UP | uncultured project

The tl;dr version: World Vision is the first charity to genuinely engage with the YouTube community. We need to support this – but we also need to make it clear we have more to offer than just vlogs.

I’ve also said the same thing in more detail (and with examples) in this video:

During my time away from Bangladesh, I’ve been talking to a lot of charities. I’ve consulted with UNICEF, presented at Save the Children HQ, entered talks with the Red Cross, and have been giving input to World Vision.

World Vision is the first charity that’s heard me out and created a plan of action to engage the YouTube community. I was glad to have some input on this. And World Vision has done it in a way that experts like Beth Kanter would be proud: they are letting outsiders come in and aren’t worrying about perfection on the first try.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’ve been advising charities to stop relying solely on Hollywood celebrities. Sending regular folks like Alex, Shawna, and Tom to Zambia have already generated over 300,000 views for World Vision on YouTube. See charities? I told you so.

The big challenge is the next step. My hope is that World Vision will use this success to do more ambitious things with the YouTube community. My fear is that, impressed by the amount of views they are getting, they won’t be challenged to try and engage this community in a deeper way.

If the support I’ve been getting is any indication, the YouTube community wants input on the charity work being on the ground. We want to see where the money goes, we want to see a project executed from start to finish, and we want to get to know the specific people our money has helped.

The technology to do this is here and it’s something I’ve been doing for a while now. But, after spending over 2 years to repair a school, what incentive does a charity have to do something like this again when I can only generate less than 40,000 views? Alex packing for his trip already got World Vision over 200,000 views.

This is an important moment for the YouTube community. We need to praise World Vision for engaging the YouTube community – but we also need to let them know we want more than just them replicating their celebrity-style visits with high profile YouTubers.

One way you can do this is let World Vision know. They are listening. On the World Vision Vloggers website, they have a place where you can leave a note (see the photo below for where the link is). Feel free to drop them a line. You can also tweet something using the #wvv hashtag and they will see it.

World Vision wants your feedback either through leaving a note (see link that I highlighted in the photo) or by tweeting #wvv as a hashtag.

I decided to write this blog post because I was inspired by my friend Dan Brown’s recent video called “Bad Day”. If you don’t know who Dan is and what “Dan 3.0″ is about – watch this as a primer.

You could basically write a list as long as my arm as to how Dan and I are very different people, with different backgrounds, different cultural upbringings, and different global experiences.

Yet, despite all our differences, we seem to have wound up on a very similar path. YouTube is a big part of our lives, we both have extremely ambitious projects, and we both walked away from institutional education to pursue our respective visions.

It’s for this reason, I couldn’t help but see myself in Dan’s latest video.

I’ve been there. One some days – I’m still there. It’s not the ambitious scale and scope of a project that gets you down, it’s small technical hurdles which derail things. It’s like death by a thousand paper cuts.

I’ve done the sleeping during the day – where you’re too stressed to sleep but sleep enough to screw up your sleeping schedule. I’ve had the “OMG what was I thinking when I started this project?!?” moments all too often.

So Dan, if you’re reading this, I have just one thing to say: hang in there. This maybe the first bad day you’ve had in your project – but it won’t be the last. But you know what? It can be worth it.

You may find yourself one day doing something that you never imagined you’d do or finding yourself touching and inspiring people in ways you could never imagine.

And when that day happens, you’ll know in your heart that it was worth every frustrating moment, every bad day, every sleep-but-too-stressed-to-sleep night you’ve had.

You also have a lot of things to your advantage that I wish I had (your massive online audience aside). You have tons of confidence. The first thing I think of when I turn on the camera is “OMG I’m too fat, ugly, and stumble on words too much to be on camera”.

In fact, in much the same way that your videos are condensed moments when your the most cheerful, my videos are the condensed moments when I’m the most confident and am able to silence my inner-critic long enough to be on camera to say a few lines.

That’s actually why I’m blogging this. I would never have the confidence or courage to film myself during a bad day. On really bad days I just go silent: no vlogs, no tweets, nothing.

So thanks for sharing this and hang in there. And, for anyone else reading this, I wonder how many other people can relate to this in whatever projects you guys are undertaking…

Hank & John Start VidCon Early in the Morning (thus the rare shot of empty seats)

VidCon. In a word? WOW. As one friend put it, “it’s like the internet exploded into real life”. It was surreal, amazing, & awesome to meet people that I’ve only been able to see through my computer screen.

