#4Change is a monthly Twitter-based conversation about how social media is helping to create change, and you can see it via the hashtag #4Change. I’ll be chatting this Thursday for the June #$Change chat and hope you’ll join me!
Details:
- Date: Thursday, June 11
- Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
- When: 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time
- Topic: How can challenges/competitions be used to discover, support, and accelerate social change projects and solutions?
Why are we doing this and why would you want to join? Great questions:
Social media is becoming a key driver of social change, allowing for the dissemination of new ideas, the formation of new communities and coalitions and the realization of new efficiencies and reach by existing social change groups. Throughout the world activists, organizers and non-profit professionals are exploring how best to use these tools, and sharing the results using the tools themselves. However these conversations are less international and therefore less effective than they could be.
We have so much to learn from each other. From new forms of political campaigning in the United States, experiments in e-government and civic participation in England, from the fight against internet censorship in Australia and New Zealand and from start-ups in Canada and France. And beyond.
We need a platform for light-weight, easily-organized and openly accessible conversations involving people from numerous countries. Twitter, I believe, provides us with such a platform.
When do the chats take place?
Chats are on the second Thursday of each month between 5-7pm US Eastern Time (GMT-4).
Who is leading and participating in these chats?
#4Change was initially proposed by Tom Dawkins (@tomjd) in Washington DC who is joined by Todd Pitt (@zerostrategist – Washington DC), Morgan Sully (@memeshfit – Oakland, California), Natasha Judd (@tashjudd – London, England), Edward Harran (@edwardharran – Brisbane, Australia) and Vibewire (@vibewire – Sydney, Australia).
But the #4Change chats are open to everyone interested in discussing social media’s role in social change! Don’t be shy about joining—that’s one great thing about an open, public chat like this, you can follow along silently until you have something you want to say and no one will know 🙂
How can you follow along or join the conversation?
- If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
- To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for “#4Change”
- Jump in to the conversation by adding “#4Change” (without the “”) to one of your Twitter messages
Are there any rules for #Change Chats?
- #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @tomjd without the hash tag (to keep them out of the stream) to have them considered.
- Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
- Stay on topic!
- Stay cool.
Join me for the chat this Thursday – looking forward to discussing the role competitions play in social change!