Teaching Crowdsourcing to the Youngest Generation; Asking kids to create a new vision for a better world through story and art!
Founded on a belief in highest potential in all children, Kiba Kiba moves the medium forward by allowing kids to build content.
About You
About You
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Kiba Kiba Books: A Children's Media Company
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, NY
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Innovation
Entry Form title
Teaching Crowdsourcing to the Youngest Generation; Asking kids to create a new vision for a better world through story and art!
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
Images are powerful teaching tools for children and I believe that children would benefit from seeing a greater number of positive images that reinforce all that is possible in our world. There is also a growing creativity crisis in our world whereby children are consuming a huge amount of content but they are hardly ever given the chance to participate in projects that allow them to contribute something original and unique from within. So my solution combines these two needs and asks children to create new images to create a new vision for a better world.
Our world needs this now more than ever. I believe we're ready for something more, a better vision for our world. I believe it’s up to us to create it so that's what I'm doing. I’ve created a new solution for children to be innovative while at the same time giving them a way to use their creativity to change the world and make an impact. The whole idea is to provide a space for kids to contribute and participate. As kids exercise their right minds (by illustrating a book and adding new images to a vision pod) they become empowered to realize that they can change the world just by being themselves.
Target: Kids ages 4-12.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
Kiba Kiba combines traditional children's book publishing with digital media and publishes a new kind of "interactive" book that allows children to creatively communicate. Each original story has a companion art book that mirrors the original story that kids around the world can illustrate. The companion art books provide children with an opportunity to use imagery and image making to interpret and illustrate the stories in their own unique way. As they do so, kids learn to use their right brains, and the power of their imaginations, as a tool for self change, as well as gain a greater awareness about the world around them. It is this opportunity for children to use their own creative visualization that sets Kiba Kiba Books apart from traditional children’s books.
To connect everything together, each book has a website - an online vision pod - where images created for each book are collected. By participating in the vision pod project, children are essentially "lending their artwork" and adding their creative energy to give the vision of the book momentum so other kids can benefit. (e.g. to heal faster, to get over our fears and follow our dreams, to look beyond appearances, to imagine a clean, green, peaceful earth, to be curious about the cosmic universe, to start an outdoor play movement, to help bring clean water to everyone on the planet.)
Right now, teachers can access all of the books digitally through iTunes in 29 countries. Some of the translated books are available in paperback globally, but most of the paperback books are only available in English.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
I have created a new model for change: Kiba Kiba Books a global and collaborative art project that publishes an evolution of the coloring book — art books illustrated by children. The back to the basics hands-on art project uses the power of story plus technology to connect like-minds and share and collect art. Kiba Kiba aims to create a new model for change, based around the idea that one story, with thousands of different illustrations and art projects around it, can build a movement.
The goal of the “global art book game” is for all of the world's children to create thousands of different images, songs, art and creative expressions around each story to create a new movement for change around each book's theme. It is a new model for change because it uses TECHNOLOGY AS AN OPEN SOURCE TOOL, NOT A DESTINATION: Participating in real life is the only way to feel a part of Kiba Kiba.
Example: THE LONDON FROGS teaches students about the world’s water crisis. For the STEM integration course, students learn about the issue and are given time and space to create an original song/story/poem about water. These creative expressions are then added to the online vision pod. All of this creativity gives the vision of the book (clean water for everyone on the planet) momentum so other kids learn about the problem. Technology becomes a tool to learn and share, but the way to participate is to contribute (a digital photo, a video, a reading, etc) The process of participating teaches students about crowdsourcing for a solution to a global issue. (This project is still in development.)
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
PEERS: Reggio Emilia Children’s Centers (early childhood) although my project is for other kids (4-12), Reggio is also about self-directed art and play.
COMPETITORS: A lot of companies are popping up trying to mimic the success of social media and creating sites for children to network and create profiles. These sites dazzle and lure children with flashing online games, where children consume instead of contribute. It's adding to the problem of sedentary time in front of a screen. On these online social media sites, children can play without parents. (Kiba Kiba needs parents/teachers to add the artwork to the sites. It’s not a social media site, it’s just an aggregated site of children’s artwork and images and this is the purpose: To get children creating, playing in real life again using the technology as the tool to connect, but not the destination for play.
Another example of model (above) Potential project for a "Clean Cookstoves" campaign (UN Foundation/BWF) is that I would like to publish a cookbook from crowd-sourced recipes from "mobile mom's" around the world. We could ask mom's to send in crock-pot recipes and build an online campaign. (This is an ex not actual project)
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
A few years ago, I wondered: what if all the energy I put into making my own personal dreams come true could be used for collective dreams - ones that benefit everyone? (Could I create projects that would help children heal faster from disease or help to bring clean water to everyone on the planet?) I frequently used imagery to manifest my dreams so I started to think: Images are the universal language on planet earth. They are direct and immediate and need no translation. They represent our collective hopes and dreams and they can create a holographic blueprint for us to use to rebuild our lives and a better world with.
I started Kiba Kiba Books because I started to wonder: what images would we create, especially for our children, if we knew that images had this much power to create positive change in our world? I believe that stories and images are like seeds that create the future. Each Kiba Kiba Book harnesses this “law of attracting” by giving children new stories to dream about and visualize (together) so that the ideas within them can take hold and grow in the real world. Maybe if we all dream together (while awake) we can build a better world for the next generation!
