In conjunction with the celebrations, meetings, conferences, and a concert featuring Elton John and James Morrison in Wembley Arena, a campaign called âCreate a Master-Peaceâ is sending out an invitation to children and their parents and friends to show a sign of solidarity and peace by âpacifyingâ and neutralizing play weapons with white paint, bubbles, flowers, and decorations.
The campaignâs website offers ideas, stencils, and patterns to inspire participants to create creative non-weapons, such as the âmachine punâ and the âpetal pistol.â Children can upload pictures of their creations to the website, which has a master gallery.
The SOCCKET is a portable generator in the form of a size 5 soccer ball. Its internal mechanism takes the kinetic energy from rolling and converts and stores it as electrical energy. After the game is finished, the included single-bulb LED lamp can be plugged into the ball to provide hours of light from just minutes of play.
When you build a brand, one of the most important measures of success is the actual engagement and connection of your loyal customers, followers, supporters, partners, fans and friends â your community. With the arrival of the digital age and 24/7 connectivity, social platforms are forcing companies to find new and compelling ways to keep up with daily communication and connection with the people who matter the most. Marketers are being forced to change their habits, moving from a reliance on traditional content marketing to editorialized âcontent curationâ that delivers compelling points of view in an organized, entertaining or educational fashion, offering consumers different reasons to connect and engage with brands. So, if youâve spent the past decade focused on content marketing, how do you make the switch to digital curation?
We recently worked with World Vision to help their college activism team identify new ways to engage and connect college students around global social justice issues. Working with the ACT:S team over the past five years (as well as many other not-for-profits) we realized the obvious: there are thousands of people all wanting to make an impact on a wide range of issues facing humanity, including health, poverty, environmental and social justice issues. What was missing was a place where creative activists could come to share their ideas and the tools they need to engage others. After developing a strategic framework for the âactivism engine,â we partnered with our friends at Fifty & Fifty Collective (the same team who designed the digital viral campaign for Kony 2012) to bring it to life. âOur challenge was to create a space that promotes and facilitates creative action,â said Javan Van Gronigen, founder of the digital humanitarian agency, Fifty & Fifty.âACT:S wanted a central place online for people to share resources and ideas as well as find ways to take action addressing some of the biggest challenges facing humanity today such as world hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS, and clean water availability. The problem they presented was that there was no one place where all the elements for creative action could coexist, such as those setting up the actions, those taking part in the actions, and those producing creative content that can be used within the actions.â
The result of our collaboration with the ACT:S team and Fifty & Fifty is an online destination where World Vision can help curate content and provide creative tools to support a broad community of creative activists. Along the way, we learned the following valuable lessons for building a community of actively engaged users:
1. Create a long-term relationship
Building a connection to your audience is the key to maintaining a long-term relationship with them. To build a strong connection first you must understand your audienceâs interests are, and once you know you will need to find, and use, the most popular form of communication. Lastly, once you earn your audienceâs interest, you must be constantly available and ready to interact to keep them actively engaged.
2. Listen to the people.
âOther organizations can learn that there are a lot of people looking to be involved, they just need to be engaged in a way that works with who they are,â said Van Gronigen. âIf you have someone that is great at throwing events, then give them a space that they can find an issue to throw an event on behalf of and equip them with the resources they need to make it successful. If itâs a person that is a great artist or designer, create a space that they can share those gifts by providing content that anyone can use around key issues.â
Pay attention to where and how your targets want to communicate, what they want to talk about and what they actually do, then build the community they demand. World Vision ACT:S gives the opportunity to upload, post, find, and share within an activism community with âHow-To Guides,â posters, art, videos and more, all in a digital platform that is easily accessed and shared through a space where their audience is already spending a good portion of their time.
3. Create it and continually influence your audience Â
Regardless of how innovative or relevant your community is, you canât expect people to participate unless you do. Launching your community is only the first step (and probably the easiest) to getting involved. Once youâre live, dedicate time and attention to share, create, lead and conversate with the people you want to influence to establish a long-lasting relationship. By staying actively engaged, you will become relatable and your audience will learn more about you, creating a closer relationship.
4. Get actively involved
âThe ACT:S platform is a great tool that will continue to take shape as more users are on it, providing us information on how they use, and their needs in this space,â says Van Gronigen. âItâs not an attempt to recreate a social network, rather just a place where creative activism can be birthed and hopefully equip and inspire others to do what they can to leave the world a better place than when they got here.â
When communicating with your community, consistency helps to build real genuine trusted relationships â and thatâs really what itâs all about. Inconsistency will bring confusion and could undermine relationships, which could cause backlash and a bad image.
