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Showing posts tagged little experiments
  • Date 14 Apr
The first Twestival well has been drilled! Fantastic news from charity:water — drilling on the first Twestival well started in Ethiopia on 11 April. I am in awe of the speed with which the Twestival promise has been delivered. I had a few doubts about the whole crossing-the-on/off-line aspect of the premise, and I became rather more concerned when the day wasn’t really followed up with much publicity — I felt that this was disappointing, and I feared it was indicative of a loss of momentum — but this uber-delivery just takes my breath away. Charity is often slow. We expect that, unacceptable as it is. But this is different. Twestival has delivered with lightning speed, and this should be noted: charity doesn’t need to be slow. Social change can happen as quickly as any other kind of change — and even more quickly when the pace is set to social media speed. Commendations also go to the charity:water website. Clean, interesting, and loaded with clever facts. There’s video footage of the main event, and a question-answer opportunity in place (email your questions to them and come back in three days to learn the answers). If this is how social media creates social change, bring on the next… View high resolution

The first Twestival well has been drilled!

Fantastic news from charity:water — drilling on the first Twestival well started in Ethiopia on 11 April.

I am in awe of the speed with which the Twestival promise has been delivered. I had a few doubts about the whole crossing-the-on/off-line aspect of the premise, and I became rather more concerned when the day wasn’t really followed up with much publicity — I felt that this was disappointing, and I feared it was indicative of a loss of momentum — but this uber-delivery just takes my breath away.

Charity is often slow. We expect that, unacceptable as it is. But this is different. Twestival has delivered with lightning speed, and this should be noted: charity doesn’t need to be slow. Social change can happen as quickly as any other kind of change — and even more quickly when the pace is set to social media speed.

Commendations also go to the charity:water website. Clean, interesting, and loaded with clever facts. There’s video footage of the main event, and a question-answer opportunity in place (email your questions to them and come back in three days to learn the answers).

If this is how social media creates social change, bring on the next…

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  • Posted at 12:00 AM
  • Tagged: Twitter little experiments fundraising

    • new kid in town: DailyBooth

    • Date 17 Feb

    Launched this week: DailyBooth, ‘your life in pictures - your picture, your face, every day for years’.

    Downer antediluvian moments aside, the concept is kinda cool: take a picture of something every day, over time, and see how it changes. Your face, the house you’re building, your precious infant->baby->toddler… it’s not un-interesting. But will it fly as a social media app?

    Pete Cashmore at Mashable seems cautious. He’s not sure high-speed, high-need web kids will have the persistence to post a photo every day. I agree — I think it’s unlikely that a critical volume of users will engage frequently and over a sustained period of time. But there’s more to it than that.

    The DailyBooth approach removes the narrative of stories. Instead, it focuses on the minutiae of change; it’s also a slow burn. And this, to me, is where the medium and the message (I’m Canadian; I had to) fail to gel. Social apps really crackle when they connect people quickly and in urgent ways — how you feel about something, what you’re doing right now… and that isn’t what this one does.

    caveat the first: Like many who still don’t fully understand the role of the parabola in day-to-day life, I maybe don’t put enough stock in the numbers. Various mathematical justifications (of pictures and 1000s of words) for DailyBooth are put forth on the site tour; these failed to sway me, but said tour did highlight…

    caveat the second: Am I the only demi-narcissist in the house?! For every half-decent photo there are at least a dozen out-takes! Who a) has that kind of time, and b) knows their angles that well?

    Sorry, DailyBooth, you’re not for me, but I wish you a long and pretty life all the same. Prove me wrong. (Until then, I’ll take my stories with words.)

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  • Posted at 1:59 AM
  • Tagged: little experiments social media

    • twitter + good cause = twestival

    • Date 11 Feb

    Well it didn’t take long for those worlds to collide!

    Twestival’s ‘tweet, meet and give’ happens tomorrow, 12 February. It’s a super-publicised day of real-life social events (in 175 cities!) for a good cause, and it all started on twitter. The aim: raise $1 million for charity:water.

    I think this is a fascinating little experiment, and I’m really curious as to how it’s going to go. The first Twestival happened in London in September — and now, less than five months later, it has gone global, grown a conscience and hired a band (ok, several major-label artists). By anyone’s standards that’s an impressive feat.

    So will it work? I’m going to go out on a limb (bird pun; sorry) and say YES… but not for the obvious reason.

    Sure, I think people want to raise money for this amazing cause, but I also think social media’s queen bees are buzzing about Twestival because they wonder what will happen when we cross the on/off line. Does digital fun play well in the real world, or will we all trek out and shuffle home early? Could talking to each other possibly be as fun as tweeting at each other? I’m not so sure… but I’d love to be proven wrong.

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  • Posted at 11:48 PM
  • Tagged: fundraising little experiments love it! Twitter