10:10 Hosts

The conversations that happen at Web of Change and the real-world outcomes from those conversations are rooted in big ideas that members of our community -- WOC hosts -- are exploring right now.

Meet our hosts and find out what they'll be talking about at Web of Change 10:10.

Steve Andersen
VP of Technology and Innovation, Salesforce Foundation

Idea - Preferential option for nonprofits and technology
Nonprofits have always been seen as behind the curve in technology. How can we change that so the nonprofit sector supplies the world's best examples of organizations leveraging technology to bring about organizational goals? Much as Partners in Health has said "no" to anything less the best health care in the world for the poor, we need to change our thinking, and the thinking of nonprofits to demand more of our sector, our tools and our strategies.

Post WOC Outcomes
Continuing conversations about how we can do our work differently to bring about this goal.

Favorite Web of Change Moment
Hearing online campaigning war stories from Michael Silberman, Roz Lemieux, and Liz Butler. One of those few moments in life where my useful-information-uptake-rate has red-lined.

Cheryl Contee
Partner, Fission Strategy

Idea - Mobile, geo-location and augmented reality
Mobile is closing the digital divide not only here in the US, but also worldwide. Today one third of Africans own mobile phones. How can we meet the opportunities for education, communication and organization around social change that these emerging technologies promise?

Post WOC Outcomes
WOC participants can become leaders and pioneers of using mobile, geo-location and augmented reality to effectively address issues thus accelerating the change we'd like to see in the world.

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
WOC attendees are famous for their passion, intelligence, expertise and creativity. I can't wait to learn from them and share some of my experiences in turn.

Shayna Englin
Principal, Englin Consulting

Idea - Better accountability for advocacy

We're doing ever-more creative advocacy campaigns that utilize innovative tactics to engage activists in novel ways, but it's not clear that our campaigns are resulting in the change we're trying to make in the world.  How can we make our advocacy campaigns more accountable for real outcomes?

Post WOC Outcomes
A renewed commitment to advocacy accountability and nascent models for better measurement against real-world goals and outcomes made available to the broad progressive online community through blog posts, e-books, and webinars for discussion and evolution.

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
The opportunity to take a break from the everyday to reflect and think about the state of our art with brilliant people committed to social change.

Apollo Gonzales
Netroots Campaign Manager, Natural Resources Defense Council

Idea - Social media as organizational DNA
From the newest staff member to the most senior board member, organizations have embraced social media. But they are doing it from the old paradigm, one in which it is someone else’s job. “Social” means it belongs to everyone, our new challenge is teaching the staff that their participation matters.

Post WOC Outcomes
The emergence of social media evangelists within organizations.

My Favorite WOC Moment
My last trip to WOC was transformational. It set in motion a courage and ambition that led to amazing changes within my home and work life.

Jocelyn Harmon
Director of Business Development, Care2

Idea: Race and Ethnicity Matter Online
It's no secret that we are undergoing a huge demographic shift in the United States.  The Census Bureau estimates that by 2042 (some have revised the estimate to 2050), we will be a "majority-minority" nation.  In fact, in four states - California, New Mexico, Texas and Hawaii - people of color already comprise a majority of the population. 

• What does this mean for us as online community organizers, fundraisers and public policy advocates?
• How will and should our outreach efforts be shaped by the nation’s changing demographics?
• How do we make an economic as well as ethical case for diversity?
• What strategies and tactics can we employ to create more inclusive communities online so that we can realize the "democratizing power" of the Internet?

Post WOC Outcomes
Create an economic case and outline best practices for building inclusive communities online.

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
So that I can hang out with and learn from smart folks!

Arif Mamdani
Executive Director, Progressive Technology Project

Idea - Raising the bar for technology infrastructure and capacity in progressive community organizing groups
I've been engaged in this work for 10 years, and when I stop to look back and look forward, I'm struck by two things: 1) we've accomplished quite a bit.  The field of organizing has made significant strides in building technology capacity AND 2) we have a really long way to go.  I'm sorry to say that the problems I'm seeing today are really not too different from the problems I was seeing 10 years ago.  So, for me, the central questions are:

1. What's needed to end this sector-wide digital divide? What strategies do we need to advance, and with whom, to ensure a high level of technical capacity across the sector?
2. What organizational models can support this work in a sustainable way?  I'm increasingly skeptical about the efficacy of a strictly non-profit approach.  Who else is out there, and what are they trying?

Post WOC Outcome
A refined roadmap and set of partners in tackling this challenge.  

