Subscribers, Lurkers, people who find my life a tad bit amusing…. I have moved! Check out my site www.TaylorBarr.com to see the new design. I have moved up in the blogging ladder, and look forward to putting alot of effort into the new site…

Oh yea, when you get to the new site, click on the coffee cup to SUBSCRIBE!!! it’s the cool thing to do, and I will call you rad.

Thanks,

Taylor Barr

Happy Monday!

The power of social media is a beautiful thing. About a month ago, while I was getting knee depth in learning how to use Twitter to meet people here in Raleigh as well as “Change Makers” around the world, I was contacted by Stacey Monk the Co-Founder of a non-profit organization called Epic Change. See, Stacey has been hard at work, helping others get their stories heard. In this she believes (as well as I) that expressing your stories in creative and innovative ways will lead to financial resources that will otherwise create a positive change within these individuals communities. There is a more definable chart on the right side of the blog to show how this works:

On Stacey’s first trip to Tanzania, She helped a woman named Mama Lucy Kamptoni to expand and rebuild a primary school. When Mama Lucy first started renting the land to teach the young children, there were only 6 children. Now there are 200 children. In addition, the School almost closed last year due to a hotel developer buying the land Mama Lucy was renting.

So, Stacey Monk made it her personal mission to help rebuild the school. Epic Change is now in route to Tanzania for the summer to get started on her project.

Now I will let you know how I got involved. Before Stacey left Tanzania to come back to FL, she asked the parents and kids what she could do/bring the next time she visits. They all replied, “Bring Friends.” She started a video project that asked people to make a video that she would take with her on her next visit to Tanzania. After seeking me out & reading my blog, she asked me if I would like to participate in the project. I said of course! Here are the guidelines for the video:

1) Introduce yourself & share something interesting about your life.

2) Ask the kids, teachers or parents at the school a question.

3) Tell them why you think their story matters.

Below is the video I did for the kids. Super cheezy and my editing skills are horrible. All and all I hope the kids like it. I wish Stacey & the rest of the Epic Change crew well on the trip to Tanzania. If you would like to donate or follow Epic Change and Stacey Monk’s Blog, please visit the links below.

Links

EpicChange.org

Epic Change Blog

Epic Change Youtube Videos

As I have mentioned in my last post, A few friends and I participated in the 48 Hour Film Festival in Greensboro this past weekend. Having no film or video experience what so ever, my friends assured me quickly that I could definitely contribute (Still Photographer, Movie Poster Maker,help with music, and the ever so popular, “Boom Mic King”). After an exhausting weekend of delirium and fun, we produced a 5 and a half minute film with great actors/actresses and a simple plot. All groups participating had to utilize three elements within their genre (Genre was drawn upon group arrival. we received fantasy.. which we turned into a fantasy-comedy):

Elements
Character: Luke or Laura Brown, President of a Non-Profit Organization
Prop: a family heirloom
Line of Dialogue: “I’m fixing to get started.”

This weekend is the judging for all the films. Unfortunately, we found out shortly after we were disqualified because there was no Audio when transferring the final version back onto tape (stuff like this happens all the time!!). We will still be a the screening to try our best to win an audience award (respect!). Here are the Details (we are in group A):

Screenings

Date:Saturday, June 28th!

Time: Group A: 12:00pm
Group B: 3:00pm
Group C: 7:00pm
Best of Greensboro 48HFP: 9:00pm
Place: Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street in Downtown Greensboro
Notes: Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.carolinatheatre.com/tickets.html or in person at the Carolina Theatre. Tickets will be selling fast, so be sure to get yours early!
I want to give a big Thanks for Beth Compton and David Parsons as well as the rest of the crew making this project so worth while.Check out the photos in the Flickr Widget on the right side of the blog If you are in the area, please feel free to stop on by!

Post Script: I will post a link on facebook and send it through Twitter when we are allowed to put the film on Youtube. thanks for reading.

