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That was the title of last night’s talk at The Hub, San Francisco featured Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, in conversation with David Batstone, President of Not for Sale as led by Michael Kieschnick, CEO of CREDO Mobile and Urban Studies Prof at Stanford. I’ll edit my video of the talk and put it on youtube later today. For the time-pressed amongst you, the highlights are below.
Olga and I cornered Jack and David at the end to tell them about our trafficking comic, Borderland (two weeks left until our Kickstarter time limit expires – order your comic now, plug plug!), as well as to discuss the opportunities for incorporating more storytelling into social media as a way of packaging the seemingly endless torrent of tweets, posts etc. Dorsey steered me towards Posterous as a way of embedding visuals in tweets – any Posterous users out there who use it to sync their WP, twit, Fb accounts?
“The power of twitter isn’t the number of people following you, it’s the potential of the universe in just one tweet” (JD)
Products in Development:
Social Media Collaborations that came up:
Thanks to the Hub for putting on a great event.
Part 3 from my latest comic, which takes 7 testimonies from victims of human trafficking and turns them into comics format. Please support the comic and anti-human trafficking measures by pre-ordering your comic from Kickstarter, the crowdsourcing site, here!
For information on the development of my Knight Journalism Project at Stanford, visit the Knight Project page here.
More news and updates below the fold, so scroll down or explore the tabs above for more comics.
This week has been crazy with the Knight Fellowship shifting into gear and sorting out my battle plan for courses: multimedia, digital video, human rights journalism and a possible intro to neuroscience.
Yesterday’s field trip to the city was great for the chance to visit the Yerba Buena Center for the first time, where we checked out the TechnoCraft Exhibition – a nod in the right direction towards all things crowdsourced, collaborative, hacked, modified and prototyped. Some of the products included: the design your own Puma shoe (in a bizarre partnership with Mongolian BBQ); hacked chairs made from assorted chair entrails scattered throughout London; and a company that allows you to custom-build your own fibreglass car (using the model to the left). Inspiring, but the price tag on all of the above was a bitter reminder of the niche elite urbanite target market for all this supposedly rethought design. Even if it is made out of a freight lorry’s tarpaulin cover.
I’ve been meaning to post this link on the two-fold face of digital activism, which, according to Gaurav Mishra of Gauravonomics is either:
1. you work with a disadvantaged group that suffers from limited access to even the most basic information and tools for self-expression. or 2. you work with a group that is anything but disadvantaged. This group is at ease with using always on internet and mobile devices, both for instantaneous access to information and for self-expression and social interaction. Here, the digital activist isn’t trying to solve a crisis of capability, but a crisis of caring.”
Needless to say, my Knight project is focused on the latter, bedecked as they might be in their custom-built Pumas.
a whiteboarded rainbow of inspiration
For an update on my ever-evolving Knight Project on an online multimedia comics interface, you’ll be wanting the Knight Project page.
Today was the first half of the Knight’s crash-course at the Stanford D.School in design thinking, half of which took place on the Cal Train and involved tackling the challenge of commuting: how to improve the overall experience, how that varied for the different types of commuter, the emotional influencers that dictate commuters’ behaviours etc. Once we’d acosted various travellers on the Bayshore-Palo Alto slow train and dodged the wrath of the design-challenged ticket inspector, we headed back to campus to thrash out our findings with post-its and whiteboards, dividing the feedback we’d received from interviews into 4 areas: things the passengers said, things they wish Cal train would do, things they felt towards their commuting experience, and things they thought. It was all about fast iterations, prototyping and not being hung up on getting a perfect result the first time round. In fact, being too eager to find an early solution stifles the creative process and will only limit your findings. Counter-intuitive, but very rewarding and looking forward to the follow-up session when we’ll dive deeper into designing a solution for our commuters tomorrow.
If you have any suggestions or feedback on ways to improve your commute, post a comment!
Part 2 of another comic from the upcoming human trafficking comic, Borderland. Featuring 7 true stories told by human trafficking victims in comics format. Now at 1/3 of our goal! Please order your comic via Kickstarter here – $5 for a digital version, $10 for a hard copy, as well as more luxurious options like signed posters, behind the scenes views of the project’s artwork, and the chance to sponsor a copy for a Ukrainian school or NGO. More news on yesterday’s SF Zine fest journalism panel below.
My haul from yesterday's Zinefest
I’m glad to say that the panel I was on at yesterday’s Zinefest provoked a predictably lively debate about the future of journalism and print publishing. Shockingly (to me, at least) only about 2 people in the audience had even heard of sites like Kickstarter or Chipin – not what I was expecting from the most creative, indie-minded spirits in the bay area.
To those of you unfamiliar with the fest, I’d say it’s like a more adult version of APE – same DIY/punk spirit, but fewer zombie comics and more socially conscious creators. Highlights from a few laps of the County Fair Building were: the Zines on Toast peeps from the UK, currently on a nationwide comics tour; Susie Cagle, fellow Bay Area comics journalist, whose comics on Food Not Bombs (9 Gallons, see left from my pile) and a recent trip to Israel were must buys; radical stalwarts AK Press, who hopefully will carry the Honduran coup comic (news on that when I have it); and Sparkplug books, who might do too. Rummaging around in various piles I also found some vintage Seth Tobocman (Squatter comics, see left), as well as a vegan cookery zine that looks interesting.
I’ve also been excitedly looking through the online Stanford Uni course catalog to choose my courses for the upcoming year – one of the many myriad perks of being a Knight Fellow. So far I’m leaning towards the Art and Communication depts, though there were a few neuroscience courses that took my fancy…One of the many innovative Stanford-related websites I came across was the Persuasive Tech Lab, which focuses on the interaction between decision-making and technology, and other behavioral connundrums. Currently they’re linking to this amazing audiovisual mashup of a song comprised of various different would-be youtube stars’ voices/tunes. Check it out below, it’s the future of creative collaboration (and music):
First panels from one of the stories featured in my upcoming Borderland comic – featuring 7 true stories told by human trafficking victims. I’ll be posting the next panels over the next week, but please order your own copy of the comic through our Kickstarter page to help us raise money towards printing and distribution costs. You can also help us out by sharing the link on FB, Twitter, Digg etc – thanks for your support!
This is MTV EXIT’s first forray into animation: a stunning piece of socially-minded animation from JM Animation Studio, telling the story of one girl’s descent into human trafficking and the overlap with the various people involved in the ring. There are 3 parts, with a total run time of 25 mins – well worth your time (not to mention the fact that the soundtrack’s provided by Radiohead). Share and comment on how effective a means of raising awareness/storytelling you think it is.
