Influx Insights Tag Feed: neworleans

why do we want to forget about new orleans?

Influx Insights — 2008-10-01T20:02:30Z

Of course, we don't have an infinite capacity for news and information. We seem to need to clear our hard drive quite frequently because we have ADD or we get bored of the issue. Remember the 2000 Election, we just got bored and asked people to make a decision for us. Katrina and New Orleans seems to have gone the same way. It's no longer in the news and we don't seem to have the desire or capacity to deal with it.

D ave Winer in today's Huffington Post brought the issue up again.

"Katrina never ended, three years later, it's still not over. New Orleans is still broken. Whole families were wiped out in the disaster, and while we don't spend much time on it in our national discourse, even as the election approaches, it's still there, reminding us of something. But we're not learning the lesson, and now our nation faces a Katrina-scale disaster, across the entire country, and like New Orleans on the first night of Katrina, it hasn't sunk in."

Thankfully there are people out in NOLA who are committed to making sure that we don't forget and this city gets the people and the attention it deserves. One such group is the Idea Village. This is a non-profit who's dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in the city.

In the last few years, there's been an influx of talent migrating to the city to help post-Katrina and there's a danger that without work these folks will start heading back home. To try and provide jobs for this talent, the IV has launched a competition to attract new business ideas to the city and provide jobs for this talent pool.

This beautiful film- made by Trumpet- explains all.

Please share this and spread the word about NOLA..

Posted by Ed Cotton

new orleans- again!

Influx Insights — 2008-08-29T14:53:43Z

Keep this city in your minds over the next few days.

One of America's greatest cultural contributors is under threat.

I just got this email from the team at the Idea Village- they are getting ready.

Dear Friends of The Idea Village -

A quick update to let you know that The Idea Village team and network of partners are prepared to react if a Hurricane threatens the New Orleans region. We are working with our partners and funders to anticipate the challenges that may face entrepreneurs.

In the event of a disaster, our website is updated to accept requests from entrepreneurs, and we are prepared to accept donations and resources for our community. You may reach us directly at innovation@ideavillage.org or theideavillage@gmail.com.

We have a committed and engaged team that is ready to execute for the entrepreneurial community in New Orleans.

Sincerely,
The Idea Village Team

Posted by Ed Cotton

new orleans- 100 great ideas post katrina

Influx Insights — 2008-08-25T17:46:29Z

All Day Buffet has a great list of 100 ideas from post-Katrina New Orleans.

It's an incredible list of initiatives coming out of the city that was devastated and forgotten by many after Katrina.

However, there's a lot of great stuff happening there and it worth checking out the list and spreading the word, so we can some attention for these efforts.

Here's the same message in the words of ADB.

"After hearing so many of the positive changes and innovative projects post-Katrina, we've decided enough is enough. It's time to put an end to the negative press in mainstream media. We know that the levees broke. We know that our city is dysfunctional. We know that. But do you know about Prospect.1? Or about the influx of young professionals into New Orleans? The world needs to know about the NEW New Orleans. And to quote Brad Pitt, "If you're going to rebuild something, why not rebuild it right?" Amen brother."

Posted by Ed Cotton

planning for good completes its first assignment

Influx Insights — 2007-10-15T23:03:54Z

I am delighted the Planning for Good initiative is off to a great start having completed its first assignment and presented its ideas to the client.

The assignment was to develop thinking for the Idea Village in New Orleans, a non-profit set-up to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurs in the city.

This was the first assignment out of the gate when the group was around 200 strong, compared to the 700+ that now inhabit the Facebook group.

The presentation can be seen below.

| View | Upload your own

I intend to follow up with more feedback on what happens to these ideas.

Needless to say the Idea Village liked alot of thinking and are keen to move forward with many of the initiatives that were presented.

If you are interested in helping, there are three things we need.

1. Some technology wizard or a company that can create a virtual workspace for the group.

2. A great brief from a non-profit that would appreciate thinking from 700 strategists.

3. Simply, join the group and participate in the next brief.

Posted by Ed Cotton

got ideas for new orleans?

Influx Insights — 2007-09-15T00:23:37Z

New Orleans is on a search for new ideas and the non-profit, the Idea Village is helping make them a reality.

A newly established network of 500+ planners, strategists and their friends at Planning for Good are working on brief to help the Idea Village retain, motivate and build a community of young talent in New Orleans.

If you would like to help, please take the following steps.

1. Join Facebook

2. Sign up for the Planning for Good group

3. Read the Brief

4. Download the entry form here

5. Ideate

6. Send in your entry to the committee@planningforgood.org

Entries due by September 20th

Posted by Ed Cotton

influx interview- josh neufeld- creator of a.d.- new orleans after the deluge

Influx Insights — 2007-05-24T09:14:08Z

A few days ago Influx wrote about the A.D. comic strip that tells the story of the Katrina disaster. We tracked down the creative genius behind the idea, Josh Neufeld, for a quick interview.

1. Tell us a little about your background?

I am the author of the Xeric Award-winning A Few Perfect Hours (and Other Stories From Southeast Asia & Central Europe), a graphic novel collection of real-life stories about my travel experiences. I am the creator of the comic book series The Vagabonds, and the co-creator of Keyhole (nominated for an Ignatz Award) and Titans of Finance: True Tales of Money and Business. I am a long-time artist for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. Besides being a Xeric Award recipient, I'm also an Ignatz Award nominee. in 2006, I self-published Katrina Came Calling, the story of my three weeks as a Red Cross volunteer following Hurricane Katrina. In addition, I am a founding member of the online comix collective ACT-I-VATE. I have contributed to anthologies published by (among others) Vertigo, Fantagraphics, Dark Horse, Top Shelf, StripBurger, and SPX. My comics and strips have also appeared in daily newspapers, alternative weeklies, financial magazines, literary journals, museum exhibition catalogs, and many other venues. I live in Brooklyn, New York, and make a living mixing my comics work with freelance illustration and design.

