The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
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i4D Interview: Social Networking and Internet Access
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/i4d-interview-social-networking-and-internet-access
<b>Nishant Shah, the Director for Research at CIS, was recently interviewed in i4D in a special section looking at Social Networking and Governance, as a lead up to the Internet Governance Forum in December, in the city of Hyderabad.</b>
<h3 align="left">Mechanism of Self-Governance Needed for Social Networks</h3>
<h3 align="left">Should social networking sites be governed, and if yes, in what way?<br /></h3>
<p align="justify"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uploads/nishantshah1.gif/image_preview" alt="Nishant Shah" class="image-left" title="Nishant Shah" />A
call for either monitoring or censoring Social Networking Sites has
long been proved ineffectual, with the users always finding new ways of
circumventing the bans or the blocks that are put into place. However,
given the ubiquitous nature of SNS and the varied age-groups and
interests that are represented there, governance, which is
non-intrusive and actually enables a better and more
effective experience of the site, is always welcome. The presumed
notion of governance is that it will set processes and procedures in
place which will eventually crystallise into laws or regulations.
However, there is also another form of governance - governance as
provided by a safe-keeper or a guardian, somebody who creates symbols
of caution and warns us about being cautious in certain areas. In the
physical world, we constantly face these symbols and signs which remind
us of the need to be aware and safe. Creation of a vocabulary of
warnings, signs and symbols that remind us of the dangers within SNS is
a form of governance that needs to be worked out. This can be a
participatory governance where each community develops its own concerns
and addresses them. What is needed is a way of making sure that these
signs are present and garner the attention of the user.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>How do we address the concerns that some of the social networking spaces are not "child safe"?</strong> </p>
<p align="justify">The
question of child safety online has resulted in a raging debate. Several models, from the cybernanny to monitoring the child's
activities online ,have been suggested at different times and have
more or less failed. The concerns about what happens to a child online are
the same as those about what happens to a child in the physical world.
When the child goes off to school, or to the park to play, we train and
educate them about things that they should not be doing -- suggesting that they do not talk
to strangers, do not take sweets from strangers, do not tell people
where they live, don't wander off alone -- and hope that these will be
sufficient safeguards to their well being. As an added precaution, we
also sometimes supervise their activities and their media consumption. More than finding technical solutions for
safety online, it is a question of education and training and
some amount of supervision to ensure that the child is complying with
your idea of what is good for it. A call for sanitising the internet is more or less redundant, only, in fact,
adding to the dark glamour of the web and inciting younger users to go
and search for material which they would otherwise have ignored.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>What are the issues, especially around identities and profile information privacy rights of users of social networking sites?</strong> </p>
<p align="justify">The
main set of issues, as I see it, around the question of identities, is
the mapping of the digital identities to the physical selves. The
questions would be : What constitutes the authentic self? What is the
responsibility of the digital persona? Are we looking at a post-human
world where online identities are equally a part of who we are and are sometimes even more a part of who we are than our physical selves? Does the older argument of the Original
and the Primary (characteristics of Representation aesthetics) still
work when we are talking about a world of 'perfect copies' and
'interminable networks of selves' (characteristics of Simulation)? How
do we create new models of verification, trust and networking within an SNS? Sites like Facebook and Orkut, with their ability to establish
looped relationships between the users, and with the notion of inheritance (¨friend of a friend of a friend of a friend¨), or even testimonials and
open 'walls' and 'scraps' for messaging, are already approaching these
new models of trust and friendship.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>How do we strike a balance between the freedom of speech and the need to maintain law and order when it comes to monitoring social networking sites?</strong></p>
<p align="justify">I
am not sure if the 'freedom of speech and expression' and the
'maintaining of law and order' need to be posited as antithetical to each
other. Surely the whole idea of 'maintaining law and order' already
includes maintaining conditions within which freedom of speech and
expression can be practiced. Instead of monitoring social networking
sites to censor and chastise (as has happened in some of the recent
debates around Orkut, for example), it is a more fruitful exercise to
ensure that speech, as long as it is not directed offensively
towards an individual or a community, needs to be registered and heard.
