Juliette Powell: Digital Media has changed the face of Humanitarian Aid

(This post was translated from French. The original interview was published in Voir on Jan 28, 2010 and written by journalist Elias Levy.)

Author of 33 Million People in the Room, a bestseller on the power of social networking, former TV interviewer/producer at MuchMusic & MusiquePlus, and recognized expert in interactive new media, the dual citizen (US, Canada) Juliette Powell is firmly convinced that social media is radically transforming the concept of “human solidarity”.

Social media is playing a very important role in humanitarian assistance to the stricken people of Haiti.

Juliette Powell: “Absolutely. We often under-estimate the impact of social media, yet we are now seeing their efficiency in managing the humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti. The NGOs in this devastated country have been empowered by digital media to help source and provide humanitarian aid and medical care to the Haitian people. The use of social media helps relief workers accomplish their difficult task faster: Oxfam benefits from using YouTube; Unicef from Twitter; the UNDP (United Nations Development) from Flickr; the International Red Cross from Apple who has made its iTunes service freely available.

Since telephone infrastructure has been destroyed by the earthquake, the only means of communication in Haiti is through the Internet. Social media can spread information clouds very rapidly which can help rescue survivors in care areas using photos of disaster areas taken from satellites to survey population flow.

The whole online community has galvanized to be at the service of Haiti’s millions: Google has made available its satellite images to help the victims of the earthquake while Missing Persons are listed and discussed on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. These realities reminds us that now, humanitarian aid can not live without the digital and social networks that feed it. ”

Are many donations to Haiti are raised through social media?

“Yes. Last week’s figures speak for themselves: 21 million of 150 million dollars raised so far for Haiti have been collected through donations made through social media. Since this unspeakable tragedy has befallen the people of Haiti, a movement of unprecedented solidarity very tangibly expressed through social media, has emerged to demonstrate that in emergency situations digital and social media is faster and more effective than traditional media.”

How does social media also play a role in the democratization policy of certain countries?

“It is undeniable that social media also plays a major role today in the struggle for democracy waged by people under the yoke of dictatorship. For example, through the use of social media, Iranian youth - many opponents of the radical regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - came to remind the world that they are wish for democracy and that they strongly reject the traditional insular vision of Iran defended by the current Iranian president and his supporters. Pictures and  videos of the strikingly brutal repression by the Iranian police of political activists and citizen journalists opposing Ahmadinejad was transmitted via the Web by dissidents and shared worldwide via social media.”

Why are you visiting Montreal, the hometown where you grew up?

“The Studio XX and the National Film Board (NFB) have launched a special training project called, ‘First Person Digital‘ a program for women to explore new narrative avenues. This project aims to inspire future filmmakers. First Person Digital distinguishes itself by offering a cross-disciplinarian production methodology cross-pollinating aspiring filmmakers, designers and the digerati.”

33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking by Juliette Powell (Published by Financial Times Press, 2009, 200 pages)

Music Icon Dave Stewart on Digital Media, Mobile and Gaming

(Transcribed from my filmed interview : youtube.com/juliettepowell)

Juliette Powell, Cindy Gomez & Dave Stewart

So what happens when you end up in Monterey, California at a place called Ideas Camp surrounded by some of the world’s top technology people and you stumble upon somebody that you’ve been hearing about since you were a kid, who’s not only talking technology but he’s also talking music and a whole way to revolutionize it. Well, that’s kind of what happened just a few minutes ago. And I found my old friend Cindy Gomez along with Dave Stewart. Now you were both on stage, you were performing.. and you also talked about a new business model (for music distribution and digital rights management). I’m curious, where are you going with this?

Dave Stewart: Well basically, years ago when the walls came down and the internet arrived, there was this kind of fear amongst the entertainment industry like, you know, how do we stop it? It’s like trying to put your finger in a dam, and suing people and taking people to court. And slowly they start to realize this thing’s not going to go away and since then everybody’s been trying to work it. Well, how do we create a new model because we used to manufacture things and distribute them and that’s where our revenues came from. Then Steve jobs came along and said: “oh look what I’ve made”, it cost about 10 million dollars or something and he said “look it works.” You know, iTunes and all the labels. And you’re like:

“Oh my God this could help, this could help save the world”. Basically, it’s much deeper than that.

