The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Robert D. Onley about Giovanna Mingarelli, published February 1, 2015 on Global Shapers Ottawa.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Ottawa Hub is thrilled with the success of its inaugural event, Shaping Davos Ottawa: Rethinking Politics, after an engaging and informative panel discussion hosted at the Rideau Club in downtown Ottawa on Thursday, January 22, 2015. The event would not have been possible without key financial support from Invest Ottawa, Hill + Knowlton, and KoMedia. The evening was part of the Forum’s global dialogue initiative called Shaping Davos, a new concept to bring the world to the WEF’s Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters (January 21-24, 2015), and in turn bring Davos to the world. The Ottawa Hub was selected as one of 40 cities globally to host a local event, which the Hub followed up on Friday morning with a virtual broadcast to Davos-Klosters via satellite with CBC Power & Politics host Evan Solomon from CBC Ottawa headquarters.

On Thursday, in front of a crowd of 100 select guests, we hosted a panel discussion moderated by the Friday host for CTV’s Power Play, Mercedes Stephenson, about: “Canada’s Role in the Future of Governance: Open Government, Engaged Citizens.” Opening the discussion were keynote addresses by Robert Greenhill, founder of Global-Canada and former Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, as well as Peggy Taillon, President of the Canadian Council on Social Development. Panelists included:

• Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s former Ambassador to the United Nations
• Maryantonett Flumian, President of the Institute on Governance
• Ilona Dougherty, Founder, Apathy is Boring
• Giovanna Mingarelli, CEO and Co-Founder, PlayMC2 and Ottawa Global Shaper
• Bryan Smith, Co-Founder & Vice-President, ThinkDataWorks

Through its panel discussion, the Ottawa Hub was tasked with focusing on civic apathy in exploring how modern open data and open governance concepts can tackle the problem. Panelists assessed the need to provide citizens with information, engaging them in real time and empowering them to make decisions in their communities and concluded that such action is critical to improving governance. It is well understood that engaged citizens are critical to nation building, and the panel stated that Canada needs fresh thinking in its political system and engaged citizens can help this. To ensure that our government makes the best policies possible we need greater transparency, participation and collaboration. Canada cannot afford to miss doing this. A full summary of the dialogue will be produced in the coming weeks.

Read the full article on Global Shapers Ottawa

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Giovanna Mingarelli and Olivier Oullier, published November 24th, 2014 on World Economic Forum.

Every 40 seconds, somewhere in the world, someone commits suicide. The same WHO report that revealed this shocking statistic found that in most regions, suicide rates are highest among people over the age of 70. But young people are also affected. In fact, globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death in people aged between 15 and 29.

The factors that contribute to these figures are of course complex. But, at least for youth suicide, cyberbullying – the use of electronic communication such as email, social media or text messages to bully a person – plays a role.

Some research suggests young people minimize the importance of cyberbullying– preferring to dismiss gossip, mean comments and other forms of online attacks as “drama”. But the figures tell a different story. According to work carried out by the i-SAFE Foundation, 42% of kids have been victims of cyberbullying. This means that every day, thousands of young people are criticized and mocked online, pushed to their psychological limits – sometimes beyond.

It is common to hear the view that, unfortunately, this is just a reality of today’s world – that there is nothing we can do to counter the negativity we find around us, particularly in the online world of faceless and nameless “trolls”.

We don’t agree.

Earlier this year we took part in the Global Dignity Country Chair Annual Summit. The organization, whose aim is to empower young people and give them a sense of dignity, was founded in 2006 by three Young Global Leaders, and has the support of a wide range of leaders – from Richard Branson in the business sector to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the civil society and religious sphere.

It was at this summit that we came up with the idea of launching a social media campaign to reduce negativity online. But we wanted this campaign to be different. Using insights from the behavioural sciences and the science of engagement, we knew that to have a real impact, we would need to track and reward people who took a stand against negativity. We turned to PlayMC2, an activity-tracking mobile app that rewards people with points and prizes for completing bite-sized tasks. These tasks, or “microactions”, as they’re called, can be performed by one person or by a million people, creating the foundation for globally crowdsourced action.

Read the full article on World Economic Forum

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Sarah Brown, published November 2014 on Carleton University Magazine.

The text below is an excerpt from the original article by Sarah Noble and Giovanna Mingarelli, published November 7th, 2014 on The Huffington Post.

Who knew that Ottawa is made of heroes?

Indeed, in the darkest of times, we have been reminded that it’s true.

A little over a month ago, we launched a globally crowdsourced #peace campaign at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, during the Geneva Peace Talks.

Through the campaign, we’ve been inviting everyone to share their acts of #peace by taking photos of the things they’re doing in real time, to collectively build the conditions for the world in which we’d like to live.

The message behind the campaign is simple: in a world often divided by conflict, rooted in religion, culture, politics, etc., we have the power to harness our collective actions to create a more peaceful world starting with ourselves.
This is true because we are the sum total of our actions, good and bad. All of these acts combined ultimately create the world in which we live.

When our actions, however big or small, are dedicated to selflessly serving others — we become everyday heroes.

While this campaign is intended for youth across the world, we had no idea that the relevance of this message would hit so close to home in light of recent events.

On the morning of Wednesday, October 22nd, our hometown was shaken to its core when Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, a reservist serving with Hamilton’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada regiment, was tragically shot dead while guarding the National War Memorial across the street from Parliament Hill.

Within moments, a former nurse, a corporal on patrol, a colonel who had been walking by, as well as lawyer Barbara Winters were at Cpl. Cirillo’s side doing what they could to support him as he lay suffering from the gun shots.

Read the full article on Huffington Post

The text below is an excerpt from the original interview hosted by J School students featuring Juno Award-winning musician, Jesse Stewart, former Senator Landon Pearson and Giovanna, with dignity stories from students on campus, published October 15th, 2014 on CKCU, Carleton University’s radio station.

AUDIO — CKCU, Carleton University’s radio station — segment begins at timestamp 13:45 min

Listen the full interview on CKCU, Carleton University's radio station

The text below is an excerpt from the interview about Giovanna Mingarelli, published October 15, 2014 on CBC Radio-Canada’s Ottawa Morning Show.

Turns out there’s an app for that. And it was developed right here in Ottawa. We talk social media, crowd-sourcing and small acts of kindness.

Listen the full interview on CBC Player

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