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Thoughts on the Project for Awesome

2010-12-21 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Global development · reflection essay

Hank reflects that the Project for Awesome began in 2007 as a hack of YouTube for charity and has 'weaseled' its way inside, so that YouTube now helps; he argues people want to help without despair, reports P4A 2010 as the most successful yet (600,000 comments, over $130,000 raised, mostly small donations) and says it shows we are all people being people.

What is said

00:00:00 — P4A's origin in 2007: a group of YouTubers 'hacked YouTube' for charity; Mike Huckabee's competing 'hack'

  • ★★★ Hank says that in 2007 a group of people 'hacked YouTube', using YouTuber tricks harder than they normally would to get views, which felt awesome rather than dirty because it was for charity. — 00:00:01 · YouTube, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank jokes that Mike Huckabee's attempt to 'hack' the Republican presidential nomination kept P4A from taking over the whole first page of 'most discussed', but P4A's hack was more successful. (playful) — 00:00:19 · Republican Party

00:00:32 — P4A grows legitimate; YouTube wants to help; elegant hacks use social engineering, and P4A weaseled its way in

  • ★★★ Hank says P4A continued annually, each year less subversive and more legitimate, until YouTube wanted to help promote it; he mock-protests that YouTube should be a faceless monolith they sneak past. — 00:00:32 · YouTube, Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank realises that often the most elegant hacks involve social engineering, getting inside the organization, and says P4A weaseled its way in: from scraping for views to YouTube banging down their door. — 00:00:55 · YouTube

00:01:18 — Why: people want to help without feeling depressed; YouTube sees the community's power

  • ★★★ Hank thinks one reason is that everybody wants to help but struggles to get involved without feeling depressed about a broken world; people want meaning without feeling bad, and that is what P4A is for. (hedged) — 00:01:18 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says the real reason YouTube wants to be involved is that it sees how powerful this community is, and how much more powerful it could be by combining the community with YouTube's platform. — 00:01:41 · YouTube, Nerdfighteria

00:01:56 — P4A 2010 hacks and results: logo, 40 front-page features, live show; 600,000 comments, 3,000 videos, 10 million views, over $130,000 raised

  • ★★ Hank says this year they hacked for charity harder than ever: WheezyWaiter's chest hair, John's fear of heights, and YouTube itself from the inside out. (playful) — 00:01:56 · Craig Benzine, John Green, YouTube > «hacking for charity harder than ever before»
  • ★★ Hank says YouTube's help let P4A change the YouTube logo, get 40 front-page video features and work with a team of YouTube employees on a fancy live show. — 00:02:04 · YouTube, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank thinks P4A will be done a little differently next year. (hedged) — 00:02:15 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank calls P4A 2010 the most successful ever: 600,000 comments on over 3,000 videos with a total running time over 40 hours and over 10 million views. — 00:02:17 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says earlier P4As were about raising awareness through videos, but this year also raised money: over $100,000 in small donations and over $130,000 in total. — 00:02:29 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank stresses that most of the money came from small donations: thousands of individuals giving what they can, adding up to a huge number. — 00:02:38 · collective action

00:02:57 — Hank's pride in P4A; people working together as equals; 'people being people'; thanks and sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank thinks he is prouder of the Project for Awesome than of anything else he has ever done. (hedged) — 00:02:57 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank is impressed that video quality and participation keep rising, that people work together as equals because they want to, and that 'we are all people being people' whatever our circumstances, with implications beyond P4A. (hedged) — 00:03:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★ Hank thanks everyone and John. — 00:03:22 · Project for Awesome

00:03:27 — End screen: Shawn's late Uncultured Project P4A video

  • ★★ On the end screen Hank recommends Shawn's Uncultured Project P4A video, uploaded a little late and little promoted, saying viewers will weep. — 00:03:27 · Shawn Ahmed

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