Women-only poetry reading for local non-profit web video to be held on March 25 from 9 am – 3 pm at Carte Blanche, located at 1024 South 5th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204.

Calling all female actors, spoken word artists and real people with a passion to be on camera!

We are looking for women to audition to read a poem (approximately two minutes in length) on camera with the potential of being used within a web video for a major local non-profit organization.  The readings will take place on March 25 from 9 am – 3 pm at Carte Blanche, located at 1024 South 5th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204.

You do not need to be a professional to audition, and we encourage women of all ages, heights, weights and ethnicities to attend.  Snacks will be provided!

To schedule a 20-minute performance block and receive a copy of the poem to practice, email Andi at andi@flipeleven.com.

We ask that you plan to arrive 15 minutes prior to your appointment and familiarize with the poem prior to filming with us. There is no guarantee your reading will make it into the final cut.

It’s difficult to imagine living in a world without instant access to information at our fingertips.  The Internet has not only drastically impacted the efficiency of our everyday lives, but it’s also changing the way our brains work.

A recent study conducted at Columbia University explored the relationship between human memory and technology, challenging the myth that our access to the Internet is making us mentally lazier.

The study, referred to as “The Google Effect,” confirmed that the use of the Google search engine alters our brains and changes the way we organize and recall information.  Instead of relying on our rote memory (learning through pattern or repetition) to remember information, we rely heavily on external sources to find the information for us.

The Internet essentially serves as a form of transactive memory, or information that is stored collectively outside of our personal memory that we can call upon at any time.  Knowing that we can rely on Google to access information instantly, we often outsource our rote memory search to Google and eliminate the need for our brain to do the job.

Historically, humans have relied on other information reservoirs (e.g. other people) to help them out in recalling information.  Prior to the existence of the Internet and search engines, people relied heavily on “group memories,” or memories passed on from person to person within groups.  Today, Google acts as the primary group memory source.  We’ve become primed to defer to technology when tasked with recalling information or asked a difficult question.  Thus, we have lower rates of recalling information based on our own memory, but enhanced recall for where we can access information.

Simply put, if we know where we can find the information we seek, we are much less likely to put forth the effort store it in our own brain.

One of the key experiments within the Google Effect study asked participants to type 40 pieces of trivia info a computer.  Half of the subjects believed the information would be saved on the computer, and half were told that the items they typed would be erased.  Those that thought the information would be deleted were more likely to remember the trivia, as they believed that would not be able to access the information at a later time if they needed to recall it, indicating that people are much less likely to put forth effort in remembering information when they know where they can find it instead.

Further delving into how we use our memory in conjunction with our technological resources, researchers were curious as to what we think of first when asked to recall a piece of information.  Do we think about the specific memory first and dig into our rote memory to find it, or do we immediately jump to where we can go to find out?

Participants were asked whether there are any countries with only one color on their national flag.  What surprised researchers was that participants were better able to recall the folder on the computer where they had previously stored the information, instead of the actual information itself.

Remembering where you can find information, rather than the information itself, is referred to as our transactive memory.  Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in a very similar way as we rely on friends, family, co-workers and others to recall specific memories and information.  We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where information can be found.

The use of search engines suggests that human memory is reorganizing where it turns to find information.  We are adapting to new technologies rather than solely relying on our rote memory.  With new technology constantly being introduced and integrated into our daily lives, our brains evolve as we learn to use it.  Our brains will continue to evolve over time in response to the environmental stimuli that it is presented with.

While the Internet’s effects on memory are still largely unexplored territory, the Internet has become a primary external storage system, saving us time and freeing up parts of our brain to use for other, more creative endeavors.  It is easier to learn and understand complex concepts when we don’t feel pressured to have to remember everything.  By freeing up our mental RAM, we increase the speed by which we process other information.

Betsy Sparrow, psychologist and lead researcher on the Google Effect study, was quoted saying, “We’re not thoughtless, empty-headed people who don’t have memories anymore, but we are becoming particularly adept at remembering where to go to find things.  And that’s kind of amazing.”

Anyone can be creative.  Often the biggest obstacle to innovative thought and new ideas is one’s own habitual mental beliefs that they are incapable of coming up with brand new, creative ideas, or that they don’t possess enough knowledge about a subject to think differently about it – often as a means to avoid failure.

The truth is that we are all responsible for and capable of creative thinking. Regardless of our specific functions in the workplace, we all work to achieve an ultimate goal and solve larger problems.

Creativity is a paradoxical concept.  In order to create something new, one needs to have knowledge, but forget that knowledge, to identify unexpected or unobvious connections in things.  We need to work diligently but also allow down time to allow information to set in and inspiration to strike.  We need to collaborate as a team but look at the same information and see it differently.  We also must have the confidence in our abilities to head to the advice of experts, but know when it is appropriate or strategic to propose something different.

Michael Michalko, author of Creative Thinkering, Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques) and Cracking Creativity, worked as an army officer where he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and academics from around the world to gather information on the best inventive thinking methods.  Below are some of his key takeaways, which can be applied to creative thinking regardless of the environment or role you find yourself in.

