Inepd

International

International Network for Enabling

Poverty Development

  
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Inepd from Beginning to End

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The Story Tweet by Tweet

Charity Events, Celebrities and Guinea Pigs

The Management Meeting

Kelvin, Travel Sickness and Jet Lag

An Interloper

Aids or HIV or both is a Disease

Detained Shane

Detained Shane Continued

High Street Fundraising

Shane and Shirley

Can Humanitarian Space be Empty

Quarantine

An Inepd Humanitarian Quiz

A bit of Nothing

World Peace

Nothin much again

Time Poor Donors

Child Soldiers

Womens Community Centre

Internatonal Health Quiz

Copenhagen and Cop15

The Winter of Discontent and Après Skiing

Haiti
The Audit

Forward Accountability

The Ballad of Shane and Shirley

Derivatives and LSE MBAs

Marketing Kills

Tweet Funeral

Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards
 
How to follow the story
This story was told in real time through twitter and what is presented is the twitter stream of the Inepd characters and their followers. Inepd characters have this image so as an examples the Inepd character InepdMercedes would appear as below:

       InepdMercedes

In twitter there is a convention that when you address someone you use the @ symbol. This allows users to know who is tweeting to them.ie. Inepdkelvin would ask InepdMercedes how she is:
InepdKelvin: @InepdMercedes  How are you?
InepdMercedes: @InepdKelvin I am fine, thanks.

This is the convention that works on twitter and presented here through the story. I have made some small edits mainly by moving tweets back or forward in time to make the stream easier to follow. I have removed a small number of tweets that would cause confusion or just didn’t add anything to the story. I have also not included Retweets. On twitter if some quotes you and resends your tweet to their followers this is called a retweet. There are also many tweets from followers that I missed. There were many nice, funny and bizarre comments about Inepd that I did not manage to collect.

So this is the twitter story with all its warts. What you are reading was happening in real time created by one person with actually little time to do it. Basically this was an improvised story being made up as it went along. There was a central theme and I knew roughly how Inepd would end. Many Inepd characters just happened along and were welcomed into the story. Inepd was a piece of fiction nothing more or nothing less, set in the aid world but not really about it. I guess it most closely resembles a radio series but with many differences. The biggest difference was of course the proximity of the audience. The audience could become involved in the story and be part of it, with one of the audience even becoming a character in the story, deciding to hop up on stage for a few moments and play along. The tweets of the audience are included where I could track them down.

What is Inepd about
The orginal idea of Inepd was to create a number of characters working for Inepd International who would blog competing voices on the same series of events. Each character would bring his or her interpretation to the work of Inepd International. The website(whipped up in a few hours) was developed to give the characters some plausibility and make the audience question if Inepd International was real. The characters and story were meant to be believable enough for people for a at least a few seconds or minutes to be caught off balance to start delving into the story. In the end I gave up on the blogging as I couldn’t figure out how to make it work(too much work) and instead found twitter. The central character Mercedes Bligh made a few blog entries but this was usually just as a bit of a catch up on events or a small piece that didn’t fit in the main drama. To date there are still some people who believe Inepd International is a real organization and Inepd International is currently being investigated by the British Charities Commission after a tip off from a UN agency(this is 100% true).

Inepd was made to be a piece a fiction that was accessible to a wide audience and interactive with the audience. I had success with this kind of idea with a previous blog I wrote that had an original format from the standard blog. Twitter enabled this kind of interactive fiction idea to be extended. It was intended that the audience did not need to be too familiar with the international aid scene and in the end the audience was very diverse. Although the story is set in the aid world it is not really about the aid world.

Inepd was series of little half to one hour shows. Between these little shows there were a few one liners or advertising for Inepd events and products. While these little performances were on going people would often tweet to the Inepd characters and help the show along. In reality the twitter format made it  very difficult for the audience to follow especially when more than one Inepd Character was involved.  I think however the format is what made Inepd really special; that people would pick up one of the plays like searching through the static on a radio dial and coming across one of my little plays stop and listen for a while.

The central theme of Inepd International is pretty basic; that marketing can influence the program decisions of non governmental organizations(or any organisation for that matter). This is not true for all organizations but true for many. Inepd International is not a small organization. It is a medium size international NGO. It sees itself competing for funds in a competitive market place. The headquarters staff have a very loose connection to the field programs and their perceptions of the field programs are based largely on the unintentionally false advertising of its marketing and communications department. When headquarters staff visit the field they always take away what they want from the experience and usually misinterpret what is actually going on.  The field programs are usually quite sensible.