Happy Day,

Taylor

After having a blast at the 48 hour film festival in Greensboro this past weekend, and coming home to an appropriate, parallel article in regards to a film making entrepreneur- I decided to blog about it.

If you are a Social Entrepreneur and haven’t heard of the Social Edge website by the Skoll Foundation- please check it out. This week they focused in on Ari Sznajader. He is had a wealth full of experience helping others; conducted renewable energy assessments for mining companies in Mozambique, directed a documentary film entitled “Rivers, Wats and Riots” and consulted for USAID in Cambodia.  Today he is helping train bright, future leaders in Nigeria. The title of this blog post is a quote he mentioned in the interview. It got me thinking about how I want to change the world. Here is the podcast:         

Ari Sznajader\’s Social Edge Interview

What are you going to do to change the world? I finally cemented a great idea that I am looking to roll out in the next few months. I get questions all the time, “I love your blog, but what S. Entrepreneur ventures are you heading up?” It took awhile because I wanted to do it right- but it has finally hit me!

Follow me on Twitter for more updates www.twitter.com/taylorbarr

Peace,

Taylor

Salutations-

I had the chance to review the Coldplay album, “Death And All His Friends” before it is released on itunes and other stores (like people buy music in REAL stores anymore…) on Tuesday, June 17th. To preface my examination of the album- I am not a die hard Coldplay fan- so my comments and reviews should be somewhat “unbiased” except for the fact I am extremely critical about every piece of music. Ha!

I am going to go ahead and mention what others have said about the album off of the Rolling Stones comment page: Coldplay has finally found the power behind a string section! The feel of this album is a little more full sounding; more power, less focus on Chris Martin’s piano playing, and more of a full representation of contributions from the whole band.

The album opens with “Life in Technocolor” which to me sounds like the background to just another U2 song. I am always disappointed when a band falls short of creating an awesome opening track. The first song listening through that catches my ear is the third track, “Lost!” Great anthem sound, colored with a heavy drop of the organ, and a “We Will Rock You” bleacher-percussion sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kayne West rips it off in the future for a back beat. Track four, “42” sounds like a Radiohead inspired hit… except I think it falls a little short (very somber and sad sounding… first part could be played in a funeral precession). the two songs that really shine on the album are “Viva La Vida” (Single) and “Violet Hill.” Both seem to turn the whole album from a dark gleamy sound to a bright, optimistic overture. the title track, “Death And All His Friends,” took a little time to grow on me. Starts off a very simple tune with Chris Martin playing a kind of lullaby (for some reason reminds me of Jack White’s “We are going to be Friends.” Doesn’t sound anything like it, but the simplicity is there). The song is soon transformed into a progressive upbeat Sing-along. Also, the end of the song is the same as the opening track (I guess so the piece or album comes back to it’s origin).

The only tracks I didn’t get a chance to review were the acoustic versions of, “Lost!” which might be pretty good! and “Lovers in Japan.”

Bottom line: A solid effort by Coldplay, but I don’t it think will captivate audiences beyond usual “concert-goers.” If you want to get into them, I would download a few tracks (my picks: “Lost!” and “Violet Hill”) when the album drops on Tuesday. Enjoy!

Links:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/06/06/coldplay-streaming-viva-la-vida-now/

Hello all-

I must confess… I use plastic bags at the grocery store. For an individual such as myself who preaches the strong word of recycling, My one vice is the “easy to use”, easy to throw away (eek!!) plastic bags. This post is more on the environmental side, but yet got me thinking about alternative ways that stores (or individuals) can reduce their global footprint.

I recently read an article involving the Chinese Government setting a ban on plastic bags that have an overall thickness 0f .025 or less. this is sending a mighty uproar to shop owners and supermarkets having to come up with alternatives for their customers; afterall, a majority of these businesses and street vendors put anything from produce & shirts to piping hot wares into these non-biodegradable bags. Many of the citizens of Shangai, call this problem, White Pollution.” ( after the white bags getting stuck in the trees and blowing freely through the streets.)

