The New Vote- KONY 2012

I had a thought today as I engaged in a KONY centered conversation with some friends. We were talking about why the movement was happening now and why we as American citizens should care. My friend asked why it mattered to have KONY posters and pictures all over Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram. She couldn't understand what purpose the social media made, after all, the point of the campaign is to call for a continuance of political support for a group of advisors to aid the local governments in Africa in finding and capturing Joseph Kony. At first I didn't have an answer for her. I couldn't say why it mattered, other than all the positive effects that come from a more unified public, but then it dawned on me.

A "Like" on a page is like a vote. When we "like" something, or we re-post something, or comment on something, we are voting for that thing. We as the public are saying, yes, I want this to happen. It is a form of activism. I saw this meme today on Facebook and thought it was rather clever, but also a little bit false. When we like a page, like Kony 2012 for example, we give our support and give a statistical representation of the popularity of that thing. This number is powerful to those higher up, it is a statistical way for our politicians to track what we are thinking and what we believe. Right now Kony 2012 has more than 44 thousand likes which is a huge number in such a short amount of time. To the crusty politicians who don't use "the Facebook," this number is extremely significant and could actually contribute to extended American support for the fight against Kony.

Regardless of whether this is a fight worth fighting or if America has any business getting involved, the American people have utilized social media to show their support for this particular cause. If anything, Kony 2012 has proven the effectiveness of social media and has shown in a much more broad and commercial sense what we can do with Facebook.

Event Possibilities

Hwanhi and I have been tossing around some ideas for the structure of the event, and we would love a little bit of feedback. I thought I would lay out a couple of options for you guys, please let us know what you think! Be critical, we want to know realistically what you think will or won't work.

Possibility A: Traditional TED-ish event.
- Each group would present their topic for 5 minutes, each presentation would be as lively as possible an would discus the tweethis of that particular group.
- We would have a live backchannel and live video feed for our digital audience.
- Though this method is tried and true, it is fairly lacking in audience participation. How do you feel about that? Do you want the audience to participate in your presentation?

Possibility B: Modified TED Event
- Throughout the night, a moderator would take questions from the backchannel to then discuss openly. This backchannel would be available by text and via internet to accommodate both present and remote audiences.
- Question and answer sessions could lengthen the time of our event, but could also facilitate a much more involved audience after the event is over. Thoughts?

Possibility C: Blitz Style
- Each group would get one minute to explain their topic, then would separate into groups of two presentation topics and would give their presentation to a limited number of the audience in a side-room. The audience members would choose which topic to follow and would be able to engage in a much more in-depth discussion and lesson from their respective groups.
- Groups would have more time to explain their tweethis and to facilitate a greater level of discussion.
- Logistically, this would be the most difficult method as we would need to procure a camera and literal room space for each set of groups as opposed to just the one, but do you think that this logistical problem is worth the experience it might give the audience?
Do you want more time for your group?

We would love to facilitate more interaction between the audience members themselves, do you have any ideas of how we could do that?

Please let us know what you think! We certainly need the feed-back.