I originally wanted the story to last for about 6 months. The end was always going to be ugly for Inepd International and its staff. I wanted to be sure it could never rise from the the ashes. In the end the story lasted for about 9 months on twitter.

The reaction to Inepd on twitter was the most fascinating part of the project. Some enjoyed the story, there were some who were openly hostile. Some who were not amused and some who enjoyed seeing others trapped. One aspect of twitter is how actually cruel the medium is. People feel that their public comments are private and openly ridicule other users, thinking the other party cannot  or would not do a quick search on their username to see if anyone had mentioned them.

Inepd Characters always followed a few rules. They never stepped out of character publicly(some messages and emails were sent to let people know Inepd was not real). Inepd characters would escalate the conversation of a confused audience member. Inepd characters would say progressively more extreme and ridiculous statements to allow the confused audience member to figure out for themselves what was going on. Many times the attitude of an audience member was abusive, cynical or arrogant. One really interesting exchange happened between an audience member who started to ridicule an Inepd character Trevor Gotliepsen thinking Trevor had been sucked in by another character InepdKelvin not realizing Trevor was an Inepd character. There were also two followers of Inepd that felt it was their duty to save other users from embarrassment when they had started tweeting about Inepd not realizing it was real.

One of the aspects of twitter that worked for Inepd was how compartmentalized twitter users are. Usually there is a number of users who are basically leaders of the discussion and there followers generally agree with them. In effect there are small mobs waiting to laugh, ridicule or to be not amused. This was truly amazing to watch. A twitter user would spot Inepd and comment. If a mob leader made a positive comment the mob would follow with positive comments. If the mob leader made a negative comment the mob would follow with a negative comment. What I thought a fairly true rule was that their was very little diversity of opinion within a group. There is a great diversity of opinion on twitter but people are not comfortable seeking out that diversity to make part of their daily twittering.

Hope you you enjoy the story. There are a few little comments from me through the story.

 

 

 

           

