GivingSpace

Positive Media Workshop Aug 16-17, 2004

New York City, West Village area,

Sponsored by the Omidyar Network, at the home of Andrew Raseij

How can we attract attention to what's working to make the world a better place through TV, radio, print, and Internet?    Workshop participants will have a broad spectrum of media, public relations, advertising, and Internet backgrounds.

How can we draw attention to positive, life-affirming stories and activities without hitting people over the head with virtue?  Are there ways of using irony, humor, juxtaposition, layering, or editing to draw attention to the positive in such a way that it attracts viewer attention?

This workshop will use techniques from Improvisation to explore these topics within a small group of people who are connected to media in some way, and who also have a passion for positive media.

Agenda

Monday, Aug 16

 1:00-5:00 we will have a brainstorming session, "How to change the world with the Internet" with a particular emphasis on how we might use the soon-to-be-announced capabilities of the Omidyar Network.  Will Glennon, one of the publishers and leaders of the Random Acts of Kindness movement will be there. This is an independent session, which may be skipped by those interested in just the main workshop.

  6:00 - 8:00 Opening reception (drinks and light refreshments) and Improv Workshop.  Izzy Gessel will conduct an introduction to Improv session, describing "Yes, And" communication style, and how Improv can be used in business settings.  Some of his thoughts on Improv are available at http://www.izzyg.com/IMs.htm.  . 

 8:00 PM - ??? dinner - folks figure this out for themselves. 

Tuesday, Aug 17 

9:00 - 5:00 PM Workshop on Positive Media - Izzy will facilitate with a mixture of Improv and Open Space.  The people in this workshop have been carefully selected for their personal attraction to better world thinking, coupled with a connection to media in some form.  The tone of the workshop is "what can we do to make things better?" not that we have "too many problems and not enough money."  Of particular interest is looking at new ways of discovering the network effects of goodness on a large scale.  A quick survey http://www.omidyar.net/group/media/ws/positive_media_resources/ shows that there are plenty of sources out there already, so the question becomes more of how to connect the dots, rather than having to create new dots.  (New dots are OK, too, but we certainly have enough to get started)

 5:00 Reception (drinks and light refreshments)

About the Omidyar Network 

This workshop has been sponsored by the Omidyar Network  Here is some background on Pam and Pierre Omidyar, and a discussion of the values and the network they are setting up.  Pam posted this  about the media, and we are forming an open Positive Media community as a focal point for electronic discussions. 

They are an innovative organization.  Note that they volunteered to sponsor this workshop, organized by someone with no background in media, and which is being facilitated by a comedian. 

They seek to be an attractor, not a promoter network, collecting people, ideas, and communities in an open, scalable network, driven by a basic philosophy.  Here are Pierre's thoughts:

“It is my hope that more and more people will discover their own power to make good things happen, and at the same time, discover what they have in common with others -- namely, a shared belief in the value and potential contribution and impact of every individual; and a desire to help others discover that power.”

They see themselves as a service organization, not an advocacy group.  Accordingly, one of the things this workshop can do is to give them service opportunities.  Having authentic, heartfelt feedback from a group of enthusiastic, intelligent folks spending a day seeking positive media solutions is, I think, of great value to them. 

I have no idea of their future intentions, but I can guarantee that they will pay attention.

Here’s my outsider’s view on how to thrive on the Omidyar Network. They appear to be looking for folks: 

Whose activities and personal orientation are self-evidently aligned with their values: “We believe every individual has the power to make a difference. We exist for one single purpose: So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen. We are actively building a network of participants because we know we can't do this alone.”
Who show initiative to join communities, participate in online activities, and earn a positive reputation from their peers, and
Who display a certain authenticity – that they are participating and communicating out of a deep-rooted personal conviction.

This is pretty attractive company to keep.  Hope you all join in!