• You are creative. Each of us is born a creative, spontaneous thinker.  The only difference between people who are creative and people who are not is a simple belief.  Creative people believe they are creative.  People who believe they are not creative, are not.
• Creative thinking is work. You must have passion and determination to immerse yourself in the process of creating new ideas.  You must also have patience to persevere against all adversity.  All creative geniuses work passionately hard and produce incredible numbers of ideas, most of which are bad.
• You must go through the motions of being creative. When you are producing ideas, you are replenishing neurotransmitters linked to genes that are being turned on and off in response to what your brain is doing, which in turn is responding to challenges.  When you go through the motions of trying to come up with new ideas, you are energizing your brain by increasing the number of contacts between neurons.  The more times you try to get ideas, the more active your brain becomes and the more creative you become.
• Expect the experts to be negative. The more expert and specialized a person becomes, the more their mindset becomes narrowed and the more fixated they become on confirming what they believe to be absolute.  Consequently, when confronted with new and different ideas, their focus will be on conformity.  Does it conform with what I know is right?  If not, experts will spend all their time showing and explaining why it can’t be done and why it can’t work.  They will not look for ways to make it work or get it done because this might demonstrate that what they regarded as absolute is not absolute at all.
• There is no such thing as failure. Whenever you try to do something and do not succeed, you do not fail.  You have learned something that does not work.  Ask “What have I learned about what doesn’t work?”, “Can this explain something that I didn’t set out to explain?”, and “What have I discovered that I didn’t set out to discover?”
• You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are. Interpret your own experiences.  All experiences are neutral.  They have no meaning.  You give them meaning by the way you choose to interpret them.
• Always approach a problem on its own terms. Do not trust your first perspective of a problem, as it will be too biased toward your usual way of thinking.  Always look at your problem from multiple perspectives.  Always remember that genius is finding a perspective no one else has taken.  Look for different ways to look at the problem. Write the problem statement several times using different words. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
• Learn to think unconventionally. Creative geniuses do not think analytically and logically.  Conventional, logical, analytical thinkers are exclusive thinkers which means they exclude all information that is not related to the problem.  They look for ways to eliminate possibilities.  Creative geniuses are inclusive thinkers that mean they look for ways to include everything, including things that are dissimilar and totally unrelated. Generating associations and connections between unrelated or dissimilar subjects is how they provoke different thinking patterns in their brain.  These new patterns lead to new connections, which give them a different way to focus on the information and different ways to interpret what they are focusing on.

As Albert Einstein once famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Using the Internet to do good is getting, well, “gooder.”

Network for Good, a fund-raising and volunteerism website that facilitates online giving, celebrated their tenth anniversary at the end of 2011.  In honor of a decade of doing good online, they released an infographic representing the evolution of the online donor over the past ten years.

Some of the key points?  Online philanthropy is now the norm, as the majority of people donating to social causes are doing so online.

According to Network for Good’s findings, only 4 percent of donors made their charitable contributions via the Internet in 2001.  In 2011, that number grew to 65 percent – a 1,600 percent increase over the past decade.  The general concern over whether online transactions are secure or not barely exists anymore, and a variety of tools are now commonly used to make the online giving process much more seamless.  In two mouse clicks, you can instantaneously donate to a cause halfway around the world from you.

The average donation in 2001 through the Network for Good website was $226.  In 2011?  The average gift dropped to $73 – a shift that Network for Good interprets as an indication that online giving is going more mainstream, with the prevalence of disaster relief donations a key sign.

Comparatively, 1 in 10 donations made to 9/11 relief efforts in 2001 were made online, while 1 in 3 donations were given through the Internet (including mobile) to earthquake relief efforts in Japan in 2011.

It’s no question that the increase in utilization and popularity of social media has played a part in the rise of online giving.

While your grandparents still may ask, “What is social media?,” today, an increasing amount of people are using their blogs, social media accounts and other online resources as tools of social change, to spread the word about causes they’re passionate about and to prompt action from others.  Many are cost-effective, easy to use and they work.  Social media has incited a heightened awareness of causes and political events worldwide, and has even influenced major governmental change.

Clearly, the Internet is a pretty powerful thing.  And this is only the beginning.

Ahh yesss… the time of year is upon us when we list our New Year’s resolutions and promise ourselves we’ll do our very best to stick to every single one of them.  ‘Tis the season of self-improvement, fresh starts and clean slates.

I recently came across a blog post that listed 30 things to stop doing to yourself.  Stop being scared to make a mistake.  Stop thinking you’re not ready.  Stop being ungrateful.

Hmm. Stop doing things. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

I’ve picked out a few favorites from the list that resonated with me most. Some are definitely easier said than done, but empowering reminders, nonetheless. I’ve definitely added a few or more of these onto my own list of goals for the New Year, and hope the list inspires you to make positive changes in your life as well.

Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.

Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.

Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

What are some of your resolutions for 2012?