Charity Events, Celebrities and Guinea Pigs
Mercedes Bligh,Mercedes Bligh,Mercedes Bligh,Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Just finishing African famine appeal promo. Hugh Grant looked really sincere and clapped along with the kiddies song. 9:56 PM 18-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Having a hard time getting some film where Hugh is clapping in time with the kids. I knew we should have given him a tamborine!! 9:57 PM 18-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh,Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Commented on the Beyond Borders II script. Bit unrealistic from a marketing perspective. Not sure if Jennifer can bring same depth as Angie. 5:45 PM 19-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Looks like we have Phil Collins for our "Aids is a Disease" campaign. Always had trouble getting the Collins demographic to support Inepd. 6:06 PM 19-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes A stroke of genius actually to get Phil Collins so we can now get the Collins demograhic. I wish I had thought of this before. 6:06 PM 19-Jul-09
projectfriendly  @InepdMercedes|| re. The Collins Demographic - but don't you think the Jackie and Joan demographic might have a bit more cash? 8:55 PM 22-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes @projectfriendly sorry took me a while to see your comment(am new). I think you'd be suprised how much 80s KT26 wearers earn now. Cheers M. 8:20 PM 4-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes That time of year "Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards" live tweets 22:00GMT 23/7 1st London Semi final 6:45 PM 20-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes For more info on Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards http://www.inepd.org/HumanitarianCoupleAwards.htm still space for more contestants. 6:46 PM 20-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes We are Inepd series of talks. Join us 12 Chapel st. Soho 2PM, for our talk and discussion "CAN HUMANITARIAN SPACE BE EMPTY" see you there, 6:24 PM 21-Jul-09
Paul Molinaro
unipmo  @InepdMercedes Thanks for the cyclone problem tree. It will prove an invaluable template for the future http://tinyurl.com/kogym6 21-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes @unipmo Trish has hundreds of these type of things. I will aks her to get in touch. RT '@InepdMercedes Thanks for the cyclone problem tree. 8:39 PM 4-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Some interesting questions coming up on the awards. Posted a FAQ here: http://bit.ly/JQwXT 7:12 PM 22-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Live tweets for Humanitarian Couple of the Year Award London Semi final in 1 hour and 20 minutes. 6:09 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes 30 minutes till live tweets on the Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards. 7:01 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Just about to start the Humanitarian Couple of the Year Award London Semi Final at the exclusive Duke of York Hotel in Kensignton. 7:24 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Real anticipation: Rumour Brad and Angie will be here. Rumour false(was me)! But anticipation is real. 7:25 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Celebrity judges Anne Charleston(Madge Neighbours), Paul Flannagan drummer from Adam and the Ants and Roz Tranfield Miss New Brighton 1977. 7:29 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes No real humanitarian experience in the judges would have been good to get someone who had atleast done Comic Relief. Peter Andre is Compere. 7:29 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Peter just starting his opening set. 7:30 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Great opening set All Night All Right and Mysterious Girl by Peter. 7:35 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Really got the crowd going and nice walk off with hat pulled down and tux jacket over shoulder. 7:35 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes He’s back, a bit out of breath to introduce the contestants. 7:35 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Brad and Wendy from Oxfam, Terry and Eve from MSF, Harry and Sebastian from Inepd and Porche and Frederick from Unicef. 7:35 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincent Clark from the Inepd Emergency Team is here to give expert commentary on humanitarian things. 7:37 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Hopefully humanitarian things won’t play too big a factor. We just need a photogenic couple in traditional dress for a Hello Magazine pic. 7:38 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Couples now asked to tell about their humanitarian history. 7:39 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Unicef couple: Frederick got the Humanitarian bug through doing Trailwalker with his Price Waterhouse colleagues. 7:40 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes She had a Champagne for Darfur fundraiser in her loft apartment. Really delightful couple 7:40 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Oxfam Couple: Met through researching upward and downward accountability as interns in Oxford. 7:41 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincent just gave me an explanation of this accountability business. Didn’t really understand. 7:42 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes The accountability thing appears to be about poor people eventually paying the charity back. 7:42 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Inepd Couple: Met in a Phuket at a community participation workshop for Headquarters staff. 7:43 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes MSF Couple just starting to talk about their humanitarian experiences 7:44 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes MSF couple still talking 7:45 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Now MSF Couple: Talking a lot about the humanitarian imperative. Probably something you have before dinner. 7:46 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincent gave another explanation I didn’t understand. 7:46 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Couples now asked to talk about their most rewarding work experience. 7:48 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Oxfam couple talking about there time with the Somalia program based in Nairobi and how they dream to one day visit Somalia. 7:50 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Unicef couple talk about challenges of finding an apartment and domestic staff in Hanoi. I can relate, had bugger of time in Regents Park. 7:52 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Live tweets from the Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards London Semi Final 7:53 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Unicef couple talk of their revolutionary “remote partner self monitoring program” that drastically reduced program costs for Unicef. 7:54 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincent thought this had been going on for decades 7:54 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes I wish people would stop walking from the bar in front of the stage to the pool tables. The Bar Manager promised an exclusive function. 7:55 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincents a dear he’s going to sort it out. He has been so more relaxed in the last few months since the financial crisis hit. 7:55 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Because Inepd’s income has dropped the Emergency Team only responds to every second emergency now and they are a lot happy bunch. 