Note: This information represents brainstorming-only

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Focus: Educational outreach, particularly high school and college students. Our hope is that the transhumanist viewpoint – that technology can drastically improve human lifespan, health, happiness, and intelligence – will inspire them to study and work in the related fields of biotechnology, AI/robotics, nanotechnology, neuroengineering, etc., and work on big picture / future of humanity issues. The h+ quarterly digital magazine will support these efforts by showing the human(e) side of these technologies. We’d like to focus effort on publishing the magazine, organizing student chapters (along with supporting functions, e.g. a speakers bureau and h+ swag), organizing community unconferences, running an essay/scholarship contest, providing awards/prizes, producing educational media, building an endowment fund, and running an outreach campaign. The redesign of the website, particularly the wiki, should also reflect this new focus.

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Overview
Prepared by Tyler Emerson and James Clement
January 2008

1) Other organizations serve as the “think tank” for transhumanism. The mission of the WTA should be to build a large-scale, grassroots social organization that supports transhumanist values and aims. We therefore propose that the WTA focus on building a large membership base and spreading our messages (our version of humanism’s “human flourishing/Edaimonia,” driven by the possibilities of high-impact scientific breakthroughs) to the public, especially high school and college students, who we want to encourage to study and work in areas of science, technology, policy. etc., which are underserved and have a non-negligible chance of having significant humanitarian impact.

2) A real, compelling brand identity should be created, working with an experienced design firm. This will create the foundation for everything else. We’ll need to secure the necessary underwriting for this project.

3) We think the transhumanist movement needs one core message that is compelling to a wide range of people. What’s the core message behind Amnesty? Human rights. Kiva? Microloans. Barack Obama? Hope and change. What about WTA? Unclear. Many messages, but not one core message. Before we can exponentially scale a global, innovation movement, we must have a clear, compelling, vital message.

One potential aspect of this message: There are an immense range of problems in the world (as can be conveyed by stories, statistics, and imagery), but also a lot of hope. We are alive at a time when knowledge is reaching a height that will give us new means of improving and saving lives through the beneficial use of science and human will. This is a message of hope and opportunity that can be told in a way that matters to our core audiences, in a way that intellectually and emotionally convinces them, and moves them to become involved with this movement. We think that it’s a message that a powerful social movement can be built around, particularly one that will inspire a lot of students, one of our main, intended audiences. However, any grassroots movement must be grounded in tangible, measurable goals and programs; and it must have the public support of a wide range of prominent intellectuals (early adopters), who can signal to a wider audience that it’s OK to publicly support this cause. We won’t get very far until we achieve this.

We’ll also need to do a better job of communicating transhumanist values, which are very basic things that we think a lot of people will support, if conveyed in the right ways.

4) We think one of the WTA’s main goals should be exponentially scaling the transhumanist movement, measured e.g. by the number of people who visit the website, read the H+ digital magazine, sign a declaration, and/or become a paying member. After exploring a number of campaigns organized in recent years, we think that ONE – The Campaign to Make Poverty History, represents a good model. We think a campaign should be developed and launched in conjunction with the revamped organization. This campaign should be shaped in discussion with the community, with our initial ideas serving as a starting point, three of which include:

a. Potentially naming the campaign after the revamped organization, whatever its new name becomes ( e.g. the NPR series “This I Believe” is ran by “This I Believe, Inc.").

b. Work with the best possible people to create a symbol, mark, and/or tagline that represents the campaign and movement ("H+" is representative of what’s in mind, but it’s not remotely sufficient).

c. Focusing on students / college campuses as one of our core audiences, while recognizing that the campaign must speak to a wider range of people than just academics.  We wan to inspire people in the same way that Humanism and The Enlightenment inspired generations.

5) We must be clearly non-partisan, with multiple political viewpoints represented on the board.  Political ideologies can be subgroups (e.g., WTA Progressives, WTA Libertarians), but the WTA itself must not represent any particular ideology. We think the WTA has done a better job recently of realizing non-partisanship.