What’s going to happen is all artists, creators, and anything from magazines to film makers like Ridley Scott to musicians will start having a world, a little world. And that world will be that portal into everything that they’ve created and anything that they might want to nod their head to and say ‘this is great, I love this’. What that (portal) needs is a huge rights management system in between.

So in the front end you will have a cell phone, possibly a Nokia cell phone and you will have a rights management engine and at the back end, you will have a payment system.

Now, it isn’t that everybody will pay for stuff. There will be millions of different kinds of mobiles, ad revenues, people will be subscribing, some people will pay out of pocket, and it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, there will be a gatekeeper, who just realizes “oh this person was standing on this street in Boston and they pressed yes to Tom Petty’s track and this has rights on buying on blah blah blah”. And digital rights management will unfold and Bing! - pay all those people - and Tom Petty, at the end of the day will look at it and say “Oh, somebody who was standing on the street in Boston liked my song .”

Juliette Powell: So if this is sitting on the phone and you mention Nokia, it feels like you’re developing all of this in conjunction with the artists as well as with specific sponsors. Where does Nokia come into play and how does that sponsorship come into play?

Dave Stewart invents 'Sponserability' for Stones

Dave Stewart: “I came up with this word “sponserbility”. I think the Rolling Stones were the first band I ever got sponsored. That paid for their tours, a perfume company that approached the Rolling Stones in the 1970 or something. And then sponsorship was frowned upon a bit and then it became a necessity for artists to survive. You couldn’t tour or anything without having some sponsors but eventually, the way the internet is broken down into a tiny little leashes, worlds, or they’re called web pages or whatever, that need micro sponsors or community sponsors. And the issue is that is becoming easier and easier to sort with the way that software works.

Companies like Nokia are at the forefront of developing ways and means in which people can connect with each other and retrieve media, and play with it and send it and in the middle of that , they’re also very clever at understanding how to sort of make a revenue model, revenue stream that works for everybody.

So, I can’t really talk and give too much away about everything but basically the thing is on the way.

Juliette Powell: So, are you comfortable with working with a sponsor? I mean, you’re an artist, you’re a pure artist. I’ve known you for a while and it’s always been in your heart to be able to write your own songs, sing it as best you can, and really have that interaction with your audience. Now we’re talking about bringing in sponsors and working on phones, I mean, how does that feel to you?

Cindy Gomez: I think it’s a great idea because in today’s day and age with new technology, it’s just so difficult for a new artist to emerge on the scene and to break out. So you need these new ways to have people recognize you and see who you are because otherwise for myself, how am I going to get the music out there? At the end of the day, I do what I do because I love it but you want as many people to hear it. So for example right now, I’m an avatar in a game Nokia has called Dance Fabulous. So this allows now in Asia and all across the world to hear these songs and play them. There are two or three of them out of the five that are going to be on my album. It just allows people to see who I am, or all be that’s the cartoon version but at least they get an introduction to who Cindy is, what kind of music she does, and from there on, either hopefully they like it and check out websites, and go further but otherwise a little kid in India, how are they going to know who Cindy is? So I think it’s a great way to get the two worlds together.

Juliette Powell: So I’ve known a few people who’ve actually received Nokia phones and when they turn on the device, BOOM there you are. It’s like who is this girl, what’s she all about? Now they can also play the game and the avatar and what not but how do you keep it authentic? Because as we all know, at the end of the day, you’re artists.

Cindy Gomez: I think the artist keeps it authentic. We do what we do because we love it. And you know, having the sponsor is a way of getting out to the world. We’re not doing something that we don’t want to do. We still continue our art because we love it and we do it.

Juliette: So it’s just a distribution mechanism? To get paid?

Dave Stewart: You guys have people in the band and signed to the record label, EMI. Well it’s not EMI (records). EMI makes rockets and missiles and all sorts of things. Television sets, Sony makes all sorts of different things. So it became very apparent, it doesn’t matter if its Timberland boots sponsoring our music and putting our music on their websites. But what we’re really talking about is not really about that. What we’re talking about is creating a new way in which to connect all the dots and so that you can have a new railroad track or a gateway and that dis-intermediates a lot of the old guards and creates a new railroad track basically. So the interesting dots that’s connecting Cindy is that Cindy is an incredible singer and she sings in 8 different languages including Indian and Cantonese. So what we’re doing is she’s sung in some of these languages.

