[Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Here are details - lets discuss!

INTRODUCTION --- The purpose of this competition is to create an online campaign design for Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization with the mission to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – eight globally endorsed objectives that address the many aspects of extreme poverty – in Africa by 2015. Millennium Promise works with impoverished communities, national and local governments and partner organizations to implement high-impact programs aimed at transforming lives on the African continent and engaging donor nations, corporations and the general public in the effort.

DESIGN BRIEF --- Design a campaign to advocate the Millennium Development Goals.

This competition calls for the design of a new media campaign that promotes public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs,” see Background Information below). The aim of the campaign is to prompt the general public to do what they can to support the cause and urge their leaders to stick to their commitment to the MDGs. The campaign needs to be web-based. It should be designed to reach as wide and global an audience as possible on the Internet, and as such anything of a “viral” nature is encouraged – but the campaign can only be represented using the Entry Provisions stated below and in our Entry Rules.

Your entry must include:

An overall message The campaign message should educate the general public about the main objective of the MDGs: to improve the lives of the world’s poorest. The overall message should be clear, compelling and empowering – ultimately, this is a call to action to inspire people to join the global fight to end poverty.

The MDGs Entrants can choose to select individual Millennium Development Goals or promote all eight in their campaign. (See Background Information below for the complete list.)

Campaign design Entries must show what the campaign would look like. Entries are limited to text, images and video/audio files only. Any proposed interactive elements (games, widgets, websites, social networking applications, etc.) must be represented using only these tools. Entries that direct users away from the DESIGN 21 website will be disqualified. See the Entry Rules for full details on file type, size and number constraints.

Target audience and distribution The entry should describe who their campaign is aimed at and how they see their campaign reaching that audience.

USE OF MILLENNIUM PROMISE LOGO AND THE MDG ICONS

Millennium Promise logo --- Entrants may incorporate the Millennium Promise logo in their design. If you do, we recommend that you download it from the Millennium Promise website at the following link and use the accompanying style guide here.

Entrants must not use the logos of any other organization or entity unless they have contacted the organization or entity in advance and obtained permission to do so.

MDG Icons --- Originally developed by the MDGs Campaign in Brazil, the MDG icons are available for use in campaigns at national and global levels. If you would like to incorporate them in your design, we recommend that you download these icons from the two sites listed below and use them in your campaign. You may use them as they are or you may alter them – however, the competition is NOT premised on the design of the icons themselves but on the objective of an overall campaign design. Note: Should you use the MDG icons as is please include the following credit in the text of your entry description: © UNDP Brazil. WorldVolunteerWeb.org | MDGMonitor.org

ENTRY PROVISIONS --- Entries are limited to text, images and video/audio files only. Entries that direct users away from the DESIGN 21 website will be disqualified. See the "How To Enter" Rules for full details on file type, size and number constraints and recommendations.

Up to 400-word description (English only)

Up to six (6) 550 x 550 pixel images. At least one image must be uploaded

One (1) 480 x 320 pixel video file (optional) or one (1) sound file (optional)

ENTRY SUBMISSION DEADLINE --- Tuesday June 17 2008 at 6:00pm UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) The submission deadline may be subject to change. Any change will be announced on our website. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON MILLENNIUM PROMISE AND THE MDGS

The Millennium Development Goals --- At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing 189 world leaders to a new global partnership aimed at reducing extreme poverty and establishing a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015, that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are quantifiable targets that address extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income, poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter– while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability. The MDGs reflect our most basic human rights – the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are:

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Millennium Promise --- Co-founded by Jeffrey Sachs, Millennium Promise is a non-profit organization working to end extreme poverty. Their mission is to achieve the MDGs in Africa by 2015, working with the belief that for the first time in history our generation has the opportunity to end extreme poverty, hunger and disease. Millennium Promise works with impoverished communities, national and local governments and partner organizations to implement high-impact programs aimed at transforming lives on the African continent and engaging donor nations, corporations and the general public in the effort.

Their flagship initiative, the Millennium Villages project, applies scientific research, economic analysis and international development expertise towards the practical achievement of the MDGs at the rural level. Now operating in 80 villages across 10 countries in Africa, the Millennium Villages project takes a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by holistically addressing agriculture, nutrition, water, health, education and infrastructure needs simultaneously.

2008: Act Now --- The MDGs can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern the ongoing interventions and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief and fair trade. But time is running out: 2007 marked the halfway point to the 2015 deadline, and now with seven years to go, there is still much to be done. The MDGs are achievable by 2015; what is needed is the will to hold governments to their promise.