Hate speech of any sort should not be tolerated but that is a fact
that is already covered by the judicial systems around the world. </p>
<p align="justify">What
perhaps, is needed online, is a mechanism of self-governance where the
community should be able to decide the kinds of actions and speech
which are valid and acceptable to them. People who enter into trollish
behaviour or hate speak, automatically get chastised and punished in
different ways by the community itself. To look at models of better
self-governance and community mobilisation might be more productive
than producing this schism between freedom of speech on the one hand
and the maintenance of law and order on the other.</p>
<p align="justify"><a class="external-link" href="http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?Title=netgov-Speak:-Lead-up-to-IGF-2008&articleid=2169&typ=Coulum">Link to original article on i4donline.net</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/i4d-interview-social-networking-and-internet-access'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/i4d-interview-social-networking-and-internet-access</a>
</p>
No publishernishantCyberspaceDigital NativesPublic AccountabilityCyberculturesCommunitiesDigital subjectivitiesDigital Pluralism2011-09-22T12:51:57ZBlog EntryCollaborative Projects Programme
http://editors.cis-india.org/research/grants/collaborative-projects-programme
<b></b>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society recognises collaboration and
consultation as its primary mode of engaging with research and
intervention. The <strong>Collaborative Projects Programme (CPP)</strong> is CIS’
platform for partnering (intellectually, logistically, financially,
and administratively) with other organisations, individuals and
practitioners in projects which are of immediate concern to the work
that CIS is committed to.</p>
<p>The Collaborative Projects Programme also expands the scope of
research to produce a synergy between research and praxis. The
CPP is, in many ways, the in-house research that CIS undertakes, in
collaboration and consultation with other organisations, institutions
and individuals who have a stake and a say in the field of Internet
and Society. The CPP is not bound by any theme of programmatic
modalities and is envisioned more as a way for CIS to extend its
field and establish a strong network with other exciting spaces in
the Global South.</p>
<p>The Collaborative Projects Programme can include, but is not
limited to, organising of large conferences or workshops; developing
tools for better research and advocacy; data mining towards a
specific goal that complements CIS’ vision; producing original
monographs/publications/books targeted at different audiences;
experimenting with new technologies to affect policy and usage;
implementing pilot studies and instances of existing ideas;
developing schemes to integrate education and technology; public
intervention and awareness campaigns geared towards particular
outcomes; celebrating certain aspects of internet technologies;
engaging with digital natives; and creating new environments of
learning and participation online.</p>
<p>The CPP is <strong>NOT</strong> a grant making programme. However, we are
interested in partnering on new and innovative ideas and would
welcome conversations with people and organisations in the field. If
you have an interesting idea that you think fits our larger vision,
please contact us and we can begin the discussions.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>List of Projects under the Collaborative Projects Programme:</strong></p>
<p>1. The Promise of Invisibility: Technology and the City - A seven month research project initiated by Nishant Shah, in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Shanghai University, enabled by a grant from the Asia Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok.</p>
<p>2. Disability, Learning and Digital Participation - in partnership with <a class="external-link" href="http://www.inclusiveplanet.org/">Inclusive Planet</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/research/grants/collaborative-projects-programme'>http://editors.cis-india.org/research/grants/collaborative-projects-programme</a>
</p>
No publishernishantCyberspaceFamilyDigital NativesPublic AccountabilityObscenitye-governanceCyborgsCyberculturesProjectsNew PedagogiesCommunitiesDigital subjectivitiesDigital Pluralism2011-08-23T03:04:56ZPageStorytelling and Technology - Sartaj Anand
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-sartaj-anand
<b>This post outlines the general characteristics of storytelling. The second section is an interview with Sartaj Anand, the founder of EgoMonk and BIllion Strong, who talks about storytelling as a strategy to build trust at the intersections of business and technology. This is the first of a series of installments exploring the potential of storytelling for social change.</b>
<pre><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong> Sartaj Anand<strong>
ORGANIZATION: </strong>EgoMonk & Billion Strong<strong>
STRATEGY OF CHANGE: </strong>Leverage technology by focusing on the relationship between people and technology, and build trust by localizing and personalizing communication
