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Advancing the medium of change for a better future, sooner. About us, what we're about, and what we do.
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Advancing the medium of change
our context
Deep down, we all want a future where we are safe. Where we have enough to eat. Where we belong. A future where what we do is meaningful and makes the world better for ourselves, for each other, and for the future. A future that’s shared by all.
Through industry and information we’ve become powerful. But somehow, that future is no nearer. Instead we’re finding we’ve pushed our planet and society to the limit. We’re finding our trajectory is unsustainable.
our future
We are in a time of transition. Our future is shaped by what we do next.
A growing movement of change is responding. It is easing and accelerating our transition to a future we want. It comes from people coming together to make the world better. In little ways. In big ways. In many ways.
And now, more than ever, we see that in every way, this movement is powered by the medium of change.
the medium of change
Data Interaction DevicesInfrastructure
an emerging system of social technologies that bring people together
more people ➜ making more change ➜ for a better future ➜ sooner
it’s changing us
Culture and
Mindset
Systemsof our
Society
People Coming Together
Medium of
Changedisrupts changes
enables
•Now over 1.5 billion internet users + 4 billion mobile subscribers
•45% of people in developing world are mobile subscribers
•By 2020 mobile will be primary internet device
•If Facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world.
From news to politics the medium is having profound implications. In the aftermath of the Iran elections in 2009, the US State Department treated Twitter as an essential public service, asking
them to delay scheduled maintenance. Shortly after Time declared it the medium of the movement.
•Governor Schwarzenegger responded to individual ‘tweets’, publicly, spontaneously, from his BlackBerry
•In the last 2 months more original content was posted on YouTube than the major networks could have broadcast since ’48.
•Ambient intimacy?•Common ground?
it’s changing changeEngagementfrom centralized to distributed
Actionfrom controlled to self-organized
Awarenessfrom structured to emergent
Obamamy.barackobama.com enabled 2m participants which led to:•35,000 volunteer groups•70,000 fundraising pages•$500m raised from 3m donors making 6.5m donations
•200,000 offline events•2b emails•3m phone calls online in last 4 days
Haiti Reliefenabled through sms and common web services:•Wikipedia page created within seconds
•Facebook served as information source around missing people
•RedCross SMS campaign raised $7m within 24h
•Virtually every online service became donation gateway.
charity: waterenabling practical and creative fundraising and providing direct connection to projects on the ground:•give up a birthday gift, jump out of a plane - fundraising made easy
•through Twestival 1,000 volunteers and 10,000 donors raised $250k through 202 events globally on Feb 12, 2009
#hohotospontaneous peer-produced event in support of Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank•18d from idea to event•no single leader•>dozen primary volunteers
•sold out 600+ attendance•>$25k raised•over 2t food donated
Ushahidi“The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.”
TwitterThrough Twitter, people become aware of disasters and events before the mainstream media or conventional channels can report it. For example, Twitter is able to identify earthquake activity before any other public source. People are the very sensors of change.
what are we waiting for?• let’s understand its potential
Research is valuable and necessary. It’s beginning to happen but it can’t keep pace. How can we speed it up? How can we weave it into what’s happening today?
• let’s build it betterThe medium is being built around us right now. Built in the private interest it’s not optimized for public benefit. What infrastructure, protocols, applications amplify its potential?
• let’s apply it more deeplyIt’s changing us and changing change. But what does it mean for specific communities and issues? How can we apply it to most accelerate change case by case?
advance apply
intervention
community
who’s working on it?
how we’re doing itChangeMedium Intersections
Facilitated sessions that help ecosystems of social change understand and employ social technology for a better future, sooner.
Partnering with foundations, ChangeMedium facilitates iterative advances in understanding about the implications of the medium
around specific impact areas. By engaging stakeholders, researchers, and developers we also generate specific, actionable opportunities
to apply the medium for change in that area.
Currently in development, this process will be a rapid, repeatable process that can be deployed around any issue in any location. The
collective inputs and outputs will be designed to be shared and contribute to a living resource of the implications and opportunities
in the medium for a better future, sooner.
who we are• Core Team
Michael Lewkowitz (t | li)entrepreneur, igniter
Ryan Coleman (t | li)information designer, facilitator
• Steering CommitteeDuncan Holmes (t | bio)President, ICA Associates“Institute for Cultural Affairs”
Tim Draimin (t | li)Executive Director, SiG“Social Innovation Generation”
James Walker (t | li)Open standards advocate and developer, Shouldless + Status.net
• ThanksPeter Flaschner (t | li)design
Joseph Dee (t | li)development
SiG@Waterloo research outreach
SiG@MaRS #cmToronto
• Hosted byTides Canada Foundation
we’re ready for you
We call the emerging ecosystem of social technologies “the medium of change”. We believe it is changing us and changing change in ways that will ease and accelerate our transition to the future we want.
We facilitate initiatives among researchers, developers , and changemakers to advance and apply the medium for a better future, sooner. We are ChangeMedium.
Get in touch, to host or take part in our next Intersection.
