We live in a time of big challenges and major opportunities, especially with regard to the use of media and technology. However, as always, the dinosaurs of the previous era are trying, understandably, to stifly innovation by using the law to lock down their cultural assets. In addition, there is a new direction that many artists and companies are choosing, one of balance and open-ness with regard to copyright and other intellectual rights. We encourage you to consider using Creative Commons licenses in your work, to ensure that there will be a free culture and free market of ideas and culture to build upon for the next generations.
September 11, 2011
9/11/11: A Decade of Breakdown and Renewal
A decade ago, a 25 year old in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I remember driving over the Manhattan bridge, seeing the smoke coming from the first tower, and thinking what idiot crashed some small plane into the World Trade Center.
In the hours and days that followed, I remember feeling the amazing shared sadness across New York City. It was both the worst of times and best of times, when our individual experience became shared across worlds.
What if we had chosen peace?
No where was this sense more prominent than in Union Square, where a memorial emerged and there were intense conversations about what our response should be as a nation. For that first week, I remember thinking, "What would be possible if the United States chose to take a deep breath and choose a non-violent response to this act of terror?"
Eli Pariser had started an email list called 9/11 Peace that gathered hundreds of thousands of email addresses of those calling for restraint and peace. Imagine a 21st century defined by such a profound choice inspired by Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Henry David Thoreau, and one of the original crew - Jesus of Nazereth.
Radiohead Idioteque: This is Really Happening
Of course, the Bush administration chose the more expected and less inspired path, which led a team of us to create the video below, inspired by the prophetic Radiohead song Idioteque, which we completed in November of 2001.
Now a decade later, reflecting on my time away from ground zero, having lived internationally in France, Singapore, and London, and now based in San Francisco, I still feel deeply connected the New Yorkers and others who have felt the impact of war over these years.
We Have Always Been at War, Our Time to Rise
Because I grew up without experiencing any violence towards me, I know it's naive for me to tell those impacted by war to choose peace. But the recent movements across the world, particularly the true non-violence leadership in Egypt, give me hope in the face of the institutional breakdown and extreme weather. I offer the song below as a tribute to those continuing to build.
The first inspiration for the song below came the night of 9/11, on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, where I experienced New Yorkers singing together outside for the first time. Over the years, as I continued to listen to both old and new voices of those impacted by war, this song has continued to evolve and grow. This morning, on the tenth anniversary of that day, I put the finishing touches on the lyrics and finally discovered the name of the song, "Our Time to Rise."
For all of those who felt and continue to feel the sadness and loss that comes from acts of war and terror, and all of those who are building towards the dream of a world that chooses non violence, thank you and keep building.
We just found out that our social venture LoudSauce, a social way to buy ad space for your favorite causes, was selected as a finalist for Ashoka's WeMedia Changemakers Pitchit competition, which means I will be pitching on March 9-11th in Miami for a chance at $25,000 to start the social enterprise.
A little less than a year ago, during another yearly beginning of reflection, I engaged in an excercise to find a new name for the social venture I had been discussing over the past few years. In 48 hours, a group of professionals and amateurs alike suggested names for a "crowdfunded media buying service for social enterprises," and the name that emerged as the winner based on NameThis.com's algorithms, was LoudSauce (suggested by non other than a previous Nokia client and hip hop karaoke master Dan Goodall.
The excitement of the interest from friends and supporters was contagious, and we ended up applying to a few venture competitions including TechStars and Ycombinator, and found a developer in the Bay Area who was interested in joining as a co-founder. We were happily surprised to be invited by Paul Graham and the friendly Ycombinator team for a final round interview in April, which perfectly coincided with a trip back to the US from London for my 10 year Duke reunion.
After one of the most efficient 10 minutes of communication I've ever experienced, they handed us a check to cover our travel expenses, and later that night we eagerly awaited their decision. While the discussion during the interview had focused on the model - we showed an early prototype and were asked what kinds of causes would attract the most funding - the email from Paul gave us the main reason they chose not to invest.
He said they liked us and they liked our idea, but they felt that LoudSauce would be "open to criticism on the grounds that you were encouraging people to spend money on advertising instead of giving it directly to charities." He wrote that advertising is criticized heavily anyway, and that as a for profit, we could be accused of channeling dollars away from solving problems and into advertising for our own profit.
While we understood his point, we were frustrated because we hadn't discussed that during the conversation. The appropriate causes that will benefit from LoudSauce are not causes like disaster relief in Haiti, which are well publicized and well served (at least initially) by current funding channels. The right causes for LoudSauce will be those that groups of friends or networks think are under-exposed for certain target audiences (like the Atheist bus campaign in London). We're essentially developing the tool to automate what groups like MoveOn and Repower American have been using with their users already, so that the rest of us active citizens can fund ad campaigns that we think are worth focusing attention and investment towards.
For too long, many conscious people have understandably criticized advertising as largely trying to get us to buy more plastic stuff that we don't need. In many cities, some graffiti and murals seem to do a better job at providing a positive vision for communities than billboards and television. However, now it's time to leverage some of the talented designers and culture jammers of our generation, and put our money where are vision is.
Over the coming few weeks, I'll be working on my 10 minute pitch for the WeMedia PitchIt session in Miami. If you have ideas about how you think it can be the strongest, please do let me know. Thanks so much for your attention and your support.
My song Destination Non-Specific has spread on Youtube mostly because users are forced to strip the copyrighted music from their videos (using YouTube's audioswap function), and are offered Creative Commons music like mine to replace it.
Then, a few months ago, I got a pretty interesting one where user comments were upset cause the song was used on top of a popular video from one of their favorite artists. The users of course weren't that happy, but it was interesting to see some of the comments were positive about the song.
Then today I realized did a search and realized that the song had been used a lot, so did a search on youtube for "Destination Non-Specific" and it came up about 50 results on Youtube.
When I was browsing, I noticed a user named annamaisa had even made an actual music video for the song, and it's actually pretty beautiful (and viewed over 10,000 times). See here.
Overall, people continue to validate my belief that many of us are living in the emerging gift economy. While I still have not leveraged any my life long social capital for actual tangible cash capital, I think that day might be coming soon.
After a year of hard work that wasn't totally aligned with my personal and social mission, I am beginning an exploration to consider whether to launch a new venture in 2009. I invite you will join me in the journey and spread the word.
Crowdfunding Marketing Service for Social & Eco Innovation
An online crowdfunding marketing service for social enterprises and green businesses.
Using their own money or credits through viewing partner ads, crowds vote with their dollars to fund strategic ads that promote products, companies, and causes that they believe in. Users collaborate to push video and banner campaigns through dynamic Ad serving networks to the front pages of major media outlets online (and eventually offline). Media is only bought if the money is raised, and users see the difference they've made through analytics, with an incentive to invest in more campaigns to help build a sustainable culture and economy.
Important themes: open innovation, crowdfunding, radical transparency, measuring social and eco progress.
Useful metaphors: (1) Youtube + Kiva + Google Adwords. (2) like CarrotMob for Advertising. (3) A MoveOn.org Ad platform for everyone.
