dear john

Dear Colleagues,

If you are a fan of what Howard and Nelson are doing to Australian Education please disregard this email. If you have had enough, please help us to spread the word of www.dearjohn.org by forwarding this email to other academics and letting your students know about our site.

Dear John was initiated by young Australian designers interested in how, in these post-political times, they could motivate their peers to defeat Howard in the upcoming elections. From the beginning the site set out to explore new communication strategies for engaging young people in conversations about politics. Although united by a common agenda to defeat Howard, the designers do not push which party to vote for, but use free downloads of t-shirt transfers, screen savers, badges and stickers to get young people sharing and talking about socio-political issues.

Central to the idea behind Dear John is the notion that networked communities will use the internet, email and mobile phones to pass on material they like. So although the downloads are critical to getting people talking (we have already had amazing responses from people seen out wearing the t-shirts), we need traffic to the site in the first instance to link the community around Australia.

I have attached an A4 flyer for noticeboards, toilet doors or fridges that directs people to the site and a one-page background document if you are interested in discussing the site with your students. At the site (www.dearjohn.org/dearjohn_mediaKit.html) there is also a media kit and further announcement postcards if you have contacts that might want to help us dump slippery John.

Best, Lisa

LISA GROCOTT

director studio anybody

research coordinator graphic design RMIT