5. Iterate and evolve often
âThe game changing piece of the activism engine project is the ability to openly source creative content that is designed for specific issues,â said Van Gronigen. âEssentially, itâs a digital library of creative activism that anyone can use to make a difference around the world, or even just in their local neighborhood. It also wraps the creative activism with an online community space that allows users to connect as individuals in their effort to change the world.â
It can be very easy to become lost in all the clutter on the web. To ensure you are engaged, active, and relevant with your audience find a way to stand out by planning messages strategically, focusing on your strengths, and finding a unique and simple way to communicate.
Shawn Parr is the Guvner & CEO of Bulldog Drummond, an innovation and design consultancy headquartered in San Diego whose clients and partners have included Starbucks, Diageo, Jack in the Box, Adidas, MTV, Nestle, Pinkberry, American Eagle Outfitters, Ideo, Virgin, Disney, Nike, Mattel, Heineken, Annieâs Homegrown, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsonâs Research, CleanWell, The Honest Kitchen, and World Vision. Follow the conversation at @BULLDOGDRUMMOND.
Lulu - den nya appen för att betygsĂ€tta sin dejt.Â
Lulu Ă€r en amerikansk app som Ă€r gjord för tjejer av tjejer för att sĂ€tta betyg pĂ„ killar de gĂ„tt pĂ„ dejt med. Det Ă€r sorgligt den hĂ€r objektifieringen vi har av det motsatta könet. Om killar gjorde en sĂ„dan app för tjejer sĂ„ skulle det vara helt oaccepterat. Sorgligt att vi inte har kommit lĂ€ngre i vĂ„r utveckling med jĂ€mstĂ€lldheten.Â
Chinaâs leading food e-commerce site, Yihaodian (which is 51% owned by Walmart), has announced plans to open 1,000 virtual supermarkets across the country.TechInAsia reports that the grocery stores, which will be known as âUnlimited Yihaodian,â will be located in empty city areas.
The 1,200-square-meter spaces merge online and offline shopping, allowing customers to browse items and walk around a store without needing to line up or carry their purchases home.
Customers will need to use their smartphone while standing in the virtual store space to see the products and buy them. Augmented Reality technology will reveal the contents of the supermarket and purchased items will be delivered straight to the customerâs door.
A New Site Calculates Your Neighborhoodâs Walkability
Walkonomics determines which parts of cities are the most walkable--using everything from proximity to stores to safety to sidewalk size. Do you live in a place where you should be walking more?
Walkability matters. Research shows that more walkable neighborhoods tend to be stronger economically, have lower transport costs, and promote better health and well-being.
But, other than living there, how do you know if an area is walkable?
Click to enlarge.
Walkonomics is a new site that aims to build up as comprehensive a picture as possible. Services such as Walk Score already score proximity to restaurants and shops (and more); how long your commute is; and allow you to compare areas. But, according to Adam Davies, thatâs only part of the story of walkability. Ideally, you also want to know things like how safe the streets are, whether the sidewalks are wide enough, how clear the signage is, and also--less tangibly--how clean the street is, and whether itâs relaxing and fun. Distance, in other words, is not the only factor--perhaps not even the most important factor.
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Davies, who has produced walkability assessments professionally, says he got the idea from research pointing to all the reasons people donât choose the walking option: including a lack of street lights, and a lack of easy crossing points.
Currently covering about 600,000 streets in the U.K. and U.S., the site is based on a mixture of government-sourced open data, and crowd-sourced information from users. Streets are scored across eight categories, based on data like traffic activity and crime statistics. Users can then give their own impressions, shifting the scores over time.
Davies is betting that urban planners are not the only people interested in tracking, and hopefully improving, walkability.
"In the past, itâs just been experts and interest groups. But really everyone lives on a street and theyâre interested in at least one street, if not a few streets. This site is saying: 'letâs get everyone involved and crowd-source something better.'"
APP LETS ANYONE EXPERIENCE THE LAST 24 HOURS OF POMPEII
An interactive social media campaign brings the life and times of the ill-fated Roman city to life.
