2007-2008 Application Cycle for Echoing Green Fellowship:
Each year, Echoing Green awards 20 two-year fellowships to entrepreneurs creating new social change organizations. Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding and technical support to turn their innovative ideas into sustainable organizations.
This is a great opportunity for PWGD to launch our open, democratic network of communication and collaboration.
See the questions with our answers (and notes mercifully hidden).
While being like-minded in many of our beliefs and passions, we have different skill sets. Vafa's personality and mindset is constantly in a state of inquisition and analysis. Once he's broken down and referenced every bit of information on a topic, he'll inevitably ask, “How do we reform this in our vision?” Ben’s mastery of web development and design, combined with his technical know-how provides the answers to those questions. Together we have a powerful sense of one another’s agendas and the ability to be one step ahead of each other. Before Vafa can finish asking a question, Ben has already devised a solution to the problem.
Vafa's biggest strength has always been the relationships he builds with people in any community. He plans to use this to develop and grow the networks of people involved with PWGD. He can also use this ability to understand the unique needs of the PWGD community and Ben is the perfect channel by which to address their concerns and requisites.
We met through overlapping circles of friends. It is indeed fitting that we met in this way, as it is in this spirit that PWGD is formed. The organization, like our bond is built on growing networks of people trying to make a difference. Ben’s company created and designed Vafa's personal blog. As our professional relationship developed so did our friendship as we admired each other’s passion for change.
When Ben introduced Vafa to his idea of a self-sustaining, internet network committed to democratic news transference and social reform, Vafa immediately felt the need to take on this same dream and do whatever it took to realize it.
We aren't just the founders of this project, we are also the target audience. We have felt disconnected from effective social change and are determined to do something about it. We represent the purpose and method of PWGD: people can and must do more together than we can apart.
Ben’s title will be Technical Coordinator. He will be responsible for any and all technical aspects of People Who Give a Damn. These responsibilities will include software design, delegation of technical tasks and upkeep of our web-based physical representation. Ben will also be responsible for any language-based challenges that may come up.
Vafa’s title will be Human Relations Conservator. He will be in charge of growing networks of people from around the world and being the conduit through which PWGD communicates to other helpful people and resources worldwide. Vafa will remain in communication with other social agencies both in the United States and abroad to help keep PWGD at the epicenter of social reform.
Mediated culture, alienating work, and unneighborly neighborhoods disconnect people from one another. When people who care about making lives and communities better do unite, we frequently do so through organizations that cannot connect us directly. Decision-making power lies with a few people. As a result, these organizations tend to use us (donate, sign this petition) instead of us using them (use this money to get us these resources, make this demand). No single organization can have all the best plans and actions, yet the invaluable mailing list of supporters inevitably belongs to the organization.
We are hoping to avoid most of the decision-making dilemmas in our organization because most of the information on PWGD is submitted by and filtered through its members. Any organizational decisions will be submitted to our board of trustees, which will meet quarterly to discuss referendums, challenges, and successes.
Society disconnects people from one another. When some who care about our communities and world do unite, we tend to do so weakly through organizations that cannot connect us directly.
Horizontal communication will let more people than ever before discuss and coordinate to fight injustice and make lives better. With democratic moderation of messages, people can communicate in large or small groups with minimal wasted time and potentially unlimited scaling. Above all, the network belongs to everyone equally, reversing the typical model where people belong to an organization that sets the agenda and controls communication.
A simple technique will make real the principles of openness, equality, and democracy: People will decide the extent of distribution of messages in the only democratic way practicable, by vote of a random sample. Messages can be be proposed for geographic communities and communities of interest, and will be informative or proposals for action. The latter can attract agreement and resources needed to make a plan possible.
We will, in short, build the best possible framework for social change.
People who care about our communities and world are too often disconnected from one another. When a few of us do unite, we tend to do so weakly through organizations that cannot connect us directly.
Horizontal communication will let more people discuss and coordinate to fight injustice, protect the environment, and make lives better than ever before.
With democratic moderation of messages, people can communicate horizontally in large or small groups. With current tools, people can discuss and plan in small to medium-sized groups. We can receive information moderated by someone else. And we can embrace or ignore decisions made by a few.
