Inspiration #2: 4 Spots to find inspiring communal interaction around the web.

First: Sorry for the delay.  I started writing this post about two months ago.  I think it is just as relevant today, though, so here you go.

When I started writing, I had just arrived in Seattle — the first time I’d ever been.  I sat at a Tully’s coffeeshop soaking in my first walk through downtown.  I received more smiles and was approached by more activists than in any other city I’d ever been to.  

The people and community in Seattle were already inspiring me.

If you keep up my posts, you know that this theme of being inspired by people and communal interaction is a pretty consistent thing for me.  When everything else is dull, strike up a conversation; watch someone; meet someone new.  People will always be dynamic, original, and inspiring.  We’re fundamentally relational creatures, whether we like it or not, and community — our collection of relationships with other individuals around us — is the only thing that will constantly be new, exciting, fruitful, and inspiring.

So, this “Inspiration” post is dedicated towards people, community, and human interactions at their most inspiring from around the web.  Have your own additions?  Plug ‘em in the comments below!

 

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1. Twitter. — Ok, ok.  This is a little blah.  And really, you could insert just about any status feed for different online social networks you want —I think all the new potential connectedness online is inspiring.  Twitter, though, has something special: the ability to speak communally to everyone simultaneously.  That is, everyone who is listening (following).  If you’re following someone on Twitter, you probably already think they are inspiring.  Just go check out some of their recent tweets if you need inspiration.  Don’t know what Twitter is yet?  Well — I’ll be posting later this week on the whole micro-blogging phenomenon (Twitter and friends).  But that might be too far away.  Don’t get left in the dust — go sign up for twitter right now, and don’t forget to follow me.

   Case Study:  Need an inspiring story about Twitter?  They are all over, but one of the early ones which caught my attention is about a UCLA grad student who was arrested in Egypt and twittered his way out of jail.  Here’s the story over at CNN.

   What’s happening Now? Well, pretty much everything.  But if you really want something inspiring, go check out Twistori: one of the most inspiring applications on the Twitter API.  Based on the summize engine (which recently became Twitter Search) it uses some dynamic AJAX scripting to constantly display (in gorgeous colors) the latest public tweets for one of 6 options: Love, Hate, Think, Believe, Feel, or Wish.  It’s a beautiful thing to watch what the world communally says to itself through twitter.
    

2. Pika Pika Light Graffiti — Pika Pika is, to the best of my knowledge, a collaborative light graffiti (or lightning doodle) animation project organized online.  The results are stunningly beautiful.

   Case Study: I know it’s in Japanese, but scroll through the link for some vids, or check out my favorite Pika Pika production here. 

   What’s Happening Now?  Since Light Graffiti really made it big a couple years ago, it has been inspiring millions of viewers ALL over the web, and Pika Pika makes the list for its insanely large and continual community involvement.  As of this post, the last PIKA PIKA video posted was from only a week ago, and the projects just keep getting bigger, and more viral in their scope.  I can’t wait to see their next work of art!
    

3. Welcome Home L.A. — Before we move off of the “light” art vibe, I can’t help but mention Welcome Home L.A.  This project was made possible by online promotion, and resulted in a tremendously inspiring art day and video on November 16th.  

   Case Study: Check out the video directly here.  The project successfully (and gorgeously) brought awareness to the huge homeless problem in L.A., while showing those thousands of people (actually 254,000 people) that they haven’t been forgotten by everyone.  

   What’s Happening Now? Since Welcome Home L.A. was a one time project we can’t expect much more out of them, but the parent project, WhatIF?, is still active and creating beautiful new experiments in interactivity, online/offline collaboration, and social awareness.  
    

4. BlogActionDay.org — This is another project started by web-omnipresent Collis Ta’eed (Envato, PSDTuts, Flashden, etc).  The premise is simple: get as many bloggers as possible to blog about a call to action over some communal issue.  Those blog posts will then, in theory, inspire the millions of readers they reach to make a difference.  

   Case Study: In 2007 over 20,000 blogs and 23,000 blog posts reached nearly 15,000,000 RSS readers (which means the actual viewing was probably closer to 25,000,000), calling up action over the issue of the environment.  Tutorials on saving energy, encouragement to walk or ride bikes instead of driving, and overviews of the latest green technologies were all posted several times over, and undoubtedly had a HUGE impact.

5. What’s Happening Now?  2008 is the year for poverty awareness.  The big day is October 15th.  I’m already signed up.  Head on over right now and sign yourself up!

Tags: community, inspiration

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Indie Life, design, favorites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.