beyond fake and art

FakeNews are spreading the world. People think they are worth nothing, but these carry a cost for society! A global symbol should mark them: a "double barred zero" will speak for all globally.

Comment 2

The European Union and national Governments are concerned about the lack of trust in their institutions.

Social relations are also in jeopardy in these times of post-truth. A clear example has been the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic event. Countries have rolled out different interventions. These differences have been used by people to spread out Fake News about how little their own government has done to fight the crisis. The trust in the EU institutions has been severely shaken by rumors and fake news regarding their willingness to step up and help the countries that have been hit harder by the pandemic event.

The credibility of the EU Institution and of the EU project was build up over decades and now, within weeks, lots of European citizens are turning their back to Europe due to Fake News. This project facilitates trust in democratic institutions and empowers citizens to raise their creative voice in favor of democratic resilience and unity.

Fake news are not neutral (let us say, the value of fake news is not 0), fake news instigate insecurity in the people and this leads to fear. Fake News devalues the human condition by devaluing the solid institutions which guarantee social justice, the market, the “res publica”, the social relations, the peace of our countries. Fake news puts at stake the very present and future of our democracies.

The European Union and the European democracies have had a long and hard process of formation. But they have provided the EU peoples with the longest period of peace in the history of the continent. Fake news are a danger and a threat to our democracy and our institutions.

Our project aim is "to fight fake news, to make democracy resilient and to include the voice of science and arts”.

On a daily basis, we are experiencing situations where truth is not always honored. Malicious actors all across the world use lies to promote their worldview and their own benefit. It has been often called a "post-truth" or "post-fact(ual)" world.

By promoting untruthful speech, malicious actors endanger our democracy and democratic heritage, which is built from the exploration of truth (science) and fair and transparent political processes.

Zero is a number and its meaning is globally understood.

“Fake News” are words often used in so called “first world countries”. They are used on TV shows, newspaper etc., when addressing a something not reflecting the truth. Those words are not really understood across the globe. Since the problem is global we need a solution that would fit globally.

Symbols go beyond languages and across-cultures. Furthermore, symbols are easier to integrate in works of art. Our team proposes:

(a) the creation of a social movement around the Symbol DOUBLE BARRED ZERO and (b) promoting and spreading the use of this symbol in society, public and private institutions, people, artists, NGOs...

Our project is original and completely novel as it comprehends four important solutions, as seen above, (1) a social movement to unite the whole EU society, (2) an original and powerful symbol and image, (3) a strong union around something which is universal and can be exported all over the world as it is a respectful and inspiring symbo*l and (4) a way to *encourage critical thinking.

Sustainability is not only about technical solutions, outreach and documentation, but also about the social and human dimension.

In this sense, our project ́s nature is social. Additionally, our project is dynamic as it is a social movement.

This is our competitive advantage. We aim at inspiring people in the short and in the long term. For this, we will go on thinking and reflecting about what is needed to inspire people over a longer time.

Hackathon is the starting point or point of departure. We will work to develop online and local workshops, festivals, (online and live) exhibitions & concerts, and many other actions to disseminate our work and to make it sustainable. In this point, we will need financial support from the European Union and support from public relations companies, meme-designers, marketing specialists and other private and public institutions.

We need financial support to foster adoption for our Zero Double Bar symbol.

The Budget plan includes a trajectory many years into the future. For initial years EU funding is necessary to build a good organisational structure and core team. The EU funding shall decrease over time and be substituted by income through private and other institutional funding as well as by income from services to our target groups. Personal spending is kept to a minimum.

A small and well equipped core team shall do research and development, administration and marketing. External consultancy will be needed at times. Details about FTE on each single area are available for year 1 in the Business Case calculation. A larger external cost will be translation cost, as this project will aim primarely at the EU and then at a worldwide audience.

In order to work in a European but pandemic setting, fixed costs for headquarter and office rent will be avoided, by using the concept of temporary, flexible and mobile working solutions. For more information about the different percentages of costs and our predicted growth, please have a look into the attached business plan.

The weekend has been really exciting and exhausting. Our team has worked hard to fulfill all check-points, deadlines and requirements of the organizers. Further to the hard work carried out by all the members of the group, hereinafter, we expose the main actions done:

  1. Working in group through the channel
  2. Working one-by-one using Slack, Skype, and Zoom.
  3. Mid-term report 4. Final report / Pitch
  4. Pitchvideo
  5. Numerous online meetings with Skill Mentors, Coordinators and Challenge Leaders.
  6. Creative Thinking
  7. Networking throughout the hackathon.

MORE DETAILS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON WWW.BARREDZERO.ORG due to problems with the DEVPOST Platform

Business case has been uploaded on www.barredzero.org/devpost/financials.pdf

Final Pitch: Business case has been uploaded on www.barredzero.org and to google drive on this link

ALL THE EFFORTS HAVE BEEN WORTH IT!

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