Photo with Mark Horvath, @hardlynormal
We did three things while we were in Santa Monica - visited the Getty, road the Ferris Wheel on the Pier, and had coffee with Mark Horvath, an advocate for homeless who uses social media to tell their stories and much more. I first heard about Mark when he spoke at Gnomedex this year and our paths crossed virtually on the Twitter activist list, and was finally delighted to meet him in person.
Mark will lead a SXSW session "A Conversation About Social Change Through Social Media", sharing how he was able to utilize such social networking tools as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in bringing attention and action to the issue of homelessness in America.
Mark was recently named "Person of the Year" over at the Being the Difference blog and captures his inspiring accomplishments.
One of the highlights of our trip!
you donate to the homeless please have a tent and the entry can be in rs.100 or rs. 200 or rs.300 or rs. 500. or rs.1000. or rs 2000. hence in a tent on an average 5000 respected gentlemen and ladies will gather and your collection will be rs.500,000.and one can be generous with regular income and donation to the poor and homeless your friend atul
Posted by: atul tiwari | January 05, 2010 at 06:01 AM
Beth,
Thanks for introducing Mark in your blog. He sounds extraordinary and we will be reaching out to let him know about about Nate Bastien (http://changents.com/impactdesigners), a 25 year-old graduate of Rhode Island School of Design who is creating the Street Pack, a "backpack for the homeless."
Made entirely of scrap material destined for the landfill, the Street Pack doubles as waterproof shelter and storage. The materials to produce the pack cost $.75 and Nate has engineered the design to address the specific challenges of individuals living in a homeless condition, such as including a solar blanket within one of the panels. His work is incredibly cool.
Several weeks ago Nate took to the streets of Boston (what he calls Street Retreats), panhandling for money, pitching a sleeping bag on the ground and spending time living among the homeless to prototype and strengthen the product he is creating on their behalf.
His ongoing story on Changents has generated quite a lot of buzz on and off our site. In addition, our crack social media team generated coverage for him on Core 77, Treehugger and other sites, which we feel very fortunate about.
Perhaps most unexpectedly for us, homeless people - who I imagine are going to their public libraries to login and interact with him online through our platform - have had passionate and sometimes heated exchanges with Nate.
In any event, I think Mark will find his story really interesting, and particularly the comments he has received on Changents from homeless individuals and those who want to help around the world.
Deron Triff
Changents.com
Posted by: Changents | January 05, 2010 at 02:43 PM
I hope there will be a lot more people like Mark who selfishly devotes his time in helping others.
Tracy, Status Now
Posted by: Tracy | January 06, 2010 at 09:57 AM