<strong>
METHOD OF CHANGE:</strong> Storytelling<strong>
</strong></pre>
<h3 align="right"><em>“We all have something to say. Question is: will anyone listen?”</em></h3>
<div align="right">Understanding Comics<br />Scott McCloud, 1994</div>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<p align="justify">Today, everybody seems to be talking about ‘storytelling’. From activists to corporates; they are all jumping on this nostalgic bandwagon and embracing once again an enthralling habit of yesteryear: the ability to tell good stories. The practice has taken an identity of its own. It's distancing itself from its roots in oral tradition, and morphing into a state-of-the-art communication strategy. This is no selfless trend, though. Behind the hype, lies their thirst for (your) attention, and the belief that they do not only have a story to tell, but that it is a story that matters. In the context of “making change” particularly, when political and social crises emerge, the public space is flooded by a series of narratives and discourses as told by different actors. This explosion of stories culminates in an overload of information that could end up saturating its intended audience. This is not only undesirable, but dangerous when underneath the noise lies a message important for human dignity and survival. So, what is it about a story that will make it worthy of your attention? And how can this seemingly simple, yet complex tactic culminate in further engagement?</p>
<p align="justify">To explain storytelling as a method to create change, I will focus on how this practice can be utilized to enhance visibility and effectiveness of advocacy practices, as outlined in the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-to-conceive-condense-social-change">research overview</a>. I will start by unpacking ‘storytelling’: focusing on its purpose and functions. I will also look at the the relationship between the storyteller and the audience, and also at how storytelling redefines ‘the public space’. Although I will be putting my best effort to explain the workings behind his method, I will rely on the storytellers themselves to learn about the power of well-crafted and well-delivered stories to make change. This opportunity’s change-actors: Sartaj Anand, The Ugly Indian, Blank Noise, come from different fields and will show very different perspectives of how the narratives of change utilized in their stories, re-articulates how users/citizens/customers interact and experience content.</p>
<h2><strong>Telling Stories</strong></h2>
<p>So, what is storytelling? And what makes it so different from other forms of narration? I consulted the work of German philosophers Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt to unpack the nature of this practice and its ability to transmit knowledge.</p>
<div align="justify" class="pullquote">“the storyteller takes what he tells from the
experience and <span class="st">he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening</span>” <em><br /></em>
<div align="right">W. Benjamin, 1977</div>
</div>
<p align="justify">In Benjamin’s essay “The Storyteller” (1955) he laments the demise of storytelling: “<em>less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly [as if] the ability to exchange experiences [had been taken away from us]”.</em> Having its origins in oral tradition, storytelling for the most part consists of taking experiences worth sharing and disseminating them in the community with a specific, and according to Benjamin, a useful purpose in mind. It could be a moral, a maxim or a practical advice (1977), but at the end of the day, the audience takes away a new piece of information it did not have at the beginning of the story. This lesson may be related to the past of the storyteller or one of his characters, but its value lies in how it can now be extrapolated to the audience’s future. </p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Benjamin1.jpg/image_preview" title="Benjamin 1" height="246" width="419" alt="Benjamin 1" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p align="center" class="discreet">Ann Rippin's rendition to The Storyteller by Walter Benjamin. Visit her wordpress <a href="http://annjrippin.wordpress.com/thirteen-notebooks-for-walter-benjamin/">here</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">Hannah Arendt, German-American philosopher from the early 20th century also had a lot to say about storytelling and ‘narratives’. She understood it as a framework, backed up by a strong tradition of its own, and a structure that embodies how our mind works: <em>“the mind doesn’t simply re-create sequences of events as they occur, but it creates new sequences and integrates events into appropriate existing sequences; the mind is constantly forming narratives” </em>(Kieslich, 2013.). This understanding of the practice goes beyond Benjamin’s proposition that we become part of the narration as it occurs. Arendt posits that our mind is already manufactured to construct sequences and connections in the same way in which we build stories -as opposed to the way we structure our essays, novels or tweets- before we tell them. Being such an embedded cognitive process, it feels familiar, comfortable and natural, which derives into a “critical appreciation” for the events of the story, and leads you to make deeper connections on how they relate to your life (Oni, 2012).</p>
