It has been a long haul and herculean effort for everyone involved, but at last, the website for ‘Coalition of the Willing’ is live. You’ll find it here.
Press release
‘Coalition of the Willing’ is a collaborative animated film and web-based event about an online war against global warming in a ‘post Copenhagen’ world.
‘Coalition of the Willing’ is being crafted by a network of 24 artists from around the world using varied and eclectic film making techniques. Collaborators include some of the world’s top moving image talent, such as Decoy, World Leaders and Parasol Island.
The film offers a response to the major problem of our time: how to galvanize and enlist the global publics in the fight against global warming. This optimistic and principled film explores how we could use new Internet technologies to leverage the powers of activists, experts, and ordinary citizens in collaborative ventures to combat climate change. Through analyses of swarm activity and social revolution, ‘Coalition of the Willing’ makes a compelling case for the new online activism and explains how to hand the fight against global warming to the people.
‘Coalition of the Willing’ will have an innovative staggered online release. As from 3rd February 2010 the script for the film will be fully available on the site. The completed animated sections will be uploaded in 6 different ‘waves’ 2 weeks apart, over a 12-week period, as they are finished by the contributing artists. Each wave of uploads will introduce 3-5 new sections of the film. The film’s staggered release and the online forum will allow the site to be a crucible for debate on the issues it raises, and allows the audience to collaborate in re- defining the argument even as the film is being made. The film will be complete by mid-April 2010.
Director / Producer:
Simon Robson aka Knife Party is a multi award-winning animation director and producer. His work has been shown at festivals around the world including Edinburgh, Toronto, Raindance and the Brooklyn International Film Festival. Simon won ‘best animated short’ film for his debut film ‘What Barry Says’ at Brooklyn and London in 2004. He was animation director on BAFTA nominated ‘Taking Liberties’, a feature documentary released in 2007 addressing the decline of civil liberties in the UK.
Writer:
Timothy Rayner teaches philosophy at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. He is the author of leading-edge academic articles, and his book, Foucault’s Heidegger: Philosophy and Transformative Experience is available on Continuum.
Full list of collaborators:
Knife Party
Adam Gault & Stefanie Augustine
Bran Dougherty-Johnson
Cassiano Prado
Mario Sader & Ralph Pinel
Dave Baum
Decoy
Dom Del Torto
Dylan White & Andy Hague
Echolab
Foreign Office
Andreas Gebhardt
James Wignall
Loyalkaspar
Sehsucht & Mate Steinforth, Mighty Nice
Parasol Island
Thiago Maia
World Leaders
Yum Yum London
Links
http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk (As from February 3rd 2010)
www.facebook.com/coalitionfilm
Philosophy for change 
Hi Tim,
Just a quicky re: the film
Green Knowledge Trust (GKT) =
http://www.appropedia.org/
Catalyst System (CS) =
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
(or rather what the beta website there is building towards being. As the author of The Transition Timeline I know the organisation and web staff well, and they are *all* about open space collaboration)
Open Innovation Centre (OIC) =
Haven’t seen this one yet, but I imagine the Hackerspace people would have some ideas.
Drop me a line if you want to chat anything over. Have put the film out to my followers too.
Cheers,
Shaun
Hi Shaun,
Thanks for dropping us a line. I’m really glad you liked the film. I apologize I didn’t reply earlier, but I’ve been ignoring this blog as I juggled film-related stuff. Everyone is asking Lenin’s question: what is to be done? It’s a taxing business.
I do like what the Transition network is doing (I think I FB/Twittered you a while back). It’s necessary work. Are there transitioners in Sydney? Maybe I should join?
Check out Atizo https://www.atizo.com/ and MyooCreate http://myoocreate.com/: two cool open innovation platforms. The technology is there, the culture is still catching up.
I think the greatest challenge for the kind of web system the film talks about lies in designing the interoperability between platforms. This is central to the swarm idea: we need interoperability between platforms to draw on the diverse resources of different socio-cultural sectors (green consumers, researchers and innovators, activists).
Let’s stay in touch. I’ll email you with an update on things Coalition shortly.
Tim
Yeah, drop me a line – you have my email addy now.
Our google map reveals two or three Transition initiatives in Sydney, so yeah, go along and see who’s there.
My friend Asha Bee is in Sydney now too, and working on The Transition Guide to Cities (book), so I’m sure she’ll be involved if you poke your nose round the door.
Incidentally, I sent your film to Ed, the TN web guru, back when I found it, and he totally empathises with your concerns about interoperability – quite apart from the technical challenges, he’s been getting a bit frustrated with various portals that pay lip-service to data-sharing yet seem somehow reluctant when you actually get down to it!
Personally, a quick look at Atizo and MyooCreate has left me a bit mystified as to what they’re about. They did both feel quite money-focused though. Perhaps a “what you can do with this” section, with examples, would be useful to help the culture wrap our heads round it!
Cheers,
Shaun
I think both Atizo and MyooCreate operate in a similar way. Organizations post a problem and offer a cash prize for solutions. Volunteers form ad hoc teams and collaborate to produce solutions, then the prize money is distributed between them. InnoCentive has been crowdsourcing solutions using prize money as an incentive for a few years now. The innovative thing about these new sites is that people are able to collaborate online to do the work. It is a step in the right direction, I think.
I’ll be in touch.
Tim