I think a lot of people are wary of sending money somewhere. I'll bet you'd get better participation if you worked to organize groups to get together, buy tickets, and pass them out to people on the street. They could do something to draw lots of attention to themselves, and then hand out tickets. There's a bonus element of getting together groups of people who care about the issue.

To clarify--I meant in addition to what you're already doing, not instead of it :)

I definitely agree. I have also been thinking of ways to get people involved on the street level, perhaps even with local theaters. In general, here are the ideas percolating:

1. Wouldn't a local theater be up for putting up a flyer saying "Watch An Inconvenient Truth for free!" ? It would encourage sales at that theater from the downstream up. And if that's a decent idea, then I wouldn't be against making flyers or stickers for anyone to pass out.
2. Perhaps I'm not making it clear enough that no one has to send money to me. The point is that people can pay for each other, but they can meet here if they want to. After creating the form for potential AIT viewers to fill out (https://sharethetruth.us/free/#supereasy), the next step is to list all the people who want tickets. Then, a donor can just contact that person, through the site. Or do you think people, even if they have personal communication with someone, are still going to be wary? Maybe so.

I do like your idea a lot. Especially in crowded areas, you're guaranteed to get some takers. I see two issues with it:

A. It's time- and labor-intensive. Though I believe there is no more urgent cause than this at the moment, mobilizing people to get on the streets and pass out tickets is a "high bar" that I'm not sure people are motivated enough to face. The time taken out of one's day and the potential rejection one encounters when soliciting attention on the street may be huge deterrents. Considering you DO need a group to be on the street, and not just one person, for logistic and financial reasons, finding a pool of motivated people might be hard. But hardly impossible.
B. Buying tickets beforehand presents the concern of what happens to tickets that couldn't be given away. This can be resolved by either talking to the local theater and reaching some agreement (I will buy x tickets from you and pass them out if I can refund the portion that I couldn't give away), or by not buying them first, and marching the viewer to the theater to pay for his/her way in.

Do you have ideas on how to mobilize groups and motivate people to form them?

Okay, here's an idea.

We make a box asking visitors to enter a name, email address, and a city/suburb. When enough people from one location have "registered" on the site, I create a forum for them to discuss meeting and getting out onto the streets.

Do you have any ideas on how to "sell" this idea, on the front page of sharethetruth or otherwise?

Hope this is a decent start:

https://sharethetruth.us/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=26

I still am hoping for something catchy that embodies this concept:

"Register to connect!" does not sound appealing nor descriptive.

What if you just have a link that says: "Find ticket seekers in your area!" And then when people link to it, give a brief description of how they could organize an event locally (e.g. Step 1: Make a deal with the theater, Step 2: Make some signs, etc.) Then tell people that if they register, you'll set up forums for metro areas (within 50 miles or so) whenever you get two people from the same place (two people can bring two friends and it's a group)... for people in 'unlikely' areas, you could also give a brief description of how to organize solo--A single person with a sign outside a theater could probably get together a few others as they walk out of the movie (assuming they don't look like a total weirdo)...

Hey--Just checked out the changes to the site--I think this covers a lot of my suggestions pretty well :)

It's great that you're doing this!

You want lots of people to see this movie - put it on the internet.

I don't know who owns the rights to the movie, but if you could legally get this movie on the internet, far more people will see it than if it is only available in the theaters.

YouTube, Google Video, etc. or allow people to download it. It will also reach a much wider demographic on the internet. And people will still go see it in the theaters.

Definitely true.

The director of An Inconvenient Truth, Davis Guggenheim, thinks highly of this site, which is a great start.

Perhaps after we've gained enough clout we can approach Paramount/Participant to clamor for its availability.

It must be noted that there are a great many people who will not have reason or access to see it if distribution efforts are solely online. Which supports your point; going to actual movie theaters should always remain an available option.

