All posts by M&C Consulting

The text below is an article by Robert Onley, published October 15, 2014 on Global Shapers.

Today Global Dignity Day is being celebrated in 71 countries by over 400,000 students!

Here in Canada, Global Shapers Hubs from coast-to-coast have teamed up in supporting our national videoconference connecting 2,000 students across eight schools in sharing their dignity stories. The event can be streamed live here from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm EST.

This morning also marks one month since Global Dignity launched the globally crowdsourced Less. More. youth empowerment campaign in partnership with Ottawa-based tech startup, PlayMC2, which was Co-Founded by Ottawa Global Shaper and Canadian Global Dignity Country Chair, Giovanna Mingarelli. View the Less. More. launch video on YouTube.

Created pro bono by the New York-based Ad Agency, BBDO, the Less. More. campaign is designed to empower youth to reduce digital and real-world negativity by tracking their dignity-related actions in real-time. Click here for easy-to-share campaign Facebook posts, Tweets and posters.

Be sure to check out articles by Abu Dhabi Hub Curator, Shaaz Nasir, in MindThis, “Have You Found Your Dignity?”, “Crowdsourcing Dignity”, an article by Founding Curator of the Luxembourg Hub, Carolina Parisi, and Giovanna’s newest article published in The Huffington Post about the Global Dignity Less. More. campaign “Promoting Malala’s Vision for Youth with Global Dignity Day.”

What’s more, we recently hosted the Third Annual Ottawa Global Shapers Global Dignity Fundraiser, which was formally endorsed by the President of Carleton University, Dr. Roseann Runte. The Ottawa Hub was also grateful for the support of local sponsors including: HazloLaw—Business Lawyers, the Academy of Internal Auditors from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, Heroa Media and 1125@Carleton, the University’s Living Lab. You can also see photos from the event in our Dropbox.

Now we invite you to play your part and to join students everywhere in tagging microactions, Facebook posts and Tweets with #dignity and #gdignity. Visit www.globaldignity.org for more details and be sure to watch the live stream here from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm EST.

Read the original article on Global Shapers

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published October 14, 2014 on The Huffington Post.

On Friday night, Malala Yousafzai shared her thoughts on being the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize — along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi — at the Library of Birmingham in the UK.

In her opening lines, the 17-year-old Pakistani role model and female education activist discussed one of the pillars that form the foundation of her work.

Namely, it doesn’t matter the language you speak, the color of your skin or what religion you believe in — what matters is we should all consider each other as human beings and respect each other as such.

This is a particularly important message for youth.

Malala’s message is being shared around the world this week as the international youth empowerment organization, Global Dignity, gears-up for Global Dignity Day with over 400,000 youth in 71 countries on Wednesday, October 15th, 2014.
A Facebook banner for Global Dignity’s globally crowdsourced Less. More. campaign.

Global Dignity’s mandate is simple: In a day and age where there is so much conflict in the world (between cultures, religions, generations, socioeconomic classes, and more), there is a great need for broad agreement on something unifying, something that encourages and even grows a sense of community.

That something is dignity.

Global Dignity offers teachers, students and partners (such as Right To Play and TakingITGlobal, amongst others) all the material they need to host dignity workshops. During the workshops students are invited to discuss what dignity means to them and why it is important — these range anywhere from 20 minute sessions to full-day, school-wide events — such as the event I attended at Asker High School outside of Oslo, Norway.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Susan Hickman about Giovanna Mingarelli, published October 13, 2014 on Carleton Now Magazine.

When I meet Carleton entrepreneur-in-residence Giovanna Mingarelli in the 1125@Carleton living laboratory, she is armed with a laptop, an iPad and her cellphone. After I take her photo, she picks up her iPad and snaps a shot of us high-fiving on her newly launched mobile application startup PlayMC2.

The photo is one of thousands that young people all over the world are shooting as part of a quest to crowdsource small acts of dignity.

“When the micro-actions of young people are combined,” says Mingarelli, PlayMC2 CEO and co-founder, “it permeates out into the world and reduces the negativity we see.”

