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Adventures in Online Organizing: Grt ask for distributed film screenings from Invisible Children

I've been inspired by the work that Invisible Children is doing for some time now -- the integration of their online communications (heavily film) and their organizing is stellar. Maybe my top NGO crush (tied with 350.org).

I just rec'd this email asking supporters -- primarily students on campuses -- to book a screening for this upcoming Congo Tour movie.

They included this video appeal, which i thought was a great example of using a personal voice to make a compelling ask and tell a memorable story at the same time. The guy in the video is literally finishing the edits of the film that you'll be able to show your community, and the ask is dead simple -- sign up to host just one screening. Very simple. And at the same time it teases out one of the stories from the film.

Here it is -- more cause-orientated films should follow this model, so many seem to miss the mark in generating word of mouth:

Introducing: The Congo Tour from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Most widespread day of political action in history

This past weekend I had the honor of volunteering with the 350.org team during the final 48 hours of their global day of action on October 24, in more than 180 countries and every single time zone. It was filled with the same intensity and emotion as Election Day -- complete with lots of under-slept bodies and a dank campaign office. I was thoroughly impressed, learned a good deal, and had a blast. I'm preparing a more in-depth write-up on lessons learned, but in the meantime I wanted to pull together my status updates from the day (start reading from the bottom!) as well as some of the videos i shot.  

ok, 350.org has basically turned into a porn site for online organizers. (and my coworkers have caught me sneaking peeks) #350ppm 11:49 PM Oct 26th

Photo: From times sq, proud organizers, mvmt builders #350ppm global day of climate action 4:16 PM Oct 24th

"How long till I can get a decent robot?"

ROCKET MAN from last week's NYT Mag ("The Screens Issue") - Andy Samberg:

I saw a clip on the Internet of that Swiss dude, Yves Rossy, who made himself a jet pack and then flew it around like some kind of European awesome guy! If you haven’t seen it, just imagine if Iron Man and a Stealth bomber had a baby and decided to raise it in Switzerland to be a bald dude. The jet pack, much like the video phone, has always been on my childhood list of things I’ve been waiting for. And now, they’re both here. The future has arrived! Which raises the question: How long till I can get a decent robot? I don’t want any of those big white clunkers I’ve seen rolling around. I want a robot that I can really use. One that can entertain guests with political trivia and lend me money for late-night cab rides. Get it together, robot makers.

I’ve also been enjoying “The Wire” on DVD.

Spread the story. Stop the Disease.

This is really well done; incredible photos by James Nachtwey being put to great use. Only wish the online action component were a bit stronger. Makes me wonder why we waste so much time on some of the things we do. Watch in full screen with audio up.

where did all of these catalogs come from?

... and, what's a catalog? Just when i thought purchasing a physical CD was a quaint notion, when's the last time anyone outside of Iowa ordered holiday gifts from a catalog? I returned from a few days away to find a mountain of catalogs begging to be redirected to the landfill (my building doesn't recycle them, sadly). Then I remembered a recent post somewhere about a free service called CatalogChoice.org that does all the legwork of unsubscribing for you -- from whatever catalogs you no longer want to receive. Brilliant. No idea if it works yet (ask me in 8 weeks), but it couldn't have been much easier, and it sure is a great idea long overdue.

my first yahoo answer, and not poisoning myself on lithium ions

I just finished some impressive handiwork replacing my 3G ipod battery (so far, so good -- it's charging) and found myself with an old lithium ion battery which, the packaging said, i absolutely could not discard in the trash. (Side note regarding my skillz: If you compare my hackery with the likes of tom's breadboarding and sottering, based solely on appearances, i think I measure up quite well.) Of course, Newer Technology made no effort whatsoever to tell me what i, or anyone with a conscience, was supposed to do with said battery that could not be tossed. After all, why should my kids be forced to swim with terrorists in lithium-coated waters just so that i can have the pleasure of listening to a couple more hours of emo? So I asked The Internet and the internet delivered, as usual. After a few false trails on google, i was bopped over to Yahoo! Answers, where i found, "Discarding a battery?" Perfect! Well, almost. Everyone confirmed that I shouldn't jettison it, but the majority told me to go the local recycling depot, which is a ridiculously impractical idea, since I have no idea where such a depot would be found along my commute to work. I did, however, find through some pages linked from the answer page that you can take your battery to almost any electronics or phone store and they'll take the weapon off your hands at no charge, which was exactly what I wanted to hear. So i logged in and added my very first Yahoo! Answer to the Yahoo! Question and hopefully someone will Yahoo! benefit soon from my goodwill. I was impressed at how easy it was and rewarding to post an answer. Then, logically, i was smartly asked to take the next action (since I was presumably on a roll after answering my very first Q) and answer another question. Top of the suggestions list: Teen party dillema. Thanks, Yahoo. I help you save the planet and now you want to turn me into a child predator. I'll pass.

Goodbye, friendster. It was you, not me.

i've been twittering and it's more fun than blogging

Twitter Updates

The beauty of destruction

Firefox just crashed. With like 20 tabs open. And they didn't come back like they were supposed to. I'm an idiot for having them all open, but I'm also really glad that they're all gone now. On the other hand, A.V. closed this weekend and will probably soon be blown up. Nothing beautiful about that. Goodbye sweet divey Italian restaurant of yesteryear; you were too good to us.

Photos from LiveEarth

LiveEarth yesterday at Giants stadium was a blast... Never imagined that I'd ever get to hear Smashing Pumpkins live -- they rocked Rat in a Cage, Today, and a couple new ones. Definitely the highlight for me. Biggest shock was experiencing Bon Jovi perform Livin' on a Prayer live ... in New Jersey, no less. Was actually pretty great, I'll admit it. The badges we had seemed to get us everywhere, which made our lives there first rate, but for the crowd that was there all 8+ hours, it was good that they kept carting out Al Gore. Phil and I were based primarily out of a media booth that Brian had setup in the press bubble for the Alliance for Climate Protection -- Gore's new organization and the reason behind the concerts. (Check out the new site we just launched for ACP -- and sign up!) I was impressed at how well-spoken just about everyone who came through to record interviews for us was. Not that all stars are dumb like Brittany, but it seemed like every celeb who was there clearly came on their own volition because they really cared about the issue and wanted to do something. A few great celebrity rubs in the process, most of which are featured in the pics -- not included in the photos are probably the two most incredible that came through our booth, so i was probably too flustered to snap a shot or something: Ann Curry (NBC/Today Show) and Jane Goodall. Both beautiful in very different ways. Then Phil and I literally walked past Dave Matthews when we were backstage, which was pretty cool. My photoset HERE. Recent Rolling Stone interview had quoted Gore saying that the LE concerts were meant to be a starter pistol for this mass campaign and movement building effort around global warming. From everything I can tell and experienced, it seems like it succeeded at doing just that.