7:55 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Missed the Inepd and couples sorry… 7:56 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes MSF couple now still talking 7:57 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes MSF: Oh God more “populations in danger”, savings lives, Darfur, Congo, Sri Lanka etc.etc. We really should put a time limit on answers. 7:58 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Quick reminder “Aids is Disease” benefit concert coming up in two weeks still plenty of tickets. 8:00 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Vincent seems to think HIV is a disease and Aids is an illness. Well if a few G&Ts with brekkie is a disease I think then so is Aids. 8:01 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes There is going to be a quick break before the talent contest part of the show. See you in a few minutes. 8:01 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Hold on!!!! 8:03 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Some pretty unsavoury business going on in the break. 8:04 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes I overheard the Communications Director of Oxfam offering two of the judges to become Oxfam Celebrities. 8:04 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Then the Unicef comms Director offered Associate Goodwill Ambassadorships. That’s a lot of worldwide business class travel. 8:04 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes The most Inepd could do is to sit them at the same table as Phil Collins at the “Aids or HIV is a Disease” benefit concert. 8:05 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Now back to the action at the Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards London Semi Final 8:06 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Peter is back and now for the Talent contest. I think the white Tux was a mistake by Peter 8:06 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes If you are going to drink red wine, beer sausages with ketchup and pop across the road for a kebab in the break white is not the colour. 8:07 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Contestants now ready for the talent contest 8:09 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes First up is the Unicef couple. 8:10 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes They are going to do Lady in Red by Chris de Burge. Porche is in a delightful red dress on Piano and Frederick stylish formal on vocals. 8:10 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Really romantic, what a fantastic couple. Peter’s backing vocals I thought were a bit too much. 8:12 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Now MSF couple. They are going to perform Clandestino by Manu Chau. Terry on Guitar and Vocals and Eve doing interpretive dance and mime. 8:13 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Not really much in this for me. Vincent really loved this especially the part where Eve gets got caught in barbed wire. 8:15 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes I didn’t really get this I must admit. But they really gave it a good go. 8:15 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Bit of situation here looks like we have reached the bar limit. 8:16 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes People are starting to get a bit edgy and it looks like we have to wrap the night up early. 8:16 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Peter going to do one more number then back with the results. See you in a few minutes. 8:17 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Peter’s just finished, performed Lava really explosive and seems to have taken its toll 8:18 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Peter announcing the runner up and Harry and Sebastian from Inepd have it. Really well done. Hard to compete against business class travel 8:18 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Now the winner. Just as expected Porche and Frederick from Unicef. Really great couple would be great to have at dinner party. 8:18 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Ok that’s all thanks for joining us for the Humanitarian Couple of the Year Awards brought to you by Inepd International. 8:19 PM 23-Jul-09
Ian Thorpe
ithorpe  @InepdMercedes say hi to Porsche and Frederick for me. Hoping they do us proud. 8:29 PM 23-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Talked today with Public Health dep. whether Aids or HIV or both is a disease. After half an hour with them was none the wiser. 4:46 PM 24-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes They gave some female condoms and told me to get an HIV or Aids or both test. 4:47 PM 24-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes I really thought I was safe as it's related to poverty. So didn't think I had to worry. 4:47 PM 24-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Poverty is not one of my criteria for a date, although I did date a boy who was on a scholarship to my school formal 4:48 PM 24-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes and a GPs' son at university(believe me nothing happened!!!). 4:48 PM 24-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes So in the end the Phil Collins event is now “Aids/HIV is a Disease”just to be on the safe side. Thursday fortnight. 4:49 PM 24-Jul-09
zulusafari  @InepdMercedes who u working with? I'm working in the same arena. comm/pr/marketing in Sudan. 3:16 PM 25-Jul-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes @zulusafari Hi I'm working for http://www.inepd.org looking forward to reading your tweets. I work in London. 5:49 PM 1-Aug-09
zulusafari  @InepdMercedes likewise! what do u do for Inepd? 3:56 AM 2-Aug-09
zulusafari  @InepdMercedes ah, never mind, just read ur twitter bio. U from UK originally? ever over in E Africa? 3:58 AM 2-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes @zulusafari Yeah London girl, I don't travel outside of europe much but would love to visit Africa. 4:33 PM 2-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Great week. Amsterdam fashion week and stayed for the Gay Pride Parade. Many George Michael moments. Was so in love with him in 85. 5:48 PM 1-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Update on our Inepd Campaigns with Attitude or Inepditude Campaigns. Each campaign launch has talk and discussion. Launch list follows. 6:20 PM 1-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Campaign Launch 1: "Poverty Development not just a slogan" 4/8 5PM, The Wellesley, Waterloo Station 6:21 PM 1-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Campaign Launch 2: "Forgotten Conflicts where are they NOW!" 11/8 5PM, The Wellesley, Waterloo Station 6:21 PM 1-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Campaign Launch 3: "Climate Change not in our Lifetime!" 18/8 5PM, The Wellesley, Waterloo Station. Int. dates to follow and guest speakers. 6:22 PM 1-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Back to London tonight. I wish Ryanair had Business class. 5:40 PM 2-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh,Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes RT '@MarkAtWarChild Meet Mary. One of the disabled kidz who can now read and right. She speak's great English to> Right Mark, that's write! 6:57 PM 3-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes Many people have written wanting to know more about Inepd International policy discussions and senior level decision making. How we work! 7:19 PM 4-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes So tomorrow I will be live tweeting from our Management Meeting with all our Directors and Executive Director. Start around 11:30 am GMT. 7:22 PM 4-Aug-09
Ties Mellema
tiesmellema  @InepdMercedes I'll be there! 11:06 PM 4-Aug-09
Mercedes Bligh
InepdMercedes @tiesmellema Thanks Ties hope all is going well over there. very hot today here. 9:18 AM 5-Aug-09