Hello sharks! I mean, fellow students,
I am looking for your valuable feedback on my Indiegogo campaign (and maybe some shares on your socials when it goes live?), and, when I launch, $4500 for our next project. 🙂
Walk With Us Project is a digital storytelling and mapping project that uses 360′ cameras (Ricoh Theta S / V), Google Street View and virtual tours to provide a platform for Indigenous youth to share stories of their culture, traditions and communities. WWU members learn how to take 360′ imagery to upload to Google Street View – quite literally putting their communities on the map – as well as participate in conversations with Elders to learn more about the history of their home. These images (and the tours students eventually create) will serve as an open educational resource for anyone who wants to learn about or virtually visit First Nations communities in Canada. To date, we have visited four First Nations communities in northern Ontario, and with your help, we can work with Kashechewan First Nation so that their community is also represented!
I created a Spark page to mimic what the Indiegogo campaign will look like, and hope that my rationale for potentially investing in my venture is compelling to you. I will opt for the Flexible Funding (keep what you raise) option when I launch. Here it is:
Thank you very much for your time and feedback!
Reflection
Reflecting after the submission of this project, and after viewing other projects and reading feedback, I would say that my video needed to be more succinct and kept to 3 minutes. I also needed to be more detailed in terms of showing exactly where the WWUP would be going and where we’ve been on a map – I have this information but didn’t include it as it was included in my website. However, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to bank on people visiting the site to get more information. Someone also mentioned that there were inconsistencies between “I” and “we”, which was a great point. I consider whoever works on projects with me in a given community a “WWU team”, which changes from community to community. In terms of investing, I would be the sole person bringing resources to communities, fundraising, etc. but I have partnered with other individuals, such as in our last project in Constance Lake First Nation. I need to be very clear if people are to invest, and when I launch, I will take this valuable feedback into consideration.
I believe one of the strengths of my project, as my peers have mentioned, is that I am passionate about it, and it comes through in my pitch. This project helps communities strengthen their presence on Google Maps which in turn provides visibility and education (plus other spin-off benefits that I would never have thought had I not heard directly from community members). It had / has an impact on students as well. Just recently, a resume came through our office for a summer student position. Walk With Us Project was listed on this person’s resume as experience. Another strength would be the transparency I provide throughout my pitch; as well, the personal nature of this venture which speaks to my trustworthiness as an entrepreneur.
Melissa