A total of $10,000 in prize money will be divided among several prizes, depending upon the number of judges appointed by DESIGN 21. DESIGN 21 shall appoint judges to select finalists from the competition entries. Each judge will also have the opportunity to select a winner to be awarded a “DESIGN 21 Judge’s Prize.” There will also be an award for the “Most Popular Entry,” which will be selected by the DESIGN 21: Social Design Network members.

Five thousand ($5,000) will be divided equally among the entries awarded the DESIGN 21 Judges’ Prize and the Most Popular Entry. In the event, however, that one entry is awarded more than one of the above Prizes, that entrant will be entitled to the cumulative prize amounts of the awards it has won, as if each award was given to a separate entry (for example, if an entry were to be awarded two Judge’s Prizes and the Most Popular Entry, that entrant would be entitled to three (3) times the prize money as the winner of each of the remaining Judges’ Prizes.)

Millennium Promise will select one (1) entry that will be awarded the remaining $5,000 in prize money and be designated the “Overall Winner.” Again, in the event that the Overall Winner is also selected to be a DESIGN 21 Judges’ Prize recipient and/or named the Most Popular Entry, it will also receive the corresponding, cumulative prize money.

In addition, Millennium Promise may give special “Best of” mentions to a select number of entries, which will bear no cash prize. In the event that any of the designated judges are unable or unwilling to name an award winner for any reason, the DESIGN 21: Social Design Network team may, in its sole discretion, divide the prize money as if the judge had never been designated (i.e. the money would be apportioned equally among the remaining Judge’s Prize and Most Popular Entry awards); alternatively, DESIGN 21 may, in good faith and in its sole discretion, select an entry in place of that judge. If Millennium Promise is unable or unwilling to elect the Overall Winner, DESIGN 21 may elect an entry in its place, or, in its sole discretion, decline to award an Overall Winner, and divide the prize money among the awarded Judge’s Prizes and Most Popular Entry.

If Your Entry is Declared a Winner --- If your entry is declared the Overall Winner, or is awarded the DESIGN 21 Judge’s Prize or Most Popular Prize, you must certify that you are over the age of eighteen (18) and confirm your identity. In the event that your entry is selected the Overall Winner, you will be required to sign the Copyright Assignment Agreement here with Millennium Promise.

Judging Criteria --- In addition to the regular judging criteria outlined in the General Competition Rules, entries to this competition will be judged on:

the strength and clarity of the campaign message in the context of the chosen MDGs

the choice of the online medium/tool to communicate the message and its representation

the campaign’s potential to reach as wide and global an audience as possible and be translated into different languages

the effectiveness of the campaign in reinforcing the Millennium Promise brand as a key partner in the fight against extreme poverty and in the achievement of the eight MDGs

Prizes --- Total prize money of $10,000 will be allocated as follows:

$5,000 to the Overall Winner $5000 divided between multiple prizes: DESIGN 21 Judge’s Picks and Most Popular

Jury --- Judging will be done by the Millennium Promise Communications Team.

Last comment added: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:44:54 PDT

Comment 1 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

One way to go would be to build 8 single images with a brief message or statistic around each goal of the MDG's.

Comment 2 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

So the messages could read something like this...

What can you do to help eradicate extreme hunger and poverty in the world today?

We need your ideas, we need you.

If the demensions were big enoough, the message would be at the top and the bottom...with a nice big compelling picture in the middle.

Comment 3 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I find the Brief & Rules somewhat confusing.

On the one hand there seems to be an emphasis on the design of (tech-savvy) publicity material, but on the other the chief reference seems to be concerning the design of a strategy that will ensure the meeting of MDGs

I couldn't enter a graphics contest, but I think the WWC could be adapted a little to meet a requirement for "the design of a strategy" to achieve MDGs.

Comment 4 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

One of the rules that struck me as odd too, was "Entries that direct users away from the DESIGN 21 website will be disqualified."

Seems to me like the goal is to get people taking action on the MDG's and that would...well...entail doing things outside the DESIGN 21 website.

Comment 5 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

What struck me as I read this was the idea of focusing on grassroots....

I think most everyone except Jeffrey Sachs believes that the solutions to all of these issues needs to be grassroots driven...and I believe that can hold on both sides....grassroots solutions and grassroots support....growing together to form lush vegetation that can hold us all together...

The image is growing in my tiny brain.. not much time.

finding "spots" of hope and grassroots growing them out to a total solution...????

