organizations – Looks Like New

Can open social media help nonprofits?

MEDLab — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:34 +0000

With the rise of open social media platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, nonprofits have new opportunities to develop close conversations with the communities they seek to support.

Many of these open social media platforms are also better aligned with nonprofits’ values than major tech companies have been. What are the best ways for non-profits to get involved?

How do nonprofits navigate this emerging space in an already dense social media landscape? In this episode, we will hear from nonprofit leaders and technologists on how the emerging social networks relate to their organizations’ goals.

How can we collaborate at a distance?

MEDLab — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 16:27:31 +0000

How can we collaborate at a distance?

The COVID-19 pandemic has many of us rapidly changing how we work—and wondering how many of the changes will stick. To guide us through this process, we hear this month from Natalia Lombardo and Richard D. Bartlett, founders of The Hum, an organization that supports teams with self-organization and decentralized collaboration. They are already accustomed residents of the world many of us are just beginning to enter.

Can Networks Liberate Work?

MEDLab — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 01:00:29 +0000

There is a kind of dream out there that, once we get the gizmos set up just right, work will be transformed. While many speculate about this, Kevin Owocki, founder of the Colorado-based startup Gitcoin, is in the thick of it. Not only is Gitcoin trying to create a new way for software developers to get paid, it is using blockchain technology to re-imagine how we steward and fund freely available public goods.

What’s Wrong with Unicorns?

MEDLab — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 20:32:39 +0000

Unicorns are mythical animals. It’s also the name for a mythical idea that drives the tech startup economy. In that context, a unicorn is the rare $1 billion company that makes the whole system of widespread crashing-and-burning seem to work. Is there another way? Mara Zepeda is a co-founder of Zebras Unite, a network that is working to create a more ethical and inclusive startup ecosystem. She is also a co-founder and CEO of Switchboard, a startup that makes software that helps communities share resources and opportunities.

What is public-benefit journalism?

MEDLab — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:12:26 +0000

The priorities of community journalism have often come into conflict with corporate priorities—something we know well in Colorado. A new publication, the Colorado Sun, has attempted to protect its mission by incorporating as a public benefit corporation. As part of the Sun’s first annual evaluation, co-founder and senior editor Dana Coffield discusses what the Sun has accomplished in its first year and how the company balances with its business imperatives with its social purpose.

How Can We Self-Organize at Scale?

MEDLab — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:57:13 +0000

This month’s guest is Nathalia Scherer of DAOstack who asks How Can We Self-Organize at Scale?

Can we create big, ambitious projects without corporations, governments, and bosses?

Nathalia Scherer wants to try. Her organization, DAOstack, is using Bitcoin-like blockchain technology to make tools for self-organizing. Last year DAOstack raised $30 million in a 60-second token offering, but genuinely participatory governance may be easier to raise money for than to actually achieve.

What is a Lab?

MEDLab — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 17:18:40 +0000

What Is a Lab? With Lori Emerson of the Media Archaeology Lab

CU Boulder’s Media Archaeology Lab is a place where artists, scholars, students, and tinkerers can come to use apparently obsolete computers and other technology.

Founding director Lori Emerson, professor of English and Intermedia Art, Writing, and Performance, discusses her lab and the history of labs in general.