Question: How do you see your use of social media tools supporting concrete change?

I've seen a real switch in non-profits lately and the way they utilize social tools. I recently started volunteering with a renewable energy initiative in my community and was asked in the application process what experience I had with social media. My job on the project is to make films about those who live off-grid and on local farms and how they fit into the food system. I was so grateful that I had the summer with DOTCOM and the social media training which I now fall back on whenever I edit a new film. The thing is, these films are not online yet. And if I have learned anything from DOTCOM it is that the internet is where it all springboards from. The films will have to go online in order for anything substantial to happen.

Mobile Eyes Index Card Script

My public health idea is skin cancer prevention.

Index Card #1: The sun shines down on every one of us.

Index Card #2: And this means no one is safe from skin cancer.

Index Card #3: Unless some prevention guidelines are followed.

Index Card #4: Apply sunscreen with SPF of 15 or 30 minutes before you go outside, and reapply after every two hours you are in the sunshine.

Index Card #5: Don't tan, don't burn. Period. Tanning booths are as deadly as lying in the sun with little coverage and no sunscreen.

Index Card #6: Seek shade when you can see the sun and cover up!

Index Card #7: Have fun, be safe and keep in touch- examine your skin for moles or sun spots every month, and see your doctor yearly for an expert skin exam.

Index Card #8: For more information go to www.skincancer.org.

My contact information is The Skin Cancer Foundation, specifically the "Guidelines" and "Skin Cancer Facts" section.

350 Day

350 Day is this Saturday!

What're you going to do??

I'm attending my Strafford Green Festival (in my hometown). Find an event near you at this link.

Back to Earth: Blog Action Day

www.blogactionday.org

We have seen the consequences. We know what we are facing. Climate change is the issue of this generation. This is the sentiment shared by the near 10,000 bloggers writing on this B

log Action Day, and so many citizens of this planet. Of course, there ar

e those who doubt the reality of climate change. I am not going to write today to persuade disbelievers with facts. That isn't something I feel qualified or willing to do.

Because I hold firm to my opinion that we are past the time of persuasion. We have entered the realm of pure, immediate action. That being said, I urge you, skeptic or no, to explore books like "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman, or "The Weather Makers:How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth." by Tim Flannery. Go to the website 350.org, visit the Climate Orb on tcktcktck.org, or http://consequence09.org/.Look at this graph, keeping in mind that scientists claim that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe amount of CO2 for humanity. CO2 ppm today is dangerously above that number.

Climate change calls for a societal shift. Movements, large and small throughout the world. We need to remind ourselves of the staggering amount of CO2 in the planet's atmosphere. We have to remember that we can't function inside the current ppm of CO2. Mindset has to change.

We know the drill already. Carpooling, biking, reusing or simply eliminating plastic bags, unplugging electronics, installing compact flourescents lightbulbs. That spectrum of the Green Revolution is becoming commonplace. I don't want to demote those crucial actions at all (in fact, right now, jump up and turn off an unnecessary light in your house, or unplug your cellphone charger). No! We need to continue this efforts tenfold! We all know the power of the chain reactions- the aluminum water bottle you carried into the grocery store might just inspire someone else to recycle their plastic water bottles and pick up one of these:

But of course, there is more to be done. We need to return to our roots, to the earth, to living without a carbon footprint. Let's look to the example of Denmark- running off of the wind, and achieving near carbon neutrality nationwide. Let's examine societies where public transportation really works, and assess what needs to be changed in countries with poor public transportation systems. Let's urge lawmakers in the United States to switch agricultural subsides off of corn, and therefore make the localvore affordable and accessible. You know yourself where sustainable changes in your community should be made. For example, the independent high school I attend does not have a bus system to transport students to school. As a result so a huge number of personal vehicles driven by parents and older siblings arrive at school each morning and afternoon. Though the community prides itself on it's carpooling initiative, the bottom line is to many cars motor to school each morning. I know that my school community needs to alter this system, and I also know we must start now.

First steps are arguably the most stubborn stumbling blocks of most ingenious ideas. Your green efforts might falter in the beginning, especially proposals that challenge a whole communities' comfort zones. But this is the time for the big ideas, for plans that shake the lull we're resting in. We need them more than ever. Remind yourself of that. So organize a group to not only install solar panels on your home, but your whole street's homes. Don't just recycle in you own home, petition that for every trash can in your city a recycling bin should be match it.

