Since kicking off the Phones for Fearless campaign collection on Dec. 23rd, the phones are piling up, responses are coming in from far-flung places, and the story appearing in myriad social and traditional media outlets.

We are still accepting donations at Raincity Studios so bring your old devices down to help bridge the digital divide in a very tangible manner. While you are backing up your data and bundling your power cords, here are a few highlights and notes to bring you up to speed on the success so far.

Sun Profiles DTES Artist

Gillian Shaw's blog posts and Vancouver Sun article helped muster another round of exposure for the project. Of particular interest is the way she worked Walter Lynxleg's work into her story with a photo gallery in her 12-21-2008 blog post "Donate your cellphone".

Here's a video interview with Walter Lynxleg (who) "overcame homelessness and is now hoping to put together a book of photos of people living in the neighborhood and the people trying to help them"

Later, Ms. Shaw followed up with Walter's story in the print edition article on December 28, 2008, "Life on the streets seen through a simple lens - Walter Lynxleg, once homeless, uses a cellphone camera to record life in his Downtown Eastside community."

Walter is quoted saying, "I was homeless," said Lynxleg. "Then I got a job and managed to save enough money to get a place to live. Now I take photos of people who are helping people on the Downtown Eastside. I am planning to publish it in a book that I am calling Angels Without Wings."

Walter is now the recipient of a video camera and training from Steve Jaagger (Reached.com) who explains, "I'll give him a seat in our video class and I'll give him a video camera," said Jagger. "He can go into an Internet cafe and store his videos on YouTube. Guys like Walter are trying, all they need is a little bit of help. He is very passionate about the whole native thing. He wants to finish his Grade 12 and go back to his community and start showing the young guys -- you can do something."

Thanks Gillian for providing this sterling example of a complimentary relationship between "social" and "trad" media - (note: we really need better terms or no terms to describe these artificial differences)

We're working with Fearless City on a campaign to gather phones for downtown eastside artists and residents called Phones for Fearless.

We're already awash in the blur of excitement with phones arriving, folks signing up for the pick up list and articles coming out. In the interest of efficiency, here's the details of how the pick-up fest is shaping up.

Cross-posted from Fearless City for your interest and participation:

The Phones for Fearless campaign is underway! We have a plan of action, the first phones are in hand, the bloggers are talking and we're ready for prancing through the snow with a sack of wintery libation to the good kids with extra phones to donate.

We'll be out and about Dec. 23rd from 1~-4 to gather phones and spread cheer.

A few answers to the queries:

How do we get on the pickup list?

Send a message NOW via:
Twitter: Fearless City
E-mail: info (at) fearlessmedia (dot) ca
Phone/SMS: 604.644.4349
Voice mail: 604.682.3269 xt 8320

Can i come along?

Yes you can come along to help! Bring a rucksack and your media making device to capture photos and videos of the shenangins. Meet at Raincity Studios HQ at 10:30 to head out into the wilds of Vancouver to harvest mobile phones in rag-tag bands.

Can i donate my phone without a power supply?

Sure. Coincidentally enough, Fearless City's trove includes many power supplies without phones - we'll pair them together for fun. Accessories, power supplies and batteries are all encouraged. Keep your SIM cards though we'll clear the phones first.

I am a DTES artist/resident or non-profit organization, how do i get my hands on a phone(s)?

Come to Fearless City's Wednesday meetings from 1-3 at Lori Krill Co-op, 65 W Cordova, to get peer training and find out how to get access to a phone and participate in Fearless City campaigns.

How about standard old office landline handsets?

Umm, we do like extra digital cameras but not other office equipment so much, we are hauling rucksacks so nothing heavy ;-)but if you have something great, we'l make arrangements.

I am writing a blog post, uploading Flickr photos and videos, can i get some tags?

Sure, thanks, here's a copy and paste string to get you started: fearlesscity fearless dtes homeless artists donation cellphone phonesforfearless (or with commas) fearlesscity, fearless, dtes, homeless, artists, donation, cellphone, phonesforfearless. Please add you photos to the FearlessCity Flickr group. Huzzah!

Building upon the work done at the Fearless Drupal code sprint last weekend, Kris and I are working with Irwin, Lani, Hendrick, Lorraine and others at Fearless City to gather up unused phones to redistribute to help DTES artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs & family.

We assembled this social media marketing campaign on a accelerated timeline to spread the message while so many people are getting new phone for a holiday gift and will end up with old phones which can be used to make media, document incidents, or provide basic communication. We used a variety of online media publishing and community building tools to create presences for Fearless City, then created the campaign materials using collaborative working tools and online photo tools to make the badge from Kris' sweet punk photo.

Finally, we unleashed the hounds (well Twitter, some blogs, Facebook, and such) to spread the word quickly on a Friday afternoon with a plan to pick up phones on Tuesday, Dec. 23rd on the auto-magic-Flickr-uploading purple Yahoo bikes Kris and Roland are rolling.

A look over kk's Twitter posts for today tells the story of how the plan came together ~ to quote George Peppard's character in the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Happy Birthday CC

We talk a lot about social media here and it's worth noting that much of this remix culture and grassroots creativity bubble-up is predicated by Creative Commons licensing.

