The EVOKE challenge has begun!  Please visit the EVOKE challenge on Global Giving at www.globalgiving.org/evoke to support 25 fellow agents in their quest to raise resources and donors for their EVOKATIONS.   The challenge will run for the month of August — ending 23:59 EST on August 31, 2010.  Bonus resources will be available to those agents who reach a minimum target for funds raised, unique donors who contribute and comments on their project site.  So if you are not able to support these EVOKE agents financially, you can still reach out with a word of support for their effort.

Join me in congratulating and supporting all of these agents for putting their ideas into action!

Season One of EVOKE is over, but the EVOKE Network lives on.

For the time being, the EVOKE Network is going into dark mode, but there are still many things you can do on the site. You will still be able to read the graphic novel, comment on evidence (if you are already a member of the network), power vote evidence, work on quests, update your status, send messages to other members, and more. What you won’t be able to do is add new blog posts, photos, or videos to urgentevoke.com. You also won’t be able to invite new agents to join the Network.

COMING SOON: You WILL BE ABLE TO continue to work on missions. I will update this blog post with information about how to continue your progress through the crash-course.

To everyone who signed up, read the graphic novel, and completed even one mission or quest, thank you. Your work will be preserved at urgentevoke.com for others to see.

To everyone who successfully completed the crash-course, I salute you. To everyone who submitted EVOKATIONS, your work and your ideas are deeply inspiring.

But there will be more. The story of the EVOKE Network is far from over, and the work of changing the world has just begun.

See you in 2011 for Season Two.

Help us learn!  Help shape the next generation of EVOKE!

All EVOKE agents are invited to take a short Web survey that will help measure EVOKE’s impact on social innovation.  We all believe that EVOKE has an important role to play — in education, innovation, development.  Help us show it!

Take the survey!

Food security. Energy. Water security. Disaster relief. Poverty. Pandemic. Education. Global conflict. Human rights.

Welcome to the Evoke Network. Welcome to your crash course in changing the world.

There’s an old saying here: ”If you have a problem, and you can’t solve it alone, evoke it.”

When we evoke, we look for creative solutions. We use whatever resources we have. We get as many people involved as possible. We take risks. We come up with ideas that have never been tried before.

An evoke is an urgent call to innovation. Evoking first started in Africa, but it can happen anywhere. And if you found this message, then it is your destiny to join us.

Join the EVOKE Network now. Your first EVOKE mission is ready:

Read episode one
Investigate episode one
Investigate the trailer

Hurry. Complete any one of the Missions (LEARN, ACT, IMAGINE for any week) or Quests by Wednesday, May 12, 2010, to be listed as an EVOKE Founding Member.

EVOKATIONS. Many agents are working on Evokations, which is to say, they are proposing ways to put an idea into action, with our help. You can read all about Evokations right here, and here’s what an Evokation might look like. A powerful element of the Evokation is its list of Mentors – that is, the experienced social entrepreneurs that have signed on to mentor the people with successful Evokations. You can read about them here and here and here.

Evokations are not for everyone, though. Most of us won’t be able to file one, or take time from our lives. So what is our EVOKE legacy? There are two, no, three – very strong options. Choose all that apply to you:

1) EVOKE CERTIFICATION. Can you complete one of each week’s Missions (LEARN, ACT, or IMAGINE) plus all 10 Quests? And will they pass the review after you submit them? If so, you will earn the Certificate that says you have passed the ten-week crash course in changing the world. NOTE: the Certification is like an exam. You submit it, it is reviewed and graded for relevance and effort. No make-up exam! Submit your best work.

2) FOUNDING MEMBER. Step up and complete just one of the Missions (LEARN, ACT, IMAGINE for any week) to be listed as an EVOKE Founding Member.

3) I CHANGED MYSELF. For the vast majority of EVOKE agents, this is the grand prize. We have come to EVOKE to learn (and maybe tell a little bit about what we know). We have reviewed and appreciated the contributions of others, contributed some relevant viewpoints ourselves; we have given our energy and we are coming away daunted maybe by what we have learned, but energized by what we have shared.

