Presentations and other posts relating to Crowdsourcing Change

We’re excited to kick off the new year with another edition of our popular “Crowdsourcing Change” program on Tuesday, January 3. We’ve lined up three terrific projects eager to receive the wisdom of our crowd.

In case you’ve never been to one of these lively events, here’s the way it works: Each presenter shares how they’re using online marketing and the social web to achieve their goals and objectives. Then the crowd (that’s you!) participates in a facilitated discussion about how each presenter might use the social web to even greater effect. It’s a fun format for learning, sharing and potentially making a significant contribution to worthy projects.

We start gathering at 6 PM at the Friends Center (1501 Cherry Street). Light fare is available and RSVP’s are appreciated. Not in Philly? Or can’t make it downtown? Watch the live Internet stream at http://phillynetsquared.org/live, and contribute your questions and comments via our Twitter backchannel (hashtag: #phlnet2).

Here are the presenters we’ve lined up for the January 3 program:

• Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), publisher of the region’s official visitor site VisitPhilly.com and the “what happening” blog uwishunu.com. GPTMC works to lure leisure travelers to Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, through marketing and image building that promotes the region’s vitality and highlights its many attractions.  Focus questions GPTMC would particularly like to address:

• What are the best new tools for us to use to engage with our potential traveler? Google+? Pinterest? Tumblr? Something else?
• Our social media efforts pay off when we partner with other organizations and brands. Who do you think could work as potential partners in social media promotions to raise Philadelphia’s image as a destination?

• PhillyEcoCity, a virtual meeting place for people across the Philadelphia region who are interested in environmental and sustainability issues to find information, collaborate, and inspire one another.  Focus questions PhillyEcoCity would particularly like to address.

• Is there a way to use social media for find like-minded people to help build this organization with me?
• How do I use social media to create synergy among people and organizations that have the same passion and interest for sustainability?

• Protecting Our Waters is a Philadelphia-based grassroots alliance committed to protecting the Delaware River Basin, the state of Pennsylvania, and our region from unconventional gas drilling, such as fracking, and other threats to our drinking water, environment, and public health.  Focus questions Protecting Our Waters would particularly like to address:

• How can we make our blog more interactive and increase its readership without putting a strain on our tiny volunteer staff?
• Some people oppose fracking based on common sense, but feel intimidated when “bigwords” or tough concepts are used.   Others only take a stand when detailed scientific studies are noted.   How can Twitter and Facebook best be used to mobilize both types into taking a vigorous stand for a moratorium now?

This promises to be an interesting, unique and practical event. Please join us in person, or online.

Special thanks to our sponsors, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

We are thrilled to announce the three local nonprofits that will be the focus of our Crowdsourcing Change event on April 5:

• The Academy of Natural Sciences
• The Painted Bride Art Center
• The Chemical Heritage Foundation

In this highly participatory format representatives of each of these Philly cultural and scientific icons will present their goals and current social web strategies to the crowd (that’s us!).  Then, in a facilitated discussion, attendees share advice, perspectives and feedback to help these nonprofits move their social dimension forward.  (See more information about these organizations, and their social web objectives, below.)

The event will begin at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 5 at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street.  Plus, we’ll be streaming the event live over the Internet (via http://phillynetsquared.org/live) and supporting a Twitter backchannel (hashtag: #phlnet2), so our crowd can extend beyond our walls and city.

This is a wonderful learning and sharing opportunity for everyone who attends, as we share our best current thinking; and just maybe help these popular organizations better fulfill their important missions.

More information about our special guests:

Academy of Natural Sciences

Presenters: Dennis Murphy, Web Manager and Mike Servedio, Membership Services Associate

The Academy of Natural Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum that delights visitors via engaging programs and memorable exhibits, which include wildlife dioramas, a dinosaur hall, live animal center and butterfly garden. Celebrating its bicentennial in 2012, the Academy’s mission is to encourage and cultivate the sciences, explore the biodiversity of our natural world and share these discoveries with the public.

Questions the Academy of Natural Sciences would like our crowd to answer include:

• How can we use social media to better communicate who we are and what we do?
• How should we differentiate what we post on Facebook and Twitter?
• What social media considerations should we make for our main website, which we are currently converting to a Drupal content management system?

Find out more about the Academy of Natural Sciences at: http://www.ansp.org/

Painted Bride Art Center

Presenter: Phil Sumpter, Director of Marketing and Communications

The Painted Bride celebrates the transformative power of the arts. Featuring jazz, world music, dance, theater, performance art, video, poetry, spoken word and visual arts, the Bride produces and presents performances as well as offers forums to facilitate dialogue about contemporary social issues.

Questions the Painted Bride would like our crowd to answer include:

• What types of social media posts work best for instilling meaningful dialogue?
• How can we effectively encourage people to follow/friend us on Twitter and Facebook?
• What kind of social media strategies are effective for getting people to do something specific such as repost, retweet, or buy something?

Find out more about the Painted Bride at: http://www.paintedbride.org/

Chemical Heritage Foundation

Presenter: Monica Fonorow, Promotions Coordinator

The Chemical Heritage Foundation helps foster an understanding of chemistry’s impact the world. Through exhibits, programs and research the organization strives to inspire a passion for chemistry, to preserve the story of chemistry, and shed light on chemistry’s role in meeting current social challenges.

Questions the Chemical Heritage Foundation would like our crowd to answer include:

• How can we promote our events on social media while also avoiding a steady stream of marketing and PR posts?
• Other than posting good content what else can we do to increase engagement and grow our following?
• Is it effective for organizations such as ours to live tweet events? If yes, which events?

Find out more about the Chemical Heritage Foundation at: http://www.chemheritage.org/

RSVP’s via Facebook or Meetup are appreciated for planning, but not required.  It’s more important that you show up (in person or virtually) with your ideas and enthusiasm for enhancing the social dimension of Philadelphia’s rich cultural and scientific scene.

Our sincere gratitude goes to the American Friends Service Committee for sponsoring this event.

“Crowdsourcing Change” will be a highly participatory event where attendees will have an opportunity to help three “Social Changers” who are using — or trying to use — the social web for the common good.

Presenters will first explain the change they are trying to achieve through social media. Attendees, with the help of a moderator, will then provide feedback, ideas, constructive criticism and concrete instructions to help the presenters succeed.

The three presenters will be:

• Megan Barnes of Dignity Housing, a non-profit organization established by people who were formerly homeless to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty confronting low-income and homeless families and individuals in Philadelphia.
  Read Dignity Housing’s project description.
• Darlene Cavalier, of ScienceForCitizens.net, a place for citizens to find out about, take part in, and contribute to science through recreational activities and research projects and for scientists to tell eager citizens about your work and get them interested in helping out.
  Read ScienceForCitizens.net’s project description.
• Medard Gabel of EarthGame, who is working with the UN on developing a giant “dashboard” for the world, a 32 foot by 8 foot high-definition video wall will be a permanent installation at the UN Headquarters in New York where millions of people will see it. There will also be an interactive web version. The purpose is to provide an overview and status report on what is happening right now on Spaceship Earth.
  Read EarthGame’s project description.

In addition to the usual great networking opportunities, the main event of this Net Tuesday will be a new format we’re trying, tentatively entitled “Extreme Makeover: Web Strategy Edition”

This process, which will probably take about 40 minutes, will focus on one person’s challenge with using the web (especially web 2.0) for their project. The process will involve the entire group, and hopefully, everyone will get something out of it. (This idea was inspired by Net Tuesday DC’s successful experience using a similar format every other meeting. Attendees at our June 3 meeting wanted to try it out, so we’re experimenting with it this time.)