Community Blog

Kris Krug is a Vancouver based photographer, author and web strategist. He is super engaged in the arts, new media and the internet as a tool for information sharing and community building. Last month, Kris attended the Summer Gathering up at Hollyhock, an invite only retreat that gathered some of the worlds leading artists, activists and social change agents. Read his post below and check out his blog for great images and creative, social and innovative musings.

Alia McKee-Scott is a leading thinker in online fundraising and is a co-conveners for this year's Web of Change Conference.  In this blog post she outlines some of her most innovative thoughts on how fundraising is evolving to adapt to a more transparent, open Web 2 world.

Day 3 of Social Tech Training kicked off with a specially recorded video address from world renowned digital futurist Don Tapscott.

The author of Growing Up Digital and Wikinomics sent a special message to the leaders of STT participating organizations, executive and communications directors, who are often from a different demographic than their web teams. Don drives home the critical importance of culture change and adaptation, and posits that our rapidly shifting world demands those qualities of any organization that hopes to be successful in the digital age.

This week at foreignpolicy.com, online activism was given a pretty scathing critique, with much of its activity defined as "slacktivism" - one click actions that have no impact politically or socially, but cater to a "lazy generation" that is uninterested in the traditional hands on activism of the past.

While cash strapped progressive orgs and traditional advocacy organizations sometimes hesitate or balk at investing in web 2.0 their mission may be coming under new attack, from a well funded right-wing that is embracing viral media.

Web of Change launched the 2009 season with Designing for Democracy — a multimedia presentation by social entrepreneur, technologist and artist Favianna Rodriguez at Vancouver’s stunning 319 Theatre. In our follow up interview, we asked the Oakland native about her business model for change, and how she has grown her social mission through a unique relationship between her web agency, TUMIS, and the Eastside Arts Alliance, the community non-profit she cofounded in 1999.

Innovation is the most challenging type of work to be involved in. By nature, it pushes you out of you comfort zones and into an exploration of the unknown. There's great risk, but also great reward.

Web of Change deserves a lot of credit for pushing both myself and my organization to be far more innovative, creative and bold in our online advocacy. Thanks to this community, Rainforest Action Network has launched some of the most effective campaigns in our history.