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Improve maternal health

Achieve universal primary education

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Promote gender equality and empower women

Ensure environmental sustainability

Reduce child mortality

Develop a global partnership for development

We have many examples of the grassroots projects for many of these here (on both sides) in this community. We need to get the whole community involved in this and NOW!!!

Comment 6 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Mark Grimes said:

One of the rules that struck me as odd too, was "Entries that direct users away from the DESIGN 21 website will be disqualified."

Seems to me like the goal is to get people taking action on the MDG's and that would...well...entail doing things outside the DESIGN 21 website.

I took that to mean that the whole proposal has got to be contained within the max 400 words etc - i.e. you can't use links to other sites. i.e. If it's not spelt out in the actual proposal it doesn't count.

But what do I know!

Comment 7 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

A start at a workspace - MDG Project Development

Comment 8 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I'll bet <Ned> would let us use their logo as a group promoting and supporting grassroots development....we can only ask. :-D

Comment 9 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

My access to video is being limited - either because the ISP (does that S stand for service? Am I paying 2500 baht a month for this?) is limiting bandwidth or because the government has seen fit to act as my parent again.

This video might be a connection to HIV solution

Comment 10 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

growing roots video maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i FCdAgeMGOA

Comment 11 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I'm not sure there is a wide enough spread of ideas here to get a ned.com proposal together in little more than a week.

But perhaps that because I'm still focused on a WWC-based entry. Can anyone help me insert the Milleniun Promise logo into my proposal?

Comment 12 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

David, I couldn't put it in the sidebar but I think I got it in the right position.

Comment 13 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Thanks, Linda.

That looks good!

Comment 14 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I was reading through your proposal, David and stumbled in two places.

How about changing the "You will be allocated a partner area through use of a Random Number Generator." to something like "areas will be partnered randomly."?

Can the word alliance replace mutuality?

Comment 15 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Two stumbles. That doesn't sound too bad. And I'm happy to change the draft as Linda suggests - to see if people think that makes it clearer.

I'd welcome opinions about these changes, plus any other proposed amendments.

Thanks.

BTW I think I'm allowed several images in addition to the 400 word proposal itself. I wondered if some images that incorporated extracts from WWC listings would be permitted amd might help - maybe one showing the divisions of Afghanistan (the beginning of the list) and of Zimbabwe (the end), plus extracts from the nonprofitslist and country-by-country non-profits or the gimmicky Africa map, perhaps as a collage.

Comment 16 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

It's just my personal opinion but I find pictures of words deadly.....how about some visual connecting of countries, organizations and people?

Comment 17 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Good selection of free photos here:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Main_Page

Comment 18 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Thanks Linda and Mark for the good suggestions.

I've made a few amendments. Linda, you're right, I think it reads better now.

Mark thanks for the link: I'll see what I can come up with.

Comment 19 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Hi David, that's a great idea: leveraging your existing work with the World Connectory to "match" citizens in ways that augment efforts. Two bits of feedback:

Describe in greater detail the "viral" aspects of your plan, for example how people can help "pass it on"
Place a stronger emphasis on basic information communication ie "raising awareness" of the MDGs

Hope this helps! I am sorting through a Peace Tiles oriented proposal. Its funny though: I thought I'd see more from you Mark from the perspective of your email marketing tool, the ad work you are doing, and the Better World Magazine... among other magical things you create?!

Comment 20 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Still noolding on what message and text/image/sounds could be used to "design of a new media campaign that promotes public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals and prompt the general public to do what they can to support the cause and urge their leaders to stick to their commitment to the MDGs."

I've not given up in any way yet...just still looking for the right spark.

Comment 21 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Well, I think the One Campaign proved very effective at creating a "compact" brand that was delivered very well across multiple platforms. Their finger-snap ads were spot on.

Imagine something like Tony's WDYDWYD campaign with just the right application of sound, video (INXS video comes to mind, changing subjects [people] with each discard of the page...]...)...

Create the "My MDG - Own One" - neopets meets SimWorld... playable through your cellphone where you can receive alerts... who knows!)

Comment 22 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

MDG 2015

You are half way there.

What can you do today?

Okay, the first thing people wont even know what MDG 2015 even means. Creates curiosity perhaps. What's that? The second thing, I'm half way to where? We could say "We" are halfway there, but "You" such a powerful word for people. Or it could simply say "Halfway there". Didn't know I was headed somewhere, let along MDG 2015. What can I do today, well...if I'm half way there I'd better find out.

typo

Comment 23 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

..if nothing else, the song inspires around the world...

Comment 24 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

MDG 2015

Were halfway there.

Imagine.

Comment 25 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

We're halfway there. Who's going to be there to celebrate with us?

