I am here at the Personal Democracy Forum conference at Pace University in New York City. In between sessions I wanted to share some insight from some of the great speakers that have present so far today.
danah boyd, who is a doctoral candidate at the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley, is focusing her dissertation on how youth engages in networks like MySpace, Facebook, etc. She had some great insights on social networking that could help progressives use these sites to push their issues and gain supporters. A digital handshake is important – you can’t just create a site, add friends and then do nothing. You need to pull these people in and make them feel like they matter and you have respect for them. Comment are underutilized. When someone comments on your page, comment back – take a moment to learn who they are. Collecting friends can be important because it helps shape who your organization is, but you have to really know who these supporters and friends are. Social networking sites and other online organizing is where the younger generation is nowadays, vs. rallies and other in-person meet-ups.
danah’s blog is Apophenia.
Seth Godin had a few thoughts on technology and how it’s being used today. There is too much clutter and too much noise. People are being inundated with too many candidates, too many organizations covering the same issue and they need a way to find out who they relate to and want to support. This is why it’s so important to make your organization stand out and why you can’t just constantly overload your supporters with email and other information. They’ll just tune out. Seth explained you can acquire someone’s email address, but as soon as you misuse it, they’ll block you or remove themselves from your list.
Seth touched on the ideavirus and how you have to go beyond word of mouth. Your idea, issue, or campaign needs to stand out and get easily spread like a virus. Flip the funnel. Magnify your voice and get heard. If you be remarkable and tell your story to your sneezers, they’ll sneeze and spread it along to the next person.
Some things to think about.
More when I return to DC.
-Yvonne Archer
The California Air Resources Board wants to implement new rules to reduce greenhouse gases from motor vehicles but they need a waiver from the EPA to do so. They initially applied for the Waiver back in December 2005 and the EPA is finally going to have some public hearings on the request. The first of the two hearings will take place on Tuesday May 22 at the EPA conference center in Arlington, VA. A week later on May 30 a second hearing will take place in Sacremento at the California EPA headquarters. If you’re interested in checking out the hearings or testifying, all the details on the locations are at the ARB website at the Read link.
When you purchase carbon credits to offset your personal greenhouse gas emissions, do you really know where that money is going or how those credits are counted in the market? 
Prema of Teddy Exports in India with her Floral TotesThe guarantee of a “fair wage in the local context” is one of the most often publicized of the fair trade criteria. Fair Trade attempts to empower disadvantaged producers in countries that often do not have adequate workers’ rights laws including a minimum wage. Fair trade guarantees at least the minimum wage even in countries that have a minimum wage law but do not enforce it. In countries that do not have a minimum wage the buyer of the product is still bound by the fair trade criteria to pay a fair wage in the local context. 
Pepco Holdings, Inc.
One of the rights of passage for American high school students is getting their driver’s license and getting a car. That’s where the trouble starts. I’m not even going to get into the wisdom or utter lack thereof of letting kids start driving at 14 years and 9 months. When kids get a car they need to put gas into it and at $3.50 a gallon that gets old fast. 
