He aint never gettin out

Trapped man wall stickers.

WANT.

Ra. One

Billed as the most expensive film ever produced by the Bollywood system, Ra. One looks AWESOME.

Wikipedia are the voices in my head

via Renne

This had better be bigger on the inside

Doctor Who themed Monopoly. WANT

It will match my Star Wars themed Monopoly, and complement the future BTTF Monopoly set (hey, I can dream)

Make Aid Transparent

Aid makes a real difference. It can save lives, put kids into school, and reduce poverty and suffering. But at the moment no one knows exactly how much money is being spent, where or on what. In most cases, not even governments receiving aid have a full picture of where all the money goes. This undermines aid’s potential and its effectiveness. With more information, citizens in both donor and recipient countries could know whether aid money was having the best possible impact.

2011 is a critical moment. Governments have promised to be more transparent and at a big international meeting at the end of this year we have the chance to hold them to account. A public push for greater transparency now will make a huge difference. Governments are reviewing their commitments and if they feel public pressure they will redouble efforts to keep their promises.

As citizens we have a right to know how aid money is being spent. So please sign the petition calling on governments to make their aid transparent now. At a time when public budgets are under pressure and the effectiveness of international aid is being scrutinised, increased transparency is an easy win that could deliver a huge boost to poverty reduction, without needing more money.

  First published on Oxfam Blogs

Calling on you to #tweetG20

The G20 countries represent around 90% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade, and two thirds of the world population. Isn’t it their responsibility to make real progress during the 2-day summit in Cannes?

The big issue on this year’s agenda is the current financial crisis, which has put 64 million people into poverty. G20 members have the mandate and the means to not only resolve this problem now, but to make sustainable solutions that will help us achieve global stability and resilience. So, in the lead up to the Summit, we are putting the pressure on the G20 to make changes to our global economy that will free up new resources so that people can escape from poverty..

Join us and make your voice heard. Send a message on Twitter using #tweetG20 and let them know what they need to do! We’ll bring the 10 most creative tweets to the mass demonstration in Nice on November 1st. We’ve provided some samples below to get you inspired, but feel free to customize your message, the more creative the better!

• #TweetG20: an #FTT within #G20 countries alone could raise $50 billion/yr for development. It’s time for #FTT now!
• #TweetG20: The cost of the financial crisis can’t be the lives of people in the world’s poorest countries. #FTT #G20
• The #G20 has the power to turn a global crisis into a global opportunity! #TweetG20

Our collective voice needs to be loud and clear: it’s time for the G20 to take action!

You can also ask the Australian Government to support a Robin Hood tax at the G20

Pic: Presidency of the French republic

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Campaigning on the Interwebs

The world of digital campaigning can appear enticing to some and daunting to others. It can be a never-ending world of possibilities and opportunities, or a scary foray into unchartered waters. It doesn’t have to be either, if you just employ some common sense communication principles.

Purpose

The first and easiest question you should ask yourself is “Do I need to run a campaign online?” Often the answer can and should be a simple “No.” – and that’s fine, it’s about identifying the tools and methods that will best achieve your aim.

I’m constantly amused that so many people assume that the current critical mass of people on social media should dictate their own involvement. Walking past a suburban bakery the other day, I saw a hand-drawn note inviting me to follow them on Twitter. Why? To what purpose? Do I really need an update on how the sales of your pies are progressing throughout the day? That said, there are a few examples where ingenious individuals have punched through the relevance barrier and discovered a truly useful marketing angle.

It boils down to one thing – just because you can doesn’t mean you always should.

Workload

Managing a digital campaign takes time. It takes preparation. It takes commitment. Don’t assume that simply throwing your messaging onto online platforms will suffice. You have to be committed to spend the time building up relevance, reputation and spread – and this does take time.

Too many people make the mistake of assuming that social media management can be done as an amendment to usual workload. We all use Twitter and Facebook in our personal lives, so throwing in some organisational stuff on top shouldn’t be that hard, right? Wrong.

Ensure that you have the time to dedicate to planning your online campaign. This is the most critical step, and often overlooked in favour of other tasks. A few days set aside purely to identify goals, plan steps and work out timelines and responsibilities goes a long way when it comes to actually implementing your campaign. Then, once you’re underway, you must be there as part of the online community with whom you want to engage.

It doesn’t matter how you work out this workload – it can be setting aside the first 5 minutes of every hour that you are working. It can be one whole hour a day. It may be that you choose to schedule in an hour in the morning and an hour late at night (when most people are not at work and so may be online ready to listen to you) – just ensure that you recognise that a commitment to online campaigning must be upheld.

Aim

When identifying an aim for a digital campaign, it helps to go back to the overarching aims of the campaign. And that aim does not always have to be digital.

For example, if your campaign goal is to change the business practices of a particular company, digital campaigning may be just one stepping stone towards your final goal. You may choose to mobilise supporters to tweet messages of support (with the intention of spreading your message and showing community support). You may choose to target the company’s Facebook page and ask supporters to post demands and questions (visible to their supporters and therefore embarrassing to their brand). But both of these examples are merely tactics towards the same goal you set for the overall campaign – the company changes its practices.

It’s important to recognise that there are few digital campaigns that in and of themselves will be the sole place for all of your efforts. Split your campaign into clear achievable tasks – offline and online – and structure the various timeframes, resources and messaging to suit each accordingly.

Tools

An online campaign can take many forms, but the basic components are readily available to all. Yes, some of the larger organisations do have the resources, staff and ability to build very professional, very technical digital tools, but often it’s the smaller, grassroots campaigns that have more ‘heart’ to them. Don’t despair if you’re not a computer programmer.

