SAW a good idea

Blog Action Day 2009: The Changes We've Made

Today is Blog Action Day, and the topic this year is Climate Change.  Renegade has been working to improve our relationship with the environment for over two years now, and I believe we've accomplished a great deal. 

Here's a quick summary of the things we've done in the past 2 years:

• Cut our copy paper usage 44% per person by printing double-sided
• Decreased our energy usage 75% by using more fans and windows and less AC, using laptops instead of desktops, and shutting down our computers every night
• Banned paper coffee cups and plastic mugs and replaced them with glass (a move that paid for itself in terms of footprint size and fiscal cost in less than a month)
• Stopped ordering cardboard boxes and began reusing the packing materials we receive in the mail
• Began recycling!
• Supplied tire pressure gauges to every Renegade with a car to promote fuel economy
• Switched to a hybrid car service
• Made the switch to eco-friendly cleaning supplies

There's still so much more work to be done to lessen Renegade's impact on the environment (not to mention the rest of of the ad industry).  By taking the initiative to improve our impact as a company, we've impressed upon many who have worked with us in the past 2 years the importance of making eco-changes in their own lives - an accomplishment in and of itself.  I believe it is the responsibility of companies like Renegade to show their workers and as many other people as they can how to protect the environment, rather than harm it.

Back in 2007 we created a screen saver that gives tips for being green and allows users to contribute. It's called the Greensaver. Download it now!

Twitter (R)evolution

Twitter began making daily headlines this year as Oprah joined on in April and Ashton Kutcher became the first user to score one million followers.  Celebrity participation on Twitter put this social media venture on the map for many who weren't already in the know, and it has definitely helped to stimulate Twitter's 73% growth since January.

In the past two and a half weeks, popular discourse about Twitter has changed drastically. No longer are people discussing Twitter as an opt-in celebrity gossip magazine. The talk has changed to Twitter as a global news source, an aspect of Twitter that has been discussed by new media enthusiasts and journalists for a while (see recap of @media140). 

Following the widely disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12th, the start of massive rallies in many Iranian cities, and Iran's subsequent clamp-down on foreign journalism, protesting Iranians turned to Twitter to report their situation.  The tweets from Iran (along with many Iranian blogs) then became a primary, although unverifiable and a bit skewed, source to the foreign press for information about the developing unrest.  Not only was Twitter being used by Iranian demonstrators to spread news, photos and videos of the unfolding events to each other, newsrooms around the world began publishing the tweets from Iran to keep readers abreast of the developments.

That weekend, a tidal wave of frightening information and links to terrifying photos and videos was flooding in from Iran via Twitter. Quickly the hashtag* #IranElection became the number one trending topic. People around the world began to rally in support of the Iranian dissidents and twitterers from everywhere colored their avatars green in support of the protesters and their “Sea of Green.”

Due in part to the attention the uprising was receiving, but mainly due to Twitter’s obvious function as sole communication tool for protesters coming under attack, The US State Department contacted Twitter headquarters the weekend following the election, and asked them to delay their scheduled site maintenance on June 15th to aid the communication of Iranians on the street.  This action by the State Department was an unprecedented event for new media, and it’s a prime example of Twitter’s impact on global awareness.   

Since June 12th, #IranElection has left the trending topics only briefly before Twitterers have united to raise its popularity by “tweeting it up,” and the online sea of green continues in solidarity with those wearing green half a world away.

Twitter has become a vital part of media, not just social or new media, but as an important news source and avenue for communicating events as they happen. It has raised global awareness of many important issues (not just in Iran), and generated support and activism in the global community.

The distress of the Iranian people is heavy on my mind, as I’ve followed these events closely and watched history being made in real time. It’s been difficult for me to speak objectively on this subject, but as it is making communication history NOW, I’m happy to discuss it here.  Following #IranElection has been an exciting, sobering, downright scary, yet valuable experience for me.

*If you haven’t heard the term hashtag before, that’s because it’s a term used only in reference to Twitter.  Hashtags are topical phrases proceeded by a # without spaces that twitterers use to participate in public discussion. 

Twitter the New News? - #earthquake a Godsend for Me

 
At around 10:30 last night, I saw a tweet on Facebook about an earthquake in Italy.  It was the first news to come out of the area, and I was straight away reading the #earthquake tweets for updates, as twitter was the first to have any coverage at all.  By 11:00 I was in contact with my friend in Tortorento, 50 km from the epicenter.  He was okay, although he was quite scared.  I am so happy that I found out so quickly and was able to assuage my fears for my friend, but now my thoughts are with the victims struggling to recover their friends and family members.

There's been a lot of talk about Twitter as a news service.  While it can't be so formal as NYT or CNN, it definitely beats them out for timely broadcasting.  Last night's info blast from Italy was no exception.

Twhat If?

Enough has been written about Twitter in the past month for me to avoid explaining the phenomenom.  A great guide for marketers getting started on Twitter, written by Drew Neisser, is here.  I'm going to jump into the conversation with a bit on one Twitter app, and then quickly digress into one of my [brilliant] rants...

I heard on the radio this morning that plants can now Twit.  For $99, plant lovers can get their plants to talk back to them via Twitter.  Botanicalls is the name of the device that will tweet your plant's water needs to you (and said plant's followers), so you don't forget to take care of it.  It turns your plant into a living Tamagotchi! HOW COOL!

 

This made me think what if...  What if I/we/somebody created a climate change awareness campaign using Twitter to publicize the decay of our planet?!  I know scientists are using sensors to track climate change, so let's make the sensors tweet updates in layman's terms, buy up some digital and outdoor ad space (ad space that targets world leaders, influencers, and big business execs -- that is, those with the power to fund and enforce change), and go live! 

P.S. I tweet, and I'm easy to find.  Let's follow each other!

Rest in Peace, Dr. John Hope Franklin

Dr. John Hope Franklin, civil rights leader and American historian, passed away at the age of 94 this Wednesday.  In the 1950s he served under Thurgood Marshall on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team whose sociological research helped make a case for and win Brown v. Board of Education, and he is best known for his documentation of the struggle of African Americans in his book From Slavery to Freedom. 

Franklin was raised in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he graduated from my high school, Booker T. Washington in the 1930s, over four decades before it became the first integrated public school in Oklahoma.  His vocation as an historian and professor was strongly influenced by the racism he experienced growing up in Tulsa.  One very important example being the race riot of 1921, and, another heart-breaking story he told NPR which was replayed this morning: his rejection by a blind woman while he was helping her cross the street.  

Rather than be defeated by the extreme racial injustice to which he was exposed, John Hope Franklin sought to document and teach others about the history of black Americans. 

"My challenge," Franklin said, "was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly."

In 1956, he was the first African American to become chairman of a major history department at Brooklyn College.  In 1983, he was appointed the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University, the alma mater of several other Renegades.

With this post, I salute Dr. John Hope Franklin for his scholarship, writing, and leadership in the American Civil Rights Movement.  The legacy he leaves stems from his example of unswerving hope, no matter the situation, for a better future for our country and for all of its citizens -- a legacy of strength to conquer intense challenge, even from the direst of circumstances.