Bryan Ferry |
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Fri. November 19.1999 12:00 AM EST |
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FEW NETTED BY NETAID |
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The Washington Post has reported that NetAid - the celebrity-studded series of concerts held across two continents - has made $1 million a
On October 9 NetAid was held at three venues. In London, David Bowie, The Corrs and Robbie Williams played to a packed Wembley Stadium. In Geneva, Switzerland, Bryan Ferry serenaded delegates from a Telecom '99 conference. In Giants Stadium, Wyclef Jean, Sheryl Crow and Sting wondered where everyone was. Only 15,000 people turned out for the American concert. The event was meant to draw users to the Web site www.netaid.org, which webcast all three concerts. Once there, users could volunteer with charitable organizations in an initiative sponsored by the United Nations. Artists at the concerts promoted specific causes, with George Michael singing for the Kosovar refugees and Jewel publicizing the issue of water purification. A month later, the Post's Paul Farhi reports only 6,000 people have registered as volunteers. The figure suggests apathy on a massive scale. The Web site received 2.3 million hits on the day, and it's estimated NetAid reached over a billion people via the TV and radio. The concerts were broadcast by both the BBC and VH1 and carried in more than 70 countries. Nevertheless the manager of the NetAid Web site, Robert Piper of the United Nations, said he was "more than satisfied." "We've been [complaining] for years about the need for people in the developed world to participate [in aid programs], but they never had the tools," Piper explained to the Post. "With the Internet, people can now get emotionally and intellectually involved." NetAid received pledges of $11 million from corporate sponsors Cisco Systems and KPMG. Although the event fell short of expectations, these pledges are unaffected by NetAid's poor performance. Cisco Systems' Kent Jenkins told USA Today that NetAid was "a success and a great start" at getting "people's attention and translating that into individual action." However these pledges were taxed by the cost of the concerts. The poorly-attended Giants Stadium concert lost money, as did the Geneva show, where tickets were distributed free to UN workers and conference delegates. The $1 million raised is said to have come from the sold-out Wembley Stadium gig. This is in contrast to the fanfare with which the event was promoted. Bono and Wyclef Jean recorded a promotional single, "New Day," especially for the event. George Michael offered to speak to any tabloid that would positively promote the cause. Leaders like British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela made a show of logging on at a September press conference. It wasn't enough. Promoter Ken Kragen, who organized NetAid and previously was responsible for Live Aid, told Farhi, "Would we have done things differently if we could do it over again? Absolutely." He admitted he did not take an active enough role in promoting the Giants Stadium concert. Kragen put down the failure of the event to compassion fatigue. "In '85, people were seeing pictures [of starving Africans] on the news for the first time," he told the Post. "Now, we're seeing a disaster a week, whether it's the earthquake in Turkey, or East Timor or the plane crash in Mexico. People have gotten used to it, unfortunately." NetAid was marred by controversy even before it had begun. Actors Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover had resigned from the UN's NetAid committee in disgust a day before the concert, claiming the event had "been reduced into a trade show" by the UN and Cisco Systems. "When you deal with the flesh and the blood that makes up the hungry and disenfranchised of this world, you must play in a field of trust," Belafonte told The Washington Post. "I find that sacred ground. There shouldn't be any cynicism or agendas." Belafonte stated he believed proceeds would first be processed through both the UN and Cisco Systems before reaching the areas where they were so desperately needed. UN officials responded by saying Belafonte was upset over his eroding control of the project. NetAid was originally the idea of Diane Merrick, a Cisco Systems executive, as a way of drawing attention to the power of the Internet. Merrick said of the event, "We were really looking for a way to demonstrate the power of the Internet outside the business realm. Business has already embraced the Internet. What we wanted to do was give everyone else a glimpse of the future." Right now it's in the hands of 6,000 people. If you would like to join them, please click here. |
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