A new series, and a new episode!

So I created another web-series for the Network. This video is about animals planning to help us, cause they think we are just to messed up to do it for ourselves!

The series is titled 'The Takeover', since it is about the way animals will be taking over our lives. But this is no ordinary 'takeover'! The only reason the animals are trying to takeover is because they feel that during this troublesome time (recession et al), we need help in surviving. Since they have survived for decades without any worries, they are now going to help us, mankind, survive! But will they be able to? Don't we humans tend to put them down generally?

Last week I also released the second episode of 'Every Little Bit Helps'.

Chris makes the pitch to his boss with the presentation, but what do you do when you have a boss who is just not willing to see anything beyond numbers?! The boss has given him a challenge! From here on, the story will go the way people want it! If he has enough supporters for his cause, he will go ahead with it, if not...

Since the series in meant to show people the kind of problems that people trying to help animals face, it is best to get people to direct the story!! I have thought of keeping it simple: If you support Chris, like the video! If by the time the time runs out, Chris does not have 50 likes on his video, then he has not won the challenge! Simple, isn't it?

A special campaign for NOAH

I have been trying to think of a special campaign for my 'buzz campaign'! Personally for me, NOAH has turned into more than just a buzz campaign. It is something that I have believed in for a long time, but was just not able to bring it to 'life'! Now that I am 2 weeks into the campaign, I have managed to bring about a 100 fans to the page! But now I need to think about ways to increase this number.

People may say that with time and through word-of-mouth the name will spread and people will realise the use of the campaign. However, I have decided that since I am learning digital marketing, I will use some of those techniques to build on NOAH as a brand! By New Year, the aim is to get 1000 fans on Facebook.

Think I can do it?

I am sure I can! Yesterday, I spent about an hour on the page, and got around 22 fans! Now I know that is not enough, but I think it's a start!

But just getting likes on the page is not enough. I need to push people to actually post stuff and interact with the page. Which to my joy is actually happening! There are new posts that are shared by those who like the page. This also means that through mere engagement, people will start spreading the word.

The idea behind NOAH is to build a non-commercial, non-regional network linking people worldwide but for a specific cause--helping animals. What better way to do this than use platforms that link people already--like Facebook and Twitter?

Make This World A Better Place

As usual I started my day with thinking about how to do something to increase the Facebook fan following of NOAH. Usually I visit other pages and share their posts for NOAH followers to re-share. I did the same today, when I came across a post that I had seen many times before. It was the picture of a dog being dangled and strangled by 2 teenage boys. There was obviously a 3rd boy photographing them.

I had first seen this picture some years ago when a friend posted it and asked that the word be spread so that people would take action against them. I remember how my blood had boiled seeing it.

Today, when posting for NOAH, I thought, what about people who see it in daily life? If you live in a place where the local police are not very active regarding animal welfare, there is no way you can expect them to help out in such situations! The fact is that when it comes to animal welfare, people need to first think about how to help animals and then the gruesomeness of the problems. That is what I did.

I posted the picture on Facebook, and promptly got a comment (quite unexpected) requesting that such photos not be shared time and again. Completely understandable. Quite honestly, when I saw the picture for the first time, I hid it too! 2nd time, same thing. After that I just tried to turn my face away when I saw it!

This time, I chose to use it to educate the fans about what should be done in such situations. although your local police may not always be interested in such things, there are laws in all (or most) countries to prevent cruelty to animals. If one cannot harness these, they should contact the local animal help group.

After posting all this information on NOAH, I wrote for NOAH's blog and then moved on to checking the details for Hult Global Case Challenge. I have been thinking about which tier to participate in, and how to form a good strong team. At present I am leaning towards education or housing.

The challenge is intended to make us, students, use our brains and pull in all the resources we have at hand to make this world a little better for others! An incredible idea! Whether or not we win the competition, I am sure we can all learn how to use various tactics to improve social services around the world.

I have always wondered why people with money can't put the money to some better use? What is the use of having a house with all kinds of fancy gizmos if right outside your gate there is a world which needs basic like food and water?! Think about it!

A Day In

I spent my day at home today... why? No class! YEY for that! I had to work on my blogs, this one, and the one for NOAH. First helped my uncle clear out the dishwasher, and then went to my room and started on my work.

