I love serendipity.
Now that the weather is getting warmer I’ve been thinking about last year’s Summer of Small Voices. I knew I wanted to host another showcase this summer but was having a hard time coming up with a theme.
Then, while working on a lesson for the LHF Greenhouse, I stumbled upon this TED Talk from 2010.
Clay provides several great examples of cognitive surplus in his speech and he got me thinking: sure there are examples of people working together on big projects to impress their friends and improve their communities; but for every Wikipedia there must be countless people with amazing ideas who need a little money, a little help, or a little encouragement to turn that idea into something more than a hobby.
This summer, I’m dedicating the Low Hanging Fruit blog to helping those people (read: you) find the “little something” they need get moving.
To participate, all you have to do is submit a post addressing two questions:
- How do you spend your cognitive surplus?
- What do you need to take your idea to the next level?
What if I’m not a writer?
No problem! The goal of the summer showcase is to highlight the amazing work and ideas coming from the Low Hanging Fruit community. If telling your story via blog post works for you, great! If not you could make a video, post a photo with a great caption, draw a web comic, or write a poem.
In other words, if I can figure out a way to share your story on the internet–no matter its form, I’m ready to try it.
Are you in?
If you’d like to participate in this summer’s showcase, send me a message letting me know the subject of your submission as well as when (sometime between May 1st and August 31st) you’d like your piece to appear.
If you think it would be fun to participate but think your work isn’t worth sharing, Send me a message anyway and I’ll be happy to help you find your voice.
Can’t wait to see what you are working on!
P.S. The Clay Shirky video from TED is more polished, (and worked better for embedding in the blog post) but this video from 2008 is actually the first one I saw. I recommend you spend some of your cognitive surplus this week watching both.
Low Hanging Fruit Communications 
Great project, Maureen! I’m looking forward to reading posts from the showcase this summer.
Thanks Sally! I hope you will participate again this year. If you want some help finding an angle for your submission, let me know. It would be a pleasure to talk to you about all your amazing work.
You are so gracious, Maureen
[…] This summer, I’m turning the Low Hanging Fruit blog over to you. […]
[…] telling you how beneficial gaming is to my life and why you should consider spending some of your cognitive surplus playing games. That post was boring even to me, so we’ll skip that and move right to the […]
[…] I started this series on how we spend our “cognitive surplus” I knew I wanted to include a family oriented story. I did not, however, expect to write that […]
[…] Maureen asked me to write a post about how the world benefits from cognitive surplus efforts, I was thrilled. I have surplus cognition! I have my fingers in lots of business pies! No […]