New Blog Features and Video Inspiration

Leslie Forman

Leslie is leading Wokai's online social media outreach.  She lives in San Francisco. 

I've been working on making this blog more accesible and interactive.  So far I've added an RSS feed, a Jiglu tag cloud, ShareThis buttons, a favorite posts section, and re-organized links.  I'd like to thank Brian Singh and Jordan Halpern-Leistner from Penn for their in-depth blog viral marketing strategy and family friend Elise Bauer for her helpful presentation on building blog traffic. 

What do you think of these new features?  Are they helpful?  Too busy for your taste?  We really appreciate your feedback. 

I'm also in the process of creating a video explain Wokai's vision, as Courtney described here.  The Girl Effect is still my favorite video online, but I've recently come across two more that have inspired my creative process. 

350.org is an online global initiative to fight global warming.  (The name 350.org stands for 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, the maximum concentration for a healthy and thriving planet.)  I met its co-coordinator Jamie Henn at a recent event.  Check out this video:

I really like how this video explains a complex concept in simple, concrete terms, that people all over the world can understand.  I love the combination of urgency and simplicity.  I think that cartoons are an especially effective medium for explaining global warming, but I'm not sure if they'd be as effective for China microfinance.  Perhaps for a later video...

Today I also discovered this video, from The Green Children Foundation, which provides a simple and personal introduction to microfinance in China. 

I like the simple, human aspects of this video, though it leaves me wondering about the specifics of the program.  Where in China is this?  How did the man learn to build irrigation systems?  Who is the blonde girl and what is her role in the projects?  (With a bit of research I learned that The Green Children is a band from Norway and she is a singer, but still, it leaves me wanting to find out more about how these projects work...) 

I see some common themes in all three of these videos: strong music, accessible stories, short videos, a clear connection between the viewer and the video's subject. 

We are looking for a musician for our video, which will to explain Wokai's vision to people who are not yet familiar with microfinance and/or China. I am envisioning a one-instrument piece.  It does not need to be an original, but I think it should be recorded or mixed with the video in mind for maximum impact.  I think that a guitar, violin, harp, or piano could work well... though I am no musician!  Do you know a talented musician who might be interested? 

Comments

[Elise]

Hey Leslie,
Cool site! You might want to change the link earlier so that it doesn't go to Simply Recipes. The link you want is http://elise.com/blogher
That has all of the blogher building traffic presentations.
:-)

[Leslie]

Thanks Elise for your help! I changed the link and now it is the correct one.