2. How did the A.D project come to fruition?

Soon after I returned from my Red Cross deployment I put together a self-published book about my experiences in the Gulf Coast. Entitled Katrina Came Calling, it was taken from my online journal and illustrated with photographs. Being a public forum, my blog was read and commented on by people from all over the spectrum: not only by my friends, associates, and regular readers, but by other Red Crossers past and present, and by Biloxi-area survivors and former residents. Many of those comments (and my responses to them) are included in Katrina Came Calling, which is sort of a unique marriage of print and the ongoing conversation of the Internet.

Putting together and producing K.C.C. took about three months; and soon after it was complete I got caught up in the second issue of my solo title The Vagabonds (published by Alternative Comics). So the idea of doing a graphic novel treatment of Hurricane Katrina was still very much of in the back of my mind. But quite a few of my readers expected a Katrina comic to emerge eventually. For me the debate was how to tell stories from that event without repeating elements of K.C.C. and/or making myself look "heroic." It's one thing to show myself backpacking haphazardly around the world with my girlfriend as I did in A Few Perfect Hours, it's another to portray myself as some sort of hero just because I spent three weeks with the Red Cross.

But when SMITH editor Larry Smith approached me about serializing a Hurricane Katrina graphic novel on his site, and then suggested I use real people from New Orleans as the subjects, it was the perfect solution to my storytelling dilemma.

3. What's the reaction been?

The response I've received so far has been almost unanimously in support of the project. A.D. has been favorably mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine, Wired.com's "The Underwire," and most of the prominent New Orleans blogs. In addition, much of the response on the site has been from people from the Gulf Coast. I'd like to think that New Orleanians and other Gulf Coast readers touched by the hurricane will feel that I am representing their story well. I want A.D. to reach readers all over the country (and, dare I say, the world), to remind them that the story of Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans is not over. The fact is that the eyes of the world were on the region for a time in the fall of 2005, but as other news events, both large & small, enter the landscape, people inevitably begin to forget. For anyone living in New Orleans, the story of Katrina will play on for generations. That's a lot of people, and a lot of lives, in turmoil. My goal is for A.D. to be a document, however humble, of this period.

One of my biggest fears was that the people who are our characters would take issue with their representation in A.D., but to the contrary so far everyone's thrilled.

4. Do you think "factual" comics could have a bigger role to play in communicating news and events?

A.D. is the first nonfiction graphic novel I've embarked on which focuses mostly on "news" and other people's experiences. (In my previous work, I either told my own stories or illustrated Harvey Pekar's autobiographical tales in American Splendor.) It's long been my belief that real people's stories are inherently dramatic, and that it's important to celebrate real life in comics as much as fantasy/fiction. With an event as monumental as Hurricane Katrina, the burden of A.D feels much larger. And given the subject matter, there's a lot of extra emotional weight involved. But I'm really excited about it, because it's testing my limits as a storyteller, and because it's such an important story to tell.

5. How about for nonprofit groups to communicate their issues to a broader group of consumers?

Coincidentally, I am currently working on a side project for the American Friends Service Committee, a one-page comic about Colombia, the U.S. war on drugs, and the Free Trade Agreement. So the AFSC clearly thinks comics are a new, legitimate way to spread their message. For me, it comes down to the old debate about whether or not these "educational" comics are good or not; i.e., are they well-done and effective as comics, not just blatant propaganda...

6. Do you have any new upcoming projects that you are on the horizon that are similar to A.D.?

I'm slated to draw a Harvey Pekar story or two for the next set of American Splendor comics from DC/Vertigo, but other than that, and a side illo here or there for editorial clients, it's A.D. 24-7 for the next six months or so, and probably longer.

7. Who's influencing and interesting you at this moment in time- "artists", "authors" , "bloggers", "film makers"?

Current artistic influences include fellow cartoonists like Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Alison Bechdel, Joe Sacco, and Dan Goldman. Other artistic influences include Banksy and Martha Rosler. Authors who interest me at the moment include Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, and Ayun Halliday. I read blogs by Rob Walker, Karen Ahn, Heidi McDonald, and a bunch of people on LiveJournal. And filmmakers who excite my cinematic imagination are Alffonso Cuaron, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Michael Mann. And don't forget TV: My favorite current shows include "Battlestar Galactica," "Lost," and "Deadwood."

the power of the comic book

Influx Insights — 2007-06-06T19:46:51Z

Comics have invaded Hollywood, their story telling techniques and the characters companies like Marvel created have become big, iconic money generating machines.

However, the comic book, the very thing that spawned the cash machine, is seen as passed it’s sell by date; they are big in Japan, but many people don’t see their relevance anymore.

Like everything, comics have migrated online, but they are also being used in new and interesting ways.

The pervasive nature of ADD means that;

a. We find it hard to digest complex information
b. Our memories are fading even faster- we forget stuff, because we need capacity to remember what’s happening now

This provides a new role for the comic book, to retell stories in a way that is digestible and interesting. You just need the right topic, the right story and the right team of storytellers. News analysis could be a category that breathes new life into the comic book. It may seem oxymoronic, but given the current state of the news media, it has the potential to go beyond what most of us see, read and take in.

One great example of this idea in action is the A.D- New Orleans After the Deluge Project put together by Smith Magazine and Josh Neufeld, that looks at the story of the event through the perspectives of 5 different characters.

This news story covers A.D. in the first part of the report.

News media could be using comics to tell stories and brands could be using them to edutain; to tell stories of their history and stories about themselves.