September 2011
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A decade of wrong decisions and damaging policies →
The West’s reaction to 9/11 was excessive and misguided, wrongly influenced by hubris, hysteria and ignorance. Ten years on, we are still mired in a mess largely of our own making.
Today is 12 September, ten years and one day after the US was so grotesquely attacked by Al Qaeda; after the War on Terror began; after our world became a more explosive, more complex and curiously oversimplified...
June 2011
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May 2011
3 posts
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That's Mladić captured... what's next for Serbia?
This week Ratko Mladic, Serbia’s most-wanted war crimes suspect, was finally arrested. Captured whilst living under an assumed name in Lazarevo, a town with old ties to the Milosevic family, the former General has been found fit to stand trial and has until Monday to launch an appeal against extradition to the Hague.
Due process likewise awaits Serbia’s EU bid, which has just cast off...
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January 2011
2 posts
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December 2010
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November 2010
2 posts
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Precious cargo: telling other people's stories
Belgrade, Serbia– written on the way out of the country after six fascinating, exhausting and profoundly humbling days. I’ll post subsequently on different aspects of the trip and my research, but first I want to recognise what this is about: hearing, sharing and learning from other people’s stories.
My trip to Belgrade was wonderful: fascinating for the people I met and the things...
October 2010
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Russia's secret services: power gone out of... →
A dark picture of Russian democracy emerged at the Frontline Club last night as Susan Richards spoke with journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan about power, accountability and Russia’s secret services.
There was an eeriness to the event that I struggled to shake: the last time I heard a Russian dissident speak at the Frontline, he was dead within months, poisoned with polonium-210 by...
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10 years on: the unsettled, unsettling legacy of... →
On 5 October 2000, Slobodan Milosevic was removed from power in a people’s revolution that ground to a halt 13 years of conflict. Watching half a million Serbians swarm the streets, the world had high hopes for Belgrade.
– I covered a talk at London’s Frontline Club on Milosevic’s legacy and Serbia’s future. My full article is on the club’s website.
August 2010
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Iraq revisited: What next for the Forgotten War? →
As the last full US combat brigade rumbled out of Iraq, what comes next for the region and its people, and what is the legacy of this long and divisive conflict?
– I covered a talk at London’s Frontline Club on the aftermath of the Iraq War. My full article is on the club’s website.
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July 2010
2 posts
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The problem of Bosnia: a European dilemma
This is part two in a series of two. Part one is entitled Bosnia: why we just can’t learn.
There is no one act of rebuilding after conflict, just as there is no linear path. In Bosnia’s case in particular, beyond the personal experiences of conflict and reconciliation, there are national and international political issues to be reckoned with.
What path out of conflict?
One thing this...
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The problem of Bosnia: why we just can't learn
Several weeks ago I attended a typically, irritatingly thought-provoking discussion at the Frontline Club. I am a huge supporter of the club — indeed I am applying for membership — but the one down side to the mind-bendingly intelligent debate I get to absorb at the club is this panging, demi-nostalgic sneak of a yearn that goes something like, “What would my life be like if I had...
April 2010
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A little bit less alone
Last night, after a week of stillness and silence, British airspace reopened. Today the sun came up, I woke up to the drone of a faraway plane, and I felt just a little bit less alone.
After a six-day flight ban affecting just about all of Western Europe, the beginning of a return to normality, even for someone who hasn’t been stranded somewhere or had her travel plans thwarted, is a welcome...
March 2010
2 posts
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A site that creates real change: Vote for Policies →
I recently wrote about this site on the Made by Many blog. Here’s an excerpt:
“The Web is changing and the world is changing. The biggest gains — monetary and otherwise — are to come from being a part of that change, and influencing the direction of that change so that we — and our industry — become smarter, kinder, and just, well… better.
Today, through the serendipity engine...