I am going to step out of the game for a moment, and point out what is actually going on here. The fictitious characters Alchemy, Calida, Ember, Quinn, Eureka and Cipher have created a new type of classroom, one without walls. At their behest, people from all over the world have joined together in this classroom, one in which each person is by turns both student and teacher. This classroom has thousands of people in it, and together they have focused on the most intractable problems facing the world today. They have done this without conflict for the most part; they have done this with serious intent and goodwill for the most part. EVOKE’s missions are their lesson plans, the Evidence is their assignments, and the Quests measure their progress.

We have created new ideas for solving very tough problems. That is awesome. But beyond that, we are showing the world a new way to solve its problems. EVOKE has attracted a lot of attention in this regard, especially from middle-grade students on up and their teachers, and no wonder: they want to know if this is the start for the classroom of the future.

If I change myself, I change others. This is the lesson I’ve gotten from EVOKE. I will be working hard to forge my legacy on EVOKE as a positive one, to set my goals for the time remaining and to put my highest self on its pages, mindful that I am in a schoolroom and the students of the future are with me. In the time that remains, I hope you all do the same.

So far, everything that’s happened on EVOKE has exceeded our wildest expectations. Agents have created, thought, discussed, and innovated their ways out of some of the toughest situations facing our planet. Evokations are taking shape. Altogether, some truly amazing ideas have been created on this network. We’d like to give everyone a chance to share their ideas and evokations through the EVOKED conference, starting during early May.

The EVOKED conference is a unique one. The evokation of EVOKE agent Sam Gutekunst (and now an official side project!), it will allow agents from the EVOKE network to give a live streaming five to ten minute talk on the EVOKE-related subject of their choice: an extension of a blog post, the results of epiphanic discussion, an amazing evokation, or maybe something else entirely.

While the EVOKED team is still working out details, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start thinking about it! We’re currently taking applications for talks. If you think you (or perhaps your evokation team) would be interested in giving a talk, don’t hesitate to sign up. We’re flexible and we’ll read over every application.  Go for it!

Think of the new Leader Cloud as one of the tools available to help you find other agents who can help you on your own journey.  By clicking on the word Leader at the top of each page, you will find all sort of ways explore the Urgent Evoke Network through both randomized and ranked lists of

· Newest Heroes
· Emerging Heroes
· Questing Heroes
· Heroes On a Mission
· Power Generators
· Mega Heroes
· Heroes of the Week
· Leading Powers

I can see myself using the new Leader Cloud in two different ways.  I’m very interested in finding and connecting with our newest and emerging heroes and I think the Leader Cloud does a very good job bringing the work of these agents forward. And, after looking at my own personal profile, I can see that I’m particularly weak in my Entrepreneurship Powers so, I’m going to do a quick study of the ideas from our agents who have this power as a particular strength.

How are you going to use the power of the Leader Cloud?

As you explore the EVOKE network, you may wonder: Who created it, and why?

The EVOKE network has its own origin story – just as all of you have yours.

EVOKE was created by The World Bank Institute as a direct response to African demands – namely, universities’ request to develop ideas to engage students in real world problems and to develop capacities for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  Developing nations face steep challenges, and resources in these areas can be limited.  These challenges demand the most robust and innovative of solutions.

EVOKE was also conceived as a crash-course in changing the world.  It is a chance to showcase the kind of resourceful innovation and creative problem-solving that is happening today in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions, and to collectively imagine how the lessons from those scenarios can transfer, scale, and ultimately benefit the entire planet.

The World Bank Institute, the capacity-building arm of the World Bank, is a global connector of knowledge, learning and innovation for poverty reduction. One of its objectives is to create new platforms for learning, and knowledge exchanges to help practitioners construct their own development solutions and innovative approaches.

EVOKE is such a platform for open innovation. It is designed to support new ideas and collaboration, not to push existing solutions.

We very much look forward to the next nine weeks of this adventure and the incredible possibility that you will EVOKE. Good luck in realizing your visions for the future you want to make.