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The .org domain recently produced a documentary about the use of the .org domain by what it calls "digital citizens."  While I'd almost rather poke myself in the eye than see myself fumbling along on video....I was honored that SXSW4japan was selected as a case study for .org success, alongside the Occupy Wall Street movement, Wikipedia and others.  I was interviewed along side my amazing partner in crime, Rob Wu this spring for this video, which explores how every day people have used the .org domain.  I thought it was really well produced -- and inspiring.   The slogan "Power to the People" comes to mind.  We are featured at around 14:20.

For some reason, I can't embed this but here's the link to the video.  Enjoy!

The Digital Citizen from CloudRaker on Vimeo.

A brief update for those who are following my new "side job" coordinating SXSW4Japan fund raising efforts with Rob Wu and Hanson Music!

Joseph Jaffe, author of Flip the Funnel, donated his keynote for this cause, has auctioned one of two keynote speeches to Lifelock, for $15,000, bringing our SXSW4Japan total up over $123,000 in just 3 weeks..and that's just in ONLINE donations.  Text donations have yielded hundreds-of-thousands to the Red Cross, and soon, our album sales will, too. 



Also, today we released our SXSW4Japan benefit album, featuring 47 tracks from artists like Ben Folds, Natasha Bedingfield, Micheal Stipe of REM, Bowling for Soup, Widespread Panic, Ozomatli (a new favorite!) Rayland Baxter, The Lonely Forest and many more.  Check out the full lineup and buy the album here:

Finally, today (April 5) at 12pm CST our Live Streaming Telethon begins.  We'll feature 12 hours of the hottest musicians from SXSW along with some special guest contributors you won't want to miss.  For your convenience, the stream and schedule are below. You can get the stream for your own site here  or share it on your facebook page.



Schedule:

Hour 1	John "Jojo" Hermann / Widespread Panic
1pm ET	An Horse
12pm CT	Michael Stipe
11am MT	Miles Zuniga
10am PT	Rooney
	Emergency Blanket
	Orianthi
Hour 2	Tracy Bonham
2pm ET	Johnny Polygon
1pm CT	North Mississippi Allstars
12pm MT	Imani Coppola
11am PT	The Parlotones
Hour 3	Andrew WK
3pm ET	Jenny O
2pm CT	Michael Stipe
1pm MT	Bowling For Soup
12pm PT	Charlie Mars
	The Boxer Rebellion
Hour 4	Stephen Kellogg And The Sixers
4pm ET	Jimmy Gnecco
3pm CT	Grand Atlantic
2pm MT	Alpha Rev
1pm PT	Drawn From Bees
Hour 5	Ben Folds
5pm ET	Leslie Stevens
4pm CT	Anna Nalick
3pm MT	Locksley
2pm PT	papercranes
	Amanda Palmer
Hour 6	North Mississippi Allstars
6pm ET	Rooney
5pm CT	Philip Nelson
4pm MT	Taylor Locke And The Roughs
3pm PT	The Gay Blades
	Kina Grannis
Hour 7	Andrew WK
7pm ET	papercranes
6pm CT	Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
5pm MT	Michael Stipe
4pm PT	Luke Rathborne
	John "Jojo" Hermann / Widespread Panic
Hour 8	Orianthi
8pm ET	Cary Brothers
7pm CT	Andy Grammer
6pm MT	Natasha Bedingfield
5pm PT	Rayland Baxter
Hour 9	Rayland Baxter
9pm ET	Hey Battlefield
8pm CT	Laura Jansen
7pm MT	Andrew WK
6pm PT	Ben Folds
	The Hours
	Jackson Harris
Hour 10	The Lonely Forest
10pm ET	Michael Stipe
9pm CT	Kina Grannis
8pm MT	Orianthi
7pm PT	John "Jojo" Hermann / Widespread Panic
	Imani Coppola
	Keaton Simons
	Michael Stipe
Hour 11	Bowling For Soup
11pm ET	Ozomatli
10pm CT	Keaton Simons
9pm MT	Johnny Polygon
8pm PT	Jonny Dubowski / Jonny Lives!
	Michael Stipe
	North Mississippi Allstars
	Amanda Palmer
	Rain Phoenix
Hour 12	Ben Folds
12am ET	River City Extension
11pm CT
10pm MT
9pm PT

In my last post, I talked about some of the work we were doing at SXSW 2011 to raise support for Japan Tsunami Relief.  Here's a rapid attempt at an update:

Here's an interview from Day 2 with Esteban Contreras that describes how it started:

I do remember spending a lot of time. Waiting. Here.

As you'll note from the footage,  Samsung's own, local SXSW team also kicked in a sizable donation to help our cause, as they watched us work feverishly together in the lounge. This was over and above the incredible pledge Samsung has made toward the devastated country of Japan. The Samsung team was awesome to us, along with their PR team from Weber Shandwick and we can't thank them enough.

On the 15th, the leadership at SXSW donating badges to award for specific donation amounts.  Just prior to making an announcement in the lounge, I met up with  Joseph Jaffe, author of the best-seller, "Flip the Funnel."  As a prior advocate for fundraising for Haiti, Joseph generously volunteered (on the spot) to auction off keynote engagements with all proceeds going to SXSWCares.  There's one remaining keynote being auctioned. The first one went for $15,000.  Thank you, Joseph.

Over the days that ensued, we were actively promoted in posts, tweets and panels by an incredible (and impossible to count) community of smart people, including Brian Solis, Guy Kawasaki, David Meerman Scott, Stephanie Agresta, Drew Olanoff, Ann Handley, Mack Collier, Valeria Maltoni, Kellye Crane, Ekaterina Walter, Shelly Kramer, Beth Harte, Geoff Livingston, Kami Watson-Huyse, David Armano, Aaron Strout,  Meghan Scibona and so many others I can hardly count. (If I forgot you, please forgive me, I'm only now catching up on things -- as well as sleep).  In short, the collaboration and teamwork have been simply amazing.

