Dear Internets,
For the past twenty years, I’ve constantly reminded myself of the following Mark Twain quote, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
In the land of the Internets, I am known as “noneck.” For the last six years, I have focused on exploring community organizing, innovative technologies and the creative space between the two. For the past ten years, I have worked to understand the complex digital tools that enable our modern society and the communities that embrace them. Over the past 18 months, I journeyed around the world to six contents documenting the communities that live off of the Internet, lifecasted the process of becoming a New York City Yellow Cab driver, helped expose the totalitarian regime of China, helped crystalize political remix culture at RemixAmerica.org, helped create an election monitoring system on Twitter and helped foster the NYC technology community by running Williamsburg Coworking.
My commitment to community stems from my early explorations as a Boy Scout. Back then, our power to build was manifested through our physical meetings. Now, my global explorations have demonstrated our new ability to break through the physical to empower each other at a moment’s notice. After needing to scratch my own itch, I helped start NYC’s monthly Drupal meetups. At Polytechnic University, I helped pioneer unconferences. For the past two years, I have helped operate Not An Alternative – a Brooklyn-based non-profit production company that is home to Williamsburg Coworking. Within the small walls of NYC’s meeting salons, I have always sought out the intersection of art, technology, activism, and theory.
In these hard but innovative times, I now seek a partnership that will help me further my experiments and crystalize my dreams. Fundamentally, this position will help me empower a new generation of leaders. Ideally, we will cross-pollinate community organizing, skill sharing, citizen media and cutting edge technology. Specifically, I seek to meld the following:
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A team that empowers people and educates them on community media and problem solving techniques.
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An opportunity to meld online and offline communities to further unify the global connections we all share.
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The ability to explore artistic creativity, hone multimedia production skills and explore innovative outreach techniques.
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The partnership should be willing to invest in documenting these techniques in an open environment and be willing to test out multiple theories of empowerment.
If you know of any organization that is looking for a passionate, self educated, global explorer, who is dedicated to sharing his discoveries with the world, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Noel Hidalgo