Join now.

Comment 26 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Okay here is my first pass... Don't laugh... Shhh! up there in the balcony already...

MyMDG.org / My2015.org

Notes:

MyMDG.org will "point to" [direct all traffic to] the Millennium Promise campaign site.
MyMDG.org will serve as a co-branded but stand-alone "microsite" within the Millennium Promise campaign site.

What:

A social utility that enables anyone to manage a personal Millennium Development Goal campaign around one or more Goals important to them.

How:

Visitors learn [browse pages and content] about the Millennium Development Goals through an interactive collection of animated data, videos, audio and video files, and text/photos.
Visitors join [create a user account] a growing movement to support the MDGs and manage their interaction through a dashboard custom built to suit their campaign. All accounts will require basic demographic information and a) taking of an MDG "audit" [quiz] and b) the personal prioritization the MDGs.
Users campaign [accomplish specific results] by sharing first-hand, local knowledge and experience with the goals, join forces with others, recruit friends, and advocate to meet targets they set for themselves and those set by Millennium Promise.

MyMDG.org will make skilled use of user networks [facebook, myspace, linkedin, etc] and social marketing analysis [network mapping] and campaigns to ensure that it maximizes its reach and influence.

MyMDG.org will also aggregate key campaign data and highlights [number of members, most popular goals, geographic diversity, etc] to the front page of the Millennium Promise site.

Other:

Central to the successful "branding" of the MyMDG.org Millennium Promise site is each users answer to the question,

"How will the world look different in 2015 if the Millennium Campaign is successful?"

By aggregating data about the MDGs users are campaigning for, the Millennium Promise site will be able to develop a real-time statistical model of what, in fact, the world might look like if the goals were accomplished at any one moment based on user priorities and actions.

Hmmm... What else?

Comment 27 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I dig it (a lot). But does that run in the face of their "entries that direct users away from the DESIGN 21 website will be disqualified" rule?

That being said, we should just build the thing anyway...it's a great idea.

Comment 28 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

it shouldn't: mymdg.org directs to the existing site. i've left an enquiry to find out for sure.

Comment 29 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

check, gotcha.

Comment 30 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

david, what would be your interest in tagging regions with specific campaign goals (doesn't have to be done now, but in theory). the idea would be to help fine tune matches according to a specific MDG criteria. This get out of the geography hook and into a "solutions" hook.

So the implication of such a scheme would be that a new user, most interested in the MDG of ending hunger, could query your database to find out which regions in the world experience hunger most acutely, and (remarkably) fine tune their connection to a specific community where they could experience tangible results.

The next like-interested user would execute a similar query and access results with all existing "matches" excluded.

Am I making any sense...? Thought it might be a cool way to roll your effort(s) in...?

Comment 31 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

One way for you to rank countries David (if not more fine-grained regional and local info) would be to pull from datasets like the Human Development Index.

Comment 32 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Lars asked:

david, what would be your interest in tagging regions with specific campaign goals

I think this is a good idea - and very compatible with Mark's suggestion that each area should have a dashboard linked to good sites for data about the country concerned.

The task needs to be done, though, by people in the allied areas using something like this grid. There are 2,400 WWC areas across Africa, Asia, Latin America and former Soviet states including all those where human development problems are the greatest. There are probably twice that number of areas not yet listed where there are serious human development problems. This involves an enormous number of people (about 3,600,000,000). Impossible for one person to tackle, but perfectly feasible if the task is broken down into 7,200 parts, provided enough people can be engaged to take part.

In the 1412 thread we explored how it might work out if you were allocated an area where the solutions-approach you personally most favour has a low profile, either because the problem areas associated with that solutions-approach are not much in evidence or because there are lack of agencies offering that solutions-approach (or perhaps offering any others too).

What emerged for me was that there are some people almost everywhere who are working on almost every problem and that there are few areas where any of these MDG are all being met.

So that leaves a choice of getting involved wherever in the world you wish or else, I would hope, getting involved in f2f meetings in your own neighbourhood looking at ways of supporting efforts in your allocated WWC partner area to tackle all the MDGs there.

I see what you are getting at Lars. And I would like to collaborate in others' proposals, but for me it is the comprehensive coverage that a geographical approach offers that is the key issue. Otherwise, one way or another, there is always a trickle-down aspect to all attempts to tackle poverty, with the most remote, least reported, least fashonable areas that always come last.

The Worldwide Connectory is by its design totally impartial in the choice of area to be put in the spotlight. That for me is the most important factor or all: it combines comprehensive poverty coverage with total equality of opportunity in being partnered with the "best" areas from the most developed countries.

