Pop Culture Warriors: How Online Fan Communities Are Organizing to Save the World
Presenters
- Eddie Geller
Open Source Democracy Foundation
Eddie Geller is the founder and president of the Open Source Democracy Foundation. With a single post to reddit.com, Eddie galvanized thousands of Internet users to form a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing issues that its members deem most pressing. Their first issue: Net Neutrality.
At the end of 2010, the OSDF teamed up with the SavetheInternet.com Coalition to deliver 2 million signatures to the FCC in support of real Net Neutrality. This year, the OSDF delivered more than 1,000 hand-crafted Valentines to the Senate to lobby their cause.
Eddie and the OSDF have been featured in The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post, and on Gawker and Mashable. When not leading the charge for political action, Eddie is an actor and comedian in Los Angeles, though he finds the prospect of a tiered Internet anything but funny.
- Elana Levin
Communications Director, WGA-East
Elana Levin is director of communications for the Writers Guild of America, East, a labor union that represents professional writers working in film, television, digital media and radio.
Elana was assistant director of communications for New Media for the SEIU affiliate Workers United, and before that, UNITE HERE. She ran communications for the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy where she launched the popular DMIBlog. She is a co-Founder of Organizing 2.0, a group that leads workshops on online tools and strategy for grassroots organizers. Elana has done everything from press relations to organizing for unions, community groups and has worked many New York primary elections while keeping some of her personal belongings intact.
- Erik Martin
- Andrew Slack
Harry Potter Alliance
Andrew Slack is creator, co-founder and executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance, which uses parallels from the Harry Potter series to inspire more than 100,000 Harry Potter fans to act as heroes in our world. With its 80 chapters and 50 volunteer staff, the HPA has sent five cargo planes to Haiti, donated more than 55,000 books to communities in need, come in first place for $250,000 in the Chase Bank Community Giving contest, and made profound contributions to the anti-genocide, LGBTQ and media reform movements. Praised by JK Rowling and Paul Farmer, the HPA has been covered by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and featured on NPR, CNN.com and elsewhere.
In January 2010, Andrew was recognized by the Huffington Post as the "Greatest Person of the Day" for his innovative approach to activism. In his former career as a comedian, Andrew performed at hundreds of colleges across the United States and produced three videos that have been seen more than 10 million times.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Andrew is dedicated to learning and extrapolating how modern myth, popular culture and social media can elevate the human condition.
- Crissy Spivey
Multimedia Manager, Breakthrough
Crissy Spivey is the Multimedia Manager of the human rights organization, Breakthrough (www.breakthrough.tv) and has been producing web content and coordinating web outreach and programs at Breakthrough for five years. She is also a writer during off hours. Prior to working on the web, Crissy worked in documentary production at Court TV.
Video
Audio
- When
- Saturday, April 9, 11:00am - 12:30pm
- Where
- Beacon Hill 2-3
map (pdf) - Track
- Technology and Innovation
More than a million members of the Harry Potter Alliance, “an army of fans, activists, nerdfighters, teenagers, wizards and muggles,” are inspired by the values represented in the Harry Potter series to fight for social justice. Together, they’ve worked to make real change in the world.
Last year, Los Angeles comedian and Reddit user Eddie Geller started a “reddit” (a new topic section on the site) devoted to Internet issues like Net Neutrality. Soon after, the new section lit up with other reddit users wanting to band together to fight for Net Neutrality. The Open Source Democracy Foundation – a grassroots organization, comprised mostly of Reddit users – was born.
In recent years, dozens of online communities built on shared affinities (fan communities, gamers, etc.) have realized that they have the power to make change offline. The participants in this panel will discuss how online communities built around common interests like Harry Potter, online games, social bookmarking and general nerdiness have realized their strength, and focused their energies on charities and social and political causes. In addition, they will discuss why the open Internet and networked culture are uniquely suited to such group actions, and what lessons we have learned about how to organize future efforts.