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When social media fails: Nestle, Skittles, and now... →
Yesterday, I had a rant on the Made by Many blog about the past year’s biggest social media fails. Top of my list of fails: Cash Gordon, the Conservative party’s recent Twitter flop. Here’s an excerpt:
“If you’ve been under a rock or off the grid for the past few hours, you may have missed Cash Gordon, a Conservative fail so epic, so swift, and likely so catastrophic as...
February 2010
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Three new words: manopause, hellacious, faffage →
I recently posted a note on three of my favourite new (or, new to me) words on the Made by Many blog. Here’s an excerpt:
“The thing that really makes my head spin is the way language evolves. Even as I type this, old words are morphing and merging to send nifty little neologisms strutting out of our cultural soup of signifiers, all a-dazzle with tasty wordiness. Perhaps my favourite...
January 2010
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Trying out a few new things
A quick note to explain what must look like a embarrassingly lacklustre attempt on the blogging front. I’m doing more writing now, for more publications, so perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m finding less time to spend on this one.
Firstly, I recently began doing some copywriting and communications consulting with the digital ninjas over at Made by Many. Naturally, my new job also involves...
December 2009
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The return of intelligent debate
… And, we’re back!
After a prolonged absence, the Munk Debates are back (and, it ought to be acknowledged, so am I).
Today, 1 December, is the date of the fourth Munk Debate:
Be it resolved climate change is mankind’s defining crisis, and demands a commensurate response.
Indeed.
The debate itself hasn’t actually happened yet — if I’ve got my time zone...
July 2009
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On the subject of literacy…
I’ve been thinking a lot about literacy over the past few weeks, specifically about whether it might be time to break down the binary and accept the idea of floating, flexible standards of literacy. This thinking was brought on by Howard Rheingold’s discussion at BBH London HQ, where he posed the question: if the internet has enabled a many-to-many model of communication… where to next?
I have...
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Collective Intelligence →
Another take on Rheingold’s talk chez BBH — this one by photographer and digiman Jon Block. Interesting personal anecdote off the back of Rheingold’s point that ‘leveraging self-interest’ helps drive a shared creative or intellectual economy. Fair play, Jon.
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Smart mobs and smarter media
Yesterday afternoon I had the colossal, mind-stretching pleasure of taking part in a chat with that wildly be-patterned futurist Howard Rheingold.
The event took place at BBH London and was organised by Made By Many, whose digital lady bug Elin Sjurnsen facilitated.
Rheingold delivered a really interesting overview of his own collective intelligence theories, and then expounded on these in the...
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Be it resolved debate actually matters
Here’s a big, awkward question: does foreign aid do more harm than good?
Most Westerners admit to being comfortably seated in the view that foreign aid is one of the least-bad things we can do about bad problems. But does that make it good? Neutral? Is that even enough?
It’s a difficult question to discuss, but it’s an even harder question to ask… which is why I’m saluting (on Canada Day, no...
May 2009
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NYT: Charities Reap Benefits of Contests on... →
NYT looks at the growing trend of using social media to highlight causes, spark conversation and, ultimately, funnel money into action.
A specific example is Target (lower-cost American clothing and homeware retailer) and their just-launched-on-Facebook campaign to give $3 million to deserving charities.
Target asks customers to ‘Expect more. Pay less.’ And while the brand is no...
April 2009
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Twitter quitters: the numbers are in →
The numbers are in and they don’t look good… at least, not for anyone who doesn’t have a pre-booked seat on the it’s-a-fad-and-it’s-doomed bandwagon. (Yes that means you, Huffington Post!)
Twitter still hasn’t pulled in the very mainstream of web users (see Facebook), and these newest stats (from Nielsen via Mashable) indicate that’s looking like an...
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Jack in Flak: WordPress, Twitter, YouTube Talk... →
via Twitter @mashable
Our old friend Pete Cashmore on the social media/IT posse’s foray into Iraq. Interesting read, gives a background… but the full-circle, audience-inclusive colour commentary is at #iraqtech. You can also follow Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and get his tweets as they happen.
Is this a first for the US State Department, bringing the new kids in with the old...