Install biodiesel van pools or buses, plant a community garden. Think of individual actions that add up. They will add up. They will pay off. Start now.

BLOG TOMORROW FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

DOTCOMERS! I know this is last minute news but tomorrow is a day to use our blogs to reach a wide audience with a extremely important issue of Climate Change.

And though we're all busy with schoolwork and our PSA scripts and LIFE...let's all try to write something!

First, watch this quick video on the subject and the event.

Then, visit this website:http://www.blogactionday.org/ and register your blog. Poke around that site to figure out what you might write or what others might be writing. If you do blog, you will be partaking in one of the biggest social change events in the history of the web. Write about the impacts you see in you daily life as a result of climate change, write about impacts you see elsewhere in the world and write about solutions! This is the perfect place to get your brilliant green idea out there.

It can be a short post! A miles long post! A picture, a embedded film- anything. Just make it powerful!

Phase 3 Module 1

It is finally here!

1.What proved the most challenging part of our July Phase 2 DOTCOM experience for you?

It would be easy for me to say that the most challenging part of our July adventures was overcoming the technical difficulties. But that is to easy, and frankly, not true. The most challenging part of DOTCOM this summer was realizing that I had was not prepared for the tension that did arise inside of our 30 student community- especially in the very beginnings of the time in Vermont. But as challenges go, this was a very positive one. I was able to

backtrack, reassess, and alter how the mindset in which I was entering the situation. I learned some very valuable skills to make group work really work.

2.What proved the most rewarding part of our July Phase 2 DOTCOM experience for you?

Most rewarding was the finished product, one incredible film after another, playing out on the screen in front of us. Second to that title of most rewarding part of Phase 2 would be the fray of crying, hugging, picture snapping DOTCOMers following our final showing. Again, I took a step back there to drink it all in. The tension dissipated for that moment. Though it was a brief, I don't think I'll ever forget it.

3.What proved the most fun part of our July Phase 2 DOTCOM experience for you?

Aha! Swinging on the swings in the drizzling rain with Nargiz and Armen. We had just heard maybe the worst news to hear just a day before a final showing. Our computer had crashed. We were crushed, sure, but somehow, we found ourselves on the playground. We swung back and forth, back and forth until our heads ached, singing Beatles songs... which I truly believe may be one of those universal unifiers. :)

4.What are you most excited about, looking forward to our online Phase 3 DOTCOM

experience coming up this fall?

I am looking forward to thinking hard about this world we live in. I can't wait to read what everyone has to say!

The picture I chose is one of Astghik and I, on our host family's couch, eating our nightly dessert of apple, just happy!

Astroturf

Net Neutrality is a principle that is focused on preserving a free internet, one not controlled or censored by large cable and phone corporations. Net Neutrality would insure a fast, affordable and open internet for all. Net Neutrality would protect users from the unfair practices of "blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership, or destination." (For a great video on the subject and more information go here.)

Sounds reasonable, right?

Not to all. Some- it's probably pretty obvious who- are rallying the fake grassroots organization troops, the 500 plus Washington lobbyists and using Cold War rhetoric that we've all heard quite a bit these past few weeks. "See the New America Foundation's manifesto on "Saving the Information Commons" to grasp the enormity of their plans for socializing the Internet. " writes Scott Cleland, author of The Precursor Blog and of Netcompetion.org. Cleland also protests the supporters of Net Neutrality's call for internet to be commonaly owned property, deeming it a "radical agenda."

Those who share Cleland's views explain that Net Nuetrality is not plausible in economic terms. That sources of funding in media should not be transparent. The Hartland Institute for example, "now keeps confidential the identities of all our donors". Those opposed to Net Nuetrality most likely agree with Cleland's bottomline: With freedom comes responsibility to protect freedom from those who seek to take it away.

Strong words, but the truth is this: Cleland and other "astroturfers" (fake grassroot organization advocates) are paid by the phone and coporation companies to sway and confuse the public opinion with misinformation. Again, as we've seen in these past weeks with the brouhaha over health care reform, the puppets have become the puppet masters, and we just can't afford to be manipulated within these important issues.

Educate yourself!
Read Timothy Kerr's Huffingtion Post article "Unmasking Astroturfers"
Revisit, or read for the first time The New York Times Op-ed "Beware the New New Thing" by Damian Kulash Jr. Lead Singer of OK Go.
Check out: www.freepress.net, www.savetheinternet.com, and savethenews.org