Twestival and Beyond: Social Media Changes the World

I’m blown away by the role social media is beginning to play in international humanitarian efforts. When I wrote about how social media can change the world as part of Blog Action Day ‘08 back in October, I had no idea how close we were to seeing some of those concepts brought to life. I had written,

For the first time in the history of humanitarian aid, individual donors and worthy organizations can connect meaningfully on opposite sides of the world…. You now are beginning to have the tools at your disposal to have a direct, measurable impact on these causes — to help solve the immediate problems, on the ground, in communities with the most need.  You can help build a school in Southeast Asia, provide clean drinking water for an entire African village, or prevent domestic abuse in your own neighborhood, with the social media tools you use every day.  The real solution is in going straight to the source, and it doesn’t take much…

So I was stunned when this email landed in my inbox last week. It came from Scott Harrison at charity: water.

Charity Water Email

I attended the Twestival in Boston back in February, but to be honest hadn’t thought much of it since (just starting a new job might have something to do with that). But here was the result of synchronized events across 202 cities worldwide: a brand new well was being drilled to provide drinking water for a village in Ethiopia, and those of us who couldn’t be there in person got to see the actual result of our participation.

And it’s exciting to read about initiatives like SalaamGarage , featured just this afternoon in a post over on Mashable. Founder Amanda TK describes SalaamGarage as “humanitourism meets Web 2.0.”. Dana Oshiro at Mashable writes,

The group sends amateur photographers to developing countries to study and document the work of nonprofit organizations. One recipient organization,Vatsalya, provides food, education and health care to street orphans in Jaipur…. Through Facebook, photo blogs, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube, SalaamGarage has helped Vatsalya gain seven new onsite volunteers and media exposure in major outlets including the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Trip photos have been featured in Vatsalya founder Jaimala Gupta’s book “Eighteen Million Question Marks: Street Children of India” and a 2009 calendar – publications that have raised $15,000 towards the organization’s work.

This is the model for social change through social media — and it is now becoming a reality. Forget how many followers you have on Twitter, or how many eBooks you’ve published. This is meaningful stuff.

This is the power of social media.

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April 15, 2009 | Filed Under Social Media, Social Responsibility 

Comments

One Response to “Twestival and Beyond: Social Media Changes the World”

  1. maggie soladay on May 14th, 2009 6:04 pm

    Jamie
    great piece! It is like the collective unconscious (or maybe its conscience) all had a wow moment at the same time!? Social media is positioned perfectly to cut through a lot of crap and make grass roots action happen right now to cause social change around the world
    i will be reading your feed!
    Sincerely
    Maggie
    @maggiesoladay and @salaamgaragemag on twitter

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