We had hoped to throw a proper birthday bash for CC this year but, there's a lot going on in our world so, in lieu of that, here's a Creative Commons primer and best wishes for turning 6 years old on Dec. 16th, 2008.

IP Laws Primer

Intellectual property laws are a wee bit confusing to say the least. For content creators, you gut feeling might tell you it is somehow important to protect your stuff to the point that no one can use/listen/share/enjoy without express permissions and/or wrapped in advertising. However, to paraphrase Tim O'Reilly (IIRC) "more artists struggle with obscurity more than piracy."

The advent of CC licensing allows you to grant an alternative to traditional copyright laws. By liberalizing the controls on how you want others to use your "stuff" allows artists to expose their work with a vast (dareisay) market for truly independent creations.

For artists willing to take the step, the theory suggests that by applying a less-restrictive license, you can grow a larger, more enthusiastic audience, quicker, and more cost-efficiently without the financial shackles and machinations of a major record label, book publishing house, or other usual gatekeepers who have (temporarily) solved the distribution puzzle. 

Gre/ay Areas

Creative Commons does not mean "public domain" (though you can apply no copyright), and does not mean you are giving your stuff away, nor are you giving away commercial rights - to sort out the big picture conundrums, here's a list of things to think about.

Creative Commons isn't without gray areas - in some ways this is an evolving social experiment in which we are all defining answers to: What  is commercial use? What constitutes attribution? What about model releases? These questions are bandied about, with real world examples, at Darren Barefoot's The Practicalities of Flickr and Creative Commons and Duane Storey's Creative Commons, Flickr and You.

How about some examples?

In practical terms, more liberal licensing allows podcasters to find theme music, collage artists to find source materials, bands to use photos, fans to share audio recordings, writers to find readers for enjoyment and feedback. From my vantage point this movement proclaims "It's *our* culture, and if it doesn't cost to share the stuff, then share it."

Our pal KK is a great example of blowing up a fashion and editorial photo reputation hyper-fast by 'giving it away' - he makes bread doing the shoots, not selling the prints and all sorts of bands and geeks use his shots for avatars and album covers. The Grateful Dead are spiritual godfathers of the "we're done with it, do whatever you want with it" movement by allowing fans to trade tapes of shows. (disclaimer, Dead.net/Rhino Records is a Raincity Studios client).

New Way vs. Old Way

Growing by Sharing is the New Way. The Old Way is best explained by paraphrasing rock band Boston, (ergo: word hard and wait for the man to arrive with the cheque and your life will be awesome).

Playin' for week in Rhode Island
A man came to the stage one night
He smoked a big cigar,
Drove a Cadillac car and said,
"Boys, I think this band's outtasight;
Sign a record company contract!
You know I've got great expectations!
When I hear you on the car radio
You're gonna be a sensation!

License Tool Box

So, how do you actually use Creative Commons licensing? Here's what they/you/we say (after the break):

Thursday night was the Best of 604 Awards at The Cellar. Miss 604 (and 778 and 250) Rebecca Bollwitt and her hardworking posse hosted a event which went off better than anyone could have expected. I mean, an inaugural event to give prizes to bloggers? Would anyone show up? Would anyone care? Yes and yes!

While our co-workers partied at the office, Kris and I headed to Granville St. with a band of scallywags. The place was packed, the beverages flowed, and the conversations didn't stop.

While i know *a lot* of people here in Vancouver who are writing blogs, recording podcasts etc., i couldn't help but notice how many faces i didn't know. A quick chit-chat proved that we are all just one degree of separation away and this internet-y stuff has moved out of the basement and onto the red carpet (despite the whining by a few notable yet clueless trolls).

Thanks to your votes and support, Raincity Studios' Blogs and Pods won the award for Best Company Blog. Thanks for that - really, thanks.

Started back in the day (Spring 2004) with Rob and Mark writing about Legos and CSS, before moving onto Will Pate and Megan Cole writing about building community with insightful and witty missives and interviews.

The blog continues to evolve through to today with a deep mix of long-form essays about technical, business, and cultural topics - the Olympics, Drupal, jQuery, geek camps/event/un-conferences, international open culture biz and software ... you are pleased and that makes us happy.

Since this event is sure to turn into an annual event, i'll advise Rebecca to get a platform and a podium to address her minions next year and there also needs to be a theme song/fanfare to keep the hyper-social attendees focused. I could bring my conch shell to blow perhaps.

Congrats go to lots of our pals who won like: Victoria Potter's Demicouture winning in Fashion and Colleen's Buzz Networker edging out Techvibes.

I also enjoyed the tight race for Best Political blog finishing 1. The Tyee 35% 2. Matthew Good 22% & 3. Jonathon Narvey 18%. The Tyee had a huge night with 3 awards and Beyond Robson got some love for Events.

Even the third place finishes (like Monica's Your Dose of Lunacy, and Terri's The Conveyor Belt) were reason to party as this was all about community and being part of something larger.