Comment 33 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

And thanks, Lars, for your helpful comments about my Millennium Promises proposal.

I've now drafted an alternative proposal (scroll down), putting more emphasis on how people might get involved.

Comment 34 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I hate to say it David but I think all development is a trickle down effect - to the degree that what that means is "not all boats rise equally." Even in your scheme, you have a time-scale problem (ie those countries partnered first profit greatest) and a numeric scale problem (ie the likelihood of WWC getting even half your geographies matched - much less to people who actually accomplish something - is very, very small).

So the only way to make it work will be to collaborate and make the engine available to everyone and everyone, however they want to use it ie create an API.

Also, I would suggest getting out of the links mindset: users don't want more links. What they want are a) data to inform decisions (so: pull it in) and b) ways to take action (so: give them tools). This explains the phenomenal success of web2.0 utilities like Facebook.

Anyway, if you're saying that WWC needs to be its own proposal, I certainly respect that too!

Comment 35 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

[Deleted by author on 10 Jun 2008 14:47 PDT: accidental duplicate]

Comment 36 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I like these colorful MDG icons:

Also, check out MDG Monitor - especially the GoogleEarth data set... David, not sure whether you've had a chance to play around with GE yet, but it could be a powerful tool with which to inspire people about their paired location and get the sharing information...

Comment 37 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

The Human Development Index is the single most important factor I used for deciding on inclusion in the WWC listings.

While there are some extremely poor areas where water supply is not a major problem or where there are low rates of HIV/AIDS but still low life expectancy, on the whole the poorest countries - mostly in sub-Saharan Africa - score low on all measures.

And even where, say, employment rates are relatively high, it remains a major problem for those who still can't find work. Supporting the agencies working with these people seems equally valid, whether the overall national employment rates are high or low.

Comment 38 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Mark, FYI

---

Lars,

It's really more of an issue of ensuring that the entries the judges are seeing don't change, and that we can ensure that each entry is weighed fairly.

If someone is directed off of the site, then the entries are subject to all sorts of other variables - browser plugins, revisions by the author, etc. so if the winning entry changes the day after we announce, we wouldn't have any control over that.

If you want to brand your campaign as "MyMDG.org" that would be fine just as long as you didn't actually request people to go to that site to evaluate your entry.

Cheers, Mark

-- DESIGN 21 Competition Support competitions@design21sdn.com

Comment 39 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Great, understood now. thnx

I think it would also be important to have a place on the dashboard that links to the UN MDG site and certain sites/links important to the MDG campaign. Various important outside sources.

Comment 40 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Needed to see goals written side by side with icons.

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Comment 41 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Would it be possible to have two word descriptions wrap below and to the right of each icon, so each icon could either have the description...and pop out to just be the visual icon too?

hunger/poverty
primary education
gender equality
child mortality
maternal health
combat disease
environmental sustainability (too long).
global partners

I was wondering about the first word at the bottom of each icon and the second word on the right reading bottom to top.

Just a thought.

Comment 42 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Yep. Millennium Promise has it developed. And I think it is better to pull as much data in as possible (rss, db tables, etc) rather pepper a dashboard with links... list these sources as key information partners...

Comment 43 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

What MDG Monitor does not have is a way to offer small tangible support to "a small thing". Instead it allows visitors to consider clicking from a mass of text links to other web sites. It also doesn't have a way for visitors to chat and share ideas and information. MyMDG.org could possibly fill both those holes.

Comment 44 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Like Budget Watch and other "monitoring" institutions, I think their core experise lies in "motivation through information."

in other words, through outrage or other emotions that result from well-presented information, these sites expect to inform users who will then be "self-motivated" to "do something."

we need them, need them to be distinct (integrity of information issue ie they can't be said to have a "slant" because they advocate a certain outcome) from action-taking orgs imho...

I agree something like MyMDG.org could fulfill that "action-taking" role, providing the capacity for action at many levels...

Comment 45 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

>>"self-motivated" to "do something."<<

I think that's the big challenge.

Do what?

Invisible Children worked because the big call to action, to people (mainly high school and college students)...have a party with friends and show the DVD. Easy anough action.

Kiva. Make a small and painless $25 loan, and odds are very good you'll get you money back and be able to do it again.

I think most people hear about MDG's and probably ask themselves...but what can I do, I'm just one person?

Give people small bite-sized "easy answers" as a way of initial engagement and that could be pretty interesting.

This is actually what the board talked about on Salt Spring Island. Small quick ways for 95% of Ned lurkers to engage thru small mini-actions (10 minute thing, buy something small, donate $10). Different kinds of small actions, not all related to money/funding of course.