<p> (Read more on Arendt and storytelling here: <a href="http://www.hannaharendtcenter.org/?p=5229">The Story of Reconciliation – Hannah Arendt Center)</a></p>
<p align="justify">However, both Benjamin and Arendt’s analysis is still very focused on the oral vs. prose question. Entering the 21st century we face the question of the role of digital technology and our highly visual culture in facilitating, amplifying or limiting the process of storytelling. On this point, I jumped to the end of the 20th century and looked at one of the many forms of storytelling: the comic. Scott McCloud’s “Understanding the Comic” (1994) takes you through the whole process of creating a coherent interplay of words and pictures that “convey information” and/or produce an “aesthetic response in the viewer”. Why are aesthetics important? , Because, according to McCloud, the inclusion of art is both the rejection and affirmation of our human condition. On one hand, art (or how we respond to it) is a rejection to our basic instincts, allowing us to express needs beyond survival and reproduction. On the other hand, it is a vehicle through which we assert our identities as individuals and pursue a “higher purpose and truth” (1994). Digital storytelling is imbued with visual stimuli: pictures, videos, graphics, that enhance the sensory experience, and as we explored in the Information Design posts (Find Part 1:<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-information-is-power">Information Activism</a>, and Part 2: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1">Information Design</a>) create new (and deeper) channels to approach and understand the message delivered by these stories.</p>
<table class="plain" align="center">
<thead align="center"></thead>
<tbody align="center">
<tr>
<td align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/UnderstandingomicsMcCloud.jpeg/image_preview" style="float: left;" title="SMC" height="341" width="228" alt="SMC" class="image-inline image-inline" /></td>
<td>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/FotoFlexer_Photo.jpg/image_preview" style="float: right;" title="SMC 2" height="346" width="400" alt="SMC 2" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Comic3.jpg/image_preview" alt="SMC 3" class="image-inline image-inline" title="SMC 3" /></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="right" class="discreet">Excerpts of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud</p>
From these three perspectives we understand the following about storytelling. It is:
<blockquote>
<ul><li>A practice rooted in the tradition of sharing experiences</li></ul>
<ul><li>Participatory and interactive: the experience of the storyteller becomes the experience of the audience.</li></ul>
<ul><li>The purpose of storytelling is to pass on a message, moral guidance or practical advice to the audience, through its content.</li></ul>
<ul><li>The form or structure of narratives is determined by sequences of facts and events, which is the same way we build stories in our minds.</li></ul>
<ul><li>The experiential and familiar nature of storytelling makes it easier to engage with and relate to. </li></ul>
<ul><li>The inclusion of images, art and media produces an aesthetic response in the viewer, providing the audience an opportunity for self-expression and freedom.</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">Translating these characteristics to the theme of the Methods for Social Change project (how to build a sense of citizenship and civicness through technology-mediated practices. More <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-to-conceive-condense-social-changehere">here</a>): storytelling (re)emerges as a promising vehicle for political change, especially when in par with the “technological possibilities” of our times (Benjamin, 1977). If we choose to entertain this thought, we find how its roots in community traditions make stories an excellent meeting point to form solidarity networks and stronger offline communities to sustain activism. The logical and sequential format of stories are interesting mediums, not only to transmit new ideas on citizenship and engagement; but make them relevant and appealing. Finally, 'the moral of the stories' are seeds for introspection and reflection, that may shape how we understand our role in society as a whole. At the end of the day though, it is storytellers who will lead this journey and meeting them is the first step to gauge how the theory of storytelling unfolds in the practice.</p>
<p align="justify">In the next section, we will meet some of the actors utilizing this method in different fields - and there are plenty of storytellers out there, gifted in skill and
