Leeds flashdance update
Two weeks ago I blogged about an impending flashdance courtesy of a great group of women at Leeds Older People’s Forum.
The flashdance was originally planned for this coming Thursday but unfortunately it has had to be postponed due to a number of issues – some small issues regarding regulation, a slight nervousness amongst some of the dancers, and some expected very cold weather (I was in Leeds yesterday and can confirm it was so cold).
But, this is not a cancellation; it is purely a postponement until 2012. The group and its supporters are adamant the flashdance will happen early spring, allowing for more pre-campaigning work to ensure the flashdance is a successful kick start to a larger campaign.
In addition, the postponement means the group can ensure older people of all abilities – and levels of introversion/extraversion – can take part. They are hoping to train some of those less able or willing to dance to play a vital role in the campaign perhaps through video, photo or micro blogging, or by raising awareness of the issues and drumming up public support while the flashdancers are dancing.
The enthusiasm and determinism is definitely still there; we just have to wait a little while longer for the action.
We’ll keep you posted.
16 Days of Activism with the Women’s Networking Hub
Today marks the seventh day of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, launched by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership to campaign against gender-based violence. To coincide, the Women’s Networking Hub in Birmingham has come up with 16 ways for everyone to fight gender violence.
The Women’s Networking Hub has a growing membership of almost 1000 women and campaigns for women’s rights and issues. The Hub celebrates the contribution women can and have made in society throughout history, and thus their potential to influence decision making. It aims to empower women by supporting them to work together on a range of issues facing women and has helped members to set up campaigns and arrange their own leisure and networking clubs.
The Hub also holds events and works alongside other non-profit organisations and inspirational figures to understand, share and further the work being done nationally and internationally in tackling gender inequality.
We are working with the Women’s Networking Hub until March 2013 as part of our Digital Activism work. The Hub wants to establish ways to engage women from communities currently underrepresented in the Hub and develop ways that all women can campaign for social change using digital tools and social networks.
The Hub understands the importance of initiatives such as the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign to get women started in campaigning. The 16 Days campaign started on 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and runs to 10 December 2011 (International Human Rights Day) to symbolically emphasise that violence against women is a human rights violation.
Shahida, founder of the Women’s Networking Hub, recently shared with Hub members 16 quick and easy ways for women to join in with the 16 days of activism – be it online or offline. She’s calling it 16X16 Activate, Activism, Action 16 Days 16 Ways!
The 16 methods of activism highlighted include:
Make some noise and be seen – Protests and rallies are a well established way for people to get their voice heard. The Hub urges people to plan public speeches, rallies or protests to honour the victims and survivors of violence during the 16 Days campaign.
One example is Reclaim the Night, an annual international march against rape and all forms of male violence against women. This year’s march was held on Saturday and brought together over two thousand women carrying placards and banging drums to say no to male violence and cuts to women’s services.
Join the Tweetathon and start blogging – Supporters of the 16 Days campaign are protesting virtually by tweeting using the #16days hashtag. A wide range of organisations and individuals are tweeting #16days, including @UNpYouth who today tweeted How can men and boys make a difference to end violence against women and girls? Check out #16Days bit.ly/tNOukp.
Others are blogging on relevant issues during the 16 Days campaign, including Karen in Australia who is blogging daily about the impacts of sexual assault.
Get connected – Shahida also highlights the importance of social media such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube for getting the message out.
Turn Your Back on Page 3 does just that. The Facebook group exposes instances of the media sexualising violence against women and demands a socially responsible media that does not objectify women. It asks women (and men) to get involved by posting their own pictures to Facebook, sharing posts and inviting friends to join.
And if you want to do the Hub’s seventh action, you can by telling the UK government to match its rhetoric on violence against women, by signing an online petition to call on Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to commit the UK to signing the CAHVIO convention.
To read all of the Women’s Networking Hub’s 16X16 Activate, Activism, Action 16 Days 16 Ways! and get involved for the remaining nine days, please read the Shezine.
Written by Asia Begum at the Young Foundation
Flashdance – an update on our work in Leeds
There’s been a bit of a hiatus on the Digital Social Innovation blog recently as we’ve been busy starting our work on Building Local Activism in earnest - meeting with the organisations we’re working with and planning how the work will pan out.
