Here at Adapting to Scarcity, we strive to be transparent, participatory and community-centered. We believe that lasting, positive change flows from the bottom up and requires open access to information and democratic collaboration. This ethos permeates all of our work – from our documentary and workshops to the information and technology that we create and employ.
While most of our blog posts have been focussed on our experiences here in Mexico, our community organizing and the documentary, a crucial portion of our work happens behind the scenes in front of a computer. We are also building and extending software tools to help people connect, produce and share digital media. And, while it might seem like a bizarre notion to extend the ideas behind our ethos to the process of developing software, we’re absolutely doing it.
Deep in the A2S headquarters, amidst website development and lots of video logging, we have been discussing how to make a video go viral. You post it on youtube, you tag it, you give it a fun catchy name, you bless it with the social media gods, and hope it takes off. Ok, so far so good, until we get to the take off part. Yes, there are experts with many varying ideas for success and I have read quite a few of them – mix luck and a huge network, and you’re getting close. If you have contacts at other blogs you can ask them to embed it and we certainly haven’t exhausted all our resources in that vein yet. We work it on Facebook and Twitter, and do have some success. But it is difficult, preparing to launch the first videos created by our workshop participants and being uncertain how far and wide we can spread them. The workshop participants need to get these videos out to make change and gain support to clean up the river. What can we do?
We are really excited to share this short video about the process and participants of our video workshops. Consider this a trailer for the videos they created which we should be posting soon! As always, we look forward to feedback and questions. We plan to publish our video workshop methodology, which is popular education based, once it is more refined.
Steve reporting here: My week was full of integrating and learning. It included meeting IMDEC folks, going to Juanacátlan to facilitate social media workshops, and eating bacon. Juanacátlan is my focus. I’ve met wonderful people there, including lifelong residents who told me of the glorious history of this laid-back, lovely pueblito.
We leave the Bay Area for our cross country adventure on Friday! The past two weeks were chock full of packing up, saying goodbye, and making a few really great connections for our project down the line. It’s sad to leave our home of the past three years, but it’s comforting to know all the support and lasting friendships we have here.
Here at Adapting to Scarcity, we strive to be transparent, participatory and community-centered. We believe that lasting, positive change flows from the bottom up and requires open access to information and democratic collaboration. This ethos permeates all of our work – from our documentary and workshops to the information and technology that we create and employ. 
technology | arthur | 
1 March 2010 17:50 | 
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