I came out of Startup Weekend, feeling exhausted and just slightly insane.

Going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the weekend, and from the pitches, it was clear that there were quite a large number of tech genius in the crowd so I might feel a little out of place but it was all good in the end. I was hoping to hear more ideas more in the social innovation space but was slightly disappointed that most of them were only ideas that we want, not need.

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I was asked to speak at the International Volunteering Day Symposium 2010 eons ago (well, about a month ago) by the Department of Communities on Online Volunteering, and here’s just a quick summary of my spill. I found it challenging to first of all define what “online volunteering” means and second of all, where do you draw the line? The whole idea of the symposium / workshop is to build the capacity of non-profit organisations within Queensland to engage young people, families and culturally diverse volunteers, and how to expand the role of volunteering through online medium.


And funny enough, I was (or am?) a culturally diverse volunteer myself, and actually started volunteering here in Australia 5 years ago through the internet because I couldn’t speak the language, couldn’t understand the accent and didn’t grasp the sense of humour at all. What a change it has been!


It’s hard to come to a symposium / workshop and be expected to go back to your organisation and starts something new, because change within an organisation requires not only the way we do things, but the way we think, so hopefully, my presentation actually plants a seed of inspiration in changing the way you think, because I sure as hell don’t want to change the way you do things first up. Only when you change the way you think, can you design with your stakeholders, systems that actually work.


I’m going to use two organisations that I absolutely love, and is affiliated with. Both of these, in my opinion, does volunteering beyond the boundaries of geographical locations, really well. One’s from an international perspective and the other from a local context.


I was in Atlanta earlier this year for the 2010 Non-Profit Technology Conference when I met @StaceyMonk, the founder of Epic Change, and in my opinion, one of the emerging leaders in social change. Epic Change is an organisation that really encapsulates what a non-profit / community organisation should be like. Its mission is to aplifies the voices and impact of grassroots changemakers and social entrepreneurs around the world through sharing their stories in innovative, creative and profitable ways.


So, through Stacey, she introduced me to deeply inspiring woman called @MamaLucy, a chicken farmer in Tanzania who used up all her savings to build the first school in her village (read her story). Not long after coming back from the US, I received a tweet from Stacey, with an invitation to be a part of a project. Through a simple tweet, she gathered 70 incredible and influential changemakers in their own rights from around the world. She sent an email to all 70 of us, simply asking us to state who we are, how we can help and schedule a chat. Simple requests that takes away the usual 4 pages forms that prospective volunteers have to fill out when they want to volunteer for any organisation.


This to me, is incredibly powerful, because this is what the essence of volunteering should be about – it doesn’t matter what your background is, as long as you have the desire to give back, bring about change, you’re in. It removes the barriers for everyone, to participate equally regardless of your dis/abilities, cultural background and/or geographical location.


Within 2 weeks, all 70 volunteers that Stacey has gathered worked together to create To Mama With Love, one of the most innovative and creative social good / social media campaigns, according to Mashable – one of the world’s largest and most recognised news website.


The beautiful thing about this campaign is, everyone involved were volunteers who have never met each other before. We’re all supporters of Epic Change and regardless of our backgrounds, came together to create a successful campaign. A few months later, we joined forces again to create another campaign, Epic Thanks on Thanksgiving Day.


The next organisation is the Inspire Foundation, an Australian non-profit organisation that utilises information communication technology to improve the mental health and well-being of young Australians with the mission of helping millions of young people lead happier lives. Inspire’s flagship program is ReachOut.com, a resource and support website for young people to increase their understanding of mental health, promote resilience and help-seeking behaviour.


ReachOut.com is staffed by not-so-young people, but the content of the website is created by young people, predominantly volunteers. Their head office is in Sydney, and in order to do this, they have to do everything online, which means that a lot of the content created on the website is done by young people across the nation and the only way of communication is through the internet. Volunteers also provide feedback on marketing campaigns and website design, and provide admin assistance on some levels. Sometimes, volunteers are also involved as peer researchers and online forum facilitators.


I think we still have a long way to go in terms of volunteering within Australia. We have not even got the definition of volunteering correct yet (refer to Volunteering Australia’s standards of volunteering). We also need to bring back the essence of volunteering without discriminating those from different backgrounds and dis/abilities. We’ve still got a long way to go in reducing red tapes for everyone to participate, appreciating the immense power of humanity and removing our tall poppy syndrome. We also need to avoid being caught up with the “lack of resources and funding” chant, and stop dreaming about, “if only I have the technology”, but think about how you can use the existing technology that’s at your hand reach.


