As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.
For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”
For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 13, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:
Faye Anderson
Twitter: @andersonatlarge
Website/Blog: http://bit.ly/AndersonatLarge
Bio
A Stanford lawyer-turned-new-media-
Faye is the founder of Tracking Change, a web-based platform to foster participation in the policy making process. She is chief evangelist for the Cost of Freedom Project, a citizen-led initiative that is developing location-based apps to provide voters with information on how to apply for a voter ID.
Faye will demo the Cost of Freedom App today during a panel discussion on social media and voter ID that she organized for Social Media Week Washington, DC. The event will be live-streamed. Viewers can join the conversation via Twitter (#CAPVoterID).
What motivates you to become successful?
Activism is in my DNA so my metric of success is not material possessions. I’m a tree-shaker not a money-maker. I’m motivated by the belief that one person can make a difference. I’ve been involved in a wide range of public policy issues, including minority business inclusion, education and technology, open data, civic engagement and voting rights.
I’m also motivated by personal reinvention. The emerging market for civic apps gives me an opportunity to mash up issues that I’ve worked on over the years and pivot from minority business advocate to minority founder.
You can follow the status of 29 Days of Diversity 2012 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.
