Austin Twestival Will Rock on February 12th

January 12, 2009

Twestival?  What the heck is that?

You may know about the ever increasingly popular microblogging service Twitter.  But did you know that Twitter can be used to help people collaborate to solve the world's problems? 

Amanda Rose in London is coordinating Twestival, which is a meetup of people who use Twitter to raise money for charity:water.  There are over 60 Twestivals being planned all over the world, including in Dubai, Hong Kong, Germany, and Peru. Charity:water provides funding to build water wells around the world.  Providing safe water to people is a moral imperative and will do more to alleviate poverty than any other cause known to mankind.  Here's an excerpt from their site that explains why:

"Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

OUR PLANET IS 70% WATER.  97.5% OF THAT IS SALTWATER. THIS MEANS ONLY 2.5% IS AVAILABLE FOR THE 6 BILLION PEOPLE ON OUR PLANET TODAY."

Building a well costs at least $4000, but $20 can give a person in Africa clean drinking water for $20 years.  How cool is that?

I was asked to run Austin's Twestival.  At first I was very overwhelmed but so far, people have offered help and I plan to take them up on it. ;)  So far, Tim Hayden from GamePlan (@gameplanhayden) stepped up big by securing Ace's Lounge as our venue.  Josh Shepherd (@backlineshow) from the Backline Show is securing bands and will emcee.  The Austin Chronicle (@austinchronicle) has vowed support from the Chrontourage.  Jerry Chen (@jcsalterego) is working with TipJoy to spec out a tag cloud that will represent all of the sponsors.  We are hoping to get t-shirts made by Desired Hearts (@desiredhearts), which features a vote up/vote down system allowing you, the person who cares about safe drinking water, to submit a design for people around the world to wear.

A hero isn't someone who steps up to take credit.  They aren't someone who just passes the buck.  A hero is someone who sees that others are in need and recognizes that they have the ability to do something to help them.  They risk the fear of being taken advantage of or losing out on their own personal gain.  Do you realize how much we can do by all pitching in to help solve this?  If so, do you turn to look the other way or do you step up?

Thus far I am still looking for a company to livestream the event.  Honestly, my brother @jefeguillermo is a videographer for hire and just needs the equipment.  I'm looking for someone to run a raffle.  If you are a blogger, please blog this.  If you are a coder and you can come up with an app that will help raise money, ping me at @michellegreer on Twitter or email me at michelle(at)michellesblog.net.  If you have something to offer, please let me know and I promise I will put it to good use.   

I will keep you posted on when links go up to offer money.  Thanks.