6) Limiting ourselves to a small set of core, nearly unassailable, public positions, limits the risk of hijacking by detractors. We will need to carefully create this set.

7) The Transhumanist Student Network must be improved. A structure for student leaders should be created as part of this improvement, which will build buy-in from one of our core audiences, and convey that some of their peers are heavily involved in shaping the organization’s direction.

8) We think that it’s essential to roll-out a new membership structure as part of the organization and campaign launch, because the current structure has severe limitations. We should consider a number of alternatives, but it seems likely that we’d have five to seven giving levels, ranging from $15 to $1,000, with the option of one-time giving or monthly giving.

Online giving should be extremely easy.

See Wikimedia’s Donate page: wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising

We need to give real examples of how people’s gifts will have an impact; e.g., Wikimedia Foundation does a great job:

If you and 99 other people donate…

* $200 – We can make Wikipedia available in developing countries through DVDs, books and pamphlets.
* $100 – We can pay for two Wikipedia Academy events in Africa.
* $60 – We can send three students to our annual Wikimania conference.
* $40 – We can deliver 100 million pageviews of free information!

9) The student outreach roadshow being planned can fit-in well with the revamped organization, new campaign, etc.

10) Improve upon the work done so far to build a network of transhumanist groups and provide resources for them (links, flyers, art, how to start a club/chapter info, etc.). We’ve spoken with Richard Leis about whether he’d be interested in incorporating his work on h+ Tucson (hplusclub.com/tucson) into a revamped WTA, if we were able to structure things in a way that allowed him to do everything or nearly everything he’s already doing or planning to do under h+. He said that he’s very open to this.

11) Collaborate with the community to build the initial stages of a transhumanist information resource, to be featured on the organization’s revamped website. This resource must be community-driven, so that it can be updated frequently. This is another thing that should be discussed openly to get a lot of ideas on the table and build buy-in.

12) We must build a lot of intellectual support so that we’re well-protected against concerted attacks. Getting a lot of prominent intellectuals on-board before we launch will go a long way toward protecting us against attacks, although it seems inevitable that as we get our shit together and have more success, anyone who consider themselves “against us” will start pushing harder. What may largely shape how things play out will be decided by what the environment looks like when a tipping point occurs—whether the majority of people are persuaded by us or Hurlbut, Kass, Cameron, Fukuyama, McKibben, Rifkin, New Atlantis, Center for Genetics and Society, etc.

13) The WTA must always be up-front about how its funds are used.

See e.g. wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Planned_Spending_Distribution_2007-2008

14) We’ll want to position things so that various organizations/foundations can publicly support us or partner with us, which is necessary to build credibility; but securing the public support of more prominent intellectuals is the first step.

15) We need to initially fulfill at least four of the principles in “Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits”:

www.forcesforgood.net

a. Work with government and advocate for policy change [down the road once a more advanced social movement exists]

b. Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner [a little further down the road; we must first build a solid infrastructure]

c. Convert individual supporters into evangelists for the cause [this one]

d. Build and nurture nonprofit networks, treating other groups as allies [this one]

e. Adapt to the changing environment [this one]

f. Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good [this one]

16) To accomplish all of the above activities and revitalize the WTA, it will need active board members who are willing to contribute their time, effort and/or money. Every single member should be actively contributing to the organization’s success. Otherwise they’re wasting a seat, wasting everyone else’s time, and doing a disservice to the community.

Services

We shouldn’t set too many things in stone. First step is an open conversation with board, followed by community, to fill gaps in planning, build buy-in, etc.

1) Chapters

Infrastructure for creation, support, and growth of transhumanist chapters. Discuss whether to delineate between clubs and chapters.

2) Event

Annual transhumanist conference. Seriously consider renaming “TransVision” as part of organization’s identity revamp.

3) Roadshow

Student outreach roadshow to build awareness and support creation of university/local chapters.

4) Digital Magazine

Quarterly digital magazine featuring transhumanist-related stories, interviews, news, and events.