AR Rahman wins Oscar Night

I’ve written a little story where the game inside the Nokia phone is found by a boy in India, in a movie. So now Cindy’s playing the lead in the movie and the song from the game is the title of the movie. And she’s doing the music with myself and A. R Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire).

I’ve just been doing some of that in the last few days and so it’s a continuation of people discovering Cindy. Like “Oh wow, she’s that girl in the game and now she’s the lead in the movie where the boy finds the game.” And it’s all her songs coming out in all different methods.

Juliette Powell: So with this new business model, to what extent is the artist going to have to know about the business side effects? Is the mechanism going to be in place where it kind of takes care of itself and you can focus on being you?

Dave Stewart: That’s the main thing. What we want is a way in which an artist or artist manager or a friend or whatever, can get these tools, the tool box, build the little world, fill in the bits and from then on it works just like clockwork. Because artist or not, we’re really not focusing on business. If you have a business meeting with an artist, usually after two minutes, they’re doodling a picture of their dad.

Tony Greenberg: You’re not talking about yourself are you?

Dave Stewart: No, I’m not talking about myself. (Laughs) That’s because I’m a schizophrenic. I feel my role working with Nokia is on behalf of artists. So what I keep saying is listen, it has to be transparent, for once, it has to be swift, accurate payment systems, and it has to be a distribution network that allows everybody from Madonna to a new kid starting off to be able to make his voice heard. And all of it has to work seamlessly and that’s what everybody’s working on.

Juliette Powell is an author, entrepreneur and integrated media specialist. Her first book: 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009) builds on her work as co-founder and COO of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of integrated media, business, innovation and technology. A popular key note speaker and commentator, connect with Juliette directly on Twitter and Facebook.

‘Some of it is timing’, says my friend Steve Crandall, a twenty-year veteran of Bell Labs and a particle physicist who works with everyone from Pixar to DARPA.  “I came from a place that had several billion dollar ideas, but few were realized inside the organization.  Of course turning an idea into money has several other important ideas along the way and some of the most important may only be remotely connected to the original”.

Asking the Twitter and Facebook communities for their thoughts resulted in some great responses. What’s the difference between a Million Dollar Idea and a Billion Dollar Idea? Here are the TOP 3 answers:

SCALABILITY: “If the design fails when the quantity increases then it does not scale.” says Miami-based artist and entrepreneur Andreas W. Gerdes.

EXECUTION: Is the idea executable and are you the right person to successfully execute the idea? “The world does not pay for good ideas. The world pays for the successful execution of a good idea”, insists tech freelancer, Joe Mohen.

TRANSFORMATION: Is the idea a ‘game-changer’ eg. “Does the idea change people’s behavior?”, asks Jason Segal, of Sustainable Development Capital when he is looking for an investment opportunity.

Music Icon Dave Stewart and Nokia are betting they’ve invested in a Billion-dollar, game-changing idea that will turn the music industry on it’s head and reaffirm Nokia’s leadership in the mobile space, despite today’s announcement of a $832 million dollar loss in the third quarter. Here’s an overview of the new business model via an interview with Stewart and his protegee Cindy Gomez:

Juliette Powell is an author, entrepreneur and integrated media specialist. Her first book: 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009) builds on her work as co-founder and COO of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of integrated media, business, innovation and technology. A popular key note speaker and commentator, connect with Juliette directly at juliettepowell.com and Facebook.

Drop everything and make sure you’re in Times Square tonight at 8pm ET. Such was the message that boomed into my ear, just moments ago and frankly, I’m still reeling. After all, how often does one get a four minute phone call from space, no less?? The caller was Cirque du Soleil Founder, Guy Laliberte, who wanted to make sure that I  - and five thousand of my closest NY friends - are on-site tonight when Shakira does a surprise free performance as Cirque du Soleil takes over all of the screens in Times Square to broadcast the LIVE Moving Earth and Stars for Water Worldcast event.