Even though there wasn’t nearly enough time, I’m in awe at how seamlessly online friends turned into “real life” friends. In most cases it’s like you’ve known someone for ages and are just hanging out.

This photo makes me look more epic than I ever have the right to be.

Hank & Me on Stage

It was also a real honor to be able to speak in front of 1,700+ people at VidCon. I can’t thank Hank & John Green enough for this opportunity.

In all honesty, if they were picking speakers solely based on number of YouTube subscribers & views, than I would never have been picked. But, that’s part of the reason I’m so grateful I had this chance.

I believe that YouTube is an unprecedented force for good in this world. Forget the haters – we as a community can do amazing things. But, I believe the power of this community remains largely untapped.

With the exception of YouTube featuring stuff, the conversation about global poverty is but a small teeny tiny fraction of the conversation going on YouTube. That’s something I’d like to change.

I’m trying my best – but I can’t do it alone. It’s hard because I can’t do what normal YouTubers do to climb the charts and become a success.

For example, I can be informal & casual but – given the subject matter – I can’t be too silly. Although I want to, I also can’t make videos on a regular & frequent schedule. I’m forced to balance doing a good job on-the-ground with spending time making videos.

In some cases, the projects I do take years to complete. They require planning, networking, budgets, on-the-ground trust building, and also need to account for natural disasters & political unrest which push back schedules.

The video I showed at VidCon is a perfect example. It took 1,000 days to bring this story to an audience. It’s hard to do something like that on a weekly basis. It’s for that reason I need the YouTube community to help me share & spread videos like this one:

So speaking at VidCon was very important because, not only is what I do funded by the YouTube community, the future success of this project is entirely dependent on how much support this work gets on YouTube.

This trip to VidCon wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Hank Green (VidCon event organizer and vlogbrother) who sponsored my flight to VidCon and Patrick Clinger at ProBoards who sponsored my room, board, and stay in Los Angeles.

Tomorrow I’m flying to Los Angeles to be a part of VidCon 2010. Not sure what VidCon is? The Globe & Mail did a great story on it (honoured to be featured in it!) that you can read here.

If you’re going, here’s a sneak peak of a short 6 minute video I hope to show there. The YouTube version will go up afterwards.

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been away from Bangladesh. Although it looks like I’ll be going back in the near future, long-term sustainability is still a problem. It doesn’t help that I feel I do can more as an individual instead of formalizing – but that’s not the only hurdle.

Here are five mistakes I’ve made in my search for sustainability…

5) Searching for Magic Sponsorship: As I’ve said before, my videos have been inspired a lot by Matt Harding and his “Where the Hell is Matt?” videos. I mistakenly assumed that, since there was a company out there willing to pay a man to dance around the world, there would be some company out there willing to pay a man to go around the world helping people. Assuming this, and searching for that magic sponsor, only wasted time.

4) Courting Foundations: If you’re in the aid & development community, you already know of the Skoll Foundation, the Ashoka Changemakers Foundation, Echoing Green Foundation, and a gazillion other “social media” and “social change” foundations. Most like what I do – but all have a strict policy of only supporting tax write-off organizations. Assuming they’d make an exception for little old me was a mistake.

3) Soliciting Google: The number one question I get asked by everyone IRL is why doesn’t Google sponsor my project. Individuals, businesses, aid workers, & charity execs alike have assumed that, since my work showcases what you can do through YouTube, sponsorship through Google would be a natural fit. The frequency of this question lulled me into believing such a thing was possible. It was not – and I shouldn’t have thought to pursue it.

2) Not Setting Boundaries: I’ve encountered many selfless people who have helped me in very important ways along my journey. But I’ve also encountered people who were helping on the assumption they were becoming a “stakeholder” with veto power. As I’ve said before, with the exception of those we help, I never want anyone to have veto power over the community. I failed to see that different people have different (but understandable) reasons for helping – and I failed to draw proper boundaries.

1) Assuming the Value of this Project was Self-Evident: When I’m in the field, local villagers constantly come up to me to tell me how unique my work is and how they love what I’m doing. They love that I’m an independent voice outside of the NGO ecosystem. They love that I film everything and keep an eye on how every donation is spent. They love that I’m a direct line to the donors & manage the donations myself instead of some bureaucracy. My mistake? I assumed because they loved it – someone over here would love it enough to invest & sustain it.