Mingarelli, who graduated from Carleton in 2007 after studying political science and international relations, is aware of the widespread cyberbullying and general negativity that pervades our lives.

Her startup, officially launched Sept. 15, is partnering with the non-profit youth empowerment organization Global Dignity on its first ever mobile campaign Less. More. The campaign encourages students, educators and others to become involved in the MC2 “dignity quest” – by picking up a piece of garbage, smiling, or helping an older person cross a street, for example, – which are grouped together with #dignity on the app.

Pointing to a Global Dignity YouTube video that illustrates the magnitude of negative and aggressive content shared on social networks, Mingarelli notes, “Fifty per cent of young people worldwide are experiencing online bullying in some way. And that negativity often gets all the exposure.

“While it doesn’t have to be that way, the way many of us share our content is often harsh and hurtful,” says Mingarelli, who took on the role as Canada country chair for Global Dignity after attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland in 2012.

Read the full article on Carleton Now Magazine

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published September 23, 2014 on The Hill Times.

In support of Global Dignity and the Less More campaign, the leading international peacebuilding organization, Interpeace, launched its own globally—crowdsourced #peace campaign on PlayMC2 during the ‘Geneva Peace Talks’ at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 19, 2014.

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published August 23, 2014 on The Huffington Post.

I’m grateful to have spent the last four days in Arviat, Nunavut (Northern Canada) participating in a fascinating roundtable dialogue with Inuit Elders from across the territory about maintaining their traditional culture in a rapidly changing world.

Only reachable by air and snowmobile, this small hamlet along the Western coast of Hudson Bay originated as a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post back in the 1920s. With a population of almost 3,000, it is now considered by many to be Nunavut’s second largest community.

The predominantly Inuit hamlet boasts beautiful weather, striking marine mammals and wildlife, including: beluga whales, caribou, arctic fox, wolves, polar bears and snow geese, amongst others. Little known in the past, Arviat was put on the map in the past few years when it won a World Travel and Tourism Council Award and founded it’s own youth-run television station, Arviat.TV.

The dialogue was spearheaded by several of Nunavut’s Elders in partnership with the Arviat Wellness Centre and the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) based out of the University of Northern British Columbia. It was designed as part of one of the final pieces in a publishing project documenting the core beliefs, values and social systems of the Inuit culture for future generations as a book called: Inuit Quajimajatuqangit – What Inuit have always known to be true.

The funding for this project was endowed by the Arctic Inspiration Prize (AI). Also known as the “Nobel Prize of the North,” AI is a fund that recognizes and encourages teamwork and collaboration among diverse groups and organizations, from north and south, in addressing the causes and issues of importance to the Canadian Arctic and its Peoples. One to five prizes totaling $1 million CAD are awarded to groups and organizations each year. The writing project was awarded this prestigious prize in 2012.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published June 6, 2014 on The Huffington Post.

Big Data* is creating lots of buzz these days — especially in the humanitarian sector. In the last few years, governments, businesses, humanitarian organizations and citizens have been using Big Data to accomplish feats ranging from analyzing Google search queries to predict flu outbreaks, to helping the U.S. government better understand the needs of people impacted by natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy.

In this regard, I was fortunate to participate in a recent discussion at George Washington University in D.C. hosted by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Catastrophic Risks, Future of the Internet and Data Driven Development, and the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), which together examined: “The Role of Big Data In Catastrophic Resilience.”
Participants at this event explored the use of data available today and how it could help decision makers prevent, prepare for and recover from catastrophic events.

Three key trends appeared as part of these discussions:

1) The Relevance of Data

In his opening talk of the day, former Secretary of Homeland Security, The Honorable Tom Ridge, questioned: “Are we to be data rich and knowledge poor?” In a world where zettabytes** of information are being produced from our cell phones, credit cards, computers, homes — and even the sensor-equipped cars, trains, and the buildings that make up our cities — the problem isn’t a matter of quantity of data, but the relevance of it all.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published May 9, 2014 on The Huffington Post.

For the first time in history more than half the world’s population live in towns and cities. As cities become crucial to the planet’s health, it’s more important than ever to design, build and enrich the places in which we live, work and play.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) City Science Initiative, cities will soon account for nearly 90 per cent of global population growth, they will be responsible for 80 per cent of wealth creation and they will be the source for 60 per cent of total energy consumption.