5) Essay Contests

Potentially three awards: $5,000 first place, $2,500 second place, $1,000 third place.

6) HG Wells Award

Annual individual award for outstanding contributions to transhumanism. Discuss possibility of cash prize.

7) JBS Haldane Award

Annual individual award to a student for outstanding contributions to transhumanism. Discuss possibility of cash prize.

8) Issues

Core set of issues that we cover and provide information on. Discuss how this should be framed.

9) FAQ

FAQ should be at least moderately updated since it’ll be five years out of date in April 2008. Audio version should also be created.

10) Declaration

Declaration may need to be updated to reflect our (to be defined) new core message, goals, and campaign.

11) Values

Values may need to be updated to reflect our (to be defined) new core message, goals, and campaign.

12) Information Resource

On transhumanist subjects: life extension, AI, nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc. Comprehensive, community-driven, up-to-date. Should also have concise list of core links/resources.

13) Newsletter

Quarterly newsletter updating community on recent developments.

14) Positions

Brainstorm whether this should be done, and if so, how. Public statements regarding nanotechnology, AI, responses to critics, etc. It may also be important sometimes to state what we have NO position on.

15) Translations

Dramaticaly increase the number of translations of our website and materials.

16) Mailing Lists

Global and local mailing lists.

17) Store

Transhumanist swag, especially campaign gear. Ref: store.one.org/donate.aspx

18) What You Can Do

Specific things most everyone can do.

Brand Identity Process

1) Research + Analysis

Examine internal and external perceptions of organization and its services. Research can be structured in many ways, e.g.: leadership interviews, core audience surveys (donors, donor prospects, students, prominent intellectuals, etc.). Findings are evaluated and actionable conclusions drawn, e.g. existing strengths and weaknesses, current status versus target goals, core values, and so on.

2) Strategy

Next, a unique position is identified for our brand. The essence of what we do, how we’re different, and why our core audiences should care (how it matters to them). Everything pivots around this, forming the foundation of everything else.

3) Naming + Verbal Branding

A successful name is one that has strong visual and aural presence, is memorable, durable, flexible, and effectively evokes our organization’s core values. Slogans, tag lines, mission statement development, nomenclature systems, campaign themes, etc. all must work together to support our verbal identity.

These initial stages are where we work with the design firm to create a core, compelling, vital message that underlies the organization, the campaign, the movement, the programs—everything.

4) Design + Implementation

Design of the visual identity includes the logo and wordmark, signature, type and color palettes, and our brand’s overall “look-and-feel.” The implementation phase includes the roll out of the visual identity across a range of applications, including stationery, web sites, marketing collateral, signing systems, etc.

5) Long-Term Commitment

Branding as a marriage, not a one-night stand. The best brands become stronger over time, through planned and thoughtful management. The design firm we work with must work with us to ensure the enduring viability of the brand. Beyond graphic guidelines, they should reinforce brand value by creating flexible but focused messaging standards to support our long-term organizational goals.

Campaign Notes

List to be expanded

1) Create online declaration people can sign, as ONE has done. If well-crafted, it should be effective at building interest and scaling the campaign. Declaration must be short, snappy, and uplifting. No academic-speak. Core audience are high school and college students.

2) Basic gear can be wristband, t-shirt, and stickers. Once we have basic gear, we can do more unique items.

3) Invite people to create personal video, organized around a theme, e.g. “Why I think...” Feature best ones, giving people exposure.  Possible contests with prizes.

4) What You Can Do page: sign declaration, sign up for updates, volunteer, wear gear, tell friends, become member and join community, join online groups, start a club, create a video statement, etc.

5) Do swag photo contest to get people to show off campaign gear creatively to build awareness.

Ref: http://support.creativecommons.org/contest

6) Need Flickr photo group page and way for members to upload photo to collage.

7) Increase exposure and activity on Facebook.

8) Encourage business members on Linkedin to utilize our WTA Group logo: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/37645/2B795073757E