I’ve made mistakes – and probably will make new & different mistakes in the future. Despite this, I don’t know what more I can be doing. Whether it’s teaming up with an on-the-ground charity, getting support from a foundation, or sponsorship from a or corporate benefactor – this should be all win/win/win. I know the path to sustainability isn’t easy – but at this point I’m not sure if there is going to be a happy ending.

Hi! If you just found this website because of this CNN.com article let me give you a quick introduction. I’m Shawn and “The Uncultured Project” isn’t a charity, organization, or anything formal. Think of it as “citizen journalism” meets “citizen philanthropy”.

I raise funds online (as an individual – alas, not tax deductible) and I give 100% of what I raise away to charitable causes. And I mean 100% – I even have a friend who covers the PayPal fees of your donation (for now at least). I then show you were the money goes via YouTube and/or Twitter. Sometimes both as you can see in this video.

Most of my work focuses primarily on Bangladesh because I have an ancestry there and still have a few aunts & uncles who live there (although they’ve kinda shunned me for pursuing a project like this – but that’s another story). But, poverty exists everywhere – even around your street corner. That’s why I decided to focus on the LA Regional Food Bank – you don’t need to go overseas to help people.

If you have a few minutes to spare, you can watch my food bank video by clicking here (it’s 3 minutes long). If you want to know more about “The Uncultured Project” you can watch this (it’s also 3 minutes). And if you have a bit more time, please do check out this video of a water project I did in Bangladesh that took over a year to complete (it’s a 4 minute video).

If you are wondering how to support my work – well, donating isn’t the biggest way. The biggest way is by helping me build a bigger voice on YouTube. Please consider signing up for a YouTube account (it’s free) and subscribing to my channel on YouTube. The bigger the voice this project can get, the better the chances that sustainability and more opportunities can come around the corner.

I also want to give a shout-out to my friends Hank & John Green (who were also quoted in that article). Without Hank & John, I wouldn’t have started to accept online donations from the public (they also get automatically notified every time you make a project donation). Also a huge thanks to my friends working at YouTube (many of whom I got to meet IRL) who made this interview with CNN possible.

Stick around. There are lots of hurdles – but I’m positive the best is yet to come.

In January of 2007, I withdrew from grad school at the University of Notre Dame and began an unemployed, unplanned, and “uncultured” journey to help the poor.

Almost exactly three years later, that journey has brought me to within grasp of being able to talk to world leaders about global poverty at one of the planet’s most important conferences. I can get there – but only with your help.

Out of 75 applications from around the world (and many more that didn’t make the deadline), I was selected as one of five potential candidates to go to Davos. The winner, is determined by you – because it’s your vote that determines the winner.

I won’t lie. I’m up against some brilliant people. I wish we could all go – because I’d love to meet them all and brainstorm. At the same time, I know that it’s not like global poverty can be solved with a one week trip to Switzerland.

But this could be big. It’s the biggest thing to ever happen in my life and it could be the biggest thing for the future of this project. So, if you’d like to help, here’s how you can do so:

Things you will need [REVISED as of Jan 11th, 2010]:

1. A YouTube or Google account. Signing up for either is free. UPDATE: You don’t need to signup for anything to vote.
2. An internet connection good enough to use YouTube.
3. The ability to get online every 24 hours until January 15th.
4. If Possible: Friends & family who might be interested in voting as well.

Here’s how you can vote:

1. Go to http://YouTube.com/Davos

2. On the top half of the page, you will see something about the Davos Debates. It will have three tabs. Click on “vote”.

3. You will see five videos from the five candidates. Select my video called “A Message to Davos” – the thumbnail is my picture.

Videos Are Randomly Sorted and May Not Appeared In This Order

4. Once the video starts playing, click the green thumbs-up button. Wait a few seconds. Your vote has been placed.

When The Red Thumbs Down Turns Grey, Your Vote Has Been Cast.

5. You can vote again everyday.

It may seem that, with so many followers on Twitter and so many subscribers, this is all but guaranteed. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Without getting too academic, it boils down to public vs. private networks. My support network is very public. And, like every network, not everyone following me or subscribed will be reading my tweets, watching the videos, or reading this blog.

It’s very possible (and very likely) that many of these candidates have a group of friends, family, and colleagues who will be diligently voting. This could be close.

Every. Vote. Counts.

(Photo Seen in Featured Content is from Flickr)