By Don Michael Acelar De Leon on September 5, 2012. @dmacelardeleon
The accompanying interactive social media campaign and website, A Day in Pompeii, lets visitors experience the last 24 hours in Pompeii before the eruption. Visitors can explore the ancient city through an interactive map that renders 360-degree images of the city, read detailed descriptions of life in Pompeii through bookmarked locations, and see the frescoes, marble sculptures, and pottery that once stood in the city (and that are now on display as artifacts in the museum exhibit). On August 24th and 25th visitors could follow the fateful day in real-time through a Twitter-generated eyewitness account of the eruption as told by Pliny the Elder to his nephew:
The museum exhibit opens on September 14th.
A Day In Pompeii
via PSFK:Â http://www.psfk.com/2012/09/last-24-hours-pompeii-carmichael-lynch.html#ixzz25ft1G3df
MCDONALDâS TO OPEN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANTS IN INDIA
The fast-food chain plans to open two meat-free locations in Amritsar and Katra next year.
By Kyana Gordon on September 5, 2012. @DRohsnap
Currently, the chain caters to Indian customers who donât eat beef or pork for religions reasons by offering options like McVeggie burgers and McSpicy Paneer sandwiches. Kitchens are divided into separate sections for cooking vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, but the new restaurants will be exclusively vegetarian. New menu items will include items like the McAloo Tikki, a potato-based burger, and a vegetable and cheese pastry, the Pizza McPuff.
In statements to media outlets, McDonaldâs spokesman Rajesh Kumar Maini speaks to the decision to open an all-vegetarian location:
It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant. There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants [in India] as many Indians are vegetarian.
Photo Credit: Associated Press
via PSFK:Â http://www.psfk.com/2012/09/vegetarian-mcdonalds.html#ixzz25fpuJHs9
Vladimir Putin has become notorious for his stunts, including saving a film crew from a tiger and discovering rare pottery. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/AP
Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has tracked a Siberian tiger and posed with a polar bear, on Wednesday took his love of wildlife to new heights by flying with cranes â to lead them on a migration route.
Putin has communed with wild animals several times as part of an effort to create the image of a clean-living, nature-loving person during his 12 years as Russia's paramount leader.
This time around, he donned a baggy white costume with a spacious helmet and goggles and flew in a motorised deltaplane light aircraft surrounded by several young cranes that were born in captivity in order to help introduce them to the wild.
"They got used to it. They are not afraid, they are overtaking the deltaplane," a smiling Putin said after landing.
"They are overtaking, approaching the wing from the left, from the right, from above. Well done. Beautiful guys. Cute. They are three months old but already quite big."
The exercise in the Yamal peninsula was aimed at prompting the birds to follow the plane and hence prepare them for their migration route â part of the "Flight of Hope" project to protect the endangered, white Siberian crane.
Visibly pleased, Putin said it had been his idea to fly the deltaplane, although it appeared to be steered most of the time by another person in a similar white costume sitting behind him.
Earlier in the day, reports of Putin's planned new stunt spawned an array of amused comment on the internet, with one cartoon referring to leaked US diplomatic cables in which Putin was deemed Russia's "alpha-dog".
The cartoon portrayed Putin in a black suit with grey wings fixed to his hands, telling three birds: "Let's assign the roles right away - I am the alpha-crane!"
Other postings included two Russian paintings of failed human attempts to fly like a bird â one of a boy lying on the ground with wings at his side and another of a man dropping to earth despite the wings attached to his arms.
Macho stunts by Putin, who turns 60 in October, have helped his image but have also irritated some Russians and become a target for satire for opponents.
Putin, a former KGB spy back at the Kremlin for his third term in office, last winter faced the largest wave of dissentsince he first became president.
Though the protests have lost some steam, opposition activists on Wednesday eagerly jumped on the latest stunt by reinterpreting the lyrics of a 1980s disco song, Deltaplane - "Possibly, only a hang-glider will help me" - as heralding Putin's eventual departure from power.
Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama for a second term with a speech at the Democratic national convention in Charlotte. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama for a second term with a speech at the Democratic national convention in Charlotte. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Bill Clinton, formerly one of Barack Obama's most bitter critics i
nside the Democratic party, has thrown all his prestige and popularity unequivocally behind the president's bid to hold on to the White House.
In an old-fashioned barnstorming speech to the Democratic national convention â much of it ad-libbed and considerably longer than the prepared text â Clinton boiled the differences between Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney to a simple, essential point.Â
Obama, who flew into Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday afternoon, appeared on stage at the end and embraced Clinton. The delegates, who cheered and applauded throughout the speech, chanted: "We are fired up."
