A new conservative culture think tank started last month called the Culture Project. It claims it is "a revolutionary initiative to change the American cultural paradigm from liberal to conservative" and it intends to "inculcate into the American people via professions of cultural influence".


There have been other more moderately conservative efforts along this line. As we've talked about before in this blog, the Washington Institute convenes "conversations of consequence" in an effort to "renew culture". While their efforts are underlined with a strong theme around serving and social justice, The Culture project is focused on what they call "Liberty Culture".

The Project goes on to explain why it is needed:

A recent article at The American Thinker, by Bruce Walker, included an interesting passage indicating exactly why we need The Culture Project:

A lot of persuasion is necessary before Americans (including our elites and their institutions) change their way of thinking. We in fact still need a crusade to change hearts and minds more than a candidacy.


Exactly! Top-down action will never change hearts and minds to the degree necessary to make a fundamental difference. Focusing on politics alone will continue to leave us frustrated. The Culture Project offers a bottom-up approach in the cultural influence professions. Nothing like it has ever been attempted before.

A new "crusade to change hearts and minds" has begun.

The Culture Project claims that it is basing its strategies on "a different approach, one that has worked for the liberals and can work for conservatives." While there is likely more liberal-identified than conservative-identified institutions that work in part or whole in the cultural realm (not to mention culture makers and leaders), there is no single progressive think tank working in the focused way that both The Culture Project and Washington Institute do to act as a hub for thought, activity and leaders on strategies for moving culture.

That leaves liberals at a distinct disadvantage. They have all the makings to excel in ways that corporations, religions and conservatives would die to achieve, and squander it because they don't realize its power and their advantage in using it.

Perhaps they are looking right at it but instead of seeing power and opportunity, they are blinded by celebrity. As a colleague said to me the other day in talking about the Obama-Phenomenon: "This is not something that Obama created. He has just figured out how to use culture to create a movement." (See our blog posting the other day on cultural indicators in this election.)



A side note: Our intentions with this blog have always been to gather thoughts on this subject. Tell us what you think about the idea of creating a think tank to be more serious about furthering work in this field.

Two new developments in the continued blurring of culture and politics this election cycle:

1.) will.i.am's video and song "Yes We Can" is currently in the running for MTV's Best Video award.



2.) Last night Colbert, the comedy show host and one-time Presidential candidate, has asked for a chance to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Will he get it? There are already several petitions launched for just this effort.

As you probably know, we're pretty obsessed with the role that creative communities can play in change-making. I just found that Americans for the Arts has put together a database that maps creative industries by state, city, congressional district, state legislative district, county, etc.

Because it is an election year, I started looking at swing states, and noticed that some--like OH, PA, OK, + CO--have more than one city in the top 50 most creative industrial base-cities. It seems to me that this information can be useful somehow in our efforts to move the cultural needle on issues. Maybe someone out there has some ideas as to how.

Polling in election years usually capture how would-be voters feel on issues and whom they think will be the better candidate. Perhaps this election cycle is unlike any before in that there are also cultural indicators to be watched:

UPDATE: In the continuing blurring of culture and politics this election cycle, will.i.am's video and song "Yes We Can" is currently in the running for MTV's Best Video award.

UPDATE 2: As reported on Future Majority, McCain's "celebrity" attack on Obama deployed web ads, one of which featured a clip from Wayne's World. Mike Myers, Wayne in Wayne's World, demanded that the McCain campaign remove the video from YouTube or face legal action for copyright infringement.

• Songs written about each candidate

o McCain 2
o Obama 28

• Designs on Café Press (a user-designed online merchandise company)

o McCain 17,50
o Obama 53,500

• Appearances since 2000 on cultural TV shows

o The Daily Show

• McCain: 12
• Obama: 3

o Colbert Report

• McCain: 0
• Obama: 1

o Letterman

• McCain: 8
• Obama: 4

o Saturday Night Live

• McCain: 2
• Obama: 1

• Movie appearances

o McCain: cameo in Wedding Crashers

A deeper look at these indicators might be useful in modeling voter behavior. If not, it definitely illustrates the connection between culture and politics. Indeed, politicians are quoting musicians , musicians are creating songs about politicians, and sometimes it is unclear who is the bigger draw.


Sources: IMDB Movie + TV Database, Cafe Press product search, Air Traffic Control Research.

Clive Thompson writes in this month's Wired Magazine about researchers at MIT's Media Lab who are studying the differences in how people connect and organize in the real world and in online worlds. What they have found is that the two are completely different, and the people who play vital roles in making things happen in each are also completely different:

On the Web, the best way to solve a problem is to engage an extensive network; the person who provides information, advice, or answers is often someone you know only vaguely — a weak link.

In the face-to-face world, though..., groups are more productive when the team members know each other well, sharing extremely strong links. That's because face-to-face teamwork requires intimacy, he says, and "when you're among friends you can really capitalize on preexisting protocols" — nods, grunts, in-jokes — for talking and listening.

Using a method for tracking interactions within a group (based on with whom and when individuals have conversations), these researchers can do incredibly useful things like: predict with incredible accuracy when conversations will take place (very useful in cause-related word of mouth campaigns), locate and resolve inefficiencies in a working environment (usually by introducing people that don't know each other or resolving personal conflicts between key connectors), or model how to create or manage groups to maximize their productivity (creative groups apparently work best when allowed to "fan out to gather information, then regroup").

