Anthony Kaufman have discussed, AIVF’s problems viewed against larger industry problems look even more challenging. Nonprofit organizations regardless of their service area are facing leadership, staffing, and budgetary problems— and a push to act more like their for-profit counterparts. Nonprofits must protect the “bottom line” in terms of maximizing the quality of beneficiary services while meeting standards of efficiency, fiscal soundness, and innovation in their fields. Any nonprofit focused on improving its performance must possess the foresight to adequately size its budget, retain qualified personnel, and enter into worthwhile partnerships in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, all the while keeping an eye on income opportunities, industry trends, and technological innovations. A tall order. Now throw into the mix the fact that only a few donors will fund a nonprofit’s efforts to improve its organizational capacity, preferring to fund programs alone.

The nonprofit media arts industry is dealing with its own challenges, which complicates AIVF’s task, but has made the question of the organization’s survival that much more crucial. The field has changed radically in the last 5 to 10 years. Independent media artists are working in the midst of a cultural chill brought on by repressive, pro-consolidation media policies. One of the most recent and disturbing examples of this has been the creation of Smithsonian Networks and its alliance with CBS/Showtime, an alliance that threatens artists’ access to primary source materials [see page 39]. On the other side, the for-profit media sector has made a successful foray into the field. That’s not inherently a bad thing: Responsible for-profit players bring a great deal to the table for artists, primarily in terms of distribution and access to technological innovations and artists and nonprofits alike could benefit greatly from exploring collaboration. But for-profit companies are not set up to support independent creators of art or media. Truly independent media and film is already hard to find.

If the nonprofit media arts movement does indeed “die,” who will protect the makers of the medium? No matter how much foundations and activists push to reform media policy, it won’t mean anything for the American cultural landscape if artists can no longer fund or disseminate their works. If there exists a compelling reason for AIVF to survive and reinvent itself— or for any other organization that works in the realm of nonprofit media arts—it is to protect independent media artists and their ability to do their work.

Born into Brothels, The Film, Seeds Kids with Cameras, the Organization

2004-11-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

Originally published at MediaRights.org

The theatrical release of the film Born into Brothels (ThinkFilm) on December 8, 2004, presents Kids with Cameras with an opportunity for outreach and exposure most young nonprofit organizations may never enjoy. The organization, dedicated to the empowerment of children through the art of photography, fulfills its mission through a model that was initiated with children of prostitutes in Calcutta. Born into Brothels is about the fascinating creation of this model.

The Sundance-award winning documentary, co-directed by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, recounts Zana�s inspired journey to the red light district of Calcutta. She went to India to take pictures of the prostitutes and ended up teaching their children photography. The film captures Zana’s work with the kids over a number of years as they learn how to tell their own stories and reach their dreams for an education, the only way to escape the crime and poverty of the red light district.

Zana did not come to the project as a social worker or activist in the traditional sense, but her work led to change at the most intrinsic level. The film therefore serves as a powerful tool for inspiring education and action.

Kids with Cameras: A Film Gives Birth to a Nonprofit

Born into Brothels is a call to action. Most of us who have joined the Kids with Cameras cause as board, staff, volunteers and donors did so after one viewing of the remarkable film. We have committed ourselves to activism that uses media on many tiers. Kids with Cameras realizes its potential and responsibility to inspire transformation in children around the world growing up in zones of conflict or dire poverty. We also understand that we can raise awareness and effect change in our audiences using the creative media of photography and documentary filmmaking.

Kids with Cameras therefore develops and uses media projects to spark social change with our beneficiaries, our audience, the world, the children’s communities, our photographers and ourselves. We aim for empowerment on both sides of the camera.

Kids with Cameras delivers the services that fulfill our mission through a three-pronged approaches:

1. Photography Workshops
The photography workshops provided over a period of time serve as a point of entry into the children’s lives. We enable professional photographers to travel to troubled parts of the world to teach children how to create photographs, how to edit their photos and how to select the best images. We promote artistic excellence in the children and work with them one-on-one to maximize the long-term effects of our work. We are currently providing workshops in Israel and Haiti, and we are planning to launch another in Cairo. Workshops will be held in two to three locations per year.

2. Media Projects
Progressing from the photography workshops, we develop media projects that highlight the children’s accomplishments. These media projects include film, photography, websites, books and exhibits. Through these projects, we inspire our audiences to observe, learn and act.

3. Legacy Projects
Finally, we develop educational “legacy” projects to continue our impact on the communities we’ve touched. In Calcutta, that means building a school exclusively for the children of the brothels that promotes leadership skills and the arts, as well as general education. In other communities, we hope to assist schools and community centers that already exist.

This three-tiered model was derived directly from Zana’s work in Calcutta as documented in Born into Brothels. This year, Kids with Cameras has moved towards formalizing the model and building our services around it. Kids with Cameras was created from the work shown in Born into Brothels, and the film now exists within our model as a Kids with Cameras media project. This cycle of work stages a unique opportunity to present Kids with Cameras as an effective social change organization that uses arts, media and education.

Using the Film to Garner Support

This year documentaries have become the hottest film genre. In a year when nearly every other successful documentary has concerned the American political horizon or the Middle East, Born into Brothels stands out as global in scope �- a piece of humanist filmmaking at its finest and, this year, most unique. The film is distinct not only in subject matter, but also in its key role in the formation of a dynamic, effective social change organization.

As I write this article, the Board and staff at KWC are brainstorming on how to use our “right-place, right-time” opportunity to deliver our message. Our chance to publicize our work rests, to a large extent, in our ability to get people in theaters or to see the film when it broadcasts on HBO in 2005. The challenge comes in trying to create an outreach campaign for the organization that works in tandem with the film’s publicity campaign, while continually working on outreach efforts that will move us beyond the film.

Our publicity strategy involves using the film and related media projects to educate audiences about Kids with Cameras� model and our successes, and to demonstrate what the children in the film and kids like them throughout the world are capable of producing. We are working towards developing a media campaign that capitalizes on the film’s publicity — with one eye on opportunities to move beyond the film as an outreach tool as our organization grows larger.

To that end, we are currently using the documentary to garner media attention for the organization itself. The film provides a hook for publications to write about Kids with Cameras and our efforts. We are visiting film festivals around the country (where the film has won over 20 awards), mounting photo exhibits and providing literature at the festivals and screenings themselves. We have held a few private screenings at which the organization can present itself and raise funds. We will endeavor to have press articles that speak about the film as well as the organization.

As we move beyond the film’s theatrical release, we will use Born into Brothels to inspire future action in an educational release or for private screenings. For the moment, in the buildup to the theatrical release, we are using the distribution and publicity processes to encourage networking, outreach and fundraising.