10 Days of Social Media That Shook Us Up!

December 10, 2011

"We Are Many", a documentary about the amazing story of the largest protest in history, and its legacy witnessed in current social and poltical movements around the globe, reached its fundraising target on Kickstarter in the early hours of today. What's more heartwarming and remarkable is that this people powered film is continuing to exceed its target every minute as it approaches its campaign deadline of 5:35 am (EST) Tuesday 13th December. The film has clearly captured the public's imagination surpassing all our expectations leaving us speechless with gratitude and a strong sense of belonging to a fantastic community.

10 days ago on 1st December on this blog I wrote the following:

10 DAY COUNTDOWN CALL TO ACTION

Many TED Fellows and subscribers to this blog and their Facebook friends and Twitter followers have backed this important documentary by either pledging and/or helping spread the word. The production team of We Are Many are grateful for your generosity and support. Together we have raised $20,000 which is fantastic. But we still have a long way to go and need your help in reaching new donors.

We now have 10 days to raise the remaining $50,000 to reach the set target of $70,000.

Raising $5000 per day from today! It is a huge ask but not impossible. Our network of friends and followers, our circles of influence, can do it. This is a true test of the power of social media to do good. Let’s stretch it to its limits in a truly deserving case study: a documentary about people power crowd-funded by people.

The Humanity of the Crowds proved our huge mountain to climb was indeed within reach and then some! We Are Many did raise $5000/day and more. Thank you for backing this project in whatever way you did. We are truly grateful.

But - there's always a but ! - with 70 hours to go we are not resting or complacent.

Now is the perfect time to invite your friends to play a part. Join our already 480-strong community of backers. If everyone of you succeed in getting just ONE friend to play a part, the number of backers will be almost 1000! Let’s go as far as we can. Pass the word to everyone by Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Email, and/or Direct Call! Be the 1000th backer! Help us reach the ultimate crowd!

Can we attract 1000 plus backers? I believe, with your help, WE CAN! It's not over until it's over!

This is the all important link to share

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/733111346/we-are-many

Finally a reminder of what it's all about.

Taghi Amirani

TED Senior Fellow 2010

@tagz23

Filed under // Amir Amirani Amirani Films Aslan Media Iraq War Kickstarter Occupy Occupy Wall Street Peace Protest TED TED Senior Fellow Taghi Amirani We Are Many

Posted by Taghi Amirani

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4 Days left to support Protei, the Oil Spill cleaning sailing robot.

April 7, 2011

Dear fellows,

Some of you may already know about Protei, the project I coordinate, now involving more and more brilliant people.
We managed to raise already more than $20'000 but we only have 4 days left to collect the $7500 missing.

Please have a look at this short video and you will understand it all :D

So, to help us you can :

Back us on kickstarter, every $ counts :)
Share our short URL http://kck.st/hUv68A on your facebook, by email to your friends.
And if you know journalists, bloggers (who like robots / ocean / environment) etc, give them our media page : http://media.protei.org

Last week we did some tests in Rotterdam, and we will be very proud to be presenting Protei at the World Port Day this summer (400'000 visitors!).

Thanks for your help !

Filed under // Open_Sailing sailing Cesar Harada NL NOLA Protei Robot TED TED Senior Fellow

Posted by Cesar Harada

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One day, hundreds of stories| Featuring TED Translator Nafissa Yakubova and TED Fellow Andriankoto Ratozamanana | Reportage

November 10, 2010

One year from today, on November 11, 2011 people all over the world will be brought together by film in the 11Eleven Project. Carly Goldstone reports.

Image: Danielle Lauren via facebook.com

11Eleven project director, Danielle Lauren wants people to tell their stories through film.

How much do we really have in common and how could we possibly find out? Is there potential to generate one world voice?

It’s a big ask, but a band of determined people from around the planet are planning to give it a go. A year from now, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, of the 2011th year, those who have access to film, video, digital, phone, web camera or microphone will be encouraged to begin a universal narrative.

