Only the everyday raconteurs at The Moth StorySLAM could present a soporific story about fibbing and translate that into “I tell lies because there was no communication in my childhood home.” Last night my brain was a bit addled by lack of sleep, but my attraction to storytelling never seems to pall.
Even a man who lives in complete social isolation and cherishes a solipsistic view on life would dare not deny the definite evidence of technology’s distinctive effect on modern communication. Social media and mobile apps are, by their own reckoning, a way for new communities to address old problems in new ways.
During a recent trip to visit my family in South America, I couldn’t help but marvel at my cousins who were signing onto Facebook as I remembered how difficult it was for me to shower that morning. (We ran out of water and someone had to fetch more water from the lake.) It was a priority for me to have a decent shower. It was my cousins’ priority to “friend” me. Technology’s redoubtable and addictive properties will sometimes challenge our priorities but, above all, it truly is a great tool for “finding the others”.
It’s not really about connecting with friends or for braggadocios to post attractive pictures of themselves, it’s for crowd sourcing solutions. Young Kenyans were pioneering the use of text messaging to monitor political conflict in 2010. There are now mobile apps for blood sample analysis, even though women in developing countries are 21% less likely than men to own a mobile phone. Can social media help us move toward democratization?
This past weekend’s Social Good Summit presented and parsed topics and questions like the one above. There were also summits in several other countries and attendees were shown videos of other meetups in Greece, New Zealand, Montenegro, Egypt, and Myanmar. We learned about concepts like Shared Value, innovative websites like ShoutAbout, and new mobile app challenges. It was a summit that marketed humanitarian organizations as we concurrently learned how terrible humanitarians are at marketing.
The speakers at SGS truly distilled the values of corporations and NGOs who are coming together for social impact:
Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, described his work in the White House as being an incubator of initiatives, not companies. He talked about the Open Data Initiative. He focuses on open innovation and the desire to make new data available and unavailable data usable/downloadable. He reminded us that Government’s decision to make the global positioning system freely available is what fueled private sector innovations like navigation systems (GPS).
I enjoyed the thoughts of Larry Irving, Co-founder of Mobile Alliance for Global Good. He discussed being connected with a purpose and recited this rarely publicized quote by MLK Jr. - “A great revolution is taking place in the world today…a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation…yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place.”
Another highlight was Dr. Hans Rosling’s lecture. If you’ve also watched his TED talks, then you can imagine how excited I was to see him live. He reminded us not to think of developing countries as one place. There are so many different levels of development.
He also had a very impressive pointer.
Deepak Chopra mesmerized the room when he told us that social networks are an extension of our mind. He advised us to create dynamic networks that self-organize themselves.
Here are a few more quotes from more notables, followed by my favorite tweets from the summit:
Actress America Ferrera
Actor Forest Whitaker with Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano talks to ForbesWomen President Moira Forbes (I was so impressed with Moira’s questions.) They talked about cyber security, regulation, and shared responsibility.
I was also captivated by Arturo Sarukhan, the Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S. He has a very arresting presence.
For further resources, please visit the website for Grand Challenges, Half the Sky, We Advance U, 10X10, and Connect To Learn. Connect to Learn is a global initiative designed by Hans Vestberg and the inimitable Jeffrey Sachs (below).
All photos taken by me (Aleeka Kay Edwards)
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I stopped by the office of ABC’s “The Revolution” yesterday to visit my old boss, who has become an avuncular figure in my life. Executive Producer Rob Dauber is a man who feels it all. “Mad to live, mad to be saved…never yawns or says a commonplace thing.” I like to think that’s why we get along so well. I feel it all, too. I love passionately, mourn longingly, and hate vehemently. In sad times, I can sometimes wake in the morning and feel tears on my face. It’s so commonplace for me to be emotional, even in recess. I imagine that this is not the norm but I do think people who work in television are a different breed of people. We walk around battling a constant feeling of misanthropy, yet a deep desire to be admired. It’s hard not to mistrust people when you are constantly dealing with guests. Afterall, their performance on the set is the grading system for your job. However, there’s also a hope that after they step off the stage, you’ll feel great about what you’ve produced. But you’re only as good as your last segment. So you ruminate in your sleep about the next day’s work and hope that the inner battle of hate and love once again stays in balance. Rob and I chatted only a little about work. We mostly talked of life. When he hugged me and said it was “so good to see you”, I knew he meant it. A lot of times in media, people say things they don’t mean. At that moment the only feeling in the room was love.
Of withdrawn people, trains have many. After a long day of work noone wants to fight over a seat while the leaked sounds from a stranger’s headphone rain over them. I can’t even decide what’s worse- having someone read over my shoulder as I survey the morning newspaper OR having a tired traveler shapeshift into a bobble head as I pray their final resting place doesn’t include my shoulder. It’s clear to me that I’ve become a bitter commuter…unbelievable Schadenfreude when I see a train door close on a six-member family that’s trying to push into my crowded train
I had to travel on the train for 2.5 hours on Tuesday for an evening show in Cortelyou, Brooklyn. My friend, Jennifer Cipperly, is an amazing producer in NY and she invited me to the show. Apparently there is a clown arts resurgence happening in Brooklyn. I was privy to some relatively embarrassing performances, but creative, nonetheless. The Sycamore Bar Basement in Brooklyn is reputably the home to the clown underground world. The patrons at the bar/front of the house were handsome and cool, while the performers in the basement were awkward and full of unbridled energy. I can’t think of another image that better represents the echelons of society. After the show a former clown talked to me about why they’re just not enough mimes in NYC, then Jennifer and I went upstairs and drank with the bartender and his friends until way after closing time. On my 4 a.m. train ride home, I thought about how I knew so much about the mind of the performers I watched…but so little about the bartender, yet I still strangely thought he was cooler. Image is one hell of a thing. Overall, all the clowns and comics who performed were talented and I wish them the very best.
I received a really nice text message from Jennifer the following day: So good to see you…Thanks so much for trekking to deep BK with me.
I really think that the road to a friend is never long.