Comment 46 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Right, but that's not what MDG monitor seeks to do: mobilize people. Its a monitoring effort, different from say Millennium Promise which has a focused outcome and they can rally people to it...

MDG Monitor states pretty up front that it enables visitors to:

TRACK progress through interactive maps and country-specific profiles

LEARN about countries' challenges and achievements and get the latest news

SUPPORT organizations working on the MDGs around the world

Personally, I don' think it needs to provide the action link. There are a lot of ways action can be taken. The information gathered by MDG Monitor (its expertise) can be pulled into sites that do want to encourage action (their expertise).

IC, Kiva: they do great at fulfilling a narrow mission. By definition, anyone working on the MDGs is tackling a broad mission. The better prepared people are to refine their action, the more effective they'll be.

So the pathway I can envision is something like:

MDG Monitor information is widely diffused among efforts like MyMDG.org, the media, etc.

Joe Q. public learns about MDGs as a result.

...learns more about an MDG he's interested in.

...learns more about the MDG in the context of a geography he's interested.

...learns about actions he can take to support realization of that MDG in the geography he's interested in.

The flip side is that lots of mini-actions, unfocused, don't do much good. That is the problem with much international assistance over the last 50 years: uncoordinated problem solving has... solved very few urgent problems... breaking the problem into smaller units isn't going to do much more... other than make the donor feel marginally better IMHO.

The MDGs offered an attempt to bring these donor agencies into some kind of coordinated framework. Unfortunately, its not proving effective either...

Millennium Promise, by emphasizing the targeted, coordinated "building up" from the micro/village level is an effort to find the sweet spot...

Comment 47 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

If I submit my proposal exactly as written in a workspace here (i.e. using ned.com formatting), will it be readable to the competition judges?

Where in the rules does it say about the format of the text?

It explains more clearly about the format of the pictures, but by asking entrants to list their images separately at the bottom of their application, how do the judges know where the pictures are intended to be located?

Sorry - not very bright about technical issues!

Comment 48 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

David, you should go online to the application section of the website (http://www.design21sdn.com/compe titions/13/entries/new), create a new account, and follow the application procedures. Don't get hung up on formatting.

Comment 49 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Yes, Lars.

I've done that. That's what I'm referring to.

The problem is that there is no preview function - just a warning that once you press the submit button you cannot retrieve anything.

Comment 50 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Mmmmmm. Never underestimate the tremendous value of good user interface.

Comment 51 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

David, there may be two schools of thought here around effective communication:

1 - Text explanation as an effective way to communicate a concept for a campaign website

2 - Screenshots and other images an effective way to communicate a concept for a campaign website

What could make the WWC project proposal more effective than formatted text are screen shots of key features of a WWC site... for example, what might the interface users use to access partner region progress look like? To do this you'd need to create some visual mock-ups.

I think the reason DESIGN21 offers better image direction than text direction is that they want to "see" proposals as a key evaluation criteria. One idea might "read" very well but not provide sufficient design direction to a web producer. Thus, the image file constraints ensure that campaign elements can be seen on a full screen in just about any browser.

Hope that helps.

Comment 52 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Thanks, Lars. Sounds like I don't have what they're looking for at all.

I see WWC as scaffolding from which each area/partnership can build to their own design

Each area/partnership will decide on their own website needs. Hard to visualise this.

I'm offering a structural principle around which I think an effective global campaign might be contructed. Again hard to encapsulate this in an image.

Still don't know if anyone knows whether the verbal description of up to 400 words (the only bit of the competition that is not described as optional) will be intelligible if I cut and paste from a ned workspace, whether the logo that Linda kindly inserted for me will be visible in its chosen location, whether bold and italics and bullet-points will show up as planned etc.

I'm reluctant to take a chance on this, while time still remains to find out what I should do.

Meanwhile having been directed by Mark towards wikimedia commons to find suitable images, I've now found ways instead to link almost every WWC to a map showing its exact location (See Afghanistan - just keep following the links). And thanks to Lars too, I've discovered how MDG Monitor offers an excellent introductory link into the development status of almost every developing country (except Afghanistan!) that I could link to every country's workspace.

And I take Lars's point about links being an outdated approach in 2008 - I think perhaps it needs to be balanced against the point that the vast majority of people in developing countries still don't have any meaningful access to the internet at all.

edited to re-arrange for clarity

Comment 53 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

David, that is why I thought WWC would work best as an "engine" - or as you say, "scaffolding" - underlying the "take action" section of a more comprehensive "campaign."

and, a link within a page of text is no easier for someone with limited bandwidth in a developing country to load into their browser than data "called" or imported from another servers database... it images and video, audio and animation and embedded scripts (ie AJAX) that gobble the bandwidth...