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food for thought from BBH Labs: 10 reasons why... →
Ben Malbon of BBHLabs (follow ‘em!) posted something of a manifesto on all the things we are doing WRONG — or at least, could be doing better — in creative digital communication. Worth a read.
I read with interest point eight, ‘Not invented here’: “We’re frequently seduced by the temptation to want to invent from scratch rather than borrow (&, critically,...
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on your bike! charity on a two-wheeler
A friend, ex-teammate, and heroine of mine is cycling 11,900 km through Africa.* Carola is making this epic trek in aid of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a Canadian organization doing major things for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa, and the Tour D’Afrique Foundation… yeah, who?
The Tour D’Afrique Foundation is a six-year-old David in a peloton of Goliaths. Little guys...
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How to be a success in social media →
a little bit sassy, but it’s sage advice.
March 2009
5 posts
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Mashable: Social Media for Social Causes →
For a month now, Qui Diaz, Beth Kanter and Geoff Livingston have been hard at work on the Community Philanthropy 2.0 Survey.
The aim of this noble endeavour? With the caveat that the viability of micro-giving a la social media has already been established (I love it when my predictions are right!), the survey aimed to “determine whether there is potential for nonprofits to cultivate...
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Fish where the fishes are
I kept hearing this at last week’s Social Networking World Forum. It’s the kind of ego-free advice we should all just take already, and it goes double for fundraisers: Make life easier for your message by using what’s there already.
Top example: Twestival, which I blogged about last month. In hitching their wagon to the team of wild stallions that is Twitter, charity:water fished...
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bad blogger, bad!
New resolution, sleepily made upon return from brief yet busy holiday: thou shalt blog meaningfully, and do so twice weekly.
(This does not count as a meaningful post.)
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It’s International Women’s Day... so what?
An associate who shall remain nameless commented on my changing my twitter avatar to 1:10 (in response to Amnesty International’s campaign for International Women’s Day), “Way to get down in the trenches, Williams.”
Harsh words, but I’ll concede half the point. As the day dawned, I was shaking my booty at a warehouse party, wearing a short dress, drinking, dancing, and in general enjoying my...
February 2009
10 posts
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How social networking might change the world (New... →
And to this I say yes, Yes, YES!
(for the record)
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well, it all depends on how you define 'better...
Last week, Mashable smartypants Pete Cashmore asked whether social media makes us better people. You wouldn’t know it from my horribly derelict follow-up to his post, but this question sparked a whole lotta thought over here Chez Williams…
is there good in talking about an issue that affects us all as a global community? (I say yes)
does sharing information make us better people?...
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new kid in town: DailyBooth
Launched this week: DailyBooth, ‘your life in pictures - your picture, your face, every day for years’.
Downer antediluvian moments aside, the concept is kinda cool: take a picture of something every day, over time, and see how it changes. Your face, the house you’re building, your precious infant->baby->toddler… it’s not un-interesting. But will it fly as a...
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twitter + good cause = twestival
Well it didn’t take long for those worlds to collide!
Twestival’s ‘tweet, meet and give’ happens tomorrow, 12 February. It’s a super-publicised day of real-life social events (in 175 cities!) for a good cause, and it all started on twitter. The aim: raise $1 million for charity:water.
I think this is a fascinating little experiment, and I’m really curious...
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trends in 09: humanize me
Prediction two: the most compelling and effective campaigns will be those which are most human, not necessarily those with the most recognizable brands.
I think campaigns for change tend to stick close to the brand of the organization in question — and for good reason. By developing credible, recognizable brands, charities and NGOs legitimize themselves as businesses, at least in the eyes...
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trends in 09: micro-size me
As far as concepts go, micro-credit is brilliant, but it’s not new. However, the re-angling of micro-credit’s Lilliputian lens from recipient to donor is relatively new, and it’s getting a lot of press:
Howard Lindzon calls 2009 the year of MicroGiving
The Huffington Post’s John Borthwick and Kenneth Lerer are welcoming a new era in fundraising
and the 2.0...