Danielle Lauren, a documentary filmmaker from Sydney, Australia, is the creator and director of the 11Eleven Project.

“[I'm] trying to bring the world together as one on this auspicious day.”

Individuals from 196 different countries, including Australia, Fiji, Thailand, Belarus, Spain and Nigeria, communicated to in over 2000 languages, will be invited to “capture a day in the life of their world.”

Participants will be able to upload their footage, audio or photographic material to the 11Eleven Project website which will be collated and turned into a variety of different projects, highlighting the 24 hours captured by the world.

Lauren also plans to make a two-hour feature length documentary, to explore human experiences, the similarities and polarity between people across the globe.

“This project will break boundaries between people and create a sense of one world. Let me see you as an equal and let me explore how you live your life, the good and the bad, and let me take some of that knowledge and translate it into my own life.”

Lauren devised the project to “illustrate the commonalities amongst all people and to witness the shared experience amongst every human being living on earth.”

The 11Eleven Project highlights the powerful role that an individual can play, day-to-day.

“The individual can make a difference in the world and the power of the collective can change the planet,” Lauren said.

Harinjaka Ratozamanana, a citizen journalist/blogger and 11ELEVEN project manager for Madagascar, is busy networking and helping produce films, pictures and stories for the project.

“With humility and modesty, I want to put Madagascar on the map through this historical and unique project.

“Sadly, the world of film in Madagascar is very poor, we have very few film production companies throughout the island,” he said.

Ratozamanana said he became involved in the project because he loves the idea of telling stories.

“Danielle Lauren gives us hope and the opportunity to be part of this international and meaningful project and help us show our smile in this time capsule.

“Often biodiversity and lemurs are in the spotlight, [I want to] focus on the Malagasy people and make them crucial actors and models in their unique and threatened environment,” said Ratozamanana.

“Malagasy people favour unity, solidarity and community life and their consequences such as hospitality, sharing and reconciliation. In fact, we believe that humanity is one.”

Nafissa Yakubova is originally from Kazakhstan and is now a medical student in the US.

She hopes to capture stories about minority village children on November 11 next year.

“I plan to use my camera and skills for those children who can’t afford to be involved in this worldwide project. I would love to capture their lives in a day.

“I’m very inspired by the idea of bringing people together, especially through art…[it] reminds us of the simplicity and beauty of being a human, and how we can come together.”

Yakubova said she was also extremely moved by the emphasis of telling stories in multiple languages.

However, Lauren said language barriers is currently one of the hurdles.

“Trying to find like-minded people to be ambassadors in their own countries and help promote and participate in the project, is the biggest challenge.”

Lauren is currently focused on ensuring areas with limited access to technology can still participate in the project.

“I want to make sure that people with limited access to technology get to participate and ensure that the global narrative is not an English narrative.”

As this is a non-profit project, Lauren says she will use the profits to provide money for charities that are helping to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Partners of the project include: Sydney International Film School; UC Santa Cruz, California; Florence Film School and University of the Philippines Film Institute.

via reportageonline.com

The best place for people to stay updated on 11/11/11 is via facebook

TED Fellow Andriankoto via facebook.com

Filed under // Antananarivo Madagascar TED TED Fellow technology

Posted by Andriankoto Ratozamanana

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TED fellow becomes Vice President at 20

October 13, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT : Its official now !!! Joined Hypios as new "Vice President - Strategy"

https://www.hypios.com/thinking/youngest-ted-fellow-vice-president-at-20/

In the last years, many stories of ultra young start-up founders bringing their companies to the top of the high-tech field have made it to the headlines. Mark Zuckerberg famously (or, as some would say, “infamously”) launched facebook aged 20. While ultra-young start-up founders are very common, established companies have long resisted giving key-positions to very young leaders. But there are signals that this is changing.

