EVOKATION draft 1

OK, admittedly, that’s a bit vague, and a fairly large target – so for now let’s say those interested on the internet. The talks given by EVOKE agents were to be streamed online, live when possible, so that anyone with internet access would
be the place to attend. The talks were
also to be recorded and posted to the site so that they could be watched at anyone’s
leisure (E.g. if your time zone/schedule made it impossible to watch live). Once recorded and posted, people such as
educators would be able to bring them into places such as classrooms (as
several of the talks were given by youth).

The project is to first make a difference in the lives of those given a chance to share their story as well as those watching live

I may only be a teenager but there are others around my age on evoke. Of all the people are age in the world we are on evoke, and of all the people evoke - I'm
the only one who's me, obviously - but what makes me different, special and not
in an egotistical manner, is everything I've been through. I've got a lot to
offer, and my age or apparent mannerisms shouldn't be counted against
me.>>

Having the opportunity to impact the lives of 1000’s of viewers in a powerful experience will forever change the lives of those who have spoken. As I cannot emphasize
enough, the talks are inspiring and so benefit those watching

[I would like to give a talk on] how playing this game changed my life>>

By the human network, these talks will then be spread to peers and across the internet. Hopefully schools, for example, will eventually find the talks given by students, and use
them in the classroom.

The chart below summarizes the order of who I aim to effect.

In the spirit of the EVOKE power set, the central theme is Knowledge Share. The following chart shows both what speakers will develop, and what witnesses gain/learn.

Main Idea: To continue and expand the knowledge sharing aspect of EVOKE using technology

My project was to enable the most inspiring EVOKE agents to share their knowledge, live, over the internet, where viewers from all walks of life could watch. Because I had to
chance to pilot my idea, my ideal EVOKATION is slightly different from what
actually happened. In both cases, the
idea was vaguely modeled off of TED talks.
Ideally (and hopefully in the future), it would become part of the
official EVOKE summit, where the invited agents would have the opportunity to
give a talk at the conference that would be streamed live online, with a
recorded version posted shortly thereafter.
In practice, because we were piloting the idea, what happened was that during
May we streamed and posted one talk each day, with a marathon of talks being
posted as a final wrap up to the game. Each
talk was to be about 5-10 minutes, with the exact format left up to the
creativity of the speaker (E.G. if they wanted to include slides, visuals or a
demonstration they were welcome – but not asked – to).

Throughout the process we faced three obstacles:

A) How to select talks

B) What to do about speakers who lived in different time zones/lacked technology (no webcam, poor internet connection, etc)

C) How to attract viewers

A: My goal involved selecting the best possible agents and pieces of evidence to give talks, but sorting through the hundreds of thousands of blogs, photos and videos would quickly get tiring. Our solution was to examine the evidence and
agents considered to be the most inspiring by the EVOKE community (those on the
leaderboard/with the most categorical and overall power points). Furthermore, we created an application so
that those not on the leaderoard had the potential to be selected to give
talks.

B: As not everyone was in the same time zone, we looked at the areas where EVOKE agents were most concentrated – namely the US, Europe and Africa – and tried to find a time that allowed people of those areas to “attend” the
live stream. Additionally, we set up the
ability to post recorded versions of the talks so that all could ultimately
watch, regardless of their time zone. As
not everyone has access to the same technology, we set up several options for
giving talks, and worked with speakers to find the best way for them to share
their story. Potential methods included

· Live streamed

· Prerecorded talks sent to us to be posted

· Calling in (audio only) via Skype

C: The most difficult challenge was attracting viewers. Ideally, countless viewers would flock to the live streams. Practically, we choose to maximize live viewers while accepting that we might not get 100 viewers on a
given night. Instead, we hoped
the initial “attendees” would tell peers and through social networking, the
majority of views would watch the recorded versions of live talks at their
leisure. To get the most live and
prerecorded views, we posted on the official EVOKE blog, talked with many of
the leading agents and asked agents interested in speaking to spread the word.

This is where other similar projects failed – in attracting a significant amount of viewers. By offering both live and recorded talks, and taping into the social innovation
aspect of
EVOKE, we will hopefully succeed.

Noting that my EVOKATION was slightly different from what actually happened, I will show what A) I would ideally use the $1000 for and B) what I would have used it for in what happened.

A) My first $1000 would be used to purchase a video camera and other technology to stream and record the talks live from the EVOKE
summit. I would also purchase online
storage for the recorded talks and to enable agents not participating
within EVOKED to eventually post their own talks/evocation videos. Lastly, a small part would be used for
advertising on Google to drive more viewers to the site.

B) Going back in time, my first $1000 would again be spent on storage and advertising, but instead of purchasing one large
camera, we would purchase a number of webcams to enable all speakers to
communicate via a video and as a small thank you gift to the speakers.

Advertising: Using Google AdWords I would pay for the following keywords: EVOKE, EVOKED, EVOKE talks, EVOKE video, EVOKED video, EVOKED talks.
I would pay for up to $10 in clicks per day for 15 days leading up to
the video talks. Thus I would budget up
to $150 for advertising.

Webcams: We planned on streaming up to 17 talks, and I would first check with Logitech and Microsoft to see if they would sponsor EVOKED by giving free webcams or any
discount. If they agreed, I would
hopefully be able to send high quality webcams (ideally the Microsoft LifeCam
Cinema at 8 Megapixels for $48.77 on Amazon, the Logitech 2 MP C600 for
$80). If they offered to donate the
webcams in full price, I would only pay shipping, while if they offered a
discount I would pay up to $25 of the price plus shipping. Otherwise, I would provide the Microsoft
LifeCam VX-3000, which includes a 1.3 megapixel camera and microphone, works
with windows 7, vista and XP and is USB based.
On Amazon.com it costs $24.21, and assuming a flat shipping rate of $7,
I would budget $550 (the total actually comes out to $530, but I would leave
$20 for any extra shipping) for webcams.
Any money saved by a corporate sponsorship would be put into
advertising.

Professional Cameras: Again I would seek corporate sponsorship from a company, in this case hopefully Canon or JVC, in exchange for their logo to be in the lower right corner. As I would either be purchasing this setup or
the webcams, I would budget the same $550 to either purchase a camera or go
towards the purchase of a camera discounted by a company sponsorship. If no sponsorship was provided, I would
purchase the Cannon VIXIA HF R100 camera ($500 on Amazon). In a perfect situation, I’d also have a 2^nd
Camera for a 2^nd angle, for which I would use my own camera. Again, any money saved would be routed to
advertising.

Web Hosting: With the $300 I have left in either case, I’d purchase the Unlimited plan (that way other agents could post their own videos after the summit) available at GoDaddy for two years, at $11.24 a month for a
total of $270.

With the Remaining $30…I would either direct this towards extraneous shipping or advertising costs, or for the summit, providing refreshments (bottled water and possibly
cookies or a fruit tray) for the speakers.

Some concluding thoughts will follow, including a long message of thanks to all those who participated and helped. Perhaps some screenshots or transcripts as well,