Profile: Community Bandwidth
With the coming of a new year, we decided it was time that the Robertson Building designed it's very own website to help tell the story of all the social innovations percolating in these four walls. We of course already knew Phillip Smith aka Community Bandwidth (Suite 130) and after seeing some of his work on the interim Centre for Social Innovation (Suite 120) website, felt like his brand of web design would be a good fit. It also meant a lot that he knew the community we were interested in both assisting and promoting intimately. So, as Phillip works on serving up a tasty new website for the building, we thought it would be nice to talk to him about what he does.
Community Bandwidth is a one-man operation - a "not-for-much profit" company founded in 2002. After spending a year and a half in his house, Phillip became a member of the co-location initiative that is the Centre for Social Innovation taking up just one desk in the space. In many ways, Phillip is resistant to the incubator model believing that bigger is not necessarily better and therefore Community Bandwidth remains "aggressively small." There are other socially minded reasons why the company has stayed small, despite a large and persistent pool of charities that could certainly use his services. As Phillip explains, "I feel it's wrong to think 'Hey, there are all these organizations to serve that therefore I should grow, hire people, capitalize on their labour, and make profit.' Then I'm just turning into the problem that a lot of these organizations are trying to work against and not working in solidarity with them. It's about being small, attentive, and helping other people like me recognize the opportunity to work in an integrated way and have a very fulfilling and sustainable life."
On the flip side, the fact that there are more calls than Phillip could possibly support is also the greatest challenge of doing this kind of work. There are so few companies that are dedicated to working with charitable groups that the need is not even close to being met and this clearly disappoints Phillip. "Working with these organizations can provide a deeply fulfilling experience if you're socially minded. The ways we work together is more honest than working in a corporate environment - more integrated, transparent, and fun!" Phillip serves his clients by "keeping technology simple." He feels many organizations achieve a feeling of empowerment by becoming self- sufficient around canvassing and campaigns, but they don't feel this when it comes to technology. What could potentially be a highly effective tool for socially minded organizations to get the word out and create community, is instead the big unknown they find difficult to harness. "What I do is to help translate; not only the opportunities around technology, but the language to help make it accessible and friendly, not obtuse, geeky, and fearful. The importance lies in bringing socially minded organizations and technology together. There are huge implications as we move towards more technical interventions in every aspect of our life and these organizations should be leveraging those opportunities."
Phillip also reaches out to a broader community through a variety of "camps" or training days that bring together more technologically savvy folks, like himself, with people who want to learn more about new tools. The most recent was Drupal Camp, which introduced attendees to Drupal, an open source content management system that allows people with relatively little skill to update and manage a website easily. "It is a day to introduce people to the basic concepts, to help people who know quite a bit learn more, and just to build a little bit of that sense of community in Toronto around something that we're all using." On the horizon, Phillip is helping launch CopyCamp (www.copycamp.ca), which is being organized by the Creators Rights Alliance and will bring together about two hundred artists and creators for a discussion about the role of copyright, the internet, and evolving business models. As well, he is working on Web of Change (www.webofchange.com) in BC that will gather seventy network leaders in the field of social technology and advocacy. Phillip is also keeping busy putting the final touches on New Internationalist Magazine's (Studio 393, 401 Richmond) website, slated for relaunch this summer and continues to work with long-time client This Magazine (Studio 396, 410 Richmond). He is also crafting a new look for the Centre for Social Innovation, and last, but certainly not least, working on a site for the Robertson Building scheduled to surf through your bandwidth this fall.