Hey Folks,

We just returned from a weekend in Palo Alto. A friend of ours at the Standford D school invited us out to learn about design thinking and solving problems in a human centered way. Revolutionizing the way people reach solutions and bringing empathy to the forefront of this process, they use a method of radical collaboration to stimulate innovation. It was challenging to say the least.

We know that we have a story to tell. That we have to reach the world with our voices and inspire action. But it’s only through empathy, with love and an enormous amount of courage that we will succeed. And if it’s anything but radically innovative we haven’t done it right.

Read on my friends!

Brittany

Congo Sets Date for 2011 Election

Skepticism surrounds the upcoming election in the Congo as President Kabila finally sets the date. “Opposition senator Moise Nyarugabo said Tuesday the constitution requires presidential polls to be held 90 days before the end of the president’s term. The Nov. 27 election date announced late Monday is less than a month before the end of President Joseph Kabila’s term in December 2011.” READ MORE (Boston Globe).

Supply of Tantalum Stretched Thin, Prices May Boom

“The recent passing of the ‘conflict minerals’ bill in the US has spiked interest in tantalum mined outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo. With the continuing rise in demand for high tech tantalum-containing products , and the supply of the metal decreasing, the end result is naturally rising prices.” READ MORE ( Resource Investigating News).

This fall Falling Whistles is hitting the road.

Stopping in 28 cities across the nation to create a countrywide coalition for peace in Congo.

Our Goals:

EDUCATE
The first step in creating change is to create understanding. This tour aims to
share the story of Falling Whistles and the realities of the war in the Congo one
classroom, storefront or community space at a time.

DISSEMINATE
The second step is to use understanding in order to foster action. Reaching new,
greater audiences, this tour aims to build communities of whistleblowers across
the country, empowered and working toward peace.

We’re looking for regional partners in the following cities on the following dates to help us host our first widespread National tour; PEACE IS THE NEW FRONTIER

Our Dates:

Seattle - September 7-8

Portland - September 9-10
 

San Francisco - September 11-14

Los Angeles - September 15

San Diego - September 16-19

Phoenix - September 20

Dallas - September 21-23

 
New Orleans - September 24-26

 
Memphis - September 27-29

 
Nashville - September 30- October 4

Columbus - October 5- 7

Chicago - October 8-10
 

Toronto - October 11-15
 

Boston - October 16-19
 

Providence - October 20-23

 
New York City - October 24-31

 
Philadelphia - November 1-4

Baltimore - November 5-7

DC - November 8-13

 
Richmond - November 14

Charleston- November 15-17

Greenville November 18-20

Raleigh - November 21-23

Asheville - November 27-28

Atlanta - November 29 - December 5

Miami - December 6-10

If you are interested in hosting an event in one of these cities contact Jen Jones.

(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

After observing that most visitors to MOMA and the Met hated their audio headphones—bad information, interrupted socializing and annoying technology—a group of students from Parsons decided to re-design the experience. They created a prototype iPhone app called The Museum: A New Social Experience, combining exhibition images, detailed information about the works, links to expert video conversations and consumer comments. Use it while you’re there, share it with your friends, and return to the exhibition forever after. The 19, 20 and 21-year-olds designed a better learning experience than a generation of museum designers.  My thought? If they could only be empowered to design a new university….
A month before, I saw another student group design an SMS-based drug inventory system for African villages that gave local people power over far-away bureaucrats and politicians. For the first time, they had the information and the platform to pull into their villages life-saving HIV drugs. My thought? If they could only design a new health system….
So here’s a radical thought: Let’s push the Boomers off the stage of power, skip the Xers who still don’t get it, and go directly to the one generation with the tools, the ambition and the capability to remake the US and reverse its global decline. Let’s empower Gen Y now.
This move is more rational that it might seem for two reasons. First, we are all deeply, truly screwed. John Seeley Brown calls it a unique historical moment of constant, cascading change. Each of us in every job in every industry is living a life of institutional meltdown and career shift. I left media as it demassed and disintegrated, and became part of the education system just as it too begins to demass and disintegrate. Health? Business? The same. Social media technology, the rise and fall of nations, global urbanization and warming are rocking everyone’s world. Navigating through this new uncertainty, creating new pathways to economic growth and designing new, meaningful careers is the big challenge ahead for us individually and as a nation.