The research shows us that we cannot create online and real-world networks in the same ways, nor tap the same types of leaders. If we want healthy online AND offline networks and groups that are ready to solve problems, we need to think differently about how we organize them, and specifically who we should invest special support in in their role as "super-connectors" within the group.

Rolling Stone Magazine interviewed Barak Obama and asked a number of interesting questions related to music + culture.

You've gotten enormous support from the music community. Why do you think they've responsed so strongly to your campaign?

Musicians and creative folks, generally, may be inclined toward the idea of change, or at least open to it--to not just settle for what is, but what might be...


Overall, what do you think of pop culture today? It is harmful or a healthy influence?

I'm not somebody who thinks that popular culture should carry the whole freight; it both shapes and reflects what's happening in the country as a whole. What I have seen is a shift in attitutdes of young people wanting to be more engaged and more involved, and you're going to start seeing that increasingly reflected in music as well...

We were having beers with a colleague who does design for a traditional ad agency that works primarily for nonprofits. They do a lot of beautiful communication materials--ads, websites, annual reports, membership materials, etc.

Deyden and I were explaining our philosophy on engagement strategies and how different it is from the traditional marketing that our colleague is so good at. At one point, we were talking specifically about membership programs and materials, how many established organizations know their membership is graying, and how desperately they want to attract younger members.

From our perspective of engagement, the new model of membership cannot be that of the card-carrying member that gives their annual donation and self-identifies as a Sierra Club (or other organization) member. We've written at length here and elsewhere about changes in how young people engage in the world that make most membership programs look ridiculously outdated.

At the same time, we understand that organizations rely on individual membership dues to support the important work they are doing. In fact, relying on thousands of individual donations of $20-100 is the sign of an economically healthy organization whose programs aren't dictated by major donors and foundations. So individual, small donations to nonprofits are imperative to maintain and even to increase.

But we need to find ways that membership can provide new types of value + benefit exchanges (what the members get in exchange for their donation or membership), while still providing the organization with vital resources. We think that in doing so nonprofits will deepen their relationship with their support community. And when this happens, the community is likely to increase its support.

One of our ideas for how to do this is to focus membership benefits and earned income strategies around providing supporters with experiences. Events of all sorts can be once-in-a-lifetime experiences for participants, can raise money, can nurture community, and can be an introduction to new supporters. Retreats seem to be extremely successful in engaging and growing communities of support, as has been employed by evangelical churches and others. Storefronts like that of 826 Valencia also provide opportunity for unique experiences for would-be and existing supporters. (Remind us to post our interview with Dave Eggers on the benefits of having a storefront from a few years back.)

Of course, there are ways to produce these experiences that will encourage and satisfy a new type of membership for nonprofits, and there are ways to totally botch them. We'll put try to put more thought into some of the criteria for success for this soon. But in the meantime, feel free to post your thoughts.

Some thought-provoking quotes we've dug out of our archives recently for a project we're working on...We thought it might be of interest to others.

Communities are sticky in ways that mass media never was, it requires a very different approach to what we create, how we create it and how we market it.

Yochai Benkler, Wealth of Networks

Far more than was true for today’s older generation, most Millenials desire—many even require—a direct interaction with their culture.

From Millenials and Pop Culture: Strategies for a New Generation of Consumer

Culture is concerned with the development of coherent viewpoints which bring a cumulative effect to otherwise isolated experiences of a group, making them feel special yet allowing others to have a parallel experience.

Kim H. Veltman, “Computers and the Importance of Culture,” International Institute of Communications Conference, Sydney, September 1997

I came across this interesting research conducted by MSN + MTV, and found this paragraph (and particularly the sentence I've highlighted) to be very intriguing:

How are Social Networks used?
From flirting to ‘checking people out’, networks tend to be relatively small. Globally, social networks allow young people to ‘feel connected’ to their existing friends rather than to meet strangers. The idea of social networks being ‘open to everyone’ has less appeal than the idea of smaller communities among people they know. While they use technology such as IM to arrange their social life, the sites are forums to share and relive experiences.

Another report by the same company talks about how the mass appeal in user-generated content is to connect with others.

A report by the Annenberg Center for Digital Future published a report that showed a dramatic increase in the number of social networkers who are participating in causes online.

Three-quarters of online community members said they use the Internet to
participate in communities related to social causes, with 40 percent saying that they use the Internet at least
monthly to participate in such communities. Eighty-seven percent of online community members are
participating in social causes that are new to them since their involvement in online communities began.

Wow. We are living in a time when people are actively trying to connect and engage, and where an obscene amount of money is being generated from this pursuit. How will nonprofits leverage these tools that seem to be made for our needs?

Just read this article, How to Use Social Media for Social Change, that a friend sent us. It outlines how users are leveraging social networks and tools to get the word out about a variety of causes and issues. From raising funds with Twitter to using the Cause application on Facebook - we are seeing how people continue to connect the causes they care about to their identities and everyday routines. These tools allow users to go beyond the message T-shirt, the Live Strong bracelet and even that ol' dependable Free Tibet bumper sticker and find a way to wear the causes they care most about on their virtual sleeve. The "experts" continue to debate how effective these tactics are in achieving meaningful social change but having witnessed the nail biting results of Facebook's Giving Challenge and the incredible protest photos and news that made it out of restricted Tibet and Burma it's hard not to get excited about the power these tools lend the average user.