We will build a network to connect people directly with minimal wasted time and a potential for unlimited scaling.
We will, in short, build the best possible framework for social change.
A simple technique will make real the principles of openness, equality, and democracy: People will decide the extent of distribution of messages in geographic communities and communities of interest in the only democratic way practicable, by vote of a random sample.
In addition to news and information, people can put out plans and calls to action, which can attract agreement and resources.
rather than solely arriving fully formed.
As communities or a society, we cannot yet control the flow of information ourselves. We cannot make decisions or collaborate on ideas proposed by any one of us, because we have no way of even knowing about such ideas.
Technology won't be enough. Electronic communication will only be a part of our network, let alone the movements the network should support.
Mediated culture, alienating work, and unneighborly neighborhoods disconnect people from one another. When people who care about making lives and communities better do unite, we frequently do so through organizations that cannot connect us directly. Decision-making power lies with a few people. As a result, these organizations tend to use us (donate, sign this petition) instead of us using them (use this money to get us these resources, make this demand). No single organization can have all the best plans and actions, yet the invaluable mailing list of supporters inevitably belongs to the organization.
And most people don't connect even by proxy.
The plight of humanity and the natural world has troubled us for as long as we can remember. We’ve tried to improve life in our communities, with some success. Innate in all our work, however, were two flaws: the number of people reached and the scope of ideas that reached them.
No matter the value of the direct work, we knew there were always more people who could be reached, more caring people who would help, more causes to champion. Through conversations and research, we found that many, many people felt the same problem. A solution requires a new infrastructure of information exchange and dissemination: a mechanism by which any issue can be introduced, discussed, and even acted upon.
We, along with all the directors of People Who Give a Damn and others, felt so passionately about these exigencies that we knew we had the means for a movement unlike any the world had seen.
We wanted, in short, to create something that would change the environment in which all our actions for a better world have to take place, a change to make fulfilling people's highest aims more possible.
When Ben, Vafa, and Dan met at the beginning of this year, . An all-encompassing, information supra-highway will be the conduit for every change we want to see in our world.
On too many issues that truly concerned large numbers of people, even super-majorities, the tipping point is not reached.
Through misinformation and resultant disunity distributed by printed news, television, or the Internet, people are misled and made to feel powerless to change anything.
According to a poll taken by the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/washington/10poll.html), six years after the attacks on 9/11, a third of the U.S. still believes Saddam Hussein was personally involved despite no evidence to support that belief. On September 7, 2002 Tony Blair stood alongside George W. Bush at a Camp David press conference. “Together, they declared that evidence from a report published by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that Iraq was ‘six months away’ from building nuclear weapons.” (The Exception to the Rulers, by Amy Goodman, 2004) In reality, there was no such IAEA report.
These are just two of so many examples of irresponsible journalism. As a corrupt mass media continuously misleads us, we must create a new, legitimate news source, that at least builds in the capacity for collective learning.
There are two root causes for the continuously misinformed public not taking action to better the world around them. One is simply the source of the misinformation: our corrupt mass media and government agencies. The other is a lack of indignity from the masses. However, one could argue, with great success, that the two fuel each other.
It is clear that many are content living each day striving mainly to achieve economic stability in a media climate that boasts consumerism and profitability as the scales upon which one must measure his/her success. We learn to use violence in response to our feelings of frustration and anger rather than logical thought. It is just as clear that, in his/her complacency, Joe/Jane America give that same media no reason to change anything but its prices.
PWGD will provide us with an alternative to the corporate agenda of our current media sources and, with it, a reason to be outraged by the misinformation we are being spoon-fed. It will allow us to connect to one another on a basis other than who our favorite athletes or clothing designers are. We will find methods to resolve our issues not without frustration and anger, but despite them.
Describe the specific programs that your organization will engage in to deliver your long-term outcomes.
There are many caring people who have a vision of the difference they want to make in the world, but lack the knowledge or means by which to make those differences. There are also many who desire to do good, but are unsure of where their efforts would be best spent or what exactly needs to be done. PWGD will supply people with the necessary information and connections they need to facilitate the changes they want to see in their world.
