The Lemontree, Poverty & Social Media

Happy Spring Lemonheads!!

Yesterday was the day of the equinox: one of 2 days this year when the sun will cross the equator and we will have an equal amount of daytime and night time. What does this mean to the Lemontree? Well – not much, except that if it were a “real” Lemontree (as opposed to a virtual one), it would certainly appreciate 12 hours of sun! But, that’s not the point, is it now?

The sun, beaming into my window, reminded me that I really should post some more (as in, continue to shed light on our topic of poverty & lack of education – or, rather lack of access to education). And, I really need to apologize for being so sporadic with my posts... But, I’ve encountered something absurdly powerful: Web 2.0 in all its glory. And with so many applications, it can truly get dizzying. So, I’ve been learning about the virtues of a few applications. My recent favourite: Twitter.

Twitter: here is a site, virtually unknown in its inception in 2006. In just a little over 2 years, it has grown by over 700%; and though the exact number of users is unknown, experts peg it between 2-5 million, world-wide, and growing exponentially!

People tweet (a tweet is a 140 character message to the world) about absolutely everything and anything. Twitterers could be anyone from you to me to rock stars (apologies if you are a rock star and I’ve singled you out) to movie stars (ditto) and so many other iterations! OK – so, in less than 3 years, we can create a Website – a virtual social aggregator – that can generate over 700% in user growth, and still... we struggle with poverty.

But – here’s the good news! There are lots of Twitterers who tweet about this issue... and, as I’ve indicated before, awareness is needed first in order to generate action. So, shall we try a little experiment? Let’s test the power of the Internet.

Here’s the challenge – and, I’ll challenge back to the Twitterers too:

• Let’s get the Lemontree message OUT!


• Tweet your thoughts about lack of access to education and its link to poverty;


• You can start by tweeting about this post: click the “TwitThis” button below. If you do not see the TwitThis button, make sure you click on the link for this post itself, not just the main page of the Lemontree. To make sure you are on the post link, select it from the menu on the right-hand side. At the end of your tweet, include the following: #lemontreeblog.


• If you have your own Twitter account, make sure you post your thoughts, followed by #lemontreeblog.


• Post your thoughts on the topic, and solutions – or links to solutions.


• CHALLENGE: 50 Lemontree tweets by March 27th.
  

I will count the posts, and relay them back to a few Twitter accounts myself... Oh yeah – let me know who should get our info!! (I.e. Stephen Harper, Barack Obama?)

Who knows, we may come up with some awesome ideas to bring hope back into our communities, and drive better access to education for all! (If Twitter can change the landscape of the social network... it can be a tool to change the landscape of poverty.)

Tuition rant - Part deux

OK, Lemonheads… the votes are in, the polls are closed, and 80% of you have said: tuition hikes in this economic situation are not a good idea!

Now, that means that 20% of you said “it’s OK”. To be fair, I received some good comments… Canada’s education system is a steal, and since the rates of education have not skyrocketed, like they have in other countries, we’re still in pretty good shape. Another comment had to do with the notion that the quality of education simply costs a lot of money, and everyone has to pitch in to ensure we have sustained quality – including the students.

I must admit, the dialogue is exciting. That’s the power of technology! At least this way, we can get people talking and looking for the right solutions to real problems.

___

Though I agree that ensuring quality of education should be a joint responsibility between government, academia, and students, it is still in my humble opinion that increasing the cost of tuition – alone – is a completely unfair solution.

The proposal put forward only spoke of tuition hikes, potentially in the realm of 25% over the next couple of years! If the burden has to be shared, I’d like to see the proposals on the other parties before accepting a wide-sweeping tuition hike that will impede the opportunity of many students to attend post-secondary institutions.

One of the comments put forward also had to do with the value of college education; and the (misconstrued) pre-conceived notion that university education is better. University and college education are different - no, not THAT kind of different; just genuinely different. Students must be encouraged, by parents and other societal leaders, to explore what they really want to achieve and then to determine which post-secondary institution is best for them. None-the-less, the proposed “solution” for ensuring quality of education fell squarely on the shoulder of students – of either type of institution.

(If you are an “American Lemonhead”, I just want to clarify that though University and College is nearly an interchangeable term in the US, in Canada the perceived difference is somewhat similar to the difference between a College and a community college.)

Bottom line: before making it harder for students to acquire a post-secondary education, let’s look at a full package solution with a shared burden that is actually shared. This proposal hasn’t gone through yet… perhaps other options are being explored.

One can only hope.

"Tweet" to end global poverty?

When I began writing this blog, one of my premises was that "I would be remiss in not taking advantage of a global online community of conversation." So - this post is specifically about that... the online conversation!

Here's an incredibly novel way to use Twitter: if you are on Twitter, you should totally check out: http://twitter.com/endpovertynow. For the first time ever, there is a "tweet-a-thon"; oh yeah - you heard (read) that right! If you add the tag: #apowerfulnoise to the end of your tweets (only until tomorrow, March 5), NCM Fathom will donate $0.50 to CARE Globally to give hope and opportunity to women and girls living in poverty.

If you're not on Twitter - check this Website out for more details: http://apowerfulnoise.fathomevents.com/tweet-a-thon. A cool concept - the Lemon Tree may just need to borrow that someday! (Theodore Levitt, an icon in the field of Marketing, would call that: Innovative Imitation!)

In the mean time, the posts in the month of February have been entertaining (to me - and I hope to you too) in the sense that I've had a fantastic opportunity to showcase some really interesting "conductors and connectors" all working toward an end to poverty in North America; all providing hope and opportunity to so many people who need it...

As for the last 2 posts, specific to education: post-secondary, in particular have focused on Canada. I will come back to that issue, as it is one incredibly near and dear to my heart! So, keep voting - still 1 day to go.