You know about social media. You know that you’ve got to get on board with it for your organization, or for your own activist work. You may have even signed up for Twitter or Facebook already, but you don’t know where to start. What are the right tools to use? What do I say? Why are other people doing this? And, perhaps, most importantly: how the hell do I know if it’s working?!

View the full event page for the whole description and pricing information, and to register. We’re also offering scholarships for those in need.

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN.

Oh, and speaking of need, I should mention how this idea came about– a lot of people come to Jen Angel (of Aid & Abet) and I looking for a hands-on workshop, but can’t afford to bring me into their organization or event. This workshop will get folks who need it the most, working on the front lines, the skills they need without emptying their budgets.

Based on how things go in SF, I’ll be offering this boot camp in other cities (likely next up will be NYC and DC), and possibly online. If you’re interested helping to host one in other cities, please let us know– leave a comment below or send me an email. And, if you’re interested in bringing me to your organization for a group training or strategy session, drop Jen a line.

(Thanks to the Women’s Media Center for capturing this appearance.)

One of the things that I didn’t discuss in this segment–simply for the sake of time and to make a direct point–is that Internet access on its own will not significantly change anyone’s life. I have a whole chapter in my book about this; I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from that chapter:

On top of looking at the pure numbers, we also tend to take on a blunt-force-object view when it comes to Internet access and factors like economic status and education. We assume that if people just get “onto the web,” our problems of jobless- ness and lack of education will be solved. Unfortunately, such a one-dimensional view is not true, nor is it helpful for problem solving. As [Josh] Breitbart notes: “From reading some reports, you might forget that poverty preceded the Internet. You might think that getting poor people online would magically make them wealthy.” Addressing the problems of Internet access and its relationship to societal and structural challenges requires us to understand their interdependent relationship.

The chapter then goes on to explore the work of people like Estzer Hargittai; I go on to summarize:

So, beyond providing access, we must take on the challenge of figuring out how to ensure that those online, with all of the different social and class elements involved, are developing sophisticated skills for getting the most out of the Internet. (And to those doing this work: Note that it’s not just a matter of making sure the have-nots can do what the haves do; Breitbart points out, “[It] means, instead of trying to get people to use the Internet the way that we use it currently, we should be trying to adapt the Internet to work for more people.”)

June 3-4: Personal Democracy Forum, New York City. This is one of my favorite conferences all year because it’s one of the few that blend many worlds well together: Technology, electoral politics, advocacy politics and cultural analysis. I’m giving a 10-minute talk on Thursday, June 3, that will (definitively!) answer the question: “Can the Internet fix politics?” Muwahaha. Other luminaries on the speaking roster include Howard Rheingold, Clay Shirky, Cheryl Contee, Jane Hamsher, Arianna Huffington, Esther Dyson, Anil Dash and many, many more. Register today — I’ve got a code to give you $100 off the registration; just email me and ask for it.

June 7-9: America’s Future Now, Washington DC. A yearly pilgramage to DC for progressives, where we talk strategy and tactics for challenging the right-wing agenda. I’ll be moderating a workshop on Tuesday morning, June 8, on social networking with Toby Chaudhuri, and we’ve actually turned it into a gameshow format: Social Media Jeopardy! Contestants will be Lizz Winstead, Garlin Gilchrist II, Scott Goodstein and Heather Holdridge. Also, Monday night, June 7, will see the DC launch of my book, thanks to Toby and Scott of Revolution Messaging, who are throwing me a killer party. Wooooo! Register today for all the goods.

June 9-11: Making Media Connections, Chicago, IL. I’m thrilled to be keynoting this gathering of non-profit communicators, put together by the Community Media Workshop. This year’s theme is “Storytelling and Strategy in the Digital Age,” which hits home strong for me– it’s through our stories that we have always made change, and our shiny new digital tools give us unprecedented capabilities to tell them. Register today for this amazing conference. (PS — That Friday night, June 11, I’ll be reading at Women & Children First, and having a party afterwards nearby.)

I’m pleased as punch to be speaking at this conference/show next week — should be a rollicking good time, with a stellar lineup of really interesting speakers. I’ll be talking about what dissent, muckraking and diversity really mean for the businesses of the future, which has been a nice challenge for me to write. Video clips will be posted once I have them!

(note: You can look at the slides and text here; here’s the video.)

