I just finished reading Joel Hafvenstein’s “Opium Season“, a book that has absolutely nothing to do with social media but which I’d like to recommend to anyone working in the aid-business.
Opium Season is about Hafvenstein’s time in Afghanistan in 2005, when he was working for a USAID funded cash-for-work project that was supposed to supplement the income of people who were due to lose money because of a poppy-eradication campaign.
The problem with donor driven programmes
What makes this book such a good[...]
Given how obsessed everyone was with how social media helped elect Barack Obama, I’m surprised that I haven’t read more reviews of this book: “Yes We Did – An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand” by Rahaf Harfoush, which gives an excellent overview over how the Obama campaign used social media to mobilize people to donate time and money.
Harfoush (@rahafharfoush) was a volunteer with Obama’s new media team. She describes the different tools that the campaign used along[...]
Last week I gave a presentation at the IFRC’s communications managers meeting about social media in general and how we should use it. Below you find the largest part of that presentation. I removed the bits that were focusing very much on internal processes and steps that need to be taken in-house in order to make social media work. (Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers and staff can download the complete presentation from FedNet, the IFRC’s extranet.)
I hope you like it. Please[...]