Could one live global web-cast change the way we think about water issues? Cirque du Soleil and  celebrities like Shakira, U2, Al Gore, Selma Hayek and a constellation of other news makers and Nobel Prize laureates in 14 cities around the world are banking on making a difference via the live webcast on onedrop.org. More than just a celebrity-driven multi-million dollar world event, tonight’s amazing performance is part of Laliberte’s ‘Poetic Mission in Space’ that I wrote about in HuffingtonPost last June.

Under the theme Moving Stars and Earth for Water, the Poetic Social Mission will raise awareness about the issues of water in the world today from a variety of perspectives, including those of citizen journalists, bloggers and the twitter community.

What they all have in common is a concern regarding access to water and a desire to illustrate this in their own distinctive way.

Tonight’s Live Webcast:

Be Part of History - join me and all our Twitter friends in Times Square for the Live show. Share the word via twitter and don’t miss the live broadcast event on www.onedrop.org October 9, 2009 at 8:00 pm. EDT.

Juliette Powell is an author, entrepreneur and integrated media specialist. Her first book: 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009) builds on her work as co-founder and COO of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of integrated media, business, innovation and technology. A popular key note speaker and commentator, connect with Juliette directly at juliettepowell.com and Facebook.

From International Space Station (ISS), 14 cities, Al Gore, U2, David Suzuki, Shakira, Matthew McConaughey, Salma Hayek and many more top celebrities will be taking part in a world premiere artistic event on October 9^th to raise awareness about the issues facing our planet’s water.

As I wrote about in my June 4th story in HuffingtonPost on September 30th, circus entrepreneur, Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil and of the ONE DROP Foundation decided to become the first private explorer in space to engage in a Poetic Social Mission in Space. During his 12-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Laliberté’s unique social/humanitarian mission will have one clear purpose: to raise humanity’s awareness of water-related issues.

The Network Effect

The One Drop Foundation is using social networking to create a global domino effect using your tribes, network and sheer belief that together we can build better world!

Laliberté’s mission in space is dedicated to making an impact on how water, our most precious resource, is protected and shared. ONE DROP’s goal: to play a role in changing and influencing how safe water is shared and made accessible around the world.

Why unite to fight water crisis?

• Nearly a billion human beings do not have access to safe drinking water.
• More children die every year from drinking unclean water than in all of the world’s armed conflicts.
• Fully half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900.
• Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of 16 trips to the moon and back each day just to collect water.

What is Moving Stars and Earth for Water event?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LdNj0kV9P4

On October 9 Laliberté intends to lead an artistic performance from orbit entitled Moving Stars and Earth for Water. The two-hour global show will link up with live performances and celebrity appearances from 14 cities worldwide. The whole endeavour will be streamed on ONE DROP’s website (http://www.onedrop.org) on October 9, 2009 at 8:00 p,m. EDT (GMT-4).

This once-in-a-lifetime artistic event will have at its core, a poetic tale to celebrate water written by Man Booker Prize award winner author Yann Martel (Life of Pi). The tale will be gradually revealed as the program takes us through 14 cities around the world such as NYC, Rio, Santa Monica, Mumbai, Tampa. It will bring together personalities such as Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Dr. David Suzuki, Matthew McConaughey, Peter Gabriel, Salma Hayek, Shakira, Tatuya Ishii, U2, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and many others who will join their voices with Guy Laliberté and the ONE DROP Foundation to celebrate water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjFvACN3ayE

Under the theme Moving Stars and Earth for Water, the Poetic Social Mission will raise awareness about the issues of water in the world today from a variety of perspectives. This live event will be presented around the world by a global community of artists representing all cultures and creative disciplines and wellknown personalities. Celebrated around the planet, the artists are singers, actors, filmmakers, photographers, dancers, acrobats, poets, etc. What they all have in common is a concern regarding access to water and a desire to illustrate this in their own distinctive way.

Here are some simple but effective ways you can help the ONE DROP foundation fight against water crisis:

On Facebook:

Add the 1 Drop Avatar to your account

Join  fan page

On Twitter:

Follow ONE DROP account

Add the 1 Drop Avatar to your account

Live Webcast:

Be part of history: Don’t miss the live broadcast event on www.onedrop.org on October 9, 2009 at 8:00 p,m. EDT (GMT-4).

