Currently based in Waterloo, ON, working on a tech + mental health startup by day; building community events and scheming revolutions for a better world the rest of the time.
What makes a compelling story? 1. A story that we can relate to 2. A story that we can aspire to 3. A story that makes us feel emotion (love, anger, etc) What makes a good storyteller? 1. Someone who is communicating and connecting rather than just telling or talking 'at' someone
2. E.g of Barack Obama - not just a good speaker but a great storyteller. We all know the story of his father from Kenyan and mother from Kansas - at worse, stories make issues simplistic; at best, makes issues profound.
3. The question of who dominates the field of storytelling and how do I contribute to that? - Right now, the media and entertainment industry dominate the industry. It is easy to bash the media for sensationalism, etc. but the media is only as good as you demand it to be
I went to the midnight screening of the new James Cameron movie, Avatar in 3D, with some friends last night and all I can say is that I walked away from the cinema with my mind blown away. It was more than just a movie, it was an experience.
I would highly recommend that you watch it this weekend, you won't be disappointed.
Last Wednesday, we hosted the first-ever Ignite Waterloo at the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum in downtown Kitchener. It was certainly a great night, and from the numerous tweets, photos and blog posts that emerged following the event, it seems to have gone over well with the community in attendance.
For those of you who missed it, we've put together a three-minute video (see above) that I hope captures the spirit of Ignite Waterloo.
A slide deck of all the Ignite Waterloo presentations can be found below.
In light Efren Peñaflorida's CNN Hero of the Year win, I wanted to share one of my favorite Def Poetry Jam videos, Taylor Mali showcasing that teachers do make a difference in the lives of their students.
That being said, there are so many teachers from elementary, high school through to university, that have made me the person I am today, and I would like to thank each and every one of them. Of course, there are also numerous friends and family members that have taught me a thing or two about life, and I would not be the person I am today without them as well. Thank you.
Video(s) after the jump.
And since it is a Friday after all, I figured that I would include some of my favorite Def Poetry Jam videos as well. See below and enjoy!
Efren Peñaflorida of the Philippines was named CNN Hero of the Year 2009 last night, at a gala event taped before an audience of 3,000 people at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
In his acceptance speech, Peñaflorida acknowledged the work that his co-volunteers put into the Dynamic Teen Company, an organization that provides Filipino youth in slum areas an alternative to gang membership, through education programs. Peñaflorida will receive a $100,000 grant to continue his work with the Dynamic Teen Company.
"Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers ... you are the change that you dream, as I am the change that I dream, and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be. Mabuhay."
Sincere congratulations to Peñaflorida, as well as to everyone who made it to the CNN Heroes top 10 from an initial pool of more than 9,000 viewer nominations.
Following the 3rd Conference on Social Enterprise in Toronto last Friday, I had the sincere pleasure of attending a number of student organized events over the weekend including R4Fashion, a fashion show dedicated to celebrating top and upcoming Canadian fashion designers who view fashion with an added green dimension; Out in the Cold at the University of Toronto, an event designed to raise funds and awareness of homelessness issues in the local community; as well as the Ontario Universities Competition for Hip Hop (OUCH) 2009, an annual hip hop competition showcasing the best of hip hop talent from universities and colleges across Ontario.
The main reason I attended OUCH 2009 this year was because my younger sister, Loubelle, who is in her second year of nursing at the University of Western Ontario, made it to the Western hip hop team to represent her school in the competition. Of course, I played the role of proud big brother and fully supported her at the event!
Congrats to all the winners this year at OUCH 2009, shout outs to the University of Waterloo peeps who placed third in the competition! (McMaster - First place, University of Toronto - Second place)
I am currently making my way to the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto bright and early this morning, for the second day of the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise. It seems that this is the second day in the row that I get to see the sun rise, although today looks like it will be mainly overcast with light rain. At least it is not snowing... yet.
In any case, to recap from yesterday, the "Business Skills for Social Enterprise" workshop I attended was interesting and well structured, with a good mix of workshop presentations on marketing strategies, environmental scanning and analysis, financial forecasts and budgets, grass-roots marketing, as well as measuring performance indicators for social enterprise ventures. What was great about these presentations was the fact that they were mostly delivered by students enrolled in the business program at George Brown College. Of course, these young presenters got some help from Mark Simpson, the lead presenter of the workshop and director of the newly launched Centre for Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation at GBC.
Though I was already familiar with most of the information at hand, it was good to get a refresher on marketing research techniques as well as engage in a discussion around what constitutes measurement performance indicators for non-profits, for-profits and the blended value social enterprise; even the very definition of social enterprise was discussed, as is reflective of the broader dialogue taking place in the social entrepreneurship sphere right now.
The Use of Social Media in the Workplace
There was also some discussion around the (organizational) use of social media tools such as twitter, facebook, blogging, etc. and the value they bring to fostering a sense of community with customers and stakeholders alike. Some people in the workshop asked if there were any social media policies that their organization could adopt, and yes, there are certainly some guidelines, or at the very least recommendations, that exist out there. I would recommend reading this: Creating a Social Media Policy for your Nonprofit, Social Media Usage Guidelines as well as Your social media strategy won't save you for some important insight into the use of social media in the workplace.
A section of the workshop yesterday also focused on hands-on skills and organizational assessment to determine how ready one is to adopt a social enterprise model, and there was certainly lots of time for unmoderated open discussions. The open discussions, were in my opinion, the most valuable aspect of the day as this allowed people in the room to create personal connections while discussing their respective organizations/projects, as well as ideas for potential social enterprise ventures.
