The intersection of social media and social innovation. By Ashoka's Changemakers.
Hello! I'm Noelle, the social media coordinator at Ashoka's Changemakers. Please visit our Web site at http://www.changemakers.com!
Contributors
All the livetweets from the women's panel
It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago Ashoka, Equality Now, and EngenderHealth gathered luminaries of women's health to convene for a panel in New York City. Among these thought giants were Nick Kirstof, Sheryl WuDunn, Bill Drayton (our Ashoka founder!), Taina Bien-Aimé (of Equality Now), Ana Langer (of EngenderHealth), and Maria Hinojosa (Senior Correspondent at NOW on PBS).
Changemakers was there, livetweeting every development in the panel--after all, we are launching the first two of many more competitions to be focused on women's livelihooods. It's been gratifying to see the conversations continue after the event. With age-old struggles for women, a new focus on women's livelihoods by the UN, and dazzling new book Half the Sky by Kristof and WuDunn, it becomes apparent that we are reaching critical mass for change.
In spirit of revolution, people have asked for an account of our livetweets. Here they are in PDF format. Enjoy and share!
If you feel moved to action, please take a look at our two new competitions, one focused on maternal health and one on accelerating women's economic advancement through technology. Spread the word, enter, and encourage those in the field by reading their ideas and commenting.
(download)
Posted by Noelle Chun
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50 ideas of how to use social media for nonprofits
50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits
View more presentations from Chad Norman.
So you want to be a changemaker? Check out Chad Norman's thought-provoking slideshow which serves up 50 social media tactics for social entrepreneurs. It's a great starting point for nonprofit to begin engagement with social media.
Don't feel overwhelmed! Start with what fits your company best.
Be sure to check out our Changemakers groups for more discussion on how to launch a successful enterprise.
Posted by Noelle Chun
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Who wants to tweet up? LA Changemakers hang out
It's the holiday season and what better time to connect with others about doing good in the world? Join Changemakers for a casual tweet up tomorrow, Tuesday, December 22, to hang out, meet cool new people, and chat about social enterprise, social media, or wherever the conversation leads.
Here are the details:
When: Tuesday, December 22, 5 pm - 6pm
Where: Bar 107, 107 West 4th St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Read about the place on Yelp ad check out directions on Google map:
Please feel free to come and bring friends. You can RSVP by emailing nchun@ashoka.org or simply decide at the last minute and show up. We are happy to have you!
Posted by Noelle Chun
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Happy Friday, Changemakers! This was a staff favorite today
Hope it sends you on your weekend! In the meantime, hope you'll check out our competitions page and enter to win some cool prizes for your new ideas. :-)
Posted by Noelle Chun
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Reading: The NYT Mag's Ninth Annual Year in Ideas
Once again, The Times Magazine looks back on the past year from our favored perch: ideas. Like a magpie building its nest, we have hunted eclectically, though not without discrimination, for noteworthy notions of 2009 — the twigs and sticks and shiny paper scraps of human ingenuity, which, when collected and woven together, form a sort of cognitive shelter, in which the curious mind can incubate, hatch and feather. Unlike birds, we can also alphabetize. And so we hereby present, from A to Z, the most clever, important, silly and just plain weird innovations we carried back from all corners of the thinking world.
via nytimes.com
I love the New York Times Mag. I also love these stimulating ideas. If you're looking for inspiration, here's an awfully good place. (If you're not at Changemakers.com hehe.)
Posted by Noelle Chun
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Amplifying the call for #womenslives
I was thrilled this morning to read Beyond Profit's email newsletter and see that they had been impacted by the Ashoka-cosponsored Accelerating Equality for Women and Girls around the World. Heavy hitters in the movement for women's livelihoods convened last week for the panel discussion with Nick Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Bill Drayton, Anna Langer, Taina Bien-Aimé, Maria Hinojosa. We livetweeted every development @changemakers. How wonderful to read that our @changemakers tweets had made a difference!
This only confirms the feeling that now is the time to call attention to the women in the world. It is time for social earthquakes, for a tsunami call for justice, for unflinching boldness on behalf of women in the world.
My hope, as the social media coordinator at Changemakers.com, is that this call for women's livelihoods doesn't end in nothingness. Let's make some change:
- Keep thinking about ways that we can help elevate downtrodden women everywhere.
- Champion the #womenslives hashtag on Twitter to call attention to the problem, create conversation, and mobilize unified efforts.
- Encourage the entrants of our upcoming Changemakers competitions. There is one on ensuring better maternal health as a means to transform every order of society. There is another focused on equipping women with technologies--simple and complex--to become full forces.
- Get informed and help others do the same. Read Half the Sky. Keep up with Changemaker competition entries to get a pulse on innovation in the field. Read about previous Changemaker entrants in womens issues. Then, tell others.
We can make all these changes, if we work together.
Here was the section from Beyond Profit's newsletter on women's livelihoods.
Something struck me while I was following the Ashoka @changemakers tweets from "Accelerating Equality for Women and Girls around the World: A Conversation with Media, Activists, Entrepreneurs and You" at the Paley Center for Media in New York last Thursday, December 3. Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Bill Drayton, Ana Langer, and Taina Bien-Aime spoke about what we can do to all become changemakers. (Sidenote - my mom was in the audience. I was extremely jealous.) I believe Langer, the President of EngenderHealth and a public health expert, was the first to bring up the point. The tweet read, "Langer: As part of the movement, we should make some room for men, too. (audience applause)." It was followed by "Langer: We often see men as the problem - but they are also part of the solution. Let's not always think about women vs. men." Then "Kristof: When a man writes about issues, men have a gravitas and credibility that comes with it." Followed by "Kristof: So when a man writes about women's issues, that does give some credibility. It's not just women about women."
There is a lot of strength in what Langer and Kristof are saying. Little of substance will ever be achieved without cooperation between the two sexes. For example, EngenderHealth has a stunningly successful "Men As Partners" program, which focuses on engaging men as partners in reproductive health. The premise: gender influences women's and men's health in fundamental ways, and traditional ideas about gender can place both women's and men's health at risk.
I think that we, as a media organization based in the developing world, have something to learn here. We sit at an interesting cross-roads. A predominantly female team. Reporting on the social enterprise sector in developing and emerging markets from a developing country. Concentrating on our own backyard - both Mumbai and the greater South Asia.
In the words of Bill Drayton, "The rate of change in the world is logarithmic. We are accelerating now." The moment the press signs on to an issue is critical. All of a sudden, the issue becomes "known" to greater society. According to WuDunn, "When you put TV in the home of villagers, it's the equivalent of 5 years of education in six months. They see role models." We, at Beyond Profit, have the opportunity to be the "man writing about women's issues," to give an issue credibility. We have the opportunity to tip the balance. To raise awareness. To create trends. To bring developing world voices to the mainstream. To encourage hope. To make every life matter.
Posted by Noelle Chun
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Who's on stage? The panelists #womenslives
Nicholas Kristof (Bio) and Sheryl WuDunn (Bio), authors of Half the Sky
Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive director of Equality Now (Bio)
Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka (Bio)
Ana Langer, President and CEO, EngenderHealth (Bio)
Moderated by Maria Hinojosa, Senior Correspondent, NOW on PBS (Bio)
Posted by Noelle Chun
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