Every morning, the first thing I do is go and check the number of followers on the Facebook page. Even 1 follower up and I am happy! It in a way makes my day! So coming back to why I chose this topic for my campaign. For those who do not know me, I am from India. I have seen many animals out on the streets. But I have also seen people helping them. Often the feeling of being of no use would overcome me, when I passed a pup begging for food on the street. The next day, I would find the pup dead!

The thought always daunted me; I kept wondering how I can give them something to comfort them. The fact is even when you send them to an animal shelter, they can hardly stay there for long. I know for a fact that the animal shelters in Delhi are flooded with dogs, but the workers don't give up. They try taking every dog off the street.

People may talk about spraying and neutering, but that is a far fetched option for most places in Delhi, I cannot even think about other parts of the country! Why? Not everyone would like to contribute to getting their neighborhood dogs/cats neutered!

Personally, though I have not calculated it with formula, I can estimate that if 1 person gets 1 dog neutered every year, it would solve the problem of 'stray dogs'.

The problem is that in a lot of places, across the world, there are dogs who get abandoned by owners. For countries that don't have a stray dog problem and where the local animal police are very active, this tends to be a much smaller problem than for many other countries. The animal rescue organizations always try to make it a better place for these voiceless beings. However, they often face problems.

I realized that through social networking, we get connected to people who live in different parts of the world. Some folks in Ghana know people in China who know people in Canada who know people in Brazil who know other people in Ghana! So say there is an animal in Ghana who needs help, and a local rescue group has posted it on their wall, through the network, people could actually share the same post and that animal might get the help needed!

This was why I started NOAH. To link those people with the same mission! The second aim is to connect individuals and organizations in developing places to people in places where they have learnt how to get that help!

So that was what I did pretty much the whole day (apart from having some yummy lunch and dinner!). My first stage is connecting with organizations who help animals in different countries. And believe me, it is not easy finding animal rescue set ups around the world when you don't know half the languages they use -- it is even tougher to share their content in English! For now this is it.

I want to watch Castle and relax for a while, before crashing!

113 to Edgware

Sitting on the top floor of bus no 113, I can't help but look down on everyone else (coz of the height of the bus, off course! But maybe I should re-phrase that, since I don't look down too often! Most of the times I look straight ahead. I wonder how many people pass the same route and how many of them actually remember any of it.

For those who have never been on route 113, here are some pictures:

You may look at these pictures and wonder where they are taken ( if you don't know where in world I live)... They were taken in London... just not something you will find on postcards (if you use them anymore)!

So you must be wondering what a stupid topic to blog on, but the fact is that most of us, spend very little time logging what we do everyday... TRAVELING!

There is so much you do and think when you are going from point A to B.... But not many of us remember what we thought about on the bus... So I named this little post of mine after a bus that takes me to school and brings me home again! I have a number of things on my mind right now...

Firstly, wondering if this a new city will become my home forever, or will it just be for a year... To be honest, I am split in 2 or maybe 3 minds! I want to stay, I want to go back home and I want to go to a third place...

Just one look out, and I realized how similar something's are to delhi... The minute it rains, the traffic slows down like a flood hit town (in both places)! And then it clears out within seconds again!

Coming back to what I was thinking about, the second thing on my mind was NOAH. It's a social network project that I took up for myself. The idea behind it is to use the Internet to benefit animals...

People may think I am obsessed with animals, but then that is just how I am!! I have a weakness for animals and birds, and in general nature. Since we have such a wonderful thing such as the Internet, I wanted to put it to better use!

When one connects to people with similar interest, by default it happens within ones own country/region. However, with the Internet and social media taking over our day-to-day lives, it has become quite simple for people to get connected all round the globe!

It was in Prof. Ronan's class that I came up with the idea. He told us to create a 'buzz campaign' for a cause we believed in. The minute he said it, my mind raced--animals, animals, animals... How can I use the campaign for them? There are tons of rescue pages in every country... And then it hit me... I came back that night and just kept thinking about it. The next day, I decided that come what may, I was going to start off my campaign, and so I did!

My sister helped me choose the name, since NOAH is an acronym, and the real name, 'network of animal helpers' is not used by anyone else, I chose it.

My stop is nearing, and so I must leave... More the next time I am traveling by 113 (or maybe when I just feel like blogging!)