Last Thursday we asked a simple question on Facebook. Five days later, over 62,000 people had participated and our Facebook page had over 12K Likes.
How in the world did that happen?
Let's start at the beginning. A few weeks ago, we launched Election Guru - a free iPhone app that challenges players to predict the winners of upcoming elections around the world.
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The international climate conference kicks off today in Doha. We produced this short cartoon "trailer" for BUND - Friends of the Earth Germany, comparing these annual negotiations to those awkward meetings you might have experienced living in a flatshare. more
Forget Toshiro Mifune's samurai swagger; Japan should embrace girliness and geekiness as pillars for innovation, according to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, whose Geeky-Girly Innovation: A Japanese Subculturalist's Guide to Technology and Design was recently published in English.
Kawaguchi's lively survey of Japanese gal (girly) and otaku (geeky) culture is mostly about Japanese product development, but it's also useful as a cultural bridge, and is brimming with refreshingly unusual and amusing examples for those of us seeking new ways to think about sustainability. more
Don't kids just say the cutest things sometimes? You know, that all the methane unleashed by melting permafrost is potentially dangerous, or that rising sea levels could threaten the Netherlands, Venice, and New York City.
The recent "Aufgeheizt" project from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research brought together local school kids from Berlin with climate scientists and animators to create short, stop-motion films that illustrate various topics related to climate change. more
The Canadian NFB is breaking new ground yet again - this time with an interactive web documentary about homelessness called Here At Home launched last week.
The evolving documentary will track an ongoing government study about whether providing shelter and one-on-one care to over 1,200 homeless people with mental illnesses will change their situation. In other words, does the "Housing First" strategy work as a social policy? more
What's one thing that most successful social entrepreneurs have in common? They're good at telling their stories. If you want to grow your project, you're going to have to tell your story well. This is how people will identify with and ultimately support your cause.
This was the gist of a "Story Telling for Impact" panel at last week's Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford. Four participants underlined why it's so critical to tell your story effectively, and share some tips and recent examples from the print, radio, film/video, and online worlds. more
Yesterday's Ernst & Young and GreenBiz report highlighted six trends in corporate sustainability. One of these trends is the "emergence" of employees as a key audience.
Employees are now seen as the second-most important "drivers" of company sustainability initiatives, trailing only customers. That means that employees rank higher than other stakeholder groups, like shareholders, policymakers, NGOs, analysts, and suppliers.
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