practice conveying an array of messages to an equally diverse public- but before moving on I will close with an excerpt from Lisa Disch’s essay that brings all these points together:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 align="center">“[Storytelling] is more adequate than arguments to depict ambiguities of a multidimensional social reality” <br /></h3>
</blockquote>
<p><br />In other words, it is a practice that strips narratives from all ornaments, displaying the complexities of humanity in its most intuitive and experiential form.</p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY"><strong>(Story)Tellers</strong></h2>
<h3 align="right"><em>Great storytellers: creators who devote their resources in controlling</em></h3>
<h3 align="right"><em> this medium to convey their messages effectively”</em></h3>
<p align="right">Understanding Comics<br />Scott McCloud (1993)</p>
<p align="justify"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Sartaj.jpg/image_preview" style="float: right;" title="Sartaj" height="185" width="255" alt="Sartaj" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p align="justify">Our first storyteller is Sartaj Anand; an India-based entrepreneur, founder of the innovation and strategy consulting firm: EgoMonk and active member of TED, Ashoka, Sandbox, Kairos Society and the Pearson Foundation networks (More about his work in his <a href="http://www.plussocialgood.org/Profile/19625">Social Good profile</a>). His self-described “unreasonable dream” is to impact one billion people with his work and create “life-changing experiences”. He strives to do this by a) leveraging the relationship between people and technology and b) through his recently launched non-profit Billion Strong. Also, as opposed to other change-makers we’ve interviewed in the project, he comes from an engineering and business background; bringing a for-profit perspective into our melange of multi-stakeholder approaches to change.</p>
<p align="justify">The following interview touches on digital storytelling as one of the ways Anand is using to leverage technology. His vision highlights how you cannot disconnect people from the processes you are utilizing to impact their lives. Incorporating a more humane focus in the way we use technology, and in how we construct stories, is according to his experience, the best way to have practices resonate to and be appropriate for the public.</p>
<p align="right" class="discreet">Sartaj Anand,</p>
<p align="right" class="discreet">Founder of EgoMonk and Billion Strong<strong><br /></strong></p>
<p align="left" class="callout"><strong>Tell us about your background and the intersections of your work with technology.</strong></p>
<p align="justify">I started with an engineering background and my thesis was on language processing; figuring out how people talk and how that needs construction data. Fundamentally at some point, I figured out that technology is not the problem, people are; so that’s how I moved into my current focus in business: which is innovation strategic consulting. I frequently rely on technology to enable or actualize change but I don’t necessarily create it. The challenge is how we leverage the technology we have [...] and that’s where I can add the most value.</p>
<p align="left" class="callout"><strong>How do you leverage technology in the context of making change then?</strong></p>
<p align="justify">I leverage technology in terms of using it but focusing on the ‘people’ side of it”: the relationship between people and technology. That’s the main intersection point. [...] This is what I mean when I talk about technology, innovation, social structures and change.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/26146622" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" align="middle" height="356" width="427"> </iframe></p>
<div align="center"> <strong> <a title="Ideas for Change" href="https://www.slideshare.net/sartajanand/ideas-for-change" target="_blank">Ideas for Change</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sartajanand" target="_blank">Sartaj Anand<br /></a></strong>
<div align="left"> </div>
</div>
<p align="justify">Economically, business models have to replicate and service society. If businesses serve their people, they capture maximum value and gain efficiency over ten, twenty years (and this is appealing to all the capitalists in industrial businesses). However, towards the course of these years a lot of things can change and you progressively become more and more outdated. When you have this premonition, that's the point when you need to step in and cannibalize your own business model.</p>
<p>
For example, for seven years, music labels sold cds only. Then Apple came in with iPods and digital music downloads. After milking this for 10 years, what it should have done is fortify it and start streaming music to capture maximum value, like Spotify did. [...] This is a model EgoMonk works with and we try to communicate these things to our clients. They have the power to execute it, but they have to internally feel confident with all their stakeholders, whether it is for-profits with their board; or non-profits with donors and program partners. This is a choice we need to commit to. A lot of the problem in the change process (technology enabled or otherwise) is trust building. At the end of the day you are working with people, and this is a challenge.</p>