It all started when I came across a random link, originally posted on Twitter by the Official Twitter account of the World Economic Forum. The post led me to a new ‘Internet Manifesto‘ on ‘how journalism works today‘ and to a new story for Huffington Post where I posted the first five declarations for discussion.

Truth be told, as a journalist, I’m tired of seeing the usual suspects discuss what is best for all of us. I applaud @Davos and the World Economic Forum for bringing this Internet Manifesto to a wider audience. Now it’s up to all of us to define the type of future we’d like to co-create using the internet and so I give you the next 5 original declarations from the new Internet Manifesto, translated from German by Jenna L. Brinning and reproduced below for your review and comment. (The first five were posted here.)

The Internet changes improves journalism.

Through the Internet, journalism can fulfill its social-educational role in a new way. This includes presenting information as an ever-changing, continual process; the forfeiture of print media’s inalterability is a benefit. Those who want to survive in this new world of information need a new idealism, new journalistic ideas and a sense of pleasure in exploiting this new potential.

The net requires networking.

Links are connections. We know each other through links. Those who do not use them exclude themselves from social discourse. This also holds for the websites of traditional media companies.

Links reward, citations adorn.

Search engines and aggregators facilitate quality journalism: they boost the findability of outstanding content over a long-term basis and are thus an integral part of the new, networked public sphere. References through links and citations—especially including those made without any consent or even remuneration of the originator—make the very culture of networked social discourse possible in the first place. They are by all means worthy of protection.

The Internet is the new venue for political discourse.

Democracy thrives on participation and freedom of information. Transferring the political discussion from traditional media to the Internet and expanding on this discussion by involving the active participation of the public is one of journalism’s new tasks.

Today’s freedom of the press means freedom of opinion.

Article 5 of the German Constitution does not comprise protective rights for professions or technically traditional business models. The Internet overrides the technological boundaries between the amateur and professional. This is why the privilege of freedom of the press must hold for anyone who can contribute to the fulfillment of journalistic duties. Qualitatively speaking, no differentiation should be made between paid and unpaid journalism, but rather, between good and poor journalism.

Now some of you may read all 17 declarations from the Internet Manifesto just to find out why the German constitution is mentioned (the authors of the manifesto are German) or you might wait for my next post but more to the point, what is a manifesto anyway? According to Wikipedia:

“A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature.”

Just above the wikipedia page, a note that puts the declarations below and the intention of this post into perspective: ‘The examples in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue‘. Yes, please..

Author, Juliette Powell

Juliette Powell is an author, entrepreneur and integrated media specialist. Her first book 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009) builds on her work as co-founder and COO of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of integrated media, business, innovation and technology. A popular keynote speaker and commentator, connect with Juliette directly at juliettepowell.com, twitter and Facebook.

In my most recent HuffingtonPost story, I wrote about Cirque du Soleil founder, Guy Laliberte’s upcoming social mission into space.

Thanks to several million dollars and a few friends in the right places, Laliberte has secured a much-envied spot on Expedition 21 to the International Space Station, scheduled to launch September 30^th, 2009. Beyond the financial capital necessary to purchase a seat and the grueling astronaut training involved, Laliberte plans to leverage the exposure to amplify his social and cultural capital and thus raise awareness around the global water crisis.

Laliberte is a great example of an entrepreneur who, over the past 25 years of building Cirque du Soleil into a privately held multinational, has surrounded himself with the right people (social capital) and has continually added value to his community (cultural capital) which resulted in enough financial capital to last most people (let’s be honest - most countries) several lifetimes.

So how does one get to a point where they can afford to both make their childhood dreams come true AND use that dream to make a difference in the world?

We often attribute it to the powerful or the lucky, the rich or the famous – the seemingly magical ability to persuade and influence other people to help us build our businesses and even to make our dreams come true.

Although we don’t always realize it, all of us – from managers to journalists, entrepreneurs to activists – regularly use unacknowledged skills to build social and cultural capital. We’re just not always aware of it. Networking skills can be used to influence and sway people in all areas of our lives and we can often see the repercussions of our actions, after the fact. The more aware of how exactly we influence others and why, the better we can shape the nature of that influence. The transparent world of online social networking only adds a new layer of depth to the capabilities and possibilities of building up and maintaining relationships in an interconnected world.

