Collective Heart

Teen Truth: students say “Stop the bullying!”

Jen over at Ebb&Flow sent me an interesting link again  (thanks Jen!).  A project called  Challenge Day-- a day when high school students get together to talk about how to find love and connection through "the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression."  It is really wonderful to watch the videos and see what an impact this program is making on students.  At one point a "school bully" gets up and apologizes for everyone he has ever picked on.  Very touching.

This site also got me thinking about the real issue kids are facing in schools these days:  Violence.  The video above is a small trailer from an amazing project called Teen Truth:  a documentary created for students and by students.  You can read more about the project and the story behind the creation here.

What is comes down to is that schools need to listen closer to what their students have to say,  rather than just putting them through metal detectors.  Check out the Challenge Day site and watch the video above.  And if you are an educator, purchase a DVD for your school,  or get Challenge Day to come to work with your students.  It seems like teens are more than ready to talk if you are ready to listen.

DoGooder TV plans for individual participation

I emailed Michael Hoffman, the founder of DoGooder TV, to ask about individual participation on the site. Here is his response:

"Thanks for the inquiry. We will have individuals! We are in the process of building a system that is part MySpace and part YouTube for nonprofits. We will have organizations' videos, but also allow individuals to upload video responses, videos of their volunteer activities, videos on issues, etc... We should have the way for nonprofits to sign up, create their pages and upload video in about 1 month. The other functionality is taking a little longer to develop. What you see online is really just a taste..."

This is great news! And thank you Michael for responding.

DoGooder TV: A Video Hub for Nonprofits

I came upon DoGooder TV back in early September, and have watched it slowly grow. The idea is wonderful, here is a description in their own words:

"DoGooderTV enables nonprofit organizations to present new videos and existing media assets to new audiences. Once site visitors see the compelling stories of nonprofits, DoGooderTV gives them a direct way to donate to the organization, join, volunteer or simply find out more information."

So far there are about 15 videos posted on a wide range of topics, all worth watching. I do wish there was functionality on the site to allow for easy sharing. And it would also be great if it were open to individuals, not just nonprofits. But overall, a really fantastic site that I hope continues to grow.

WFP FIGHT HUNGER VIRAL VIDEO CONTEST

 

The United Nations Food Program and partners just launched a video contest in the hopes to virally spread the message to "end child hunger by 2015."  What is interesting about this campaign is that it is not tapping into the YouTube community,  but rather using new video community platforms like Blip.tv and Ourmedia.org.  What's wonderful about this approach is that it taps into the vlog-centric community,  allowing posters to more easily post and be viral from their own sites through RSS,  rather than always driving back to YouTube. I applaud this method,  and it will be interesting to see the results.

But more importantly,  please visit their site to find out more details and participate (deadline is December 15th). I know I plan to!

I wish there were more posts on YouTube like this!

I was really touched by this.

Witness pilots a human rights video hub

Witness-- who's slogan is "See it. Film it. Change it"-- recently partnered with Global Voices to pilot a user-generated participatory Video Hub. YouTube and other video portals at the moment have very few videos that get traction in the non-profit/charity/NGO sector. In fact, they don't even have a defined category for people to upload to yet (hint, hint). Witness's latest endeavor will hopefully create a new rich environment for activists, providing "new opportunities to feed the populist shift toward user-generated content with media in the service of global human rights advocacy."

A full released is planned for the summer of 2007. I look forward to the progression. Check out the pilot.