A week and a half ago, I received an email asking me if I’d be willing to do an Ignite talk for the March 4 NYC event, part of Global Ignite Week. If you’re not familiar with Ignite, here’s the deal: You have 5 minutes to give your talk; you create a PowerPoint presentation to go with the talk, but here’s the kicker: You must do 20 slides, and the slides will advance automatically every 15 seconds. Talk about creative restraint inspiration! Not only is it an amazing challenge and a great place to flex your speaker muscles, but the Ignite platform also reaches far and wide into multiple communities, and can be a huge opportunity to reach lots of audiences with your message. Was I up for it? Sure.

Then the panic set in. Oh my God, what I have I signed myself up for?

Tikva Morowati, one of the organizers of the event, said she needed my topic and description by later that day. Yeep. I knew I would have a hard time getting this all together on my own, so, like any good social citizen, I went to my community. First thing I did was email a listserv I belong to, where I knew many of the women had given Ignite talks before, for advice. The takeaways:

• Practice. A lot. 5 minutes goes by fast, but those 15 seconds go by faster.
• Don’t use the slides to make your point. They can add humor, etc., but as the organizers say: they should be icing.
• Leave padding for both your own potential stumble and laughs/heckling.
• Know your audience. Igniters tend to come, at least in NYC, from the tech/startup community.
• Be smart. Don’t dumb anything down.

Next thing I did was beg the most entertaining stage performer I know, Baratunde Thurston, to spend a few minutes with me that day. I needed a crash course in both topic generation — how to create a message that was going to be true to how seriously I take my work, and be engaging/fun — as well as pointers on how to set up the talk itself. He generously took time to have a little lunch and run through some ideas. His advice? Make sure you tell a story people can insert themselves into. Also, consider giving counter examples to what you want to illustrate.

I knew I wanted to talk about how social networks are shifting our cultural consciousness, a huge chunk of what I cover in Share This!. Baratunde and I came up with the idea to base it around a pop song, make that the hook of the talk. On my way home from our meeting, I scrolled through my iPod looking for songs, and landed on, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”

Of course! The Muppets! And who better to be my model social citizen than Kermit himself?

I quickly drafted a title — “What Would Kermit Do? How Being a Muppet on Social Networks Can Change the World” — and a description, and got to work on the actual talk. Now, a word about my prep: I’m a recovering overachiever. I was that kid in school that would do the most outrageous OCD acts to learn material and concepts inside out– think Tracy Flick for academics. I’ve been in recovery for a number of years now, but Ignite made me relapse. (In a good way, I hope.)

Melissa Pierce, who’s making an unbelievably awesome film called “Life In Perpetual Beta,” offered to bounce ideas around with me. I can’t stress enough how much the buddy system helped, here–throughout the process, every panic was eased by checking in quickly with my buddy. She sent me this great video, “Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk,” which stresses storytelling as the basis of every talk.

I looked up how many words a 5-minute talk was, and most sources agreed that it was somewhere around 700-800 words. So, I drafted a 750-word piece around what I wanted to say. Melissa and I moved things around a bit, and then I set to timing myself reading the whole piece and editing it until it was just under 5 minutes. Then, I timed out where the 15 second breaks roughly were, and broke up the talk in my document editor.

Then came the fun part. I knew that I wanted the visuals to be strong, and the words to be few. Thus, I set about to watching the Muppet Movie (which was the focal point for the whole talk) and finding stills that would work for each slot. Because I knew the movie inside out (I’m talkin’, nearly word for word), this part was easy. Once the stills were gathered, I dropped them all in Photoshop and added the text for each–I don’t like the way PowerPoint does text; Photoshop gives me much more control. All in all, this part probably took me 6-7 hours.

I also landed on doing the idea of a tshirt — playing off the “Jesus is my homeboy” meme, I created “Kermit is my homeboy.” The kind people at Neighborhoodies.com, just up the way in DUMBO Brooklyn, let me know they could have it printed by Wednesday. Yay!

The overachiever then kicked into high gear. This was a technique that I’ve used to memorize all kinds of things since I was probably 10 or 11 years old– scripts for acting roles, texts for oral exams, you name it. I made an MP3 of me reading the talk, and started listening to it whenever I could. On the train, walking around, etc. But the craziest part, which really seems to work for me, is that I listened to it on loop while I slept every night, from Monday to Wednesday nights.