There is much to be garnered in learning by example and with that in mind, this blog sets out to find stories of people and companies successfully using social networking for business. The idea is to share commonalities from which we can deduce the basis of social networking success in the ever increasingly networked public sphere.

Key among these is the:

• simultaneous use of online and offline networking skill sets
• ongoing interaction within your community
• willingness to co-create with that community
• sound understanding of how to create meaningful social currency
• passionate dedication to authentic communication.

It goes without saying, basic networking skills like personalized attention and follow up, when combined with social networking technology, can increase your reach exponentially.

To find out how you can use your social and cultural capital (and your social networking skills) to help with Laliberte’s upcoming space mission around the global water crisis, visit onedrop.org.

Juliette Powell is an entrepreneur, digital media consultant and author of 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009), a book about social networking for business, inspired by Guy Laliberte. Powell is also co-founder of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of media, business, advertising and technology. You can connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Obama did it. Filmmakers are doing it and now you can do it too. ‘Crowdfunding’, a spin on ‘crowdsourcing’, is the latest funding opportunity at a time when our funding institutions are failing. With the success of crowdfunding campaigns like wikipedia.com and threadless.com, the financing of projects and people by large crowds is on the rise and a new tool to fund even the smallest of projects is now available to the general public.

In the best of times, there is always a sense that there are great ideas out there with little or no chance of funding from traditional channels. According to web-preneur Perry Chen, “the biggest trend we’ve seen so far: even during this economy, people are generous.  One reason why: people are getting big responses from their networks as people leverage their Flickr groups and other niche communities to spread the word about their projects‘. Also, small amounts are key.

“We need to move away from looking for big checks and learn to embrace small amounts.  I love people who pledge $1 or $5 to a project. Why shouldn’t we be able to become a patron each other for the price of a cup of coffee?“

Enter KickStartr.com a free online platform that uses ‘crowdfunding’ to seed small projects with big communities. Although still in beta, the funding platform launched 2 weeks ago is for everyone from artists to entrepreneurs to students. Contrary to online investment mechanism’s Kickstarter’s site says that: “People who use KickStartr to fund their projects (”project creators”) keep 100% ownership and control”.

Crowdfunding yourself to success (image:stevegarfield.com)

How does one crowdfund that project you’ve been forever putting on the back burner? To find that out, I turned to KickStartr.com founder, Perry Chen.

What is the key to crowdsourcing for money or ‘crowdfunding’?
A focused project. I think we want to rally around things with specific goals. Making people feel like they are a part of something.  This starts with a compelling story — why I should support you — and then a determination to spread the word.

There is a great concept coined “Empowered Interactivity” by marketer and author Mark Hughes. Paraphrasing: Create a mechanism where people have an observable impact, and it becomes their brand, their 15 minutes of fame, their outcome.

If you already have a large social network, will it help you get funded more quickly? No question. Each person you know is an amplifier to each person they know. We all have a social network, and the key to crowdfunding is sculpting your project and presentation so that it amplifies past that first degree of your network. If it’s compelling, people will forward it.

What if you don’t have lots of online presence before using KickStartr, how do you raise awareness and get funded? It might not be the sexiest thing, but email is still extremely powerful. Send a rallying cry to friends and family, encouraging them to forward along.  Reach out to relevant blogs and organizations.  Become a marketer.

You can also go small.  One of our first projects (and we are only starting our 2nd week) was a programmer named Dan Phiffer who raised $99 to build a Wikipedia iPhone application. The funds will go to pay the Apple’s iPhone application fee. He was fully funded in a few days.

What can people do to make their idea stand out overall?
Video! It’s not required to fund a project, but we strongly encouraged it. Doesn’t need to be Kubrick, some of the best video are just people talking about their projects.  Their passion comes across, we can connect.

Along those same lines, offering benefits or rewards that have charm or value is a huge boost.  If you just put your hand out, it’s not that interesting.  Everyone can offer something in return.

One great example is a project by Earl Scioneaux, a musician from New Orleans, who is offering prospective backers some home-cooked gumbo and music theory lessons. His rewards really connect us to his project and make us feel like patrons.

