Project Description

I still have to pinch myself that a little guy like me with only $45 start-up cost and a monthly operating budget of AT&T's iPhone plan would be able to drive 11,263 miles around the US in a borrowed car affecting real change in homelessness.

That car just happened to be borrowed from Ford Motor Company, that even still today syncs to my content http://www.thefordstory.com/ford-on-blogs/invisible-people/

Content is mirrored on change.org and huffingtonpost.com. Also, often featured on takepart.com and many more

CNN, LA Times, Seattle-NBC, Detroit-ABC, Albuquerque-NBC, Kenneth Cole, Hanes, Mashable, Google's blog twice (that's like being in the Bible) Amazon.com, Tyson Foods and so many more. Even sharing the front page with Nancy Peloci http://hardlynormal.posterous.com/gonna-crack-me-up-for-days-hardlynormal-opp-n (my favorite)

And when a state government takes notice and asks you to visit ya must be doing something right http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8iI5-nXyz51YjM1ZGIxNjUtOWJiOS00ZWU3LWEyMDQtZTYyMjExODEwZWY3&hl=en

CNN documented I was able to get the word 'homeless' to trend on twitter http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/24/gnomedex-puts-the-human-face-on-tech/
CNN.com feature story here http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/01/horvath.homeless.website/index.html

Speaking at Gnomedex, Blog World, 140 Conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTPewtWAL2Y and http://eguiders.com/exclusive/the-spark-series-part-2 Idea Camp and many more giving a voice to those with little influence

All this happened even in spite of living without any real income for close to 24 months, 3 layoffs, losing my house to foreclosure and nearly everything else.

InvisiblePeople.tv’s success is a direct result of social media and the effective use of storytelling

Project Goal

Goal is a simple one.  Change people’s perceptions by giving a face and voice to homelessness through storytelling via social media.
What Tools Did You Use?:
- Blogs
- Facebook
- Flickr
- MySpace
- RSS
- Twitter

What Happened?
Every now and then I get a glimpse of the impact – screenshot from America’s Next Top Model Forum http://hardlynormal.posterous.com/screenshot-of-post-from-americas-next-top-mod
Tweet from Los Angeles Fire Department http://twitter.com/LAFDtalk/status/2085269138

But the biggest impact came after I spoke at the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville’s Mayor was in the audience and immediately started a low income housing program to assist people with first and last month’s rent (a huge need). The owner of World Garden Restaurant immediately committed to feeding thousands of people every week http://twitter.com/hardlynormal/statuses/4767127324. A farmer donated 40 acres of land http://twitter.com/hardlynormal/statuses/3182356535 (I was sent a photo but cannot seem to find it) that as of two months ago will now be used for low income housing. In Baton Rouge I was informed about 50 kids who could not go to school because they did not have shoes. One hour later they had new shoes http://hardlynormal.posterous.com/woohoo-pic-of-new-shoes-going-to-help-50-kids

Those are only a few of the stories that I know of


Lessons Learned

I honestly do not think I would change one thing. I did learn that if you're willing to give your life to help others genuine miracles will happen.

 URLs

http://invisiblepeople.tv

http://www.king5.com/news/local/60831787.html

http://bit.ly/3YEQpb 

http://bit.ly/dwfp8

Mark Horvath

InvisiblePeople.tv