<p class="callout"><strong>In order to build this trust you must be aiming for a deeper and personal communication with your clients. How are you including this in your business model?</strong></p>
<p align="justify">We focus a lot on communication and that’s something we rely on increasingly; and I found it has to have a Why-What-How model -borrowing from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Tw0PGcyN0">Simon Sinek's gold circles</a>. In that order.</p>
<div align="center"><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/20996308" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" height="356" width="427"> </iframe></div>
<div align="center"> <strong> <a title="Storytelling 101" href="https://www.slideshare.net/sartajanand/storytelling-101-20996308" target="_blank">Storytelling 101</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sartajanand" target="_blank">Sartaj Anand</a></strong></div>
<p> </p>
<p>People don’t buy the 'what' of it, without the 'why' you do it. For example, Apple is great because it works to improve your life, to inspire you, amuse you: make your life better. What they do comes second: Apple is an electronics company, an application company. Last is the how: It makes the iPhone. We apply a similar model and this is something I apply in my storytelling also. I’m a believer that every story has to have an end or a moral: something that is more hopeful and optimistic. Rely on that but decide that also, I’m not the only one around: stories are increasingly personal and local.</p>
<p class="callout">
<strong>Given the personal and experiential nature of storytelling, I assume it is a challenge to mainstream it in your services. Tell us more about the practices you are using to implement it and how they break from more traditional communication practices in the past.</strong></p>
<h3>EgoMonk<br /></h3>
<p>EgoMonk is an Innovation and Strategic Management Consultancy (More about EgoMonk <a href="http://egomonk.com/">here</a>). Particularly this means that:</p>
<p align="justify">a) We start with the hypothesis that<strong> we don't know everything</strong>. With that in mind, we borrow amazing frameworks from amazing institutions. For example, <a href="http://holacracy.org/how-it-works">Holacracy</a>;
(a “purposeful organization” technology that changes how the
organization is structured, how decisions are made and how power is
distributed); '<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/02/04/playing-to-win-how-strategy-really-works/">How will you win</a>'
philosophy from traditional large companies,, where they equate every
decision to a couple of questions like what's your winning aspiration?,
where will you plan?, how will you win?, what capability
systems/processes need to exist to make this a sustainable practice that
outlives you? This approach gets us halfway there, [especially] working
with people who haven't had access to this before.</p>
<div align="center">
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/EGomonk3.jpg/image_preview" title="egomonk 3" height="246" width="419" alt="egomonk 3" class="image-inline image-inline" /></div>
</div>
<p align="center" class="discreet"> <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/egomonk.com">EgoMonk</a>'s services</p>
<p align="justify">b) <strong>We localize it.</strong> We work with high impact entrepreneurs and turn their life goals into a four week plan. We frame it: What happens if after four weeks, you die. If these are four weeks you have to live: what really matters to you? What do you want to accomplish professionally and personally? Once you go through that exercise we say: What can continue sustainable during your life? What can you take away? We focus on timing and what you have to do. Once you put that concept of mortality into every day's existence, you start behaving differently.</p>
<p align="justify">c) We work with <strong>gamification</strong>. For example, we worked in a factory and completely changed the incentivization for their workers into something that is more fun. The challenge was: how do you improve the process of well-being in an industrial environment. How do we make working enjoyable for them? This model consists of short-term rewards: if you work really hard over this much time, you get 10 points and this gets you a (reward) with your family. This has never happened before.</p>
<h3><strong>Billion Strong</strong></h3>
<p>
Billion Strong is a platform. We want to impact a billion people and mobilize a billion dollars every year. The concept behind it is that the future is completely decoupled from our reality. It is highly utopian and right now we are not there and my hypothesis is that we'll never get there because our perspectives and assumptions keep evolving. This non-profit aims to accelerate the future in our lifetime so we can at least enjoy some of its benefits. It focuses on six things: culture, mobility, technology, art, nutrition and divinity. Each of these will be used as levers to impact a billion people.