I spent most of my waking practice time–probably an hour each day this week–trying to memorize the talk without looking at the presentation or my script. I made 20 index cards with 3-4 keywords to help me keep going when I’d start to stumble, and each time, I found myself using the cards less. By Wednesday, I was able to get through most of it on the train. Over Wednesday evening, I started measuring it with the presentation timing, and it was pretty much spot-on. Doing that part over and over showed me where I was likely to run long, and where I had room to futz. I even made myself a cocktail and practiced it a little buzzed, just in case I went on stage last.

Thursday, I had a whirlwind day of other speaking gigs, so I didn’t get that much time to practice during the day. The hour or so before the show, though, I went over to the Bowery Poetry Club. I used to work there, so as long as there’s no one using the stage, friends are sort of allowed to use it for unofficial practice space. This helped me get used to the lights, as well as the distractions of people walking around, talking, etc., through my spiel.

By the time I arrived at Galapagos, my brain was pretty much fried and I found it impossible to keep practicing. Thus, I unleashed my nervous energy being super chatty with my fellow speakers (thanks to Noel and Andy for humoring me, heh). I also found out I was going on first– this panicked me initially, but then I realized I could (a) get it over with, and (b) not have to worry about following someone truly spectacular. (And whew, because there were some rockstars last night!)

Then, the big moment came, and there I was onstage. Once it got going, I was shocked to find it rolling out of my mouth. I worry that it sounded *too* rehearsed at times, but mostly, I’m really pleased with how I did. People laughed at the things I hoped they would, and many have reported back that they really enjoyed it. Looking forward to sharing the video with you all!

At the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics… this was one of the coolest feelings ever. Highly recommended!

(If I’m not on live, then it’ll just show a white screen… look at older clips here)

John S. Hall — Sensitive Artist & Nancy Pelosi:

John S. Hall — Jesus Was Way Cool:

John S. Hall — About the guy from Orleans + Daily Negations:

You’re in luck: I’m part of a huge book release event down at the Bowery — cuz I’m in the book! “Bowery Women” comes out on Friday, and this ain’t yer mama’s poetry, kids. And to reflect that, we’re throwing a huge shindig that’s FREE and has 2-for-1 DRINK SPECIALS. Dang… no better deal than that. Extra special bonus: you’ll see me on stage! Reading things! Performing!

Details on the party and the book are below; hope to see yas there. Oh, and please feel free to spread the word, far and wide!

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Date: Friday, November 10, 2006
Time: 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
Location: Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (bet. Bleecker and Houston) New York, NY
Contact: 212-614-0505
Admission: Free admission, 2 for 1 drinks
Web Site: www.myspace.com/bowerywomen
Amazon.com page

Program: An all-star group of poets will read in a fast-moving ensemble piece with music and multimedia elements.

From the editorial note: “So here you go, seventy-six women poets who’ve all read at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. One poet, one poem, one photo, that’s the recipe for this book. Poets were asked to send their Greatest Hit. (One poet wrote a wonderful Letter of Opposition about how you cannot reduce an oeuvre to a unit: I wish we had room to print it!) We look on this book as an introduction–a go-to starting point for the women who helped open the gates to the Academy of the Future of 21st Century Poetry. This is book so revolutionary and patterned by today’s time, the editors decided to alphabetize the poets by first names because computers do it that way and who says that patronyms win all the time anyway? So who’s your fave? Just remember to look for her by first name…”

Participating poets: Amy Ouzoonian, Ann Enzminger with A Brief View of the Hudson, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Cynthia Kraman, Deanna Zandt, Donna Masini, Elaine Equi, Elinor Nauen, Fay Chiang, Gabriella Santoro, Jan Heller Levi, Janet Hamill, Jennifer Blowdryer, Kathryn Fazio, Kristin Prevallet, Leticia Viloria, Liz Maher, Lynne Procope, Maggie Dubris, Marie Howe, Marjorie Tesser, Marty McConnell, Mary Reilly, Melissa Christine Goodrum, Nancy Mercado, O'Debra Twins , Patricia Smith, Radhiya Ayobami, Regina Cabico, Sarah Herrington, Seren Divine, Simone Gorrindo, Suheir Hammad, Tara Betts, Tsaurah Litzky, Vicki Hudspith. Hosted by Bob Holman and Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz.

