Web of Change

This session was organized talk-show style, with the ever-charismatic host Philip Smith, from Community Bandwidth. Philip welcomed the studio audience (it was being podcast) and introduced the panel: Michelle Hoar, from BC's political online publication, The Tyee; Dean Ericksen, from the environmental online daily, Grist; and Audrey Watson, from Yes!, a quarterly magazine dedicated to social justice issues.

Philip lobbed a number of broad questions, which panelists caught with aplomb, offering interesting commentary from their particular perspectives. Dean kept things lively by peppering the conversation with cheeky one-liners.

How can on-the-ground organizers in often volunteer-run non-profits take advantage of emergent technologies? Good question, damn good question, and one Leda Dederich tackled with boundless and infectious energy. Leda presented a “data dump” of results generated from a year’s worth of research done under the auspices of dotOrganize. Despite her energy, by her own admission Leda was tired; it caused her to swear, and express her desires for swearing in her official report. Someone who speaks my language (yes, “swear” is a language in some parts).

Leda’s research goals were simple: to understand and document a known problem in the non-profit sector. From there, the idea was to inform the non-profit sector, create short-term “doable” goals and, importantly, foster a long-term vision. But perhaps the most critical aspect of the project’s objectives was to empower the organizers – those knee deep in it, who don’t have the time or the money to figure out, let alone deal with, their tech woes.

Maybe you know Ruckus Society, maybe you don't. But for those of us who didn't know Adrienne Maree Brown before today's session, we won't be forgetting her any time soon. For starters, she made us sing. I was fine with that but, not being a singer (in fact, being almost tone deaf) I didn't know this meant standing up. One gets lazy once one has parked one's ass on the floor.

So, we all sang a note (which one, I couldn't say) and it reminded me of church. I've not been in a long time, but still, the music (when not in Catholic mass - unless midnite mass on xmas eve) is typically uplifting. And in fact, it set the tone for Adrienne's talk, which ended with her calling our geek work divne, and the geeks among us holy! Holy @%!*; that's a nice compliment.