PopTech Blog

Project update: Antigone in Ferguson travels to Baltimore

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 13:55:00 +0000

Can an ancient Greek tragedy written 2500 years ago help unravel social challenges confronting us today? We believe it can. Launched with a series of performances in Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri, then showcased at PopTech 2016, Antigone in Ferguson explores the potential of artistic endeavor to heal communities struggling with racial inequity and social injustice. It creates a powerful analogy between the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Sophocles’ Antigone. In collaboration with alumni PopTech Fellow Bryan Doerries and his social impact theater company Outside the Wire, we are promoting performances of Antigone in Ferguson in communities across the U.S. to bridge the growing divide between citizens and law enforcement. As part of this initiative, we will also be creating a documentary short film to expand the reach of these live productions to schools, civic groups, and police academies.

Antigone in Ferguson continues to fulfill its mission of uniting communities, with an upcoming performance scheduled for Saturday January 21 in Baltimore. More details along with a link to register can be found here.

Phil Woodmore, a vibrant member of the St. Louis music community, was tasked with creating the music and lyrics for Antigone in Ferguson. In addition, he directs the Antigone choir, comprised of St. Louis citizens and police officers. Phil also reaches out to choirs in cities hosting performances, incorporating local musical talent into each performance. In describing his experience he said, “Antigone in Ferguson has been a tremendous platform to share a message of hope and healing with communities that are hurting and desperate for help. I’m excited to see this take legs through the implementation of strategic initiatives that will follow future performances of Antigone.”

Phil composed the inspirational centerpiece of Antigone in Ferguson, “I’m Covered,” that shares a message of safety and protection with the St. Louis community during challenging times. The song will now have the opportunity to inspire other communities as Antigone begins its journey across America. You can find “I’m Covered” on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.

Antigone in Ferguson is a collaborative endeavor between PopTech and Outside the Wire. Stay tuned for project updates and performance schedules!

Antigone in Ferguson continues to fulfill its mission of uniting communities, with an upcoming performance scheduled for Saturday January 21 in Baltimore. See below for details.

Antigone in Ferguson is a collaborative endeavor between PopTech and Outside the Wire. Stay tuned for project updates and performance schedules!

SuperCreativity Edition launched

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 15:59:00 +0000

Just in time for holiday break reading! We are pleased to launch our most recent PopTech Editions – SuperCreativity: Designing Experiences in the Age of Creativity. This volume captures an interactive Salon, SuperCreativity, hosted by PopTech and the Microsoft Envisioning Team in September 2016, at NeueHouse in New York.

As part of a multi-year collaborative partnership, our teams have been exploring various aspects of how we work now and into the future. The SuperCreativity Salon set its sights on human creativity. What are the forces that enhance creativity? How do empathy and trust shape the fabric and potential of creative teams? How does the built environment promote creativity? How do we design and leverage new tools and advanced technologies to shift from consumption to creation? What are the ethical frameworks required as human/machine collaboration becomes more common?

Renowned thought leaders David DeSteno and Scott Barry Kaufman framed our conversation, with additional provocations led by Jer Thorp, Kate Crawford, Kati London, Anton Andrews, Aaron Dignan, Adam Day and Christine Congdon – many of whom are longtime members of the PopTech community.

The SuperCreativity Edition provides access to talks, interviews and suggested readings that will be of value to individuals, organizations and corporations committed to enhancing their creative potential in the context of a workplace where information overload, constant distraction and rapidly expanding smart technologies can easily become the antithesis of creative endeavor.

We encourage you to follow our ongoing work and become a collaborator via the SuperCreativity online forum. The first phase of our collaboration can be accessed through the eight-part video series, The Changing World of Work. For additional information, please be in touch via cwow@poptech.org or haraldb@microsoft.com.

Document hate: Standing for justice, freedom, and transparency by raising our voices

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:16:00 +0000

This post was contributed by Nathaniel Manning, COO of Ushahidi.

Ushahidi, founded by Erik Hersman, a PopTech Fellow alumni and board member, and now co-run by Nathaniel Manning, a PopTech friend and participant, was founded to enable safety and transparency during the post-election violence in Kenya 2008. The tool was then turned into a platform that has enabled hundreds of thousands of organizations and people to raise their voice and listen to the crowd.

Acts of hate speech, harassment, protest, and violence broke out across the USA the day after the election. Ushahidi quickly tacked course and converted their highly viewed USA Election Monitor site into a new Ushahidi deployment, Document Hate, to bring transparency to these actions. Ushahidi stands for justice, transparency, and freedom everywhere in the world. The Ushahidi platform is uniquely capable of doing this because it allows for the easy collection of reports via SMS, email, Twitter, and web form. We can gather reports via numerous customizable surveys for each type of issue, violence, hate speech, harassment, and protest. It also allows us to manage numerous volunteers in real time, of which there are many.