I am a world traveller since 1971. I've witnessed many changes from Indonesia to Peru. I saw a movie called "No Blade of Grass" around 1970 and watched the futuristic movie about pollution unfold over the years. Check it out

Way to go! I did something else - I offered the book to my local library. They accepted 5 and then asked their network of libraries who else would like one. They got 27 more requests. Now they're got the 32 copies and places for them all. I don't think it's going to stop there.

I bet there's a network in each state. We could put copies on the shelves of every library in the nation with donations made to just 50 different locations. I even bet Amazon would co-ordinate it - they do charity stuff around Christmas, and this way they get to sell all those books.

I'll email them and tell you what they say.

Sebb

OK, I emailed Amazon, I'll keep you posted.
Sebb

Awesome work, Sebb! I'm excited to hear how things develop.

Well, I got a form response about how they give money to charities already. I will try again via another route (I did point out that was them SELLING books, but don't think they understood). I will keep emailing them, and will call them. If not Amazon then Barnes & Noble, or someone will do it. If not I can do it, or work it out for you how to - it's just:
1) getting the 50 main libraries across the nation to agree to accept the books,
2) getting an account to put the money in, like you have already
3) buying the books and inputting the various shipping addresses

Sebb

Well,
I've been on vacation for two weeks, so nothing has moved, - apart from getting a list of all of the libraries that have now received one or more books :

Arlington
Robbins Library

Belmont
Belmont Public Library

Brookline
Public Library of Brookline

Cambridge
Cambridge Public Library

Concord
Concord Free Public Library

Dedham
Dedham Public Library

Dover
Dover Town Library

Framingham
Framingham Public Library

Lexington
Cary Memorial Library

Medford
Medford Public Library

Millis
Millis Public Library

Natick
Morse Institute Library

Needham
Needham Free Public Library

Norwood
Morrill Memorial Library

Somerville
Somerville Public Library

Stow
Randall Library

Sudbury
Goodnow Library

Watertown
Watertown Free Public Library

Wayland
Wayland Public Library

Wellesley
Wellesley Free Library

Westwood
Westwood Public Library

Woburn
Woburn Public Library

Mount Ida College
Wadsworth Learning Resource Center

Newbury College
Newbury College Library

I also got the right organization to talk to - American Library Association, so I'm emailing them to see if I can donate books centrally, or at least see if they can identify the networks of libraries for me.

Sebb

Eris/ShareTheTruth contributors:

You are an inspiration! And also a great educator on how to use people-to-people help.

After the massive earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005, I created a people-to-people resource wiki - HelpPakistan. We used a site called Fundable to raise funds.

It's a great way of targeted fund-raising. (We didn't reach our immodest target, but thought the idea was great.)

Your simple idea has given me inspiration and I hope to learn how to use this for the causes I work for.

Here's an idea each of us can do in our daily lives.

Buy x amount of copies of the DVD, give them to your family for xmas with a note saying "After watching this movie it is your job to give the DVD to someone you know, and attach this same message to it. If you do not feel like it, return the movie to the sender so he can continue forwarding".

Montreal, Canada

jphil,

Great idea--I especially like the way the message makes it conducive to a continual spreading outward.

A supplemental idea that might work well with this too is a tracking system at ShareTheTruth where each DVD gets a "code" and recipients are welcome (but not required of course) to visit the site and enter their city (and if they're really inspired, a review).

ok so eric I really think SWAG would help. looks like you have lots of supporters, why not ask them to wear a "share the truth" shirt or bracelet?

Eric, how do we get to see the film in Australia? And if I search on the internet to purchase, I end up with references to your website...I applied for the free dvd, and I know you're flooded, but I would like to make a start on getting this information out in Australia. People the world over share the same concerns about fossil fuels, the truth about global warming, global dimming, and the rest of the current fearful stuff that invades our lives and our headspace. I guess we are all a little media-wary, as they stretch the truth, exaggerate, and leave out the parts that don't fit their own theories.

Hope you take up the share the truth suggestion about bracelets and t shirts. How about if you design a share the truth logo and put it on your site for people to print on their own t shirts? That would save you time, money and hassle. If you ask people on this site, they will probably even design the logo for you and save you the work!