So You Wanna Change the World? How to Rock on Social Networks
Despite the constant onslaught of new tools and tactics, something very fundamental about change has not changed at all: stories matter. Our stories. Storytelling has been the most powerful building block for social change since the beginning of time. What social networking tools do is give us unprecedented power to share our stories to many more people than we could have imagined. Our stories—and our willingness to share the stories of others with our networks—can mean the difference between progressive change and perpetuating the status quo. We'll cover how empathy fuels change, why diversity is key in this cultural shift moment, what some common fears are and we'll teach key lessons for success.
Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, author and vigilante pundit who successfully combines technology, politics and comedy. He co-founded the black political blog, Jack & Jill Politics in the summer of 2006, works as the web editor at The Onion and hosts Popular Science's Future Of on Science Channel. Baratunde has contributed to Vanity Fair, The UK Independent and WNYC, and with over 30,000 followers he tweets very, very hard.
Mr. Thurston, which he goes by in his bio, has often used satire as an expression of his activism and technology as a medium for that expression. He has self-published three books, including Keep Jerry Falwell Away From My Oreo Cookies and is currently writing How To Be Black, which will be published by Harper.
Baratunde was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, declared a Champion of the First Amendment by Iowa State University, and called “someone I need to know” by Barack Obama. His stage presence has earned him speaking duties at the National Conference for Media Reform, Netroots Nation, South by Southwest Interactive & Film and Web 2.0 Expo. He has been featured various media outlets including ABC, NPR, BBC, CNN, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, C-SPAN and ComedyCentral.com.
Baratunde resides in Brooklyn, lives in The Internet and has over 30 years experience being black.
Veronica I. Arreola is a professional feminist, a mom and a writer. By day she is the assistant director for the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago. By night she is a veteran blogger and freelance writer. Her writing has appeared in Bitch, Ms. and at NPR.org and RH Reality Check. A frequent speaker on all things feminist, she has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, WGN-Radio and the Windsor Star. Her partner says he married an Emmy-award winning bitch thanks to Veronica being in a WGN-TV cover story, "The B-word," which won a Midwest Emmy. Veronica's honors include two awards from the Chicago Foundation for Women, being 2007 UIC Woman of the Year, Chicago Latino List (her partner was also named!) and a member of Leadership Illinois. And that mom thing? Veronica and her partner are proud parents of a school-aged daughter and a stubborn dachshund. She holds a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences and a masters in Public Administration, both with concentrations in Gender and Women’s Studies. She begins working on her Ph.D. in Public Administration this August.
A former Netscape, Yahoo! and AOL senior exec, Susan Mernit returned to her roots as an organizer and started Oakland Local (oaklandlocal.com) a social justice/issues community media site for Oakland, CA in Oct. 2009. She is also a consultant, focusing on helping others create local community media sites, and offering training to bridge the knowledge gap for local community organizations in Oakland and elsewhere. Her long-time personal site is susanmernit.com. She is a coach for The Knight Community Information Challenge and someone who believes media can help create social change.
Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking (Berrett-Koehler, June 2010). She is a consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and Jim Hightower's Hightower Lowdown, and hosts TechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. Zandt specializes in social media, and is a leading expert in women and technology. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. She has spoken at a number of conferences, including the National Conference on Media Reform, Bioneers, America's Future Now (formerly "Take Back America,") Women Action & The Media, and provides beginner and advanced workshops both online and in person.
Cheryl Contee, Partner at Fission Strategy, specializes in helping non-profit organizations and foundations use social media to create social good. She is also the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics writing as “Jill Tubman” on one of the top 10 black blogs online. Cheryl is included in The Root 100 list of established and emerging African-American leaders. Fast Company has named her one of their 2010 Most Influential Women in Tech. She has over 13 years of award-winning interactive expertise and previously served as Vice President and lead digital strategist for Fleishman-Hillard’s West Coast region in San Francisco. Cheryl has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, BBC, and CNN, among other media appearances. She is also proud to serve on several boards and advisory committees: Netroots Nation, BlogHer, Blogging While Brown, Applied Research Center, and CommonGoods.Net. She received her B.A. from Yale University and has an International Executive M.B.A. from Georgetown University. In her spare time, Ms. Contee enjoys hiking, yoga, movies and tai chi sword.