This week hypios [ www.hypios.com ] , the technological leader in Open Innovation and R&D Problem-Solving recruited the youngest TED fellow, the Indian inventor Apurv Mishra [ www.apurvmishra.com ]. At age 20, Mishra will become the company’s Vice President Strategy. Olivier Petros, experienced top executive within bank and industry giants, as well as hypios co-founder and board member explains: « Keeping the changing mode on is a challenge when you are already the leader. Apurv’s age and style perfectly fits with hypios’ DNA : changing before others change is the only way to do it efficiently »

Apurv Mishra was born and educated in the KBK District, which he calls « one of the most backward tribal districts in Asia ». When he was just 11 years old, he got his first patent & Invention Award from India’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He’s since been credited to many inventions (US & Indian Patents) and received many international awards, among them SIYSS Award from the Nobel Foundation at Nobel Prize Ceremony 2009. Far from being a lonely inventor, Apurv soon understood the power of great minds connected. In 2006, he founded Innovator Factor Foundation (IFF) [ www.iffglobal.org ], a virtual Open Innovation think tank with 400 active members. « To be a creative, inventor or researcher is something to be proud of. But if you can’t connect to those who have the power to implement your solutions, you won’t change a thing. hypios helps by connecting the most creative problem-solvers – be they in Kolkata or Harvard – to the large organizations where they can make a real difference. I’m joining hypios to build even more and faster channels from Solvers to Solution Seekers, and to help hypios scale to become a world-spanning community of millions of problem-solvers », Apurv Mishra states.

hypios’ President Oussama Ammar, believes that Apurv is the right antidote against the inertia that keeps companies from going open: « Open Problem-Solving is a new paradigm. Most companies still focus on internal Research & Development instead of trying to engage multiple stakeholders and innovators inside and outside their organizations. People with a background like Apurv have the boldness, insight and creativity it needs to really change the game.»

–

hypios

The technological leader in Open Problem-Solving broadcasts complex Research & Development Problems to a community of over 150,000 expert Problem-Solvers.

Filed under // TED TED Fellows hypios open innovation

Posted by Apurv Mishra

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Apps4 Africa: State Department Driving Collaboration through Competition | The White House

July 30, 2010

More and more, Africans are behind some of the most effective digital tools for driving social change and economic inclusion. Ushahidi, a Kenyan crisis response platform, was used by the U.S. government and the United Nations for emergency response purposes in Haiti; and M-Pesa, Kenya’s mobile money platform, is among the most successful in the world. There are now physical spaces where new ideas live, in the form of tech incubators and co-working spaces, including the Hive Colab in Uganda, the iHub in Kenya, and Limbe Labs in Cameroon with similar spaces set to open in the near future.

Building on the momentum of the President’s Summit on Entrepreneurship and on Secretary Clinton’s call for American support of “Civil Society 2.0,” the State Department has launched Apps4Africa in collaboration with an amazing group of local partners – Appfrica Labs, SODNET and iHub. Apps4Africa, part of Secretary Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft Initiative, is a regional competition for the best digital tools built by local developers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania to improve the lives of people in their communities. While small doses of fame and fortune will be awarded to the most creative and useful apps, the most prized outcome of Apps4Africa will be a connected ecosystem of local talent, civil society organizations, and mentors from around the world.

This is how it works: Citizens, civil society organizations, and the public can submit ideas for problems that can be solved through the use of digital technology. For example, the following two ideas were recently introduced by local NGOs in Uganda and Kenya:

Vote Duplication Prevention: Governments in East Africa are working to publish voter registration databases. One idea generated was to develop an app that allows election commissions and authorized election observers to keep a real time tally, geo-located by constituency, of who has voted, to ensure that the final tabulation does not exceed the number of votes actually submitted. Such tools could be layered on existing mobile applications to report voter intimidation and fraud.