So what does this look like? We have received over 1000 reports in the past month. Many of these were about the same issue, such as the crime report at University of Michigan, or the many instances of swastikas and hate speech against minorities, LGBTQI, and immigrants graffitied across public spaces. In addition we uncovered a number of false reports in our verification process.

After this sorting, we have now published over 400 reports of violence, hate speech, and harassment taking place in the past month across the USA.

These events are truly disturbing and saddening. At this moment our goal as an organization is to provide transparency during this time. However, the other important thing to know is that anyone can sign up for alerts of reports being published in their area. We highly recommend you do this to stay safe and be aware of any issues in your neighborhoods.

If you are looking to help you can do so in a few ways:

You can share this, so that people know how and where they can report or sign up for alerts. You can easily embed any of the pages, maps, reports, or the surveys themselves by clicking “share” in the top right of the page.
You can contribute to this effort by donating to Ushahidi at www.ushahidi.com/donate
You can put us in touch with anyone else working on these efforts.

Create a memory book of special places with new app from Ken Banks

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 21:34:00 +0000

This blog post was contributed by PopTech Fellow Ken Banks. It was originally published on kiwanja.net and has been condensed and edited.

It’s no secret to readers that for a while now I’ve been attempting to get back into coding. This, combined with a growing interest in building sustainability into many of my projects, has fueled my interest in the potential of mobile apps to build out some of my ideas.

Today sees the launch of my first experimental app. While I didn’t write the code it’s been a useful exercise in understanding the process of app design, app development, testing and publishing. Hopefully the coding piece will fall into place in the new year.

There’s nothing better than scratching your own itch, so my first app does just that. Say hello to “for my children.”

“for my children” is a simple app I wish my mother had before she died. It would have let her share those places that were special in her life. Her first school. First home. Favorite cafe. First job. The place she met my father. The old playground she played in as a child – which is now a block of flats. Places I would love to visit and stand today if I only knew where they were.

“for my children” effectively lets you create your own memory book of special places so your friends, your family, your children – and their children – can one day walk in your footsteps and revisit them. I know it’s something I want to use, and hope you feel the same.

I can also imagine this being useful for early-stage dementia or Alzheimer’s sufferers, helping them capture memories for family while they still can.

It’s only available in the Apple App Store at the moment but we’re planning on building out an Android version soon assuming we generate the income. The online sharing functionality will also come later, budgets permitting. If you like the app and think others might too, please share on your social media and your blog. And if you download it, consider rating it in the App Store. Good ratings will be vital if we’re to develop the idea further. Thank you.

Can design improve human health? Let's find out

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 20:53:00 +0000

The social design process – human centered design principles, methods and tools – is being used by a rapidly growing number of funders, designers and social organizations as an approach to solving complex social problems. An enormous buzz (and a sizable industry), has emerged around design’s potential for increasing impact, yet no comprehensive effort has been undertaken to document, measure or analyze its benefits, until now.

On January 24, a stellar group of leaders will come together to share best practices and develop a template for measuring the impact of social design at The Measured Summit: Measuring the Impact of Social Design on Human Health. Participants include Maggie Breslin from The Patient Revolution; Rosanne Haggerty from Community Solutions; Tracy Johnson from the Gates Foundation; Kippy Joseph from The Rockefeller Foundation; Anne LaFond from John Snow Inc.; Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group; Doug Powell from IBM; Gustav Praekelt of the Praekelt Foundation; Heather Flemming of Catapult Design; and Jake Porway of DataKind.

If you’re a designer, funder, NGO, non-profit or business, social design is important to your future. Join us and SVA Design for Social Innovation for what will be an insightful gathering. We hope to see you there!

When: Tuesday, January 24
Where: SVA Beatrice Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011
Registration: Seating is limited! Tickets are $385 and can be purchased here.

Support PopTech on Giving Tuesday!

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:28:00 +0000

The holiday season is almost upon us! As you purchase gifts for loved ones and snag a new device for yourself on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we hope you’ll take a moment to make a gift to The PopTech Fund for Social Good on Giving Tuesday.

November 29 is Giving Tuesday, an annual global day of giving that inspires people to give back to organizations and causes that help create a better world. Gifts to The PopTech Fund for Social Good enable us to fulfill our mission to accelerate work in the social change sector, a commitment PopTech has been dedicated to for over a decade. In 2017 the Fund will provide support to two flagship activities: the PopTech Fellows programs and Antigone in Ferguson, a collaborative endeavor between PopTech and Outside the Wire.

