Transmedia Activism in Action

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

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

WeThink - Access for All - Final

Shirts and Boobs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.