Event Assignment: IYEYS in NYC

This past weekend I had the privilege to attend the International Young Environmentalist Youth Conference in the Bronx. It was put on by an organization called Greening Forward, the largest youth-driven, youth-engineered environmental organization. Charles Orgbon III, a current college student at the University of Georgia, founded the organization in 2008. Partner organizations at the conference included the New York City Department of Education’s Sustainability Initiative, Solar One, Earth Echo International, Bronx Green-Up, Environmental Professionals of Color, Alliance for Climate Education, Rocking the Boat, GenerationON, IDEAS, Leave it Better, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Point CDC.

The Point CDC is where the conference was held. It is a community center in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx, engaging youth in incredible ways through merging art and political education and civic engagement.

Several panels were offered at the conference, but I specifically attended “Diversity & the Environmental Movement” with the Environmental Professionals of Color,  “Climate Change” with the Alliance for Climate Education, “Digital Environmentalism” with Greening Forward, an “Environmental Justice Tour” of Hunts Point with high school students from the Bronx, and “Activism for Conservation” with the Wildlife Conservation Society.  The second day, everyone visited Rock the Boat headquarters and was shown some of the incredible work that organization is doing.

The most meaningful part of the conference, for me, was the environmental justice tour of Hunts Point.  Led by A.C.T.I.O.N. teens from the Point, these teens led us around their community, highlighting both problems and progresses regarding the environmental condition. Hunts Point is an industrial neighborhood; 15,000 trucks drive through every day on their way in and out of NYC. This creates incredibly polluted air. The tour leaders said that nearly all of them had asthma and had to have air purifiers in their homes; to get to a beautiful park in their community, students have to walk nearly a mile through truck traffic which.

Students have been working hard to help their community, though. They have led the movement to create greenways in their community, patches of greenery on roadways and sidewalks that help create a healthier neighborhood.  Students also pointed out murals that are being used to help educate the neighborhood about their civil rights; the one currently painted explains that you have the right to film police brutality. During the tour we passed a closed juvenile prison—located between a convent and a preschool—that was known for its incredibly high rates of recidivism; kids who were locked up for minor infractions came out hardened criminals who ended up in maximum-security prisons. Hearing the stories of this place from two young Hispanic high school men was incredibly powerful; one of these students is in the last phase of the audition process before being accepted to Julliard.

The Digital Environmentalism panel is the one that most relates to this class, but generally provided social media tips that I already knew and was geared towards running a social media page for a green organization. One interesting takeaway was something that got mentioned briefly: Facebook is changing its algorithm so that pages have less natural reach and are forced to use paid promotion to reach more people. To me, this has a huge implication for how social media can be leveraged; if organizations are now expected to pay, that may mean that social media is becoming less of an equalizing platform for social justice organizations.

The other panels I attended were helpful and interesting, but not as meaningful to myself, or this class. This conference did, however, offer some insights into how social media can connect students from across the country; the students who were in charge and planned the conference came from all over the country. A conference like this, without social media, seems like it would be nearly impossible to plan.

Overall, I think this was a powerful event. It might have been more meaningful for younger students, but even as a college senior I left with a new understanding of what it means to be an environmentalist. 

Filter Bubble Experiment - Search term: Netanyahu

Here is screen shot of my Google search on Netanyahu. Look forward to seeing what other people get.

Filter Bubble - Eli Pariser's Ted Talk

Here is an abbreviated version of the Ted Talk mentioned in class.
http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en

Pizza Hut, Visa and Accenture want you to buy pizza from your car-

Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post talking about a new way for customers to order pizza more quickly and more conveniently: by turning your car into a payment system.  This reminded me of the discussion we had about same-day shipping from Amazon, but I also thought this was interesting because it takes a look at a an innovation involving a piece of technology we've come to accept as common place-our cars.

Check it out here.

Apple’s New Job: Selling a Smartwatch to an Uninterested Public

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/technology/apples-new-job-selling-a-smartwatch-to-an-uninterested-public.html?ref=technology&_r=0

Relevant article in light of reviewing Pew's predictions for the future of wearable technology. After seeing the failure of Google to market Google Glass to the public, it will be interesting to see whether the Apple Watch is the wearable technology that sticks.

The Apple Watch has noticeable differences from the characteristics that doomed Google Glass.


Aesthetically, it fits in with what people wear now. It doesn't look like it is from a sci-fi movie. The vocal criticism of the privacy and surveillance concerns of Google Glass are also present. And price wise, it appears it will be substantially more accessible than Google Glass, making it avaiable to a wider audience.

Apple has also been able to learn from Google's mistakes and has likely been watching carefully as Samsung, Motorola, and LG have failed in selling their versions of smartwatches.

Do you think Apple Watch will succeed where wearable technology has so far failed? Is it simply an update to the "Fit But", or will we all eventually be wearing mini-compuer?

Fighting Hate with Satire

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/snl-isis_b_6782684.html

Views of Online Advocacy

JJ Dawson

Comm 551

Online campaigns have become an effective way for non-profits and companies to connect, engage, and lobby for their respective causes. They have shown the potential to double response rates through online fundraising and advocacy initiatives. Recent studies indicate that donors are seven-times more likely to donate through online campaigns compared to traditional fundraising methods. In today’s difficult economic climate, it is important that nonprofits and organizations use effective messaging that motivates followers— and potential followers—to get involved and donate. It is equally critical to implement best online practices to ensure the highest possible response rate to your advocacy appeal. In the last decade, the number of organizations that pursued online advocacy methods exponentially increased. Organizations are using three primary channels to communicate to and engage their followers: advocacy centers, email and social media.

            First, advocacy centers provide constituents a space to learn about and discuss topics and provides an opportunity to directly get involved. Traditionally, organizations will use an online platform and/or advocacy center as a basis to reach out and communicate to their followers. Advocacy centers also provide a centralized communication location and serve as a hub for followers to get involved and ask questions. Advocacy centers are a place where actions such as publishing petitions, holding press conferences with elected officials, and information gathering take place. This past summer, I worked at an advocacy center for Environment America in Washington D.C. At the center, we brainstormed effective ways to reach new members and ways to educate the public on environmental policies. The advocacy center also served as a hub for canvassers and political activist to meet and strategize. The advocacy center was important because it served as a central location for all advocacy needs.

Another way in which organizations often communicate to their followers is through email. Email serves as an efficient way to grab the attention and motivate inactive followers to get involved. It is also a way to highlight and remind active followers why they should do more. Usually, advocacy through email has an option to donate to the campaign. For many people, this is an easy way to indirectly get involved in a cause. Giving to campaigns is crucial because the more money that is garnered, the more influence and credibility the organization will have. Supporters’ being able to donate large amounts of money from the convenience of their homes stimulates indirect activism. In fact, this idea runs closely to the concept of “clicktvism”, which leads to my third and final point.

The use of social media has gown exponentially and its use has been very effective. Users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms often “like” and “follow” organizations that they feel connected to. This serves as a way for organizations to strategically communicate to their audience. However, to maximize the effective of the message, it is important to understand your audience. The audience that is on Tumblr is a lot different than the audience on Twitter, and the same follows for other social media platforms.  The use of social media has promoted the idea of clicktivism by which supports are able to engage with and support their organization by simply clicking “like” or “share”, which then shares the content with potentially thousands of other users. If strategized correctly, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, it could capture the attention of millions around the world, which almost always results in profits for the organization.