Glad the MDG monitor was helpful!

Comment 54 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I knew this wasn't going to be straightforward!

I've just tried to submit my competition entry. I got a message saying that my images or video exceeded 1MB.

Can anyone tell me which of these is causing the problem or how I can find out?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3 125/2585913518_0c8f2738e5.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wiki pedia/commons/0/04/Nairobi_slums _area.svg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wiki pedia/commons/7/76/Kibera.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Image:Laos_AIDS_education_camp aign.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wik i/Image:Female_students_of_Afgha nistan_in_2005.jpg#file

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3 003/2585804028_8f80a36255_o.gif

http://www.youtube.com/v/a9IS-3Z 5EC4

Comment 55 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

None of the images are really too big. The YouTube video is a link, not the actual file itself, so I'm not sure how they measure that.

Comment 56 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Thanks, Mark.

Shawn Ahmed has also raised some concerns about the rules and I've just asked his permission to post his message here for other Nedsters to comment.

I'll keep you posted

Comment 57 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Here goes:

Dear Shawn,

I'm hoping you will give me your permission to include one of your YouTube videos in my Millennium Promise Competition entry. Design21 are staging a competition for ideas on how to raise public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals.

I have put together some ideas around my own World Connectory Project (see Ned.com). Since we are Facebook Friends and I would love more people to know about your work, I wondered if I might include reference to you in my entry and the attachment of your The poor aren’t lazy video about the impact a small amount of money can have on education in a developing country.

If you are willing for me to do so, this is what my entry would look like:

[skip this - it's posted in the workspace here]

Shawn Ahmed

June 18 at 7:47pm

Dear David,

Thanks for writing to check with me on this issue. This sounds like a really exciting contest. In fact, I was considering submitting my own work to this project as well. I hesitated however when I read the legal agreement you have to sign in the event you do win.

In that agreement you have to affirm that all images, videos, and text become exclusive property and copyright of the Millennium Promise Campaign. While I believe the Creative Commons license would allow you to submit my video along with your application, I don't think you'd be able to sign the winning contest agreement form if you won.

What might help is if you just cite/mention my work in the body of your text and included the youtube links in your application. I'm also asking others about this issue because this is definitely a contest I would be interested. I just wish it wouldn't require me to forfeit the rights to the work I've done with Uncultured...

Anyways, hope this email hasn't squashed your interest in this contest. Best of luck on your entry!

Shawn

David Bale

June 18 at 9:33pm

I appreciate your views on this, Shawn - I hesitated a bit over the legal agreement too, but unlike you and uncultured, I didn't think I had very much to lose. I thought I certainly wouldn't be signing away my rights to the text of the Worldwide Connectory since that isn't part of my entry!

After re-reading it a few times, I took the legal agreement to refer to any new images of mine that I was including. I just don't see how I could sign away the rights of anything that the owner (not me!) has made subject to a creative commons license. I can't see that that could possibly have any legal validity. Anyone could steal anything from anyone without their knowledgeif that were allowed.

But I certainly understand your concern!

Would you mind if I posted this exchange of emails on Ned so others could comment?

I'll also contact the Competition organisers to seek clarification. Since none of the images are mine to sign away, I guess I may have to submit an imageless, videoless entry!

Thanks for your good wishes

David

Shawn Ahmed

Today at 6:06am

Hi David,

Of course feel free to share this with the NED community. That's what they are for - supporting eachother!

This Design21 competition is very.... peculiar? I know legal agreements are supposed to sound scary and stern sounding but to ask that 100% of images, videos, and text be made by you - only to then "perpetually", forfeit all rights to that original content seems a bit harsh....

Shawn

Comment 58 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

The rules seem straight forward to me: they are inviting people to "design" a campaign. In a sense, what you submit could become the basis of their campaign, and so they are asking for exclusive rights to the materials once submitted. Ipso facto anyone submitting an image should own it or have the "right" to submit it and to transfer the right ownership, unless in the case of the Millennium Promise logo it is already owned...

Comment 59 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

If that is what they wished to say, they should perhaps have employed you to say it for them, Lars, since you make it crystal clear. ;)

I don't think the rules make sufficiently clear the competition status of images that have a creative commons license. As I understand this, it means that the image may be used by anyone, including presumably Millenium Promise, but subject to certain conditions. These include not claiming the rights to the image and not using for commercial purposes.

