Author Archives: Venessa Miemis

Share or Die

22 Friday Jul 2011

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this post is a contribution i made to Shareable magazine’s new ebook – Share or Die. hope you enjoy my story.

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It’s October 2010, and I’m reclined in an all expenses paid seat in business class on a flight to Berlin. I’m going there for two weeks to collaborate on a video project with a couple of artists I met online, then flying to Amsterdam to present the video to a room full of bankers at the largest financial services conference on the planet. I’m not a media producer, nor do I work in the financial industry. All I can think to myself is “How the hell did I get here?” Continue reading →

Join us at Contact! $30K Innovation Awards Announced

18 Monday Jul 2011

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We’re now only 3 months away from the Contact Summit, an event I am helping Douglas Rushkofforganize.The purpose of the gathering is to bring together a few hundred technologists, artists, activists, educators, businesspeople, investors, philanthropists and other stakeholders in our networked future, so we can cross-pollinate ideas, share work, make connections, and build towards a better tomorrow.

In case you missed Rushkoff’s recent announcement, a donor has offered $30K to encourage the conception and deployment of innovative networking and technology solutions to our greatest collective challenges. $10,000 will be awarded to each of the three most compelling and achievable ideas presented at the Contact Bazaar on October 20, 2011, in New York City as part of Contact. Continue reading →

Is Facebook a Liberator or The Man?

11 Monday Jul 2011

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image design by ericaglasier.com - @EricaGlasier

This post is highlighting content areas for The Future of Facebook project, a six-part video series exploring the impacts of social networking technologies on our lives and business. Image designed by the fabulous Erica Glasier.

Social networks are a tool for activism and civic engagement, as well as a means of control, manipulation, and surveillance.

What is the role Facebook will play in local and global political processes? Continue reading →

Online Detox from the Baltic Coast

10 Sunday Jul 2011

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I’ve just spent the past few days unplugged and invigorated by the simplicity of just Being. Apparently it required me to travel to the Baltic Coast of Latvia to make this happen. In this little wooden house, with no electricity, no running water, and certainly no wifi, I remembered what it means to be at peace.It took a day to overcome the nervous twitch in my hand, antsy to impulsively check email and twitter on the iphone.

How could I possibly survive without knowing what was happening at that very moment?

How could I sustain my community if I wasn’t tweeting, posting, or commenting at least every few hours?

Resistance was futile – there was no choice but to actually be present in physical reality. Continue reading →

Contact Update: 2nd Round Scholarship Winners

02 Saturday Jul 2011

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We’ve just accepted our 2nd round of scholarship winners for the upcoming Contact Summit. (here‘s the first round.) Every week we’re getting a more interesting mix of hackers, technologists, artists, activists, and change agents registering for the event! You can still apply for a scholarship to attend or register here.

Zach Verdin is chief evangelist and co-founder of the new hive, a creative tool that makes self-expression online simple and easy. Continue reading →

Ven: A Digital Currency Designed for Environmental Sustainability

24 Friday Jun 2011

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Hub Culture is a global collaboration network with over 25,000+ members distributed across 110 countries. Their stated mission to expand collective consciousness is driven by the blend of online workspaces for knowledge sharing with offline Pavilions for meeting and connecting – all powered by their digital currency, Ven. Below is an interview with Hub Culture’s Founding Director, Stan Stalnaker. Continue reading →

The Evolution of People-Powered Markets: 60 Resources

20 Monday Jun 2011

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There is a growing movement towards peer-to-peer value exchange and production, prompted by a variety of things, like economic conditions, shifting cultural values, exploration into collective intelligence, and further enabled by social technologies. I’ve been tracking the online marketplaces that have been cropping up for sharing, swapping, gifting and renting, as well as sites that give people different kinds of opportunity to share skills and knowledge, innovate, and work collaboratively both on and offline. Below are a few sites I’ve come across, please add any I’ve missed.

Contact Spotlight Series: Builders of the Next Net

18 Saturday Jun 2011

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this is the second post in a series to highlight the people and projects coming together at this year’s Contact Conference, Oct 20, 2011 in NYCOne of the big areas we’ll be highlighting at Contact is ‘next net’ technologies – hardware and software tools that bring people internet access and the ability to connect, communicate and share information without the risk of censorship or shut-down.Below are just a few of the people and projects we’re looking forward to bringing together this October:

***Aaron Huslage :: Tethr
Aaronis starting a social enterprise called Tethr, offering affordable and easy-to-use Internet connectivity to the crisis response community.

Facebook: The Social Accelerator?

25 Wednesday May 2011

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image by ericaglasier.com @EricaGlasier

We live in a world of accelerating change. As our communication technologies evolve, it becomes easier to connect more and more of us around the planet to each other. The web collapses space and time, dissolves geographic boundaries, and gives us windows into each other’s worlds.This is causing shifts in the way individuals perceive themselves, their immediate relationships with friends and communities, and the context of how they relate to society at large.David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect, prognosticates, “Just by increasing the efficiency of communication and reducing friction in relationships between people, particularly on a global basis, it will lead to a more integrated sense of humanity.”

Continue reading →