Advancing the medium of change,for a better future, sooner.
Building a better future, sooner.#openwebTO: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
13,700,000,000 years ago
4,450,000,000 years ago
130,000 years ago
7,300 years ago - Agriculture
150 years ago - Industrial Revolution
We were powerful.
1945 - Hiroshima
We were dangerous.
1989 - Exxon Valdez Spill
1994 - Rwanda
2000 - Aral Sea dies
We thought we were in control.
2001 - 911
2006 - Climate Change
2008 - Global markets collapse
We were wrong.
“A flaw in the model...
...that defines how the world works.”
We’re making our planet inhospitable.
We’re killing each other.
We’re killing ourselves.
We’re screwed.
But, there’s hope.
1946 - First Computer
1969 - Internet Launched
1973 - Phones go ‘mobile’
1991 - Web Launched
1998
1999
2002 - Smartphone
2003
2004
2004
2005
2006
2007 - Wins “Best of Web” at SXSW
2007
2008
4 billion people connected together
through a new medium
a medium that’s...
open
mobile
social
personal
public
spontaneous
engaging
practical
A medium of change.
the medium of change
Data Interaction DevicesInfrastructure
an emerging system of social technologies
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.
For a better future,
sooner.
the future we want
ChangeMedium facilitates conversations and initiatives that advances
understanding, infrastructure, and application ofthe medium of change.
change-makers
developers
researchers
conversations
initiatives
the Medium of Changebuild
apply
understand
more people, making more change
a better medium,for change
a better future,sooner
what we’re up toTopic: Medium of Change
A dedicated event in Toronto bringing researchers and developers together to
advance the medium of change.
Topic: status.netAn embedded conversation, weaving change-making opportunity and community into a
status.net unconference in Montreal.
Ongoing: ChangeMedium.orgAn information site, blog, group and
twitter account broadcasting the latest in the medium.
past future
Ongoing: Research Micro-JournalA micro-journal for researchers to share insights and
updates on what they researching as they are researching it.
Topic: TwitterA pre-event to the Twitter developer
conference in San Francisco in April. Exploring the applications of Twitter for change.
Ongoing: #cmAnswersA monthly public chat to explore how the
medium is changing us, changing change, and how we can use it to make the world better, sooner.
Ad-hoc: Deep DivesFacilitated research sprints around specific arenas of change
(e.g. aboriginal communities). What’s the impact of the medium and how can it be used to ease and accelerate change?
Ad-hoc: Deep DevsFacilitated development initiatives to build critical infrastructure
and specific applications of the medium for change.
conv
ersa
tions
initi
ativ
es
who we are• Core Team
Michael Lewkowitz (t | li)entrepreneur, igniter
Ryan Coleman (t | li)entrepreneur, facilitator
• Steering CommitteeDuncan Holmes (t | bio)President, ICA Associates
Tim Draimin (t | li)Executive Director, SiG
James Walker (t | li)Open standards advocate
Austin Hill (t | li)Entrepreneur, Founder Akoha
• DevelopmentPeter Flaschner (t | li)design
Joseph Dee (t | li)development
Dan Williams (t | li)hosting
• SupportersSiG@Waterloo research outreach
SiG@MaRS #cmToronto
• Hosted byTides Canada Foundation
You...
...are changing the world
Data Interaction DevicesInfrastructure
an emerging system of social technologies
more people ➜ making more change ➜ for a better future ➜ sooner
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