But we’re back with some exciting news that in December we’ll be attending a flashdance. Not of the 1980s, steel mill, bad hair and leg warmers fame. But a 2011 flashdance courtesy of Leeds Older People’s Forum, which will hopefully get people talking much more than the film ever did.
We are working with Leeds Older People’s Forum as part of the Digital Activism strand of work. The Forum supports organisations working with older people across Leeds and ensures the voluntary and community sector is involved in planning, developing and managing services for older people in Leeds.
Between now and 2013 we will be supporting the Forum to campaign for change and get the voice of older people heard using social media platforms and other digital tools. In September we met with the staff of the Forum and a great group of women from the Forum’s Scanning the Horizon group to start our work with them.
The group highlighted two issues in Leeds that need addressing – city centre accessibility and care home standards and provision. We discussed the issues in depth and began to think about how social media could be used to campaign, and the hurdles that need to be overcome such as a fear of social media.
The group is keen to use a range of campaigning methods – including online and offline activity – and it didn’t take long before the idea of a ‘tea dance flash mob’ was tabled by one of the women.
We came away from the meeting very excited about the great group of people we are working with, a draft action plan and a plan to meet again before Christmas to plan the next steps in campaigning. And the flashmob.
But, the group just couldn’t wait, and it didn’t take long before a dancing flashmob –or flashdance – was penned, developed and ready to go, kicking off the Forum’s campaigning activities.
Of course, we can’t give too much away here as a flashmob is supposed to take the public by surprise.
But what we can share is that a dance routine has been choreographed, videos and instructions sent out, campaign leaflets created, videographers arranged, blogs set up and a gorilla costume booked (guerrilla dancing – get it?). All we’re waiting for now is the date to come around and a text message to arrive telling flashdancers when and where to assemble for the big event.
It seems it’s never too late to take your passion, and make it happen. Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life.
What a feeling.
(Sorry, I just couldn’t resist)
Building digital activism in Elephant & Castle
In June, we reported on a number of ways in which local communities were using digital tools to build local activism. Since that time, digital activism at the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle has grown, providing inspiring examples of how communities can mobilise effectively through the web.
The Elephant Amenity Network has continued to critique redevelopment plans put forward by the Council and private developers. For example, to present a unified voice about the community’s desires for the area’s future, the Network organised a Visioning Workshop in June 2011. Bringing together 77 community members, two individuals from the site’s private developer (Lend Lease) and seven politicians, the Workshop solicited and compiled community views on housing, shopping, jobs, biodiversity, design and transport. The Network has produced a Summary Report, which it intends to complement the London Plan and the Elephant and Castle Core Strategy for redevelopment.
http://elephantandcastleurbanforest.posterous.com/
The Network has also catalysed a host of other web-based civic activism in Elephant and Castle. The biodiversity research done to produce the Heygate Forest Map inspired another blog, Urban Forest, which aspires to “promote trees as an essential part of new developments,” “develop new methods of evaluation and asset management,” and preserve the urban forest. The blog also serves as a watchdog for protecting public space and highlighting mismanagement of greenery during construction.
Finally, Southwark Council plans to close public access to a route through the Heygate Estate. Community members have launched an online petition to gather 250 votes and have the matter discussed at the next Council meeting. They believe that preserving access to the site improves permeability and natural surveillance to ward off anti-social behaviour.
Each of these initiatives has not required extraordinary technical skill. But by posting blogs, maps and photos, the Elephant and Castle community has been able to enhance their reach and visibility. This is classic civic activism upgraded through the web.
Written by Veyom Bahl at the Young Foundation
Digital Activism strand has started
As part of our Building Local Activism programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s People Powered Change activities, we are beginning work with four community groups* for our Digital Activism strand. We will support these communities to develop campaigns that use digital tools to lobby for change locally.
Between now and March 2013 we will be working with the following groups on our Digital Activism strand:
- Hackney CAB – looking to raise awareness about the impact of cuts to housing benefit on low-income households;
- Holloway Neighbourhood Group – wanting to use social media to connect and mobilise residents to strengthen the community and deepen everyone’s sense of place;
- Leeds Older People’s Forum – campaigning on a series of older people’s issues, looking to enhance their ability to access services and create an age friendly city centre; and
- Women’s Networking Hub, Birmingham – reaching out and mobilising a critical mass of women to speak out and effect change in their local communities.