Since 2008, the PopTech Fellows programs have identified, trained and mentored over 160 innovators and scientists who are changing the game in global health, violence cessation, poverty alleviation, environmental protection and conservation.

Antigone in Ferguson, launched at PopTech 2016, explores the potential of artistic endeavor to heal communities struggling with racial inequity and social injustice. In collaboration with alumni PopTech Fellow Bryan Doerries and his social impact theater company Outside the Wire, we will work with communities across the United States to create constructive dialogue intended to bridge the growing divide between citizens and law enforcement. Our work will include live productions of Antigone in Ferguson, the creation of a documentary short film to expand the reach of live performances and the development of an interactive curriculum for use by schools, civic groups and police academies.

A gift to PopTech is a gift towards shaping our collective future. Please consider supporting our social change work in one of the following ways:

Donate to The PopTech Fund for Social Good. Gifts large and small make a tremendous difference. All contributions are fully tax deductible and donations over $3000 will receive a complimentary ticket to PopTech 2017. If your company offers a matching gift program, please help us amplify the value of your donation by submitting your contribution for a match.

Join us for PopTech 2017! Your purchase of a conference ticket makes our annual community gathering possible and fuels our core mission work. Bonus: $500 of your conference ticket purchase is tax deductible.

On behalf of the PopTech team, Fellows, and board members, thank you for your generosity and for being a valuable member of the PopTech community!

PopTech is a 501©(3) charitable organization. All contributions are tax deductible.

What is the science of adventure?

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 21:16:00 +0000

This post was contributed by Jon Levy, a human behavior scientist who studies influence and adventure. Be sure to watch his talk on the science of adventure from PopTech: Culture Clash.

For over a decade, I have been asking people the same question: What was the most adventurous experience of your life?

Usually, people will respond by describing a perfect night out that they believe was brought together by serendipity or pure chance. But, ask yourself: If it were random, wouldn’t we all lead similarly exciting lives? The reality is that we don’t.

Many people will spend their nights curled up with a great book. Others will stop at nothing to discover every part of the world, no matter what risks are involved. I was curious, what is it that the more adventurous embody that lead them to such exciting lives?

This would mean we could hack adventure the way others hack nutrition, fitness and work. As a human behavior scientist and host of the Influencers Dinner, I have traveled the world trying to figure this out, but to tackle this challenge, we need to begin by understanding: What is an adventure?

Unsatisfied with how broad the dictionary definition was, I developed my own. An adventure is an experience that is:

Exciting and remarkable. We have spent a millennia passing down our knowledge through an oral history. If something is not remarkable, it is not culturally relevant.
Possesses adversity and/or risk, preferably perceived risk. There must be a challenge to overcome and a risk of success or failure. Although the brain processes an imminent danger differently than a perceived one, the physiological response is incredibly similar. It’s like the difference between skydiving, which is statistically safe and climbing Everest, which has a high risk of death. You can still feel the rush of crossing boundaries without putting yourself in actual peril.
Brings about growth. The person you are at the end of the experience is distinct from the person who started.

Contrary to popular belief, great adventures require preparation. Although sometimes they happen unexpectedly, there are certain characteristics that are always present. Every adventure follows a four-stage process and each stage has specific characteristics that when you apply them, life becomes exciting.

1. Establish

The right elements are put in place so that anything can happen. In order of priority:

People: The right group can turn a miserable experience into a fun night. The wrong group can make a great event awful. Research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler found that our social networks — friends, family, coworkers — have the ability to influence our behaviors up to 4 degrees away. The takeaway: Choose your friends wisely.
Location: Go somewhere new. Research has shown that the brain operates differently in unfamiliar environments, pushing us to explore.
Mission: Having a goal will bond the participants and push them forward in the face of difficulty.
Constraints: Limiting your options catalyzes creativity in problem solving and approach.

When these elements are established, adventures are more likely to occur.

2. Push Boundaries

Since adventures require growth, you must cross some social, physical or emotional boundary. This may mean climbing a high peak, serenading strangers on the subway, or talking your way into a nightclub. The objective is to push just outside of your comfort zone.

3. Increase

The key is to maximize the emotional value of whatever environment you are in. You leverage surprises, challenges, intrigue and entertainment to engage people.

4. Continue

At the fourth stage, you decide to either continue onto another location or end with style. If you continue on, you loop back through the process by selecting a new location where you cross boundaries, increase and continue once more.