You should have a base presence – this can be a central website, it can be a Facebook page, it can just be a Twitter account. Work out what will serve as your ‘home’ online and ensure that all relevant info is available there. This central point should also contain links or reference to all your other elements. Collecting campaign photos on Flickr? You need a link to that on the site. Talking to people on Twitter? Need a link.

Don’t over complicate things by assuming that you need to use every tool at your disposal. Identify your aims, your identity and your engagement, and it will help decide on your tools. If your campaign is heavily dependent on empowering supporters to use their own voice in your campaign, your focus might want to be on building an aggregator of multiple voices as a hub. If, on the other hand, your aim is to have a centralised campaign that is highly professional and co-ordinated, an ‘official’ Twitter account coupled with a website and YouTube account might suffice.

Scheduling is a life-saver. As I alluded to above, workload should not be underestimated, but likewise you can’t be there every second of the day. Scheduling services such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck enable you to pre-set updates to go at times you can’t be around. Got a rally planned for 2pm, but you know that you’ll be too busy organising it beforehand to think about the digital call-outs? Schedule a few in the night before and it’s all done. Of course there’s still room for reactive and responsible work, but at least the base messaging can be scheduled for you.

Collecting statistics is another important step that is often overlooked – it’s a valuable measure of your impact and very useful when later evaluating and reporting on progress. Standards like Google Analytics are very easy to activate, and some of the statistical tools built into services like Facebook are getting better by the day. Make sure you have them tracking from day one, and refer back often as they may dictate your choices throughout the campaign.

These are just a few of the topics I’ll be discussing at my online campaigning session for the Melbourne Campaigners’ Network. Hopefully it will serve as a bit of a starter (or refresher) course on how to effectively run an digital campaign. Obviously we won’t have the time to get into any real depth on particular tools or services (eg Google Analytics has amazing potential if you have the inclination to become an expert) but I’m also keen to find out what people would like to talk about on the night.

First published on Plan to Win

I. Am. Hilarious.

Tea

Yes.

How Back to the Future should have ended

YES! YES! YES!

EV DeLorean

Oh. My.
Electric DeLoreans.
Yes.
Just... yes.

What's happening in the world of Fairtrade?

As is often the case, we find ourselves wondering just what is happening in the world of everything Fairtrade. Then, our friends over at the Fairtrade Association of Australia and New Zealand (FTAANZ) supply us with a raft of good news:


Recognition of the Fairtrade label on the rise
Shoppers across Australia and New Zealand are in tune with consumers around the world who believe their shopping choices can make a positive difference for farmers and workers in developing countries, according to a new global survey of 17,000 consumers in 24 countries conducted for Fairtrade International.

The survey found Aussie shoppers recognition of the Fairtrade label has risen to 44 per cent, up from 28 per cent in 2009 and 37 per cent in 2010. When it comes to making a decision in the shopping aisle, Fairtrade is now the most widely recognised ethical label globally - with nearly six in ten consumers (57%) across the 24 surveyed countries having seen the Fairtrade label.

Aussie and Kiwi shoppers recognise the role Fairtrade plays in enabling them to make a difference with over half of those familiar with it saying that the Fairtrade label makes it easier for them to decide if products are ethically produced. More generally, and in line with the global trend, the study confirmed that 81 per cent of Aussie and 76 per cent of Kiwi consumers believe independent, third-party certification is the best way to verify a product’s social and environmental claims.

Read more about the results of the study on the FTAANZ website.


Fairtrade Certified tea producer profile
Thamara Weerasena is a tea and spice farmer with the Small Organic Farmers Association (SOFA) in Sri Lanka. Read her producer profile on the Fairtrade Foundation website to see how Fairtrade and the Fairtrade Premium are benefitting both the farming community and Thamara on a more personal level.

On a typical day, she gets up at 4am and wakes the children who study before leaving for school. She spends four or five hours working in the fields and looks after the two cows and goats that provide milk for sale and dung for her compost heap.

Times are improving for the family but for many years they struggled to survive on Mr Nuwarage’s wages as a driver. In the past, Mrs Weerasena’s sparse tea bushes were neglected and provided little income for the family. The bushes were old and not very productive and in any case the price paid by middlemen was too low to make investment in time and money worthwhile.

But things have greatly improved since SOFA was established. The farmers now sell all the green leaf they can grow directly to Bio Foods at a much higher price, and Bio Foods are now providing free clonal tea plants paid for by the premium money from Fairtrade sales. Mrs Weerasena proudly points to the areas that were cleared and replanted - the new plants are now strong and healthy and have enabled her to increase green leaf production from 10 kilos a month to 90 kilos.
Read more of Thamara's story here.


Mars to work towards Fairtrade certification
Mars Chocolate and Fairtrade International (FLO) have announced a new agreement to introduce the first Fairtrade labelled Mars product (UK & Ireland only) and to work together to enable farmers to have sustainable livelihoods and substantially increased productivity.

At the heart of the agreement is a shared ambition to make commodity certification that supports sustainable livelihoods for farmers the norm in the cocoa industry. This is the first stage of a global agreement between Mars and Fairtrade to support cocoa farmers in building more sustainable livelihoods, and deliver Fairtrade Certified cocoa into Mars’ supply chains.

 The collaboration will deliver real concrete impact on the ground for West African cocoa farmers helping them to invest more in their businesses and build a better future for their communities.

Read more about the announcement on the FTAANZ website

First published on Oxfam Blogs

FB cover LOL

So, turns out the new Facebook cover photo feature is fun to play with. Especially if you add cats.

Pizza Burger

Holy crap that's revolting.

HTML for babbies

EXTREME WANT!

New York web designer John C Vanden-Heuvel has written the first in a series of three books designed to teach babies HTML code.

Want this tshirt

via Mischa

Mycroft totally looks like

Thanks to SJ for spotting this one.