Facilitator

The meeting will be led by Izzy Gesell, a keynote speaker, trainer, professional facilitator and presentation coach who is skilled at  transforming something commonplace into something special. His seriously humorous and humorously serious programs help people thrive and prosper during changing times as they become more confident, spontaneous and effective.  The workshop will be an Improvisational experience for the participants, with a goal of opening up new opportunities for positive media.  Izzy is author of Playing Along, 37 Learning Activities Borrowed from Improvisational Theater

 

Some Attendees:

This workshop is intended to be a small working group with people who have a personal passion for positive media.  This is a partial list of the attendees:

Jack Willis is Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Programming, LinkTV, and Former President and CEO, Twin Cities Public Television, Mpls./St.Paul as well as an Independent Documentary Filmmaker.

Wendy Bodden (Bromley)  has 18 years experience as a successful development and marketing executive in public television with WNET New York and PBS, and is now a media consultant.

Jerry Michalski is the founder and president of Sociate, and an expert in internet community software.  He is former editor of Esther Dyson's Release 1.0.

Arthur Einstein has worked in the advertising industry for more than 30 years as a writer, creative director and agency president. For 20 of those years he was a co-founder and principal at Lord Geller Federico Einstein.

Andrew Raseij is the chairman and co-founder of the Digital Club Network, the Internet’s largest live music channel, and is active in numerous philanthropic and civic engagement projects.  The workshop will be held at his home near Bleecker St. and 6th Avenue.

Tom Munnecke initiator of the workshop, founded GivingSpace as a think tank to explore innovative ways of using technology for humanitarian uplift. 

Tom Mandel has pioneered innovative business practices, products and services based on new communications technologies of the Internet, as well as having published 12 books of poetry.

Judith Glaser is a founding director of  We Are Family Foundation, a media based nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring global peace through our positive community and education projects.

Robert Tolmach left the business world to make a difference; he started Glasses for Humanity, which will harness market forces to provide eyeglasses and vision care for tens of millions of people each year. Please save your old eyeglasses for him.

Howard Greenstein is a Silicon Alley veteran, former director of the Twin Towers fund, and now teaches at NYU. He is a former professional DJ and newscaster, and ran the operations of one of the net's first radio enterprises, and is a co-founder of Correspondences.org, a weblog focused on civic journalism with over 80 contributors in 15 countries.

Nic Fulton, vice president for technology strategy at Reuters, is one of the designers of AlertNet, as well as a 2003 fellow at Stanford's Reuters Digital Visions Program. (may be dropping in, depending on the status of his newborn child)

Tonya Gonzalez is the Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and also works with the local public access station (DCTV), located in Washington, DC. She developed the DCTV Kids Camp to teach media literacy to DC youth and developed education campaigns for arts, health and other social service nonprofits in DC.

Dean Landsman spent over 20 years as a consultant in radio broadcasting and other media.  He has owned and operated a radio station and published annual audience analysis reports for the industry.  A champion of  interactivity and creative development, he's written the DeanLand blog (among others) since 1999.

Lars Hasselblad Torres is a researcher, artist and educator who's interests revolve around city design, technology, and democracy. Lars works for AmericaSpeaks, where he directs the organization's research in the field of deliberative democracy.

Will Glennon was one of the owners of Conari Press, the publishing company that published Random Acts of Kindness, and the director of the foundation of the same name.  His current interest is with the Global Classroom Connection

Isabel Walcott is an entrepreneurial problem-solver with a passion for connecting people

Matthew Mahoney helps companies learn. Most recently, he worked in New York City helping new schools start up. Currently he is a Rock Entrepreneurial Fellow at Harvard Business School working with Socialtext

Ellison Horne is founder and president of Celebrating Solutions! -- it's mission is to cultivate a solutions ecology by harnessing the power of media and technology to share stories, foster connections, and inspire action for positive social change.

