Using Social Media to Gather Phones for Fearless City
created on Fri, 2008-12-19 17:44
Building upon the work done at the Fearless Drupal code sprint last weekend, Kris and I are working with Irwin, Lani, Hendrick, Lorraine and others at Fearless City to gather up unused phones to redistribute to help DTES artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs & family.
We assembled this social media marketing campaign on a accelerated timeline to spread the message while so many people are getting new phone for a holiday gift and will end up with old phones which can be used to make media, document incidents, or provide basic communication. We used a variety of online media publishing and community building tools to create presences for Fearless City, then created the campaign materials using collaborative working tools and online photo tools to make the badge from Kris' sweet punk photo.
Finally, we unleashed the hounds (well Twitter, some blogs, Facebook, and such) to spread the word quickly on a Friday afternoon with a plan to pick up phones on Tuesday, Dec. 23rd on the auto-magic-Flickr-uploading purple Yahoo bikes Kris and Roland are rolling.
A look over kk's Twitter posts for today tells the story of how the plan came together ~ to quote George Peppard's character in the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together!"
dusted off my oldschool Adobe Illustrator skills. made this graphic for Fearless City phone drive thingy we're workin on. http://bit.ly/KO0x@victoria_potter yeah, poladroid, plus kk stock photo, plus fearless logo, plus commodfied handwriting typeface = voila! round trip 1 hour.PLSHELP! We wanna come pick up yer old phones on Tues & provide them to artists & residents of VanDowntown Eastside: http://bit.ly/Qra2@eadvocate *blush* thank you so much for followin' along & helping where you can! now following joo too. :)@PeterOA blessings upon you peter. thx. cash is always welcome as well as yer phones. we also take phone chargers, old cameras, etc@breebop awesome. we'll come over on tuesday, in our elf hats, pick up yer phones, take yer photos, link to you. etc. thx so much!@stephen_rees thanks so much for blogging about the Phones for Fearless campaign. i hope we find 1000 phones to give them http://bit.ly/1nVLPoli Ing and Jeremy Hubert from Yahoo! just popped by RCS HQ YVR to spread some Christmas cheer. took photos of them with the Yahoo bikes :)@shallomj thx 4 postin (twice!) about da 'Phones for Fearless' campaign & for offerin up yer old phones. :) merry xxxmas!@beautynight yesss! maybe you can connect with @dutchphoto and i over the weekend or early next week.@ianking atta boy. thx for the help brother! let me know if you wanna interview anyone for 24. i can provide pics!@IanKing awesomesauce. thx again mister king! :)@moritherapy aw, thx for retweeting da stuff about the mobile phone donation drive. there's a ton of support. maybe we can get 1000 phones!skipped lunch today. couldn't step away from the puter. so starvin'. really tempted to eat a special sausage that a co-worker got for xmas.
Indeed, we went full-on today with a key assist by ace Drupalists Audrey and Katherine but, before we crack a brew, here's the what we ask of you:
How can you help the Phones for Fearless campaign:
- Donate your used mobile phones - preferably with video, camera, wi-fi
- Consider cash donations (* tax deductible) or new phone donations
- Conversation - tell your friend on your blog, twitter, etc. - post a badge
It's at treat to work with Fearless City who are involved in a litany of projects in the DTES. Fearless is a Vancouver Non-Profit group providing tools, resources, and cultural outreach to artists and residents in the impoverished downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Fearless is a project of the DTES Community Arts Network (CAN).
Go check out their projects on-line and be sure to schedule your appointment for phone pick up on Tuesday, Dec. 23rd. We'll be bringing cameras for smiling shots of the donators and who knows what SinterKlaus may have in the his toque -we'll also be sure to say thank you with a link and a mugshot for the gallery.
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Another possible source of phones
Great idea Dave, KK and others.
Here's another idea to get more phones.
Maybe ask one of the local cell phone companies to have a donation box for used cell phones and accessories in their retail stores. I'm sure some people are getting cell phones for Christmas, maybe some would be interested in a recycling their old phones for a good cause. Maybe have some sort of name like Recycle your phone to your fellow humans, or something similar.
Or even post a notice about the idea in some shops
Fearless social media
I frankly never realized Twitter could be so exhausting. Today I'm trying to find everyone who posted about it and shoot them an @ thank-you. Monday I'll go back and do it from the FearlessCity account, once there's even more pickup.
Grouse mountain? I mean, wow.
A professor of New Media in Chicago is donating a brand new Nokia phone, and people around the world are picking it up, thanks to the mailing address. But the uptake in Vancouver proper has been nothing short of astonishing. I knew there was a reason I loved this city!