Second, Gen Y is the first generation steeped in Design Thinking, the paradigm that can guide us through these treacherous times. Gen Y is a Search-Learn-Share-Make demographic cohort. Thank Apple, Google, Facebook and Title IX (women’s sports). Gen Y was born into the culture of innovation and has internalized its ritualized behavior and belief system. It’s normal for Gen Yers to go into unknown spaces and search for understanding and answers. It’s normal for Gen Yers to generate new options, play with them, make them better or discard them.  They have been creating new identities and play-acting “what ifs” online for years. They’ve been disaggregating and remixing music and images into something new all their lives.

Gen Yers know how to visualize data, stuff and experiences. They grew up on “their” platform, Facebook, collaborating and networking. Unlike Boomers who are immigrants to social media technology and have to force themselves into innovative behaviors, Gen Yers do it naturally. And much, much better.
Plus, Gen Yers have the right values.  They are serious, ambitious and socially conscious. They do give a damn. Working for the Acumen Fund or the Gates Foundation or Teach for America is a big priority for this generation.  There were 46,000 applicants from graduating seniors for Teach for America jobs in 2010—8% of the senior classes of Princeton and Wellesley. It’s part of their CV.  Sustainability is a given, not a choice.
The big surprise is that the same social forces that forced design to evolve into Design Thinking have transformed an entire generation. Millions of people now have the tools and behaviors to design a better society. America has birthed a new “as if…” generation ready, able and perfectly willing to create something new.
We need something new, especially in Corporate America. The current generation of boomer CEOs and top managers has done a dismal job over the past decade. Strip away the massive debt, the house asset bubble and tax cuts for the top 5% and the US has generated zero private income growth per capita over the past 10 years. It has been a lost decade, just like Japan’s, without anyone really admitting it.

I talked at the recent DMI conference in San Francisco, and the theme was Rethinking the Future of Design. For most of the first day, the conversation was about how designers needed to learn the language and culture of business to make managers understand the power of innovation. It was the same conversation I heard a decade ago. The same two dozen company CEOs “get it,” plus a few new ones, and the rest still don’t.
It’s really time for this failed generation to get off the stage. The Boomers can’t solve the problems created by their own destructive consumption, individual narcissism,  technological immaturity and managerial incompetence.  But they can use their residual institutional authority to move aside, skip a generation and empower Gen Yers directly. Instead of Gen Y playing the role of intern to the Boomers, flip it.
Sure the Xers will whine but they will follow (they always do). And deep down, they’ll feel relieved of the burden of responsibility and embrace the irony of their losing out (once again).
Forget twenty-somethings teaching social media to Boomers. Instead, have the Boomers teach the art of authority and the context of competition to Gen Yers. Take a year, take two, to co-lead, co-create, collaborate and cohabit positions of power. Then leave. If we can flip the generations in corporations, cities, politics and the military, it will revive American society in one smart move.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1661824/f-the-boomers-screw-the-x-ers-give-gen-y-power-now

Hey Folks,

It was 1 in the morning when I left the office last night. After a 12 hour work day we all gathered together to knock out the details of our upcoming fall tour. 16 of us curled up on donated couches, sipping coffee and red bull to keep our lids from closing, and we put everything on the table. Because we are dreamers, because we don’t know what else could possibly make sense, because we are young, because we believe in each other and in our ability to create a countrywide coalition for peace in Congo. Because this is the only way.

We are a month away from taking this dream to the streets. If you want in any way to be a part of this adventure, email us at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to find out if we are coming to your city!

Read on!

Brittany

Humans Versus Animals in a Conflict Zone

The Virunga National Park in North Kivu contains more species of birds, mammals and reptiles than any other protected area on the planet and yet it lies in the middle of the largest war zone in the world. And while the parks animals are protected by national laws, many locals feel as if the animals protection comes at the cost of their livelihood. “There are many ways to protect the animals,” he said. “But we are really struggling to cultivate the soil.” READ MORE (All Africa).

Re-Thinking Sexual Violence

Most people hear about sexual violence towards women. Especially in Congo where rape is used as a weapon of war and has for so long determined the fate of these children, mothers, sisters, and aunts. But according to a recent study, it isn’t just women who are on the victim side of rape. “We can no longer think that sexual violence is just violence against women perpetrated by men, it is about everybody,” said Lawry. READ MORE (All Africa).

Check out the article here!