In the case of Billion Strong, user adoption is the most frequent challenge you face in the non-profit space. I will explain this using our first two projects:</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>a) Project 1 - Divinity:</strong><br />We want to take religion, God and spirituality as a lever to impact people. A manifestation of this is the release of an open source tool kit to convert religious institutions into co-working spaces.</p>
<blockquote style="float: left;">
<p align="center"><strong>Centers of religion are:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Everywhere and permanent</li>
<li>Well known by the community</li>
<li>Community centers</li>
<li>Safe</li>
<li>Non-profit and non-taxable</li>
<li>Underutilized 99% of the time</li>
<li>Disconnected from youth</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify"> Centers of religion have always been centers of education and community oriented, but within the last generation they've become prayer halls, and I think this is the wrong way of using this infrastructure. There are a couple of narratives being negotiated here (See box to the left).</p>
<p align="justify">In this case [the open source tool-kit] has a framework, and it is dynamic to the point where your choices in real time will influence the policies of this place and their physical manifestation. So you ask questions in a flow chart: Do you want men and women to work together or not?; Do you have the ability to buy new furniture or you want to use the existing furniture?; when you ask these questions you navigate a flow chart, depending on your choices. They will lead to a different output and when they see that, it is immediately empowering. This is storytelling, and this what will help us navigate the adoption issues. It's essentially us saying you own it; you know exactly what is good for your own community. In terms of the narrative, each copy will be different and adapted to its language. It has to be made for this community and everything has to be localized for that story you are telling. The religious and cultural narrative needs to be blended into it.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><strong>b) Project 2 - Nutrition:<br /></strong>Meat consumption is a huge challenge and highly unsustainable. We will use kick-start mechanics in a mobile app to trigger and enable change in food habits. We are obviously very digitally inclined right now. It's easy to capitalize on that, but instead of giving them money, we will ask them to skip a meal, go vegetarian for today or for the week and we are going to support that.</p>
<p align="justify">Adoption is a huge challenge, so we'll ask them: Where do you stay? They'll say: Amsterdam [for example], and it will provide them with a template. If you are vegetarian for today, for the week, or the month, this is your meal plan and all you need. Users will find meals close to them and won't have to worry about it anymore. And we will map their impact in real time through info-graphics and data visualization. They will be constructing and visualizing their own story in real time and we’ll present it through different narratives.</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout">
<strong>We are also looking at multi-stakeholderism in this project. Both EgoMonk and Billion Strong seem to be a combination of business, technology and communication strategies. Why multi-stakeholderism? </strong></p>
<p align="justify">Three reasons:</p>
<p align="justify">a) The future is<strong> multi-domain. </strong>You will never understand the whole picture if you say: I’m only going to solve water, but what about the pipes, the roads, the environment, infrastructure, cultural issue. One domain is no longer good enough. You will never be a complete expert of the complete ecosystem.</p>
<p align="justify">b) <strong>Adoption models</strong> will always be a challenge and right now it’s a compromised formula. Now it's a zero-sum game. We literally need to escape that and make it future-oriented; make it 1+1 through partnerships.</p>
<p align="justify">c)<strong> Storytelling </strong>is also getting more mainstreamed into change management and multi-stakeholderism. At the end of it, if you tell a good enough story, you can sell and get people to believe in your projects. This inherently builds partnership models. There is something that is permission marketing: all sales in the future are relationship based and indirect sales.(E.g. Red Bull is all about the experience) That’s how we have to be when we talk about multi-stakeholderism. Everything needs to be built in.</p>
<p align="justify">_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p align="justify"><em>** Next installment will look at how storytelling enhances visibility and accessibility, and how it is being used by Urban Governance groups in Bangalore.**</em></p>
<h3><strong>Sources:</strong></h3>
<ul><li>Arendt, Hannah (1994) Essays in Understanding Edited with an
Introduction by Jerome Kohn. The literary Trust of Hannah Arendt
Bluecher.p.308
</li><li>
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">Benjamin, Walter. (1977): "The storyteller."89.</div>
</li><li>Disch,Lisa Jane (1994) Hannah Arendt and the limits of Philosophy. Cornell University Press. p.172-173
</li><li>
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">Kieslich, Ingo. (2013) "Walter
Benjamin, Hannah Arendt: Storytelling in and as theoretical writing."
PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,</div>
</li><li>McCloud, Scott. (1994)."Understanding comics: The invisible art." <em>Northampton, Mass</em> <br /></li><li>
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">Oni, Peter (2012). "The Cognitive Power of Storytelling: Re-reading Hannah Arendt in a Postmodernist/Africanist Context."</div>
</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-sartaj-anand'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-sartaj-anand</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseMaking ChangeDigital Natives2014-03-12T11:43:19ZBlog EntryBook 1: To Be, Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dnbook1
<b>In this first book of the Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? Collection, we concentrate on what it means to be a Digital Native. Within popular scholarship and discourse, it is presumed that digital natives are born digital. Ranging from Mark Prensky’s original conception of the identity which marked all people born after 1980 as Digital Natives to John Palfrey and Urs Gasser’s more nuanced understanding of specific young people in certain parts of the world as ‘Born Digital’, there remains a presumption that the young peoples’ relationship with technology is automatic and natural. In particular, the idea of being ‘born digital’ signifies that there are people who, at a visceral, unlearned level, respond to digital technologies. This idea of being born digital hides the complex mechanics of infrastructure, access, affordability, learning, education, language, gender, etc. that play a significant role in determining who gets to become a digital native and how s/he achieves it. In this book, we explore what it means to be a digital native in emerging information societies. The different contributions in this book posit what it means to be a digital native in different parts of the world. However, none of the contribution accepts the name ‘Digital Native’ as a given. Instead, the different authors demonstrate how there can be no one singular definition of a Digital Native. In fact, they show how, contextualised, historical, socially embedded, politically nuanced understanding of people’s interaction with technology provide a better insight into how one becomes a digital native.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dnbook1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dnbook1</a>
</p>
No publishernishantRAW PublicationsResearchers at WorkPublicationsDigital Natives2015-05-15T12:08:32ZFileDigital Natives with a Cause? Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/dn-report
<b>Youth are often seen as potential agents of change for reshaping their own societies. By 2010, the global youth population is expected reach almost 1.2 billion of which 85% reside in developing countries. Unleashing the potential of even a part of this group in developing countries promises a substantially impact on societies. Especially now when youths thriving on digital technologies flood universities, work forces, and governments and could facilitate radical restructuring of the world we live in. So, it’s time we start listening to them. </b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/dn-report'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/dn-report</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaRAW PublicationsResearchers at WorkPublicationsDigital Natives2015-04-17T11:04:51ZFileDigital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon: Position Paper
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/position-paper
<b>The Digital Natives with a Cause? research inquiry seeks to look at the potentials of social change and political participation through technology practices of people in emerging ICT contexts. In particular it aims to address knowledge gaps that exist in the scholarship, practice and popular discourse around an increasing usage, adoption and integration of digital and Internet technologies in social transformation processes. A conference called Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon was jointly organised by CIS and Hivos in the Hague in December 2010. The Thinkathon aimed to reflect on these innovations in social transformation processes and its effects on development, and in particular to understand how new processes of social transformation can be supported and sustained, how they can inform our existing practices, and provide avenues of collaboration between Digital Natives and "Analogue Activists". </b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/position-paper'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/position-paper</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaRAW PublicationsWeb PoliticsDigital NativesPublicationsResearchers at Work2015-05-08T12:22:29ZFileDN Episode Podcast
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dn-episode-podcast
<b>A podcast from the Digital Natives</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dn-episode-podcast'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dn-episode-podcast</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital Natives2012-02-15T04:15:07ZFileDigital Art
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/digital-art.pdf
<b>Newsletter, volume 9, issue 1 from the Digital Natives community.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/digital-art.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/digital-art.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital Natives2012-01-03T09:25:12ZFileDigital Natives with a Cause? - Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnrep1
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnrep1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnrep1</a>
</p>
No publishernishantDigital Natives2009-11-12T07:28:45ZFileLinks in the Chain Mid-year Issue
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Mid-year%20Edition%20-%20Final.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Mid-year%20Edition%20-%20Final.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Mid-year%20Edition%20-%20Final.pdf</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerPublicationsDigital Natives2011-08-23T04:27:41ZFileLinks in the Chain, Volume 5
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/links-in-the-chain-vol-5.pdf
<b>Newsletter of Digital Natives, Volume 5</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/links-in-the-chain-vol-5.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/links-in-the-chain-vol-5.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaPublicationsDigital Natives2011-08-23T04:26:49ZFileLinks in the Chain, June 15, 2011
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20chain%20June%2015th-%202011.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20chain%20June%2015th-%202011.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20chain%20June%2015th-%202011.pdf</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerPublicationsDigital Natives2011-08-23T04:26:39ZFileLinks in the Chain, Volume 4 Best Practices
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20Volume%204%20best%20practices.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20Volume%204%20best%20practices.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20Volume%204%20best%20practices.pdf</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerPublicationsDigital Natives2011-08-23T04:26:31ZFile