Mobile Math Tests: Assessing the quality of primary school education in rural environments by under-resourced NGOs working on education is a tremendous challenge. Perhaps a well-designed app could provide these NGOs with the ability to assess primary school math education through a set of 5 questions received and answered through mobile phones.

Promising ideas like these can be submitted in a variety of ways, including the www.apps4africa.org website, via Twitter (tweet to @Apps4Africa), and via SMS text message if you are in Kenya. Citizens around the world can then participate by voting good ideas to the top of the site, where technologists can build apps to solve the top challenges.

via whitehouse.gov

The WhiteHouse Blog explains why they feel it's important to nurture local innovators in developing countries, and their involvement in the Apps4Africa contest I'm co-facilitating. Also references my project Hive Colab in Uganda and another TED Fellow's, Erik Hersman, work with the iHub in Kenya!

Filed under // ghana TED clinton obama

Posted by Jon Gosier

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Crowd-sourcing a Music Video for Cash

July 15, 2010

TEDGlobal 2010 final night grand party was held at Oxford's Malmaison Hotel, a former prison. For the after party a whole lot of TED Fellows and TEDsters braved the wet streets outside to go dancing at a club called Escape. Not making this up.

I decided to stay behind and mingle in the "quiet" chill out room, thinking it's not every night you get to stay in a prison voluntarily. Took the lift to the chill out room which I found to be anything but quiet or cool. The place was a riot of loud overexcited TEDsters, doing what they're supposed to do: great thinking and doing. It wasn't long before I ran into Jon Kamen whom I had met at a previous TED and later @radicalmedia . We found an empty corner to catch up.

Over the din I heard Jon talk with great infectious enthusiasm about a project he and his super talented team @radicalmedia have been working on: a Johnny Cash music video. So I came back to my college dorm at Keble and thought I'd check it out before bed,

Boy, was I in for a fantastic surprise. This is no ordinary music video. The Johnny Cash Project is an online global collective public art project and visual testament to the life and career of Johnny Cash. Read about it here and see it here to have your mind blown.

Taghi Amirani

TED Senior Fellow

http://amiranifilms.com/

@tagz23

Filed under // @radicalmedia Johnny Cash Malmaison Oxford TED TED Senior Fellow Taghi Amirani

Posted by Taghi Amirani

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Ask an Iranian about BP But Not Before Breakfast

July 14, 2010

From the Global Breakfast Club

Day 2 at TEDGlobal 2010 and the two morning sessions manage to blow me away (that would be funnier if you knew the content). Titled Found in Translation and Irrational Choices, the themes explored in the talks and performances on this grey rainy Oxford morning warmed up the cockles of my Middle Eastern heart. During this TED so far the one subject that keeps coming up is "story". How to tell it, who tells it, who owns it, who has the best ones, and why they must be told. From internet visionary Ethan Zukerman and Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, to comedy impresario Jamil Abu-Wardah, and the fantastic stand up and actor Maz Jobrani, the message was loud and clear; let us tell our own stories in our own way. Reclaim! Even game changer Peter Molyneux in his talk the day before wanted to be part of his own game story.

Those who follow this blog know that my recent posts about BP have been less than gushing. One titled "Iran and USA: The Gulf Between Us" has been a particular favourite. Another tells you everything you wanted to know about BP but were afraid to ask. No, this is not a Woody Allen joke.

Now past 2 am, just before crashing after a long day in Oxford, I notice this headline on The Guardian site:

BP faces Lockerbie accusations amid delays over oil cap tests

It turns out there are now charges from a group of US senators that BP lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber as part of an oil-for-terrorist deal.

What next? You wonder.

If you really want to know the FULL story about British Petroleum (BP) you must ask an Iranian. But not before he has invited you to breakfast. You see, rather than bang on about the human and environmental disaster in The Gulf of Mexico, let's take our cue from TEDGlobal's theme "And Now the Good News" and join the Global Breakfast Club instead. So much can be shared and learned over breakfast.