There are lots of fantastic examples of digital activism for these groups, and others, to draw on – from local campaigns such as those from Elephant Amenity Network and Save Preston Bus Station, to national campaigns such as Mumsnet’s Let Girls be Girls campaign.
Such campaigns use a wide range of online digital tools – Facebook, Twitter and online forums to name but a few. Other online campaigning tools growing in significance are those such as 38 Degrees and Avaaz which recently ran campaigns that successfully stopped News Corporation taking control of BSkyB.
A whole host of statistics show how these tools impact on political and group activity. Did you know, for example, that Facebook users who use the site more than once-a-day are two and a half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting?
Other statistics, such as those below courtesy of Social Media Citizens, provide very useful information on who uses which social media sites and how:
- 3 out of 5 Facebook users access the site more than once per day and the younger the user, the more they log on
- Men are more likely to use Twitter or YouTube
- Women are more likely to go on Facebook multiple times per day
- Some of the most staggering growth has been in in the 55 plus market. Over 40% of 55+ social networkers have been registered on the sites for less than two years
- 28% of Facebook users are over 55.
- Men and young people are more likely to be influenced by what they read on social media and are more likely to engage by commenting and interacting.
- Of the market of 18-24 year olds, 62% interact through comments and such.
- Of the market of 55+ users, only 32% interact through comments and such.
Image from COTA Australia (http://cotaover50s.org.au)
Such case studies, facts and statistics should prove useful to the groups we will be working with on Digital Activism, helping them to select the tools and websites that will be most effective for their campaigns.
* Note: We are looking for two additional community groups to work with on Digital Activism so please get in touch with us to find out more.
Fix My Street meets Geocaching, minus the bomb squad
Geocaching hit the news earlier this month when a Wetherby shopping street was closed for three hours after a man was seen “acting a bit suspiciously” as he fiddled with a small plastic container before leaving it under a flower box on a pavement.
The container, which was destroyed in a controlled explosion by the Royal Logistic Corps at Catterick Garrison, wasn’t a bomb but a Geocache – part of a global internet-based treasure hunt called Geocaching.
Geocaching is a popular real-world outdoor treasure hunt where players (there are tens of thousands in the UK alone) try to locate hidden containers – geocaches – using GPS-enabled smartphones, then take a prize or leave a message and share their experiences online.
But what happened after the Royal Logistical Corps carried out the explosion on the box and, presumably, the flower box caught up in this whole sorry saga? Did Wetherby Town Council replace it and mend the damaged pavement? Probably. But let’s say, for the sake of this article, they didn’t – what would be the next step?
For some, Fix My Street would be the next port of call.
Fix My Street is a website and smartphone app, that allows people to report, view or discuss local problems such as potholes, graffiti and abandoned vehicles. Citizens pinpoint the area of whatever it is that needs fixing, cleaning or clearing on a map which is then passed on to the local council for dealing with.
But what if we combined Geocaching with Fix My Street?
I’m pretty sure we’d come up with something along the lines of Commons - a new game and iPhone app (launched on 19th June in New York) where city dwellers “compete to do good”. Players are tasked with finding problems to report and coming up with improvements to show their “city some lovin’”. Players can then vote on the best reports and ideas for improvement and “see what’s most popular in the hood” while data is shared with NYC.Gov’s 311 team to get the problems fixed.
The perfect game to combine urban activism and an appetite for a treasure hunt perhaps? Minus a call out for the bomb squad.
Image taken from http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/archives/2011/07/000801.php
(Thanks to @Noelito for the Commons headsup!)
The history of social networking
As part of our Building Local Activism programme we will be supporting six communities to use digital technology – including social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter – to build community activism.
I am therefore finding myself increasingly interested in who uses social networking sites, how social media can be used for social good, and the history of social networking, which the following infographic shows nicely. It seems social networking has a much richer history than many of us would ever have expected.
Image courtesy of OnlineSchools.org
The social impact of technology
In 2010 58.3 per cent of Europeans, 60.1 per cent of Australasians and 78.3 per cent of North Americans used the internet. Worldwide, 2.1billion people (30.2 per cent) used the internet – a growth of 480.4 per cent in 11 years.