I don't see why Millenium Promise should need the ownership of such an image. Are they wishing to make commerical profit from it?

If they wanted the use only of images to which the entrant had exclusive rights, I think it would have been helpful to me - and perhaps to others - if they had said so.

Comment 60 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Voting is now underway.

I didn't see any other Ned entries. Did I miss something?

79 entries - guess which one I'd like you to vote for!

Comment 61 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

i didn't submit an entry since there was no larger ned expression of interest in collaborating... will vote for yours david!

Comment 62 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Thanks, Lars.

And I've certainly appreciated your help throughout this process!

And the help from Meron, Mark and others too.

Comment 63 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I have voted as well.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of that competition. Maybe it's just me but most of the "campaigns" were terribly uninspiring. And I have developed a terrible distaste for donate (gimme) campaigns. I just don't think money is the answer.

Oh well...I am me.

Comment 64 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Registered, and waiting for the confirmation email. Then I'll drop a vote in.

Comment 65 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

OK...voted for WWC. Wow, cycling randomly thru all 78+ is quite a design flaw ;-)

Comment 66 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

A serious design flaw in a design competition by a design company doesn't speak very highly.

Comment 67 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Mark Grimes said:

OK...voted for WWC. Wow, cycling randomly thru all 78+ is quite a design flaw ;-)

Thanks, Mark!

I agree about the design flaw. If they stage a competition for ideas to help Design 21 improve its design awareness, I've planned my entry already.

TITLE: Randomly re-arranging screen

A page of thumbnails (each thumbnail showing the front page of each entry) that reorders itself randomly every ten seconds. Viewers can click on whichever thumbnail they wish to view next. As they exit (after viewing) they are given the choice:

to keep that thumbnail (with a further choice of returning it once again to the random mix or else placing it in a chosen place on a personal self-labelled selection rack)

or else

(temporarily) to completely remove that thumbnail from view.

BTW there's nothing wrong with randomness, provided there is universal and simultaneous access to all of its results! ;)

Comment 68 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

UI and vetting bigger numbers of things by many people who must register and have no skin in the game is tough.

Comment 69 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Results of the Millennium Promise competition were announced today and sadly I was not a finalist.

What do people think of the winning entries?

Comment 70 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

I am sorry...I am not an artist, not a designer and not a judge but on the whole I guess I made a good occupational choice because my choices weren't even close to what won. NOT CLOSE!

Comment 71 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Well, I only voted for yours David, though when I see this movie it is pretty cleverly done. Nice use of animation and sound...all in all, looks like something that would win a design competition.

Comment 72 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

sorry david... but yours wasn't really about "design," which knocked it out. collaboration with a designer would have strengthened the conceptual piece you brought. that said, way to go for getting it out there! and i truly am sorry the campaign didn't work out for you.

what did i think overall?

i was impressed with the mix of visual and conceptual sophistication of many of the proposals. granted, some fell flat visually and others were confusing conceptually.

i thought the "winner" was strong, and offered a product that could be implemented as a public awareness-raising tool.

there is clearly more work to be done to develop the "action campaign" - which groups like the "lies" one approached in an awkward way...

Comment 73 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

Linda, Mark, Lars,

Thanks for your feedback. I think agree with most of what you all say.

I could hardly expect to be a winner in a design contest where I wasn't really offering a design - at least not one that Millenium Promise could easily use to "advertise" their message.

I hoped I might get an honourable mention because I thought I could use that to start networking more widely to gain greater visibility. Also, I would like to work more closely with Millennium Promise: I think our aspirations and timescales are a good match and being a finalist might have facilitated a conversation. Now its hard to tell whether the WWC idea was rejected because it was seen as a poor idea or because, as Lars rightly says, it wasn't really about design.

I thought the winning entry was lively and good advertising material. I also like the website design of the U Develop entry.

So, while I was a bit disappointed not to merit a mention, I'm far from being dis-spirited. Just taking stock on how to proceed.

edit: U Develop (not U Decide)

Comment 74 on [Design] Can ned.com Design an MDG Campaign for the UN?

and perhaps david there is a way to connect with others designers via the site? i haven't checked it out myself, but likely - as for all of us - development (and by extension the MDGs) remains a core passion that we'd like to continue to develop. so there may be areas for partnership to bring that design aspect into your work when the time is right for you?

and agreed: there is no reason to feel dispirited at all. WWC offers a very different solution - its not an information/communication campaign, at least as far as I can tell. its much more a database-driven solution to a development-through connections problem you've identified.