Therefore access to the right data by which we make decisions surrounding the future health of our cities is crucial. Research in this space falls under many names, including: Smart Cities, Cognitive Cities, Urban Computing and IBM’s Smarter Planet.

In her recent book “The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us,” CBC Radio-Canada’s, Nora Young, examines the impact of the virtual information we generate about ourselves–about our own lives, our communities, our governments, and our cities.

Throughout this process, she explores how a city is nothing more than a system, built of many discrete parts (including its residents). Rather than separating that system by a function such as water, food, waste, transport, education, energy, we must consider them more holistically.

In part, this requires the effective and proper use of existing quantitative data sets provided by the government and other such entities. However, of equal importance is the ability to integrate dynamic data, which has become widespread through the use of GPS-enabled phones and other portable tools.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published October 23, 2013 on The Huffington Post.

It was my last night in the capital city of Ulanbaataar (UB) during my first visit to Mongolia. I had spent an evening at a private reception generously hosted by the President of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, taking part in some of Mongolia’s older traditions — like trying my hand at the Mongolian bow and enjoying a bowl of fermented mare’s milk.

My visit also included a day at the stunning Terelj Resort in Mongolia’s National Park; strolling the semi-arid steppes of the country’s highlands; and checking out the breathtaking statue of Genghis Khan seated on horseback, the largest statue of its kind in the world. Overall, I had spent four days exploring the many faces of the country, engaging in discussions about the future of this most ancient nation.

The value of the country is indescribably vast, and for those who know it, the possibility for gainful success is great — if the country can move in the right direction over the next several decades.

With a population of three million people, Mongolia is currently one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with GDP growth for 2013 forecasted to be 14 and 16 percent (with a value of USD $10 billion) and a natural wealth valued at more than USD $3 trillion.

Landlocked between China and Russia, the country is benefiting from a booming mining industry, which is still far from realizing its full potential. To this effect, the government has strong ambitions to use this wealth to improve infrastructure and foster growth, ultimately improving the lives of its people.

I had been invited to participate in the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Mongolia. This forum brought together 150 Mongolian government and other leading domestic and international stakeholders to develop a set of scenarios that explore the different ways in which Mongolia’s future might develop.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli, published October 21, 2013 on Global Shapers.

One beautiful fall morning in Manhattan a few weeks ago, 25 Global Shapers from 10 Hubs around the world came together at the World Economic Forum’s headquarters in New York City for a “Meet the Leader” lunch with Professor Klaus Schwab and Ms. Hilde Schwab.

From the [now two week old] Baltimore Hub to New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, San Juan, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, Moscow and Tokyo, we were surrounded by a group of fascinating Shapers who form part of the World Economic Forum’s 2,774 Shapers in 265 Hubs around the world.

I was fortunate to have been invited to facilitate the lunch.  With some veterans of the Global Shapers community, a sprinkle of bright new faces and everywhere in between, this group formed a superbly international and fabulous group all attempting, in some way, to make this world a little bit better.

Through their work these Shapers are all impacting the world around them. For instance, one New York Shaper spearheaded a Teens for Jeans initiative which now clothes two-thirds of all homeless children in America through her organization, while one Pittsburgh shaper is building cooking clubs in local high schools through his socially responsible restaurant. Further still, one Montreal Shaper is advising all the mayors in Quebec on how to plan their cities!

This was an impressive group indeed, and appropriately so, especially seeing the conversation over lunch was meant to cast a light on some of the most important topics and issues on the Global Agenda that are emerging in 2014.

Over the course of a few hours, we discussed issues ranging from crises in capitalism and democracy to the need for complete transparency in government, including a stronger use of social media. However, some of the points that had the longest lasting effect on me were not, frankly, so complex.

Read the full article on Global Shapers

Giovanna Mingarelli explores this and more as the Rapporteur for the World Economic Forum’s “Eureka Effect” Session in Dalian, China on September 12, 2013.

Watch the full video on World Economic Forum