The growth of the internet has led to a huge growth in social networking sites appealing to internet users the world over to connect with friends, be politically active, campaign, publicise events, blog, micro-blog, play games, share videos, share photographs, share music, share documents, share news… the possibilities are (almost) endless.
image taken from: http://blog.quba.co.uk/2009/12/brave-new-world-of-social-medi/
In 2009 Facebook had 150 million users. This had more than doubled to 350 million users by 2010, with 175 million people logging on to Facebook every day. Twitter and YouTube have also grown in popularity significantly over recent years. Since 2007, the number of tweets per day has increased from 5,000 to 50 million per day or 600 tweets per second. In 2007 YouTube users uploaded eight hours of video per minute compared to 48 hours of video per minute in 2011.
Undoubtedly, the widespread use of such technology is having a massive impact on how people interact with each other and with causes, charities and campaigns (as I outlined in recent posts Using digital tools to build activism and Using digital tools to build local activism).
Pew Internet’s recent Social Impact of Technology series has uncovered a number of really interesting findings into the impact social networking sites have on people’s political activity and their interaction with voluntary groups or organisations in the US.
Social networking sites for political activity:
- Internet users in general are more than twice as likely as non-internet users to attend a political meeting, 78 per cent more likely to try to have an impact on someone’s vote, and 53 per cent more likely to vote or intend to vote.
- Facebook users are much more politically engaged than most people.
- Compared to other internet and social networking site users, Facebook users who use the site more than once-a-day are two and a half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting, 57 per cent more likely to try to influence someone’s vote, and 43 per cent more likely to vote or intend to vote.
Digital technology to interact with groups:
- 80 per cent of internet users participate in some kind of voluntary group or organisation, compared to 56 per cent of non-internet users.
- 82 per cent of social network users and 85 per cent of Twitter users participate in a group.
- Groups and their participants use a range of digital tools to keep in touch – including Facebook (62 per cent), Twitter (23 per cent), blogs, and text messages (74 per cent).
- 65 per cent of group participants using social network sites to read group updates and messages and 30 per cent have shared news about the group on their profile(s).
- 63 per cent of group participants on Twitter read group updates through Twitter and 21 per cent post group news through their own profile.
- Group participants who use social media are significantly more likely than those who don’t use social media to say that the internet has a ‘major impact’ on their ability to engage with their group.
For more information and findings please read Social networking sites and our lives and The Social Side of the Internet.
Some moolah for ya sky rocket?
This post could be construed as slightly off topic. Granted, it’s not about how digital technology can be used as a tool for social change. Nor is it about the power of the web to connect, mobilise or empower local people to help shape their environment. But you could say it’s innovative and holds local relevance – generating collective belonging, providing cultural references, etc etc. Plus, it provided some amusement to two of my colleagues and me this lunchtime.
Nine of my colleagues and I take part in a local reading programme to read with children in a large multi-ethnic school in Bow, the heart of the East End of London – historically Cockney territory. While we tend to avoid the jellied eels on our walk back to the office from school, today I needed to get cash out and so stopped at one of the only free cash points down Roman Road.
On inserting my card I was greeted with a screen asking me to choose my language. Unfortunately I wasn’t offered Bengali – which would be useful for many of the local residents – but rather English or Cockney. Being the inquisitive researcher, I opted for Cockney and was delighted to be taken on a whistle-stop tour of Cockney banking.
Of course, I couldn’t go without taking some screen shots throughout my transaction, so I thought I’d share them here as an example of a local service meeting the needs (of sorts) of local residents through technology, while making the most mundane of transactions a little bit more exciting for everyone/me.
(And if anyone can tell me why £15 is a Commodore, £24 is Pony and £40 Double Top, I’d be more than grateful to know.)
Digital Activism – Invitation to partner
The Young Foundation is seeking partners for its Digital Activism programme, which launched in March 2011. This is a two year programme funded through the Big Lottery’s People Powered Change activities.
Our aim for the Digital Activism strand of work is to support communities across the country to use digital technology to build community activism.
Image taken from the Young Foundation publication Plugged In, Untapped: Using digital technologies to help young people learn to lead
We believe that digital technologies, ranging from social media like Facebook and Twitter through to smart phones and digital video, have the potential to galvanise local communities to take action on the issues that matter to them.
This could be through community campaigning, lobbying local institutions or business to act, or by encouraging local people to change their own attitudes or behaviours in order to improve local quality of life.
By practically supporting six communities across England, we hope to understand more about the role that technology can play in connecting and mobilising local communities to act, and to share good practice and lessons with other communities across the country.
The deadline for applications is Friday 17 June 2011.