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
Creating something original is an individual process. But then you take this individual contribution and you add it to a vision pod it becomes part of a collective project. Each of my book projects has two parts:
Each story empowers and inspires children. The stories aim to awaken the child within so children can reconnect to their true selves and reach their highest potential. But then there is a second part, where Kiba Kiba asks that this individual contribution be shared with the world in the vision pod so others can benefit from it.
Because there are endless ways to illustrate the same story over and over again, children learn how to trust in their own creativity, creative style and creative voice. This high level of involvement and engagement in the creative process empowers children to believe in themselves and follow their dreams.
So far, I have worked directly one-on-one with over 5,000 children. I have worked with children in hospitals, schools, museums and community mentoring programs. But I have also worked with groups of children, up to 500 at one time. Some children/parents have sent in artwork to a pod without any direct contact in a workshop.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
My intention is to make this more of a global art project. My distribution reaches a global market (paperback books can be purchased in 258 countries and territories and digital books can be purchased in 29 countries) but I have yet to travel and connect with global children in one-on-one workshops. I have yet to reach global teachers and network with global parents. I have translated some of the books into other languages (French, Spanish, German, Czech, Japanese, Hebrew and Norwegian) but they are not yet on all platforms and not all the books have been translated. This hinders my ability to reach under-served schools in developing countries. But I would like to translate all of the books into more languages and into all of the markets (I have use of printing in US, UK and Australia.)
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
I will translate all of my books into 6 languages to reach more global children (right now only 1 of my books is translated.)
Six-Month Tasks
Task 1
Find a translator of children's book. Ensure quality of interpretation.
Task 2
Convert the foreign language paperback books into digital epubs for easy reading on multiple devices.
Task 3
Locate global schools who could make use of my books in their curriculum.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
I will sell enough books to sustain my business and triple the number of children that I've been able to reach globally.
12-Month Tasks
Task 1
I will work with a volunteer marketing team to pitch the global art book game to thousands of global schools.
Task 2
I will create a proposal and packet of information for teachers to use to connect Kiba Kiba Books to various curriculums.
Task 3
I will hold more one-on-one workshops (in US and abroad) to reach more children directly.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001 - 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
Sustainability
Explain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Business
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
Kiba Kiba is a viable creative project. Our biggest hurdle is getting the books into the hands of more children so they can actively participate, contribute, play and create. I need help in bringing the books to ever increasing budget strapped schools and to global schools. At one point I was looking for a sponsor, someone to buy the books so we could give them away from free at global schools and so the children could participate more easily. I was also looking for marketing help to make schools aware of the program so they could purchase the books or hire me to come hold a workshop to create a new book around another global issue.
I think the way to overcome these challenges is to "keep going" and just make steady progress toward reaching the vision that I have, as I have done so far.
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
I think we will see the medium moving forward as we see more ways for children and youth to build, innovate, create and not just consume. I think we will see a shift in this direction as more and more people realize the need for children to self-direct their education. We will see this shift in the educational system, in technology and in society. As more challenges present themselves, children and youth will be asked to come up with solutions themselves. There will be more participation and a sense of respect for everyone's contribution.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
I have a lot of ideas! Implementing arts-in-ed programs that fit a specific need but also innovate. I could also publish more and more books to reach more children this way (instead of focusing on building the pods). I could partner and collaborate with organizations to involve them with the process so I have help with cross marketing. I have proposed a "STEM-in-ED" program called "Create Anything" that addresses the current need for more STEM programs and can tailor my program to fit the current trends and needs. I am also open to hearing suggestions from others on how I can improve my model and reach more people.
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
Tell us about your partnerships
Visionaries/partners: Ola Helland's project ONE MILLION GIRAFFES, Jay Mankita's EAT LIKE A RAINBOW (Jay drives a tour bus fueled by veggie oil), Hedda Berntsen's THE PLAY SPIRITS' PLAYGROUND (Hedda won a silver medal in skicross at the 2010 Olympic winter games) and Chad Urmston for THE LONDON FROGS (Chad frequently uses his music as a way to bring awareness to various global, humanitarian issues!) For this book, Kiba Kiba created a creative campaign at www.londonfrogs.com and Water.org provided educational resources.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
I would love to have help. So far Kiba Kiba has been built 100% solely by me. I would love help with marketing (volunteers, interns) and help with networking at schools around the globe. The amazing thing about my model is that it is sustainable on it's own (what has already created doesn't need time, money or resources to keep it going) but I would need help if I want to take it to the next level and expand my reach. The vision is there, I just need funding and marketing support.
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Marketing or media, Collaboration or networking.
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
Kiba Kiba Ambassadors: Teachers who can take the vision and run with it and turn it into something new or bigger than I could have ever done myself.
Summary
Define your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
Global children's media co. that focuses on developing & producing conscious content & creative campaigns for kids of all ages.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
Founded on a belief in highest potential in all children, Kiba Kiba moves the medium forward by allowing kids to build content.
 | 36 weeks agoJessie Riley updated this Competition Entry. |
| 36 weeks agoJessie Riley updated this Competition Entry. |
| 38 weeks agoJessie Riley updated this Competition Entry. |
| 39 weeks agoJessie Riley updated this Competition Entry. |
| 39 weeks agoJessie Riley submitted this idea. |
