Introduction

For young people today national borders are diffusing. Friendships, professional relationships and meetings are global. For young people the internet is the main playing field where borders are constantly redefined. It is exciting to witness how this “borderlessness” can result in new ways of connecting, collaborating and working. In a world still ruled by institutions of power, we see the emergence of a new reality that has a growing impact.

Bubblebee is a journalistic experiment. We send a camera with a question into the world, without defining who answers this question, and when it get’s back to us. It will be a chain of stories of youth, where the interviewed becomes the interviewer. The camera is handed over with each interview.

The project produces a wealth of inspiring stories, which are recorded on film and can be viewed via an online database on a website, which includes a map of these interviews and the journey of the camera. After one year, the most beautiful films made into a documentary. Furthermore, the project offers an online platform for young people where they can meet and collaborate. Finally, we expect interesting results around the journalistic experiment, where not only the journalist is leading but also the interviewees.

Audience

Young people around 18 and 28 years old.

Aim

The aim of the project is to surface and elucidate a new emerging reality designed by creative young people. Bubblebee shares the ideas of young people about the future and give the voices of youth a platform. This platform will connect youth initiatives, generate power and inspiration for young world citizens and show, share and empower youth initiative.

Concept

At the launch in Sweden in April 2011 we will interview an inspiring young person. This story is recored on a camera, after which we upload this video to www.bubblebee.org. The camera is given to the interviewee, who then interviews a young person that inspires him or her. The recording and uploading is repeated creating a chain of young people with their stories. This chaing is made visible on an interactive website. The journey of the camera has started…

1. The bubblebee

Bubblebee is the name of the camera that travels the world, searching for flowers (inspiring youth) for the honey – inspiring stories. The stories of young people are often hidden in ‘bubbles’ (limiting paradigms). The sting of the bubblebee bursts these bubbles of inspiration. The camera is in a case (kit) that also contains a manual for the project. In the manual participants can find guidelines, tips, questions, etc for the interviews and a manual about uploading the interviews. It also contains a logbook for personal messages for the next interviewer.

2. Procedure

As soon as the interview has been performed the interviewer uploads the video to a central server via the nearest computer. He or she then sumbits detailed information about the interview via a form on the website, like GPS location, name of the interviewee, etc. From the central server the interview is featured with a logo, backed up, and published on the website. In the mean time, the camera is already with the interviewee for the next interview.

3. Security

This project is based on trust. To minimize the chances that the camera gets lost we will ask each participant for contact details, and ask for the video to be on the server before the camera is passed on.  In this way will always know the most recent video and interviewer.

4. Website

The website is the heart of the project. It contains background information on the project, the people, a blog with current news, the video’s and a map of the journey of the camera. It is also linked with social media to make the sharing of these videos really easy, and offers an online community.  This website will be co-developed with the core team and the designer.

5. Videos

For outreach purposes Youtube is used for the movies. Youtube has a higher potential for them to go viral, and also builds a fan base more easily.

6. Social Media

Facebook is used to create a fanbase of followers (Page), and a community for the participants of the project (Group). Here we reach out to the community with status updates and news updates.

With Twitter we can very accurately follow the camera, and ask participants to tweet about their experience. The project account builds a community of followers that get inspiration from the video’s and stories of the camera.

7. Map

An online (google) map will show the journey based on GPS locations of the Camera and the Movies. The participants update this map when they upload their footage.

8. Documentary

Followers of the project can vote for the different movies they like most. Out of the best rated movies we will make a documentary, which will be shown at the closing event.