Taghi Amirani

TED Senior Fellow

http://amiranifilms.com/

@tagz23

Filed under // Amirani Films BP Elif Shakaf Ethan Zukerman Global Breakfast Club Iranian Jamil Abu-Wardah Maz Jobrani Peter Molyneux TED TED Senior Fellow TEDGlobal TEDGlobal 2010 Taghi Amirani Woody Allen

Posted by Taghi Amirani

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Finding the Keys to My Heart

July 10, 2010

Recently I got back from New York with two bags carrying two objects connecting different parts of my life, or two sides of my personality. The objects in the bags are magical and evocative in their own special way, and speak to my inner self in conflict with itself. You see I'm both a tecky geeky guy, and yet at heart a bit of an old fashioned soul, a 21st century Luddite if you will. Let the pictures do most of the talking.

While the box on the right needs no explanation, to the untrained eye the one of the left may appear somewhat mysterious. So let's go on a bit. As you scroll down the images I want you to examine your reaction, your visceral reflexes, to what you see unfolding.

So far, so familiar. And now the object in the left box.

Where would the plastic handle of the Mac box be in a 100 years? How would it have aged, if you felt sentimental enough to keep it? Let my fingers do the talking, forgiving the odd typo here and there.

Seeing and feeling the words you type. The impact of metal on paper making an indelible mark, smelling of old greasy times, making you feel like a real writer. The rat tatat tatat, the jingle of the bell telling you've reached the end of the line. Some letters, or words, coming out bolder perhaps because you felt them more, or because you're a lousy uneven typist. Either way, what you are, what you feel, is immediately on the paper in front of you. "Feel", human touch, is the word that keeps coming up. So let's feel our way around some more.

I've been intrigued and excited by the mechanics of old beautiful machines and what they produce for as long as I remember. Why, I even collect old newspaper articles about them.

Click on above image to read the small print.

And do blogs about them. And make documentaries about them. Look out for Dear Olive in there somewhere.

So will your grandchildren be making films about the MacBook Pro? Will nostalgia be what it is today?

The pounding of typewriter keys have been replaced by the clickety click of the keyboard, now pushed aside by the silent touch of the smooth glass of iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. I see where this is going. If the boy wonder of MIT, Pranav Mistry is allowed to get his way with his SixthSense technology we won't even need to touch anything anymore. Just wave our arms around to get things done in the digital world.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_...

So to bid a fond farewell AND to save the typewriter for posterity I took a trip to the Apple Store in London's Regent Street. And guess what I found on the iPad.

Taghi Amirani

TED Senior Fellow 2010

@tagz23

Amirani Films

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Filed under // Amirani Films Apple Dear Olive MIT MacBook Pro Pranav Mistry Remington SixthSense TED TED Senior Fellow Taghi Amirani Typewriter

Posted by Taghi Amirani

Comments [9]

How often can you, with a few clicks, help to save the ecosystem but also the people of Madagascar? | www.vakanala.org

April 21, 2010

It’s warm and sunny in Antananarivo today. The blue sky and the sounds of birds tells me that the hot and rainy season is gone and we are now in the cool and dry season.

I have been nervous and excited last few days. www.vakanala.org , one of the projects that I am involved in is part of an e-bay fundraising tournament for the Environment this year. The first online fundraising tournament to support an environmental cause … and we can’t stand still.

In the next two months, our young organization will seat close to dozens of organizations, including X PRIZE Foundation , Light Up Malawi, Water.org and the Acumen Fund.

Vakan’Ala means “pearl of the forest” in Malagasy language. It’s a non-profit initiative, in collaboration with and serving rural communities bordering the forests of Manambolo in the south part of Madagascar.

The idea is to implement a new economic paradigm in rural areas, based on the conservation of primary forests and forest landscape restoration, taking into account sustainable development practices. In opposition to the conservation mechanisms currently set up that separate human activities and nature conservation, which are thus, unsustainable, our approach consists on putting into practice an integrated project of these two issues.