What are some of the projects currently being funded?
They cover all the bases: group of New Yorkers self-publishing a book where everyone gets a page, a photographer exploring Iceland, a writer funding travel for a regional cookbook, a NYTimes crossword puzzle creator funding the release of Brooklyn-themed puzzles.

The day after we launched, two projects were already completely funded. That really blew us away. Five projects have been funded in the first week.  Five more are quite close.  The smallest funded was $35, and another is already close to it’s $3,000 goal. Several new projects are attempting to raise $10,000. I think projects will mostly be started by: people with particular ideas that have been burning in their hearts for awhile; those people that have ideas falling out of their heads; and people in creative industries that no longer want to wait to be tapped on the head. Then the second group are the audiences and networks of those folks. We think, eventually, that’s almost everyone.

KickStartr was a back of a napkin idea, and everyone has those. What if you could easily aggregate enthusiasm with resources? What project would you like to kickstart?

Juliette Powell is an entrepreneur, media consultant and author of 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009), a book about social networking for business. Powell is co-founder of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of media, business, advertising and technology. You can connect with her on Twitter and facebook.

While my last post was about media literacy, this one is more focused on digital literacy and how it affects your career. Many of us are aware there exists a digital divide: some people have access to digital technology while others don’t, particularly in extremely poor rural areas and in developing countries. What we rarely hear about is the digital divide happening right here, in our homes, neighborhoods and in our companies.

Digital literacy is the difference between knowing how to consume digital media (like searching for information on the internet) and knowing how to communicate, produce and distribute a message using digital media (like starting a blog or producing and uploading a useful video to youtube). While the divide between those who are digitally literate and those who aren’t is generally thought of as a demographic issue, I tend to think of it as a psychographic barrier as well. In other words, the ability to use digital technology isn’t determined solely on where and when you were born, it is also determined by a person’s affinity to technology in general and to digital media in particular.

For those of you who want to tap into the current zeitgeist around the digital literacy required these days to build a career using social networking, here’s an interview with personal branding coach to the millennial generation, Dan Schawbel, who shares insights and tips from his new best-selling book: Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. (Kaplan Publishing, April 2009).

While 33 million People in the Room details how entrepreneurs and companies can build social and cultural capital using social networking, Me 2.0 takes a different tact to communicate a similar message, what is the main hypothesis behind your book?

The main hypothesis behind Me 2.0 is that everyone needs to “command their career.”  Tom Peters, the inventor of personal branding, always stated that we have to be the chief marketer for the brand called us.  He was all about Me Inc. and how we had to think of ourselves as companies and use the same strategies to stand out.

Being the commander of your career means that you’re accountable for your successes and failures.  You have to take ownership and full responsibility for your career.

Although, you might seek advice from teachers and managers, you know who you are, what you’re capable of and have to make the decisions.  You need to be in the drivers seat and that’s the only way you’re going to succeed.  The four steps I’ve outlined in Me 2.0 (discover, create, communicate, maintain) are aligned to this main idea.

What are some of the new ideas and tips that emerge from your book that people can apply immediately?

• Reserve your name on the leading social networks, while purchasing your domain name and being an active contributor to your own blog.
• Get endorsements as much as you can from your managers, teachers, etc.
• Always think about how you can use what you’ve accomplished in the past to get your next opportunity in the future.
• Understand that the number of Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn contacts is a marketing list that you can tap at anytime.  They are internet assets!
• Have a clear branding strategy before you engage online and offline.
• Focus on relationships instead of making money.  The personal equity will get you further than paper currency.

What companies/ individuals are best representing the strategy and tactics described in ‘Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success’?
When it comes to personal branding, Donald Trump, Oprah, and Madonna are three of the top ones that people have heard of.  Celebrity internet brands examples are Kevin Rose, Pete Cashmore, Rohit Bhargava and Jeremiah Owyang.   Companies that have strong brands through social media are Zappos, Comcast, EMC (I work there), and Ford.

*What specific tips do you have to effectively leverage each of the social tools: video on the net, blog, twitter, facebook, other?

• Blogs are more important than all the social networks combined because they are hubs of information  and are something you can control.
• Decide weather you’re better at doing video or writing.  Invest more of your energy in the one you do the best and promote that over time.
• Don’t be afraid of using these tools.  Instead, figure out which ones work the best for you.
• Learn about your audience before updating your status messages on social networks.  You don’t want to send the wrong signals to employers or friends.

