Epic Change

Tech for Change - July Round Up!

As I wrote a month ago, in an attempt to inspire my co-workers at jhr to take on and embrace social media, I've started a sharing program where I highlight how various non-profit organizations are successfully using social media. Take a look at this month's picks!

 

Epic Change started "TweetsGiving" in 2008 with the aim of raising over $10,000 to build a classroom in Tanzania. How? By getting their networks to mass tweet about it! People were asked to tweet about something they were thankful for and include a link to the campaign's website where they could donate. And bam! 48 hours later, they got themselves $10,000 to build their classroom. And today, the kids educated in that classroom are tweeting too (read their tweets here). Pretty cool, I think. A prime example of how Twitter can be used to exponentially leverage word of mouth!

 

350.org, an international campaign that is working to find solutions for the climate crisis, has been actively using videos to convey their message to the public. I had a chance to speak to Jon Warner, 350.org's Internet Director, and he told me that with all the different languages in the world, they wanted to come up with something that was truly universal and inclusive. That's why their promo video was made entirely out of symbols that anyone anywhere would be able to understand.

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators from around the world who "aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online" by emphasizing voices that are not traditionally heard in mainstream media. They cover all sorts of topics from around the world in an attempt to make the Internet a more even playing field. Browse their website to get an alternative view on some of today's major issues. And while you're at it, watch this TED Talk by Co-Founder Ethan Zuckerman to gain a better understanding of his vision for this community and for the Internet as a whole. It's one of my favourite TED Talks and it's incredibly fascinating, I promise!

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#Tweetsgiving: Social Media for Social Good

 

Last week my fellow blogUT writer, Julia, wrote a great piece dispelling the alleged evils of social media. This week, I'm continuing that thought.

As Julia mentioned, social media has given us all the opportunity to keep in touch with our friends, reconnect with lost ones, and even share relevant (and well, sometimes not so relevant) information with each other with a simple 140 character tweet. More than anything else, Twitter and other social media tools lets us "learn about and interact with the world in real time, and in a way we never imagined".

I'd like to take this one step further. Not only has social media given us this chance to connect with each other on a one-on-one basis, but it has also opened the way for a much more far-reaching and collective purpose. Case in point? Tweetsgiving. Never heard of it? Let me give you the low down.

Read more on blogUT.
http://www.justineabigail.com/blog/tag/Epic+Change
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