Advancing the medium of change for a better future, sooner. About us, what we're about, and what we do.

1. Advancing the medium of change

2. our context
Deep down, we all want a future where we are safe. Where
we have enough to eat. Where we belong. A future where
what we do is meaningful and makes the world better for
ourselves, for each other, and for the future. A future that’s
shared by all.
Through industry and information we’ve become powerful.
But somehow, that future is no nearer. Instead we’re finding
we’ve pushed our planet and society to the limit. We’re
finding our trajectory is unsustainable.

3. our future
We are in a time of transition. Our future is shaped by what
we do next.
A growing movement of change is responding. It is easing
and accelerating our transition to a future we want. It comes
from people coming together to make the world better. In
little ways. In big ways. In many ways.
And now, more than ever, we see that in every way, this
movement is powered by the medium of change.

4. the medium of change
Data Interaction Infrastructure Devices
an emerging system of social technologies
that bring people together
more people ➜ making more change ➜ for a better future ➜ sooner

5. it’s changing us
•Now over 1.5 •Governor
People Coming Schwarzenegger
billion internet Together responded to
users + 4 billion
individual ‘tweets’,
mobile subscribers
enables publicly,
•45% of people in spontaneously, from
developing world
his BlackBerry
are mobile
subscribers Medium •In the last 2 months
more original
•By 2020 mobile will of
content was posted
be primary internet Change
on YouTube than
device disrupts changes the major networks
•If Facebook were a Systems Culture could have
country it would be of our and broadcast since ’48.
the 4th largest in
the world.
Society Mindset •Ambient intimacy?
•Common ground?
From news to politics the medium is having profound implications. In the aftermath of the Iran
elections in 2009, the US State Department treated Twitter as an essential public service, asking
them to delay scheduled maintenance. Shortly after Time declared it the medium of the movement.

6. it’s changing change
Engagement Action
from centralized to distributed from controlled to self-organized
Obama charity: water #hohoto Haiti Relief
my.barackobama.com enabling practical and spontaneous peer- enabled through sms and
enabled 2m participants creative fundraising and produced event in support common web services:
which led to: providing direct connection of Toronto’s Daily Bread • Wikipedia page created
• 35,000 volunteer groups to projects on the ground: Food Bank within seconds
• 70,000 fundraising pages • give up a birthday gift, • 18d from idea to event • Facebook served as
• $500m raised from 3m jump out of a plane - • no single leader information source
donors making 6.5m fundraising made easy • >dozen primary around missing people
donations • through Twestival 1,000 volunteers • RedCross SMS campaign
• 200,000 offline events volunteers and 10,000 • sold out 600+ attendance raised $7m within 24h
• 2b emails donors raised $250k • >$25k raised • Virtually every online
• 3m phone calls online in through 202 events • over 2t food donated service became donation
last 4 days globally on Feb 12, 2009 gateway.
Awareness
from structured to emergent
Ushahidi Twitter
“The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone Through Twitter, people become aware of disasters and
to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and events before the mainstream media or conventional
visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create channels can report it. For example, Twitter is able to
the simplest way of aggregating information from the identify earthquake activity before any other public
public for use in crisis response.” source. People are the very sensors of change.

7. what are we waiting for?
• let’s understand its potential
Research is valuable and necessary. It’s beginning to happen
but it can’t keep pace. How can we speed it up? How can we
weave it into what’s happening today?
• let’s build it better
The medium is being built around us right now. Built in the
private interest it’s not optimized for public benefit. What
infrastructure, protocols, applications amplify its potential?
• let’s apply it more deeply
It’s changing us and changing change. But what does it mean
for specific communities and issues? How can we apply it to
most accelerate change case by case?

8. who’s working on it?
intervention
advance apply
community

9. how we’re doing it
ChangeMedium Intersections
Facilitated sessions that help ecosystems of social change
understand and employ social technology for a better future, sooner.
Partnering with foundations, ChangeMedium facilitates iterative
advances in understanding about the implications of the medium
around specific impact areas. By engaging stakeholders, researchers,
and developers we also generate specific, actionable opportunities
to apply the medium for change in that area.
Currently in development, this process will be a rapid, repeatable
process that can be deployed around any issue in any location. The
collective inputs and outputs will be designed to be shared and
contribute to a living resource of the implications and opportunities
in the medium for a better future, sooner.

10. who we are
• Core Team • Thanks
Michael Lewkowitz (t | li) Peter Flaschner (t | li)
entrepreneur, igniter design
Ryan Coleman (t | li) Joseph Dee (t | li)
information designer, facilitator development
• Steering Committee SiG@Waterloo
research outreach
Duncan Holmes (t | bio)
President, ICA Associates SiG@MaRS
“Institute for Cultural Affairs” #cmToronto
Tim Draimin (t | li)
Executive Director, SiG
• Hosted by
“Social Innovation Generation” Tides Canada Foundation
James Walker (t | li)
Open standards advocate and
developer, Shouldless + Status.net

11. we’re ready for you
We call the emerging ecosystem of social technologies “the
medium of change”. We believe it is changing us and
changing change in ways that will ease and accelerate our
transition to the future we want.
We facilitate initiatives among researchers, developers , and
changemakers to advance and apply the medium for a better
future, sooner. We are ChangeMedium.
Get in touch, to host or take part in our next Intersection.

12. For a better future, sooner.
Contact:
Michael Lewkowitz
michael@igniter.com
519.200.3034
ChangeMedium.org