The image of that valedictory moment will be pushed hard by the Obama campaign. Clinton reaches parts of the Democratic party and independents that the president struggles with: white male working-class voters in particular.
He formally nominated Obama as the party's presidential nominee and that was confirmed later in a roll call of delegates.
Clinton's 48-minute speech combined folksy ad-libs with a detail-packed, point-by-point rebuttal of Republican attacks on Obama's record. "We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on trickledown," Clinton said
It was also a powerful positive argument for re-electing Obama to finish the job of securing recovery, a task Clinton said neither he nor any other president could have delivered in just four years.
"President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did," said Clinton. "No president â not me or any of my predecessors â could have repaired all the damage in just four years. But conditions are improving and if you'll renew the president's contract you will feel it. I believe that with all my heart."
The speech offers the Obama team a clear blueprint for the next two months of campaigning â their messages over the last few months have been confused at times as they struggled to articulate a coherent case for re-election.
In a week that has seen the Obama campaign grapple unconvincingly with the question "Are voters better off than four years ago?", Clinton had an unequivocal response.Â
"Now, are we where we want to be today? No. Is the president satisfied? Of course not. But are we better off than we were when he took office? ... The answer is yes."
Since 1961, Clinton said, Democrats had held power for 24 years, theRepublicans 28, and the economy had created 66m private sector jobs in that period. "So what's the job score? Republicans, 24 million; Democrats, 42 [million]," he said.
Clinton â much thinner a year after announcing he was becoming a vegan for health reasons â demonstrated again why he is the biggest draw in the Democratic party and the 23,000-seater arena was filled to capacity to hear him formally nominate Obama for re-election.
It is a long way from 2008 when Clinton made many bitter remarks about Obama during the campaign by his wife, Hillary, for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Obama campaign officials branded the former president a racist. Even the most diehard member of Obama's inner circle, where there is still lingering animosity from four years ago, would find it hard to say that Clinton did not deliver on the night for his successor.Â
"I want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before his election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression ... I want to nominate a man who's cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside," Clinton said.
He added, to loud cheers that won another standing ovation, if mainly for the first lady who spoke powerfully the night before: "And by the way, after last night I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama."Â
Clinton rebutted Republican attack after attack mounted against Obama over healthcare, debt, the car industry bailout and economic management.
The president, he said, contrary to accusations by the Republicans, had sought to work with the other side in Congress but had been repeatedly rebuffed. His instinct was towards co-operation. "Obama appointed several members of his cabinet even though they supported Hillary. Heck, he even appointed Hillary," he said, his best joke of the night.
The core of his speech dealt with the ideological divide between the parties."My fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election we'll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner take all, you're on your own society you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we're all in this together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden."
Clinton's presidency coincided with a period of economic boom and part of his popularity stems for a nostalgia for that period. He was dismissive of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's claims, outlined last week at the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, that he would deliver speedier economic recovery.Â
"Now I Â like the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better. Here it is. He inherited a deeply damaged economy. He put a floor under the crash. He began the long hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators."
Clinton's primetime appearance lifted party spirits after a day of setbacks. Obama's plan to make his nomination speech in an open-air 73,000-seater football stadium near the convention had to be abandoned because of fears of a thunderstorm.Â
Worse was to come in the afternoon in a self-inflicted row among Democrats over the party's policy on the status of Jerusalem. On Tuesday it emerged that a statement declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel had been removed from the platform, sparking 24 hours of furious criticism from pro-Israel groups and Republicans.
Yesterday Obama personally intervened in an attempt to close down the issue by reinserting the line into the platform, a move that brought booing from the convention floor.
That the delegates are more deeply liberal than the party in general was demonstrated with the rapturous reception for Elizabeth Warren, the party's Senate candidate in Massachusetts. Warren has been one of the leading critics of Wall Street and hit the theme again on Wednesday night.
"People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: they're right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs â the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs â still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favours and acting like we should thank them. Anyone here have a problem with that? Well I do."
She was given the warm-up spot for Clinton, a sign of the importance of her campaign in Massachusetts. A win in the traditionally Democratic state would help the party hold on to its majority in the Senate.
Another stand-out speaker at the conference was Sandra Fluke, who had been described as a "slut" by the conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh when she spoke about contraception at a congressional hearing.
"Our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters â not his delegates or donors â and stands with all women," she said. "And strangers come together, reach out and lift her up. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here â and give me a microphone â to amplify our voice. That's the difference."