Steve French is a composer/music producer in film, TV, and CD production based in NYC but with southern Irish sensi

Denise Lalonde works on creativity workshops for a Harlem Children's Initiative

Angela Booker is a graduate student in Stanford University's School of Education in the Learning Sciences & Technology Design program. She currently works in Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab, has a strong background in educational research and community outreach, and has a passion for working with youth for social change.
Daniel Morneau is an independent TV producer who has worked as a TV, Radio, and Print journalist in Canada and Mauratius
Judy Katz is a national publicist and ghostwriter (www.katzcreative.com) with Fortune 500 clients as well as start-ups.  In the realm of higher consciousness she is a graduate of LandMark Education.
Ethan Zohn was the winner of SURVIVOR: AFRICA, who used his winnings to found Grassroot Soccer, a non-profit organization which trains Africa's professional soccer players to teach children about HIV/AIDS prevention
Bob Wyman is CTO of PubSub concepts, has been active in community software and the Internet for 30 years.

Here are some ideas which have bubbled up... bring your own. What If we created:

U-Span, a kind of C-Span for uplift? Which would provide 24 hour “raw” coverage of uplifting things, such as Kurds getting their musical instruments back, Jews and Palestinians reconciling, peace outbreaks, children regaining their sight with a single vitamin A tablet, or other success stories of communities pulling together?

A hosted show for Uplift? Pushing the envelope towards positive emotion, this show would be led by a  wise-cracking host, using humor, irony, and juxtaposition to allow deeply emotional, positive issues to be show.  The program might show families being reunited, children being cured, acts of generosity, “outing compassion” – CEOs opening up that they have a compassionate side, etc.  Rowdy live audience, egged on by host.

America’s Most Uplifting Home Videos? Hosted show, similar to America’s Funniest Home videos, presenting video clips from viewers showing uplifting acts of generosity, benevolence, etc. 

Positive Shock Jocks? Could we flip the negative emotions exploited by current radio “shock jocks” to the positive; pushing the envelope towards uplifting emotions, detailing outrageous acts of generosity or community involvement?

A Frenzy of discussion about Weapons of Mass Affection? Paralleling the media frenzy behind "road rage," could we draw similar public attention to ways that citizens are pulling together to make a difference against fear and negativity?  In times of stress or global anxiety, can we show how people are fighting back with the finer qualities of the human spirit?  If not this phrase, is there a better phrase?

An Uplift Reality TV Show? Showing “real world” uplift activities of an nature, flipping the emotions from the current reality shows.  For example,  Mother Teresa, while hospitalized in San Diego, convinced her cardiologist and treatment team to start a clinic in Tijuana across the border in Mexico.  He is now working with the Vatican to beatify her – the first Jew to be in this position.

A Positive News Aggregator? Could we collect news about what is working in the world in a simple, easy-to-find manner which could be viewed by people choosing to look for the positive flip? Here is a mockup of how this might appear in Google's News Aggregator.  Could we link positive news directly to the "real" news, so that a "if it bleeds, it leads" headline about the body in a window in Jerusalem could link to Hello Peace?

Self-organizing Uplift Improv meetings?  What if we triggered local meetups around the country, pulsed by national events or programs?  Could we learn anything from the structure of this workshop to make it something folks could do with strangers at their local Starbucks? Could we use the Internet to gather feedback on what's working in local communities? Can humor and improv help us get past cynicism and alienation? What if we conditioned a public network with a kind of community resiliency, folks used to coming together in face to face meetings as the result of media events.  If terrorists realized that their acts triggered greater community involvement and compassion, would not this be the ultimate form of homeland security?

A reputation-based alternative to the current rating system which allowed positive and negative reputations to be established for shows.  Could we use the Omidyar Network reputation system directly, setting up communities of members who would give feedback, allowing viewers to express their preferences in a positive way, instead of the current rating system which ranks the least disgusting show as "best."

Registration: 

The workshop is now filled.  Please join us our online community for continuing discussion and news about future activities.

Tom Munnecke

 

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