Madagascar is environmentally degraded and economically devastated. When we have 80 percent of the population dependent on agriculture and the rural areas can't provide enough food for them, that’s a serious problem for the conservation.

via vakanala.org

Post From the same TED Fellow on this Blog: It's Christmas, offer a tree to our Planet

Photo : Me and Jane Goodall at TEDGlobal 2007 "Africa The Next Chapter"

How can you help?

“Humanity Calls unlocks the power of social media to bring together an online global community and businesses that share a commitment to making a difference", says Ron Bouganim, Director, Humanity Calls .

Vakanala logo Vakanala's team invite you to Friend, Follow and repost/retweet any of the announcements we make in the coming weeks. We have plenty in store as entertainment during the tournament on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

You can vote for us at the humanity calls from April 22 to June 22, 2010 or directly donate.

Filed under // Humanitycalls TED

Posted by Andriankoto Ratozamanana

Comments [5]

Vintage Tarkovsky Rediscovered in Self-Storage Sparks Flames of Nostalgia

March 19, 2010

Don't go spring-cleaning in the self-storage unit and expect to come back unscathed by the sharp edges of your past when handling old boxes. A few days ago I decided to de-clutter in time for the Iranian New Year (more on that in the next post). I arrived at the giant faceless warehouse tucked away in a nondescript part of north London around noon on a sunny crisp March day. Rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in.

Pulled from between boxes archiving film production files, old correspondence and stacks of books, was a 20-year old Panasonic TV. Soon after that emerged a dusty but not rusty 30-year old Betamax video recorder. It wasn't long before I found a box containing some 200 Betamax videos of movies I had recorded off-air. Hollywood blockbusters to obscure art-house gems, all painstakingly taped editing out the commercials by pause/record. You cannot underestimate the nerdy commitment and enthusiasm of a film school student in the mid 80s. Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, surrounded by the digital whizz of HD blue ray wallowing in the flat plasma LCD of Dolbyness, I was to say goodbye to the old technology and make some space.

But not before seeing if it all still worked, just one more time. So, I put the TV on a swivel chair, the video player on top and dragged the shaky set up to the nearest power point. Came back and dipped my hands into the box of tapes like an eager child plunging into a pile of sweet jellybeans. With a handful of tapes I went back to the makeshift home cinema and without looking at labels put one in and pressed PLAY.

Nothing could have prepared me for the rush I was about to get. Flickering on the screen was a scene from Andrei Rublev directed by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1966. The subject of the film goes back even further to 15th century Russia. The story is based loosely on the life of the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes.

Standing back gazing on the B&W scene set in a wintry forest, I marveled at the endurance of art and old technology, overcome by a warm glow of nostalgia. The life of a Russian religious icon painter born in the 1360s, depicted in a film made in 1966 by a true poet and master of the cinema, now playing in a deserted corridor of a 2010 London self-storage warehouse on a 30-year old Sony Betamax video player owned by an Iranian. Something about the surreal nature of this juncture would have appealed to Tarkovsky had he lived long enough to read this blog. Sadly he died of lung cancer in 1986 in exile in Paris. The inscription on his gravestone, which was created by the Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, reads: "To the man who saw the Angel."

I figure if Tarkovsky could see the Angel, he would have had no problem hovering gently over Andrei Rublev playing outside my storage unit last week, perhaps with a wry smile on his charming sculpted face. As I put everything back, locked up and stepped out into the real world, it was four hours later and I had not de-cluttered. If anything I had overloaded.

What will I now do with the spiritually and emotionally significant Betamax player and obsolete videotapes? What other surprises do those tapes hold inside their cases? Watch this space...

Taghi Amirani

TED Senior Fellow 2010

http://amiranifilms.com/

@amiranifilms http://twitter.com/amiranifilms

@tagz23 http://twitter.com/tagz23