Sponsors: The event is sponsored by Bowery Books, which is an imprint of Bowery Arts & Science, Ltd, a nonprofit organization seeking to preserve and enhance the oral tradition of poetry and to restore poetry to the center of our culture. Bowery Books gratefully acknowledges funding by New York State Council on the Arts.

This is the 3rd book in a series which also includes Taylor Mead’s “A Simple Country Girl” and “Bowery Bartenders’ Big Book of Poems” featuring Shappy, Moonshine Shorey, Laurel Barclay and Gary Glazner.

On Monday, October 16th, he will read with musical accompaniment from Dogbowl at St. Mark’s Poetry Project; poet Aaron Kiely will also read. On Thursday, November 9th, Hall will perform with musicians Dogbowl and Sasha Forte at the Bowery Poetry Club; poet Penny Rimbaud will also take the stage that night. Full details are below.

The book is a response to vapid, feel-good self help books that offer platitudes in response to human suffering. “Daily Negations” features a negative thought for every day of the year, and is intended to be of no help whatsoever to anyone.  The performances, which will hopefully placate Hall’s publisher, promise to be spectacles of mediocrity.

SHOW DETAILS

Mon., 10/16, 8pm
John S. Hall with Dogbowl
also featuring Aaron Kiely
St. Mark’s Poetry Project
131 E. 10th St., at 2nd Avenue
http://www.poetryproject.com
$TBD

Thu., 11/9, 7pm
John S. Hall with Dogbowl, Sasha Forte
also featuring Penny Rimbaud
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, b/w Bleecker and Houston
http://www.bowerypoetry.com
$TBD

More information is available at http://www.myspace.com/johnshall.
Book information is available at http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-933368-45-4

ABOUT JOHN S. HALL

John S. Hall’s band King Missile was dropped from Atlantic Records in 1994, after having recorded 3 albums, two of which were not very successful at all. King Missile has made several independent records that are widely unknown, and toured the country several times to nearly empty nightclubs. This is John’s second book with Soft Skull, because he couldn’t get a better publisher after his first book. He lives (if you can call it that) in New York.

Directed by Saint Reverend Jen Miller (www.revjen.com) and shot/edited by Kat Fitzgerald, the video — an alternative version commissioned by Moby on a well-spent shoestring budget — features cameos from downtown Art Stars and their cohorts, as well as reenactments of classic debauchery at favorite venues. The director will be in attendance at the premiere.

Details:
Sunday, Sept. 24th @ 9pm
Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction
34 Avenue A, between 2nd & 3rd Sts.
www.faceboy.com
www.mopitkins.com
$4 admission; no drink minimum (as always!)
Sign-up for open mike is by lottery and begins promptly at 9pm; 8 minutes per performer

ABOUT FACEBOY

A lifelong New Yorker, Francis “Faceboy” Hall is a talented actor, producer and activist who has been participating in the New York City arts community for over twenty years. He has appeared in hundreds of original stage productions and several films, including Robert Downey Sr.’s “Too Much Sun.” In addition to his performance talents, he has taught at the Judson Memorial Church and spent twelve years developing statewide standards for preventing abuse and neglect of people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. He strongly believes that the vitality of New York rests on the strength of its arts community and counter-culture.

ABOUT MO PITKIN’S

Mo Pitkin’s is a local joint that showcases the East Village at its best–with four different rooms on two floors, there’s a spot at Mo’s for everyone. Curl up in the dining room’s plush banquettes for Judeo-Latino cooking (like Paella Maranno or the Cuban Reuben), plus steaks, burgers, and the EV’s best rotisserie chicken; or sidle up to the century-old bar for tap beer, deep shots and special drinks like the Absolute Egg Cream and the Orange Gin Julius. Upstairs at Mo’s, check out an amazing array of performers in the 65 seat cabaret, or use Sadie’s Hideaway to either book a private party, or relax with a bird’s eye view of Avenue A. Wherever you go at Mo’s, you’ll find the same neighborhood-friendly vibe as the owners’ previous places, the Great Jones CafÆ’© and Two Boots Restaurant and Pizzerias. East Village-owned and operated, and named for an eclectic cousin who tried to assassinate Hitler (says he!), Mo Pitkin’s aims to carry on the neighborhood’s great tradition of artists and immigrants, rebels and dreamers, all living, working and eating together in a gritty, asphalt paradise that we call home.

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Without further adieu, episode 1!