‘Me 2.0′ is directed at gen Y, yet more and more evidence supports the idea that the ability to use social tools effectively to build career success isn’t directly correlated to demographics but rather with psychographics (head space) as well as affinity and access to technology. With that in mind, what can the ‘every person’ learn by picking up your book?
Every person can learn a little bit more about themselves from reading this book.  It’s also a source of inspiration and contains a proven set of tools that will work for anyone.  You don’t just learn about what’s available, you get to put it into practice.  A lot of research went into writing Me 2.0 and I think everyone will be challenged and see the potential of social media for personal brand building.

Dan’s book is in stores now and we’d love to get your comments on it, as well as any more tips you might have for building your personal brand using social networking. Time to share with the rest of the class..

Juliette

It is mind boggling to think about how many millions of people in the world, let alone in America, still consider whatever is said in the news to be the ‘truth’. Whose ‘truth’? While a healthy skepticism remains about digital news sources, traditional broadcast is still, in many cases, still getting a free pass.

Last week’s post Colbert Shrugged: Ayn Rand Institute Responds to ‘Rand Illusion’ prompted such a strong reaction from fans of both Rand and Colbert that 136 comments later, truths of all shapes emerged from the heated discussion. One topic that came up time and again was the importance of media literacy.

Part 2 of my interview with Onkar Ghate, senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute looks at the way Ayn Rand’s classic 1957 work ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has been mediatized in recent months to communicate political messages.

How have the political left and right used Rand’s characters, stories and philosophy in the media of late to reinforce their positions within a larger audience?

I don’t think liberals or democrats are making use of Rand; rather, they are attacking her and Atlas Shrugged. (I suspect that Stephen Colbert is a liberal.)

Conservatives are making use of Atlas Shrugged, but only in a limited political sense. They rarely mention the fact that Atlas Shrugged is about a moral revolution and not a political one. One major reason they fail to mention this aspect of Atlas Shrugged is that the morality of rational self-interest stands opposed to religious ethics, which demands that an individual subordinate himself to something that is supposedly higher than himself. Explicitly or implicitly, most conservatives support a religious approach to morality. And of course religious ethics is the source of the slogan that we are our brother’s keeper.

On Rand’s view, therefore, conservatives are not actually opponents of socialism but its enablers, because they, like the liberals, advocate the opposite of a morality of rational self-interest: they advocate selflessness and altruism.

How much of what we’re seeing in the media’s recent references to Atlas Shrugged is actually reflective of Rand’s philosophy of Selfishness?

It is true that Atlas Shrugged depicts an America in which the government, through various “emergency” measures, seizes control of the economy. But what most commentators miss is that politics is not the focus of Atlas Shrugged. Its focus is on morality and philosophy. The story of Atlas Shrugged is about productive individuals learning fully to value their own lives and happiness, and coming to understand that this requires uncompromising devotion to their own minds and to what is in fact morally right. They must learn that to fully live their own lives and achieve happiness, they need a new morality of rational self-interest.

As one aspect of this issue, Atlas Shrugged in effect argues that only such a morality can in fact explain, justify and defend why an individual has the moral right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Contrary to the Declaration of Independence, Rand does not regard these rights as self-evident.

Notice that the rights Jefferson lists all sanction self-interest: my moral right to my life, my moral right to my freedom to think and act, my moral right to pursue my happiness. If selfishness is evil, then these rights are wrong, morally wrong.

And so in a society that regards the pursuit of self-interest as evil, like the society depicted in Atlas Shrugged and like today’s society, these rights will be tossed aside as wrong. If we are our brother’s keeper, as Obama declares (echoing the conventional wisdom)–if your moral duty is to serve your neighbor and anyone else who is in need, then you don’t have the moral right to pursue your own life and happiness.

As in the case of any controversial figure, there is no substitute for going to the source. To discover what Rand maintained, read her works. To understand the meaning and importance of Atlas Shrugged, pick up the novel.

Ayn Rand’s work was introduced to this author when I began my first job in journalism as an eager teen. Over a decade later, Rand’s books remain constant reminders of the powerful influence media has in shaping perceptions of who we are as individuals and as a society.