There are 3 ways by which to exchange information and connect others on PWGD. The first is to simply visit our website and search for material relative to your topic and/or geographical area of interest. The second way is to post a message with your contact information explaining your concern and asking to be notified by anyone who can help you get involved or who wants to get involved with your cause. The third and most unique method will be our free software. Using this software, people will be able to post information not only to the site, but also have it sent directly to those who request information related to that topic. This will effectively unite people with similar interests without racial, socio-economic, or any other biases.
We have two main goals for our organization. First, we want to give global access to democratically filtered information; and second, we want the connections built through the concurrent transfer of knowledge to bring people to action worldwide. There are many sources of news in basic media modules like television, newspapers, radio, etc. We want PWGD to become a major world platform for political and sociological expression.
In order to meet these goals we have set specific benchmarks along the way to be indicative of our progress. By July of 2008 we will have 500,000 members using our software. By January 2009 we will have 2,000,000. Lastly, by January of 2010, we will have grown to a community of 10,000,000 people, of which half will have participated in actions described by other PWGD members.
The software will track the numbers for us and we will be notified weekly of our progress.
Identify other organizations that are addressing this issue and how your approach is different and has the potential to be more effective.
PWGD will be the world’s first democratically filtered news source. While there are other websites (i.e. MoveOn.org, Idealist.org) that have democratic agendas, there are none whose members initiate the interest, post all of the information, and filter the information for inaccuracies and falsehood. As misinformation is spread throughout regular media sources like television and radio, a democratically selected news source is an extraordinarily exciting prospect.
When an article is submitted, the software we create will randomly select a “jury” of people from the list of those who have stated an interest in the subject matter pertaining to that of said article. Those people will receive a copy of the article with instructions to read the article and research its statements of fact in order to verify their accuracy. If the article is deemed valid, by a majority vote, then it will be posted instantly. However, should it be determined that the article contains propaganda or fallacies, then it will be returned to its author with a specific explanation. While any staff, officer, or board member may contribute to the website, they will undergo the same evaluation process.
We have played both leading and supporting roles in many change and community oriented groups. We have gained a great respect for the effort and mentality required to perform as leaders and managers of such organizations.
Benjamin helped found and became an initial elected director and officer of the Amazing Things Arts Center of Framingham, MA and surrounding communities. He cofounded the web development firm Agaric Design Collective.
Vafa gained experience in management at Blockbuster Video as a District Training Store Manager and led youth programs for the nonprofit Men’s Resource Center (MRC) of Western Massachusetts (www.mrcforchange.org). He started and led a project that trained college aged men to give workshops in middle schools and high schools in the western Massachusetts area on topics surrounding the male culture of violence. To build this program up from scratch, we wrote a grant proposal in order to receive funding, put up flyers and canvassed the area for volunteers, hired a training staff, and built partnerships with the Every Woman’s Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
We are uniquely qualified to lead this organization for many reasons. First, this is Ben’s brainchild. He has been a technological developer since 1998. He has worked on the World Social Forum, Amazing Things Art Center auction site, and Related Content (a project funded by the Knight Foundation – www.NewsChallenge.org). Vafa's greatest passion has always been human rights and global education on such matters. His greatest asset has been his ability to network and build long-lasting and fruitful friendships and partnerships. We have yearned for an opportunity to create something that can better the world indefinitely and believe this is that conduit.
The timing is key for two reasons. One, simply stated, is that the longer we wait to develop a democratically filtered news station, the more difficult it will be to rescue the masses from their entrenchment in propaganda. The second is that, in light of the impending U.S. presidential election of 2008, the climate for change is brewing steadily. We MUST use this opportunity to empower and reengage people in an alternative news source.
As of December of 2007 PWGD has raised over $100,000 internally and from friends, family, and supporters of our idea. Of that $100,000, eighty percent has come directly from the two of us.
Our development will be in two phases. The first phase will develop democratic communication. This will entail an open source project to create a modular email program and democratic filtering software. We estimate that this process will cost $150,000 in our first year. The second phase in our development is collective decision-making. This phase will necessitate scaling the software to meet our networks’ needs as well as travel expenses as we reach out to partners around the world. We estimate the cost of this phase to be in the $50,000 range. So in total we expect to spend $200,000 per year on development and upkeep over the next 2 years totaling $400,000.