If you don’t continue, you end with style. Research by Daniel Kahneman finds that we disproportionately value peaks and ends of an experience. You may be on the most incredible date of your life. However, if your date says something offensive in the last seconds, you’ll remember the experience negatively. The key is to end on a positive note.

As you adventure through life know The E.P.I.C. Model will be there to guide you, but it is important to note that every person has a different tolerance for novelty and excitement. Never waste time comparing your adventures to others. Instead, focus on experiences that you find exciting and remarkable, that possess risk (preferably perceived), and that take you out of your comfort zone to bring about growth.

To discover the science that the E.P.I.C. Model is based on and to enjoy outrageous stories, from getting crushed by a bull in Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls to battling Kiefer Sutherland in drunken Jenga, pick up a copy now of The 2 AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure.

Be a vehicle of change: Toyota honors PopTech participants with donation to Haiti relief efforts

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 16:48:00 +0000

In an effort to make a difference to those affected by the devastating destruction of Hurricane Matthew, our longtime strategic partner Toyota will be making a donation to 2014 Toyota Mother of Invention DayOne Response, an organization that distributes water and sanitation products globally for disaster relief. One DayOne Response Waterbag provides a family of four with clean drinking water for up to two months. Toyota will donate one bag on behalf of every participant at PopTech to a family in Haiti.

Toyota has always taken strides to reduce impacts to the planet through alternative fuel vehicles. It started with Prius, and a year ago, Mirai was the next step in affecting climate change for a brighter future with a vehicle that’s only emission is water. In times of disaster, clean drinking water becomes a rarity, but a necessity. Toyota’s donation will provide Waterbags to help thousands of people have 300,000 liters of purified drinking water. Together we can go places and make a difference in the world. To learn more please visit DayOneResponse.com/Haiti

The Culture Clash is here - talks now available

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 21:28:00 +0000

Today we’re excited to release the talks and performances that defined Culture Clash, our 20th anniversary gathering. We hope these talks — even if just one — provide you with a sense of hope for the future and the inspiration to be an active participant in shaping it.

When we selected Culture Clash as our theme, we anticipated it would be an increasingly relevant and provocative lens through which to explore the future. As speaker after musician after PopTech Fellow took the stage, we were blown away by the insights these individuals shared, the big questions they raised, and the heart-wrenching emotions they stirred.

A few of the many highlights include: Rob Capps on the importance of optimism in driving future innovations; Matt Mason on how culture actually happens; Vanessa De Luca and April Reign on what it takes to truly address diversity and inclusion; Platon on the surprising lessons on where power comes from; Nobel Laureate John Mather, NASA scientist Adam Steltzner, and world-class photographer Dan Winters on the wonder and mystery of outer space; Lizz Winstead on calling bullsh*t on unjust reproductive rights legislation; and Nicole Prause on overcoming extreme institutional challenges and threats to pursue scientific research that matters. Be sure not to miss performances by Wayne Kramer, Jill Sobule, Rahzel and Jesse Carmichael that brim with artistry, wisdom, and positive social messages. You can find all of the talks and performances here.

With our 20th year milestone in the rearview, we look forward to more deeply fulfilling our role as an instigator of positive social action. Providing a wonderful example of “inspiration to action,” our longtime partner Toyota, so moved by what they learned at PopTech, just made a substantial donation to 2014 Toyota Mother of Invention DayOne Response, an organization that distributes water and sanitation products globally for disaster relief. Toyota will donate one Waterbag on behalf of every participant at PopTech to a family in Haiti, as part of the ongoing Hurricane Matthew relief effort. We’ll share more details on the blog tomorrow. It’s stories like these that drive our work and make us hopeful for what’s to come.

See what you missed? Be here in 2017!

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 16:52:00 +0000

We couldn’t have asked for a better 20th year celebration. Culture Clash, hosted by Moran Cerf and Carly Chaikin, will go down in history as one of the most eye-opening, optimism-generating, future- facing gatherings we’ve ever held. In just a few weeks, we’ll share all of the amazing talks that had participants buzzing. Meanwhile, take a gander through #poptech and our Facebook album for highlights, and watch some of our favorite moments below. (Warning: Expect serious regret and delayed FOMO to set in.)

Don’t make the same mistake twice. Last week we exclusively opened registration for PopTech 2017 to on-site participants. Today we’re excited to publicly announce PopTech 2017, taking place October 19-21. Through the end of the month, an early bird registration rate of $1600 is available. (Tickets regularly $2000.) Secure your ticket and let the countdown begin!

If you’re looking for a convening that showcases truly breakthrough ideas and projects, brings together an engaged and passionate community, and kicks B.S. to the curb, look no further. Be here next October.