What about looking at the bright side?

One of the stories that caught my attention was the one told by Ivan Rozić from Mostar, BiH. By organizing a simple event on Facebook, Ivan started up a peace and tolerance oriented movement in his city. The movement is called “chocolate riots”, as oppose to hooligan riots that have “occupied” the main square of the city, as well as shaped its media image and -- all in all, kept Mostar citizens hostage of violence and negativity.  My main lesson learned here was: keep it simple. Sometimes a little bit of chocolate is all one needs to empower a community and make their world a better place.

Tell your story with data but mind your words

My second piece of advice built upon a presentation from a London-Belgrade based group Uzrok is about data. We are aware about the hype around it, we know we should “liberate it all”, “make data porn” and stay overall excited about numbers and letters that can change our lives. An interesting thing about open data though, is that in this case, “open” isn’t a simple opposition of closed. It is not enough to liberate the data. You need a well defined goal plus, enough reason and brains to make use of it -- avoid careless unintentional manipulation, and make it socially useful. How?

Tell a story, but do your research. During their presentation Uzrok showed a simple graph showing a rapid decrease in Serbia’s population in 2008. 2 millions of people suddenly disappear, a graph dives down leaving a scary impression. If one didn't know that 2008 was a year when Kosovo (previously a part of Serbia, a separate country now) proclaimed independence, he or she could look for an answer for this urging question elsewhere. Without a proper context, data can not only be meaningless, but also misleading and hence -- dangerous.

 

Don’t talk to “people”, talk to the people

Another resourceful session concerning social engagement (Data storytelling and using multimedia to engage people)  was lead by Anna Kuliberda from Fundacja TechSoup. While many prminent civil society representatives (including Marek Tuszyński from Tactical Technology Collective, Darko Brkan from Zašto ne, Darko Sokovic from Dokukino, Perihan Abou-Zaid from Qabilla Media Production in Egypt and Larry Fergesson from the Cyprus Community Media Center) took part in this panel discussion, I found one of the (nomen est omen) points among the ones they made particularly interesting. To quote Marek Tuszyński, when you think about any kind of social engagement don’t think about general public, as “there is no general public, or “people”. The clue of any well designed communications strategy is to define and know your audience -- know It well and respect "It". When you launch your campaign do not say everything you want people to find out explicitly. Engage the ones you are talking to by letting them connect the dots themselves. Let them think it through before they act on it. What you should go for is to create a community glues by their own, but common motivation. Once you gain this kind of support, great things can happen.

What about a symbol (or a spoon?). Be smart, but fun

On the last day of the conference a peaceful protest took place on Sarajevo streets giving evidence, to what Artur van Balen (a German artist and activist) talked about in the main aula of Kriterion only two days before. Giving community a symbol can catalyse a transition from a crowd to a defined movement. As much as I would love to say that this is because of semiotics and structure (as I think it is!), it is also simply because it is a fun and common effort. An inflatable golden spoon created by Artur stood for what their first president promised Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens: "All shall eat with golden spoons”. The 15 meter spoon, a symbol for unfulfilled promises of those who govern,  was carried by POINT participants giving a meaningful closure to the event.

Stay focused but flex. Change takes time

This is not the end though. To come back to the previosuly mentioned “social engagement” session: social work never ends. What does it mean for all of us who try putting social missions into well defined “goals-objectives-outcomes-measurables” spreadsheets? It means we have to be patient. Changing culturally ingrained issues such as smoking or, corruption for this matter, takes years. Is there a rocket science formula for measuring a deserved behavioral change? No. You should, however, define your goals in order to stay focused but remember: everything changes and social realm does too. So be flexible, attentive, constantly revise. And never stop trying.

 

 

Photo credits for all the pictures used in this post go to Vanja Ćerimagić. To see more pictures from POINT check out the conference's Facebook profile.