On Wednesday the 16th, the Interactive types flowed out of SXSW and it was like someone flipped a culture switch.  There was a totally different vibe at the convention center, at parties and meetings. We had been asked by the SXSW leadership to help extend our outreach to the music track.  Unfortunately, Rob had to leave for the Non-Profit Technology Conference, so continuing with a lack of sleep and facing a dizzying array of opportunities and requests, we began working remotely together. So, it was truly a blessing to see people like Matt Curtis, Kevin Connor and Denice Crowell standing up to help drive band support, announcements, additional fundraising, on-site donation at concerts

Our team continued to promote our cause on the floor and with the media.  With SXSW's help, we also set up a Red Cross/SXSW Cares booth at the large venue concerts at Auditorium Shores.  We also partnered with the Mayor's office during the Mayor's Reception to kick off SXSW Music and did promotion on the KGSR Live Broadcast from the Four Seasons.  By last Saturday (March 19th) morning, we'd raised about $83k for the Red Cross Earthquake and Tsunami Relief.





On Friday afternoon, I got an email from Hugh asking me if we could connect with Hanson Music.   Zack, Issac, Taylor (Members of the Band, Hanson!) and Rebecca were organizing a live, streaming 12 hour (!!!) music telethon that featured some of the most awesome bands and artists at SXSW.  Rob arranged to host the stream on our site, they announced at the Four Seasons and printed flyers and started the stream around noon on Saturday.  It ran until midnight.


In the middle of doing press, packing to leave and nearly missing my flight, I only caught the beginning. I got in around 10pm and caught the end. It was really impressive. Steady stream of great bands and artists - all coordinated out of a small studio in Austin. Catching the tail end, I was delighted to watch Ozomatli tear it up -- and Ben Folds' customized "how to text the Red Cross" demo and entertaining musical antics.

Check out the Flickr set by the talented Jeremy Charles here!

Working with the Hansons has been terrific and the telethon proves both (proving both their resourcefulness and their talent) and we are delighted to have partnered with them in this endeavor. It was a big success, and went far toward our goal of uniting the music community around Japan and reaching our goal of $100k in online donations for Japan.

Note: Since the broadcast, we've been talking and we're happy to announce that we'll be re-streaming this broadcast (with a host of other little surprises) very soon.  So, please stay tuned for more announcements!

So.... that's what's been happening here.  It's so bizarre, looking back.  Rob and I figured we could raise an easy $10k for the Red Cross.  We hit that goal in two days.  We just kept raising the bar, and people kept giving.  Today, we're at $105k with an additional $35k in commitments.  Incidentally, Our donation counter doesn't include the money raised via text donation to Red Cross at 90999.  Those donations are received directly by the Red Cross and are difficult to track.  However, we did hear from the Red Cross that last weekend alone (16-17th) the Red Cross attributed more than $400,000 in text donations as a result of SXSW4Japan.


Thats. Just. Awesome.

When I got home after 10 days in Austin, I was welcomed by the smells of home, the hugs and kisses from my attention deprived three year old, beautiful step daughter, my super supportive husband and our ever faithful, ball-obsessed Labrador Retriever.   As I hugged them all, it was a sobering reality to consider how many people in Japan and other devastated areas are now deprived of such a homecoming.  We have so much we can easily take even the smallest comforts for granted. My prayer is that God will prick our hearts and help us all understand.

We encourage you to give -- your time, your talents, your money.  Do it wisely - as there are some parties skimming 15% or more off the top of donations right now!  Please keep in mind that 100% of online donations go directly to the American Red Cross Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Relief fund for Japan.  As far as SXSW Cares / SXSW 4 Japan -- we're still taking donations online and will be making more announcements soon.

Again, to the team who has worked alongside me over the past 10 days, sacrificing their own time and resources, to raise funds for Japan - THANK YOU:

Rob Wu - CEO, CauseVox and Co-Curator of sxsw4japan / sxswcares
Deb Ng - Conference Director, Blog World Expo; and Social Networking Diva
Jessica Lin - Director of Strategic Planning, McCann Erickson; Community Manager
Natalie Petouhoff - Director, Strategy, Weber Shandwick and Corporate Donations Diva
Denice Crowell  - Writer, CCH TeamMate and On-Site Coordinator for Concerts
Hanson Music/ 3G Records - (Zac, Issac, Taylor & Rebecca) for a masterfully coordinated streaming 12-hour telethon, incredible talent and fortitude
SXSW - Hugh Forrest and Kevin Connor who offered unparalleled personal and professional support, advocacy, promotion, displaying zero ego in the process. It was an honor working with them.
City of Austin - Matt Curtis, Communications Director, Mover, Shaker and Masterful connector and super nice guy
Red Cross - Nina Lior, Marty McKellips, Debbie Immel and Stephanie - you were all terrific and ultra responsive. Thank you!

Thanks also to everyone who tweeted, re-tweeted, clicked, donated, volunteered, wrote blog posts and offered words of encouragement to our team in this endeavor.  Personal thanks to my family, especially my Cousin Lance Ray and his beautiful wife, Amy. They are two of my favorite people in the world and let me come in and out of their home at all hours of the night and day as their dogs barked protectively and woke them up.  If I've forgotten ANYONE please let me know.

Winded, overwhelmed, blessed and grateful.

Me (Leigh Durst) with SXSW Cares / SXSW4Japan with Co-Curator, Rob Wu - Courtesy: Austin Statesman