So, I leave you with this quote, in the hope that I’ve changed, in some ways, the way you think about how young people work. We lived in an era where the physical and virtual world weave together, and the challenge isn’t so much making volunteering “online”, but to look at the online medium and how we can breakdown the existing barriers for more people to participate equally.

“Volunteering via the internet isn’t about connecting cold, inanimate machines called computers, but is really about an all inclusive concept, that eliminates barriers and borders to bring people, wether of varying religions, races, ethnicities, and/or abilities together, whether from around the corner or the world, to help non-profit organisations fulfil their mission.” – Randy Tyler, 2003, Macdonald Youth Services

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Credit: Matt Hamm

Before I begin, I think I need to make it clear that social media and social networking sites mean two different things, although in some cases, the line between them aren’t that clear. Social media is a channel to broadcast information, typically like Twitter and YouTube, where as social networking sites are sites that allow you to connect with other people like MySpace. However, it also depends on how you use the sites, they can be both social media and networking sites. Facebook is one of those that’s right in between (and also Twitter in some cases).

If we look back in the 18th and 19th century, people are sharing about their life through diaries. They write short sentences on what they’re doing or something they want to remember and they share these diaries with close family and friends. So, human nature hasn’t really changed – we still love sharing.

So, why are we so excited or talking so much about social media? The role that social media has in our life has dramatically changed the way the internet works and information is distributed. Rather than being passive information receiver, we’ve now starting to create our own content and/or participate in content creation (e.g. leaving comments or replying).

When the plane crash in Hudson River in New York, the first person to broadcast the crash was actually a resident of a Manhattan Apartment on Twitter. He sent the tweet 4 mins after the crash. People were retweeting the crash and it wasn’t until 15 minutes later that mainstream media picked it up and started broadcasting the accident.

Internet itself has become a setting, or a space, where we build relationships much like a physical space like this (referring to the hall). We go online to engage, to find information and to collaborate, and the internet has given people empowerment and confidence to achieve or do what they usually wouldn’t do in real life e.g. activism, help-seeking (depression) and building relationships.

The internet allows us to trust strangers. Friends online that we’ve never met offline doesn’t make them any ‘less friend’ than a physical friend. Take for example, the last few weeks, I want to start a movement that changes young men’s perception of “real man” and “mates”. Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst young people and 4/5 of all suicides are young men. The whole idea is to get young men to actually look out for their mates, having meaningful conversations with their mates and strip away the stereotypes of what real men means. I emailed the idea to a group of my friends and within days, I have a working group. We’ve been working together for 2 weeks now and some of these guys are from Melbourne and I have never met them in real life at all. We’re all contributing equally to the project, and we all work as if we have worked together and we know each other for ages. The collaborative atmosphere that the internet has allow is immensely powerful.

Having said that, that brings up the point on bullying, predation and addiction. These are inevitable, because like I said, the internet and social media has become a setting in which we build and maintain relationships, and thus, makes it the same as a physical space. We are just as open to bullying, predation and addiction in physical environment as we are virtual, and to me, restricting virtual access is like wrapping your kids in cotton wool. I believe that the only way forward is to promote digital citizenship and safety online (as we do, offline). The good news is, young people are actually have a better idea on cybersafety than most adults! Also, if we put these negative events in context to the immense power of technology, restricting a child’s access to technology is really restricting their ability to engage, find information and build relationship. I think its all about the balance

In our generation, virtual interaction lays on top and weaves through physical interaction and they are part of each other. To us, the online and offline spaces are just spaces – they are not merely tools or entertainment. The way we use them can make a huge difference in the world.

Social media is only at its tipping point in terms of participation, knowledge distribution and technological advancement as the web moves to becoming more social.

What we need to think about and shift our attention to is bridging the gaps, especially in terms of solving social problems and doing good. The hyperinterconnectedness that we are experiencing right now, if anything, holds a huge potential if we can harness the interconnectedness to change the world.

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‘For Immediate Release’

‘All That Twitters is Not Gold’

The New Farm Neighbourhood Centre’s next ‘Politics in the Pub at the Powerhouse’ is about the good and bad of online social networking. While online services like Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and Myspace are great tools for getting the message out they also have a dark side.

The New Farm Neighbourhood Centre runs ‘Politics in the Pub’ at the Brisbane Powerhouse (yes, not a pub, but life’s full of contradictions) every couple of months and our next on the evening of Thursday 22 July 2010 is about social networking, and in particular, on whether social networking tools enhance communication or flatten and depersonalize it.

“Nearly everyone is hooked into new social media online, to the point that many of us would find it hard to imagine life without them, but lately we’ve been hearing a lot about the down side of Web 2.0. Cyber-bullying, de-Facebooking, cyber-stalking and the inane micro-commentary of Twitter celebrities” said Nick Collyer.