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
This is my first time going to Web of Change, so I'm looking forward to the experience.

Marianne Manilov & Alissa Hauser
Engage Network Co-founders

Idea - Create a Community of Practice for Engagement Organizing
Media and organizing are moving from a time of broadcast (many to one) communications to network (one to one) interactions. In media, twitter has enabled users to break news, and in organizing, meet-up has allowed people on the ground to get together. The field of how to bring people together and give them tools on the ground is called Engagement Organizing.  There are some tools we already know:  how to use narrative storytelling to make people more connected to each other and the issue (Marshall Ganz/Obama campaign); how to teach leaders to better facilitate meetings. But where is this going?  What are the emerging tools?  What are the best ways to move people from online to offline and back?  How does the emerging text movement make a difference?  Like new media, engagement organizing needs a community of practice and ongoing way for people to share.

Post WOC Outcome
Create a community of practice with ways to share through:

• doing 2 webinars on the best of what comes out of Web of change
• creating a course that people can take online (like the one Ganz offers)
• developing a conference for Engagement organizing in 2011.

Number 1 Reason We're Going to Web of Change
We haven’t been to Web of Change, but we got to meet some of the founders of it and we understand that there are good drinks and a swim up bar. That, and the ability to really dig deep and think creatively with a group of people who are on the cutting edge with big hearts.

Gibran Rivera
Senior Associate, Interaction Institute for Social Change

Idea - Liberate social movements from the organizational constraints delineated by the nonprofit industrial complex
I’m particularly interested in the emergent power that can come out of fostering an intersection between movement leaders who are of color and the Web of Change community. I want to have conversations about how movement leaders can take advantage of new media and the services and talents represented at WOC as well as to use dialogue to inform how the technology crowd can better serve the movement.

Post WOC Outcome
Deeper relationships and strategic connections that lead participants to relate to each other through smart technology and beyond organizational boundaries

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
Getting a taste of the “Big Mind” with 100 people who are willing to expand their consciousness

Favianna Rodriguez
Co-founder Presente.org, Artist

Idea - Transforming the mainstream narrative around immigration in the US
We must put undocumented immigrants, immigrant youth and families at the front and center of the debate. Within their own experiences, challenges and hardships, there is a universal story around survival which is relevant to everyone. We need to share their stories and infuse them into the popular culture.

Post WOC Outcome
Work with our allies in the fields of messaging, technology and media to introduce and reinforce the new narrative. Additionally, we plan to collectively build a scalable infrastructure for rapid response -- particularly to violent crimes against immigrants and hateful, extremist legislation, like what we have seen recently in Arizona.

Favorite Web of Change Moment
Lounging in the sun while eating locally grown vegetarian food on an island in beautiful British Columbia.

Mark Rovner
Founding Principal, Sea Change Strategies

Idea - How to invest a deep humanity into online communications
How can we develop a new generation of community and engagement that has warmth, intimacy and captures the heart. A huge part of this is using the Internet effectively as a storytelling vehicle.

Post WOC Outcome
By nurturing a communications ethic that values message above channels, and heart above mind.

Number 1 Reason I'm Going to Web of Change
I'm going partially for selfish reasons -- to tap the cumulative creative brilliance of the group to identify a workable business model for Sea Change that helps us walk our talk.

Tim Walker
Principal, Biro Creative

Idea - Discovering Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM)
The best organizations don't scale their work by buying email lists or Google Ad Words. Or by spamming their members with ever more direct mail, petitions and generic donation ‘asks’. In fact, there’s a growing school of thought that suggests these tactics -- the core of so many marketing plans -- are hugely inefficient and potentially counter productive. To quote one Word of Mouth Marketing pioneer: “They are the price you pay for being unremarkable.” Instead, truly remarkable organizations get their marketing done for them -- for free -- by their most excited, committed, passionate and devoted fans. They earn it by being impossibly effective, unique, bold, creative and “talkable”. All things traditional non-profits struggle with. WOM isn’t about gimmicks or viral campaigns. It’s an approach based on the new online reality, where people have become the most powerful marketing department on the planet :)

Post WOC Outcome
Gain a clear understanding of the theory and philosophy of Word Of Mouth Marketing; lean how some of the best non-profits are making it happen; leave with a plan to turn your non-profit and cause into something people love to talk about, advocate for and share with family and friends.

Number 1 Reason I’m coming to Web of Change
To get schooled on everything important in our space, from the people making it happen.