Children's Mental Health
On a more personal level, I may have had a shift in mindset after meeting a rather remarkable person working in the field of children's mental health. Catherine Dyer works with an organization called The New Mentality based in Toronto, and after speaking with her for an extensive period of time, I now realize that I may have been limited in scope when it comes to my understanding of young people having the power and opportunities like never before to affect positive change in the world. I now realize that I have only ever considered "young people" to be those who are able-bodied physically and mentally, AND fully capable, without ever giving a thought about young people who are facing mental or physical challenges, and yet, are still fully capable in affecting positive change in the world. Not because I do not care, far from it. Rather, it is perhaps as a result of the context through which I live my life and not being exposed to this reality. We'll see where this chance encounter takes me.
End of Day One
Following the full-day workshop session at GBC, we headed to the Centre for Social Innovation for the evening 'networking' event, where we heard from a number of speakers, including Julie McDowell of ClearlySo, who will be participating as an 'Angel' later today in the Social Enterprise Angels - Social Investing in Action session. Four social enterprises will have the opportunity to pitch and compete for $40,000 of seed funding from angel investors in a format similar to the popular tv show Dragon's Den, but with a social enterprise twist to it. Tonya Surman and Sonya Pouyat, members of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, also discussed how far the social enterprise sector has come along in Canada these past few years. However, what is clear is that much work still needs to be done in order to create the enabling governance policy framework that would allow a culture of social enterprise and social innovation to thrive in Canada, a topic that Paul Martin touched on as well.
Overall, Day 1 of the 3rd Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise went well, and I am looking forward to the Policy Forum for Day 2 & 3 of the conference, where we are looking to set a national agenda and policy framework for social enterprise and social finance in the country.
Played tourist in Toronto today, showing Monika's cousin around who is visiting from NYC.
All of the above photos were taken on my iPhone and posted using the PicPosterous iPhone app. It's amazing what you can do with mobile technology and the social web these days.
The possibilities are endless.
Following the supposed 'leak' of the newly redesigned University of Waterloo logo yesterday, a large number of University of Waterloo students and alumni have expressed their reaction, providing commentary online through social media forums such as Twitter (follow the conversation using the hashtag #uwlogo) as well as the Facebook group, Students and Alumni Against the New University of Waterloo Logo, which currently has just over 3,200 members at the time of writing this blog post. Jesse Rodgers also has an insightful post on the turn of events, which he calls #uwlogogate.
The current logo and the proposed marketing logo side by side.
For readers unfamiliar with the University of Waterloo, below is a description of the institution found in many official UW publications:
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's Technology Triangle, has become one of Canada’s leading comprehensive universities with 28,000 full and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. Waterloo, as home to the world’s largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research, and discovery.
The University of Waterloo is also the alma mater of Mike Laziridis, founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry; as well as the only school where Microsoft hires the most number of engineering graduates every year (UW was also one of five institutions, and the only Canadian stop, that Bill Gates visited on his tour last year).
So yes, UW is a major player in tech innovation, and hopefully in the coming years, in social innovation as well, where the University of Waterloo is an important partner in the Social Innovation Generation national collaborative. We are currently in the process of developing a cross-disciplinary graduate program in Social Innovation, as well as supporting the formation of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation, among other things.
But I digress.
From my understanding, the newly redesigned logo (on the right) will be used for marketing purposes only, while the official UW seal (on the left), will still be printed on UW degrees and used in convocation ceremonies. However, all of this still has to be confirmed by the university administration.
The majority of the comments found online have been negative towards the redesigned logo, with many people expressing the sentiment that the new University of Waterloo logo does not convey the gravitas associated with institutions of higher education, especially if it comes with a price tag of several thousand dollars in tuition, books and other expenses every semester.
That being said, the more I think about it, the more I see where UW Graphics and UW External Relations are going with their efforts to rebrand the University of Waterloo, especially if we are to look at other institutions of higher education across North America.
Every change to the status quo in any social system is bound to rustle some feathers, and perhaps this would make for an excellent case study. I hope that the administration and the powers that be take into account and listen to the voices of the students and alumni who find this logo unprofessional, and yes, dare I say it, tacky. That being said, I would certainly be open to the administration building on this, and perhaps, redesigning the UW logo but this time, allowing an engaged and captive audience to participate in the process.
When I first started writing this blog post, there were only 3,200 members in the Facebook group. There are now over 3,500 members, and that was only one hour ago. (Time is currently 950pm EST)
And of course, in this day and age where mashups and lolcats are all the rage, the following was ultimately bound to happen. (Note: If you hadn't already noticed, I also included my favorite mashups with the university logos above).
Edit - 10:15pm EST July 22, 2009 - Posterous was being a bit wonky, so I had to manually fix some of the html code when this was first posted via email. The time is currently 10:15pm EST and there are now 3,640 members in the Facebook group
Edit - 10:30pm EST July 22, 2009 - Youtube video very recently uploaded to the Facebook group
Edit - 12:12am EST July 23, 2009 - It seems that this story (Facebook group, #uwlogo and #uwlogogate on Twitter), has caught the attention of the National Post
Edit - 8:30pm EST July 25, 2009 - A collection of blog posts and articles written about the ongoing #uwlogo and #uwlogogate issue