“This Politics in the Pub will pull back the digital curtain and look at the big picture implications of new social media.”

“‘All That Twitters Is Not Gold’ will have 5 speakers – Ehon Chan, Peter Black, Alissa Phillips, Sarah Moran and Hamish Alcorn – passionate about and expert in this issue.”

When: 7 – 8.30 pm Thursday 22 July 2010
Where: on the Turbine Platform at the Brisbane Powerhouse

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I presented this as a keynote at the recent 12th Asia Pacific Student Services Association (APSSA) Conference at Queensland University of Technology on the 9th of July 2010. The following is a shorten version of the 45 minutes presentation.


The challenge with this presentation was that there wasn’t a common interest amongst the delegates and there were delegates from all kinds of disciplines, in both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Their understanding and engagement with technology was also diverse, so I tried to make it easy to understand, with some easy-to-do, low level case studies and some higher level, more complex systems.


I started by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we stood on, and paid respect to their elders past, present and future.


My questions for the crowd to think about throughout the whole presentation, and their life were:

When we talk about technology, many think about the geeky kids who own an iPhone – but that is far from the truth. I don’t have an iPhone! Technology has become ingrained in our daily life without us even realising it – Facebook and mobile phones. However, when it comes to new technology or other digital media, its easy for us to be skeptical about it due to our ignorance of understanding it. So we cringe, shrug and say that were just “technologically challenged” – but in actual fact, its the lack of awareness and understanding. I want to shift your thinking from skepticism and apathy to actually thinking about how can we embrace technology and use it to enhance our life and bring about social good.


Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right – why not the former?


Skepticism of technology existed in the past as well [refer to quotes on slides]. I call this the WTF era.


And let’s talk a bit about the future, because we are all, hopefully, moving in that direction. The direction of social justice, equal rights, basic education for all, peace and happiness. I call this the AWESOME era. You will realise that there is a huge gap between the WTF era and the AWESOME era.


Whatever we do with technology and our life right now, will ultimately fill in the gaps – such as gaps in digital divide, gaps in literacy, gaps in knowledge, gaps in bureaucracy and gaps in financial status. With the advancement of technology, we are connecting, collaborating, innovating and filling in the gap faster and better than we have been. This is highly due to:

Let’s look at some of these innovations and change happening:


FrontlineSMS
An open source software that enables you to have two way communications between a mobile and centralised computer. It was built by Ken Banks where he got the inspiration while working in a national park in South Africa. It was the easiest way they could communicate with the local communities.


FrontlineSMS:Medic
Josh Nesbit was working in Namitete, Malawi at a local hospital with 2 doctors that provide services to over 250,000 people within 100 miles. The only way to do this was to decentralise the medical system, and they recruited 500 volunteers who travels miles each day to check on patients and cycle back to the hospital. He went back to America, and bought 100 phones, taught the volunteers how to use them and installed FrontlineSMS. Later, he started FrontlineSMS:Medic, a team committed to supporting community health workers (CHWs) in the developing world using appropriate mobile technology.


He did not build the software. He used what Ken Banks has made, and changed it to make it relevant for what he needs it for.


JumbaFund
Maybe some of you guys think, well, I don’t know anything about coding so that’s definitely not for me. Let’s look at a guy who has used digital media for good. KevJumba is one of YouTube’s most subscribed channel – with over 96 million views on his videos and over 1 million subscribers.


He started JumbaFund, as a side project that is more about his daily life like playing pranks on his flatmates and making fun of his dad. All money made from the channel via Google Ads are directed to a charity nominated by his readers. There is nothing complicated, or technical about what he does – he just record videos! The channel has over 250,000 subscribers and has raised (I think) at least $10,000 for charity.


Supercool School
Supercool School was founded based on the principle of making education relevant and “real-world” for the students. You search for a school (e.g. start up school or cooking classes) and sign up to the school if you’re interested. You attend scheduled classes and you can also request for classes. Classes are real-time and live, and also recorded in case you missed any of them. Best thing is, when sign on, you also create a profile, allowing you to connect with other like-minded people in the school, collaborate and build a community basically.


What’s exciting is, you can literally build a university from a laptop with an internet connection. Invite a group of people to sit in front of the laptop and there you have a class.


To Mama With Love
I met Stacey Monk while I was at the Non-Profit Technology Conference in Atlanta. She is an incredible woman and someone I have HUGE respect for. When I got back to Australia, I got a tweet from her explaining a Project X she was organising and asked me to be a part of it. I said yes with no questions!