My questions for you is, How can we stop this from happening in the United States? granted our population count is much lower than that of China and we don’t have such harsh government intervention into the private sector, but how can we educate business and the public to minimize this waste?

That is all for now!

Stay Green,

Taylor

Happy Sunday Funday-

To my beloved Social Entrepreneurs: I came across the “One Laptop per Child” initiative awhile back, ironically while at work. About three weeks ago, I was Recruiting on Mesh Networking engineers for one of my undisclosed clients. To limit the technical jargon for the sanity of my readers- Mesh networking is part of wireless technology that allows a wireless network, per se, to function interconnectively (yes I made that word up). this means, when one site (say a laptop in this case) loses signal from a base station, it can retrive a signal using a laptop near by (rather than searching for the core site). Cool and advanced stuff! Anyways, I wanted to get more insight into how I can find these specialized skill sets- and the CTO suggested I check out the “One Laptop Per Child” Project:

to put things plain and simple: This kind of stuff excites me. To allow children in underdeveloped countries an adaptable resource that functions as well as some of the computers in the tech market- opens great opportunites. Not only does it give children ways to communicate their ideas to others, it allows our “closed off from the rest of the world,” American society to listen to ideas far from earshot distance. Education is empowerment and the more lives that get equal opportunity to it- the greater our global community will be.

Check it out http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php at A simple donation of $200 will pay for and deliver one XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, $400 will pay for and deliver two XO laptops, and so on. Your entire contribution will be tax-deductible.

All my Best,

Taylor

Introduction: Hello! sorry for the late contribution. I have been spending sometime figuring out how I want to structure my blog. Originally I wanted to incorporate separate pages where I can post under different topics. After I figured out that you can only post on the main page-it pretty much destroyed my vision. So for the time being I am going to put all my posts on the main page. I am still putting a primary focus on social entrepreneurship, but I am also going to write about other issues or topics affecting me.

I first discovered Andy Mckee through youtube. Wait, to be truthful my friend Danny told me about how awesome he was and so I decided to check him out on-line. My old way of finding new artists would be to skim through countless reviews of albums on Rolling Stone.com or Spin.com and develop a consensus of what fits my taste in music ( which has been described as eclectic or a tad unusual) .

Welp, I guess the power of social media has done it again! Andy Mckee is a phenomenal guitarist, shall I say virtuoso, that gained the highest downloaded youtube video last October ( gaining 20 million hits and made over 29,000 friends on Myspace~) I remember in the old days you had to send your tape into some big record label to try your chances at stardom-wow, there might still be a hope for me! I am glad that our society is understanding the importance of self-advertised/self-sustainable talent… or maybe they soon will be. Check out his “sick nasty-ness”

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Salutations!

I came across a website while doing research for my Triangle Social Entrepreneurs Network. Social Edge-A Skoll Foundation Program is a a great way to connect Social Entrepreneurs all across the globe. After a quick sign up (15 seconds) you create a very basic profile letting others on the site know where your from, and what avenues of change you are creating. I just now signed up and I am still playing around with the web-site’s resources and options. One of the cool features on the website is that they host two online discussions a week, moderated by experts in the field. This seems to be a great platform especially for new entrepreneurs, such as myself, to learn more about the topic.

As I was scanning across the original website homepage, I found some great Youtube links containing 4 minute interviews with some individuals that are truly paving the way for social advocacy. Please check it out (click the logo below )- you might get some inspiration yourself!

Stay tuned for some awesome new posts.

Coming soon!!: Triangle Social Entrepreneurship update/member’s benefit proposal, EntreYouth; an organization I am starting, and “Picking out your Social Networking Outfit.”

Kind Regards,

Taylor

Below is the social network website (click on the link) I use to create the group. www.ning.com allows you to create your own social networks centered around the ideas or or things you enjoy. If you are completely new to the whole thing, or have been active in the social entrepreneurship community- please join. If you create a network on the website, let me know! I am interested in what everyone is into these days…

 www.socialadvocates.ning.com