Her first email sent to 70 people in her contacts from ALL around the world, very clearly outlined 3 things she wanted from everyone:

Within 72 hours, emails were flying everywhere and immediately, teams of designers, strategist, implementers, bloggers, website programmers and content creators. She delegated and leveraged, and To Mama With Love was born. Everyone were volunteers, reducing cost of the fundraising campaign to $0.


One Laptop Per Child
So how about digital divide? The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is probably one of the most successful program in closing the gap. It’s a non-profit, producing low-cost, rugged, low-power, connected laptop with open source softwares and content designed for education and collaboration.


Watch the video and it explains everything.




All these people are doing amazing things with technology – and most of them aren’t even techy geeks. They have a vision, and they build upon what’s already out there. KevJumba and Josh Nesbit definitely aren’t techy geeks at all. Working with technology and digital media is not difficult – it takes time to fiddle around and it will change the way you do things. If it doesn’t, it means that you do not need that piece of technology.


You will realise that I left a gap there [refer to slides], because we are definitely not there yet. We are not at the AWESOME era yet – not even that close but we are very well on our way. We are on the right track. My challenge for you is to fill in that gap. Whatever you do from today onwards, think about why do you do what you do (or about to do) and what value, what improvements and what changes are you bringing to yourself, people around you and the world. You’re from different disciplines (so are most people I described in the case studies), but ultimately, you all still live in the same world. Your contribution in filling that gap is vital.


It went really, really well. I can safely say that 90% of all the conference feedback forms ranked the presentation as one of the favourites or most liked. *Phew*


Action call:
Start a plan or an idea: www.PlanBig.com.au
Pressure the gov’t to provide basic education to 72 million children without it: www.Join1Goal.org
I am working with a group of innovative people building Digital For Good, a project looking at digital technology as a force of good.

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Last month, an 18 year old teenager was murdered after making contact with a stranger. The blame was flying all over the place with some blaming Facebook’s privacy, the parents and others blaming the Government for lack of education and control over the cyberspace.

What became slightly absurd to me was when the news broke, news stations were having “internet safety experts” to provide comments, which consisted of mainly over-worried mothers, and in a few cases, the police. Advices provided include:

I agree with all the above just not quite the part on befriending my mum on Facebook and the internet filtering. Honestly, I don’t know how many teenagers would actually befriend their mothers on Facebook – I know, back when I was a teenager, I definitely wouldn’t. Now, there is a whole conversation going on about cyber-safety, and what anger me the most is the internet filtering.

My point of view is that cyber safety is not too far different than “real-life” safety. In the same way that you do not disclose personal information and engage yourself in unknown and unfamiliar relationships, put yourself in vulnerable situations or put yourself to places you don’t want to be in real life, its exactly the same online!

On the whole idea on privacy, there is no such thing as privacy online if you choose to put your information online. If you want your address and mobile number to be private, keep it to yourself – don’t post it anywhere online, nor share it with your family and friends “offline”. I think that is fundamentally what online safety should be about – we need to understand that the “real world” and the “digital world” in our current age is not a clear cut line anymore. The younger generations have both their lives online and offline converging more and more, so the conversation isn’t so much just about cyber-safety but “real-life” safety as well.

We need to rethink how we engage our children and youth online – the media that they’re using and how we could potentially support them in using these digital media in appropriate ways. Having conversations with children about their online activities isn’t the worse idea, except not quite what most people think. I am talking about having your children tell you about online safety. In yesterday’s Pew Internet & American Life Project report, “Reputation Management and Social Media“, young people actually have a better idea on cyber-safety than most adults.

44% of young adult Internet users say they take steps to limit the amount of information available about them, compared to 33% of users ages 30 to 49 and 25% of those ages 50 to 64.

71% of younger social networking site users actively change their privacy settings to limit what they share with others online, compared to 55% of those 50 to 64.

41% have removed their names from photos of them posted by others, compared to just 18% of those 50 to 64.

Having your kids show you the rope around the internet gives you a better view of their online activities and their digital and cyber literacy more than you can get if you ask them directly.

Teenagers turn to the internet as a respite from their everyday life. Internet also gives them the connections they don’t otherwise get access to in real life – this includes connection with peers and like-minded people. Whether this is for friendships or social action, Internet is a huge part of many teenagers’ life. It’s grown from a tool for young people to become a setting for connections, activities and education. In my limited experience as a middle school teacher, students with a healthy “offline” involvement such as volunteering, sports and family events are less likely to be digital natives and spend a lot less time online.

My suggestions to parents with adolescents and teenagers would be:

The Australian Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety is calling for submissions from individuals and organisations on privacy, online safety and abuse e.g. cyberbullying, inappropriate online behaviour, online environments young Australians are engaged in, etc.

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