About the Olive Network in 2025
“The duty of a journalist is to write the truth. Journalism means you go back to the actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, and you report it.” Noam Chomsky
The Olive Network (ON) is a simple story sharing website and network. By sharing progressive ideas and long-term thinking our aim is to connect populations with positive change makers, rising above division to the empathy and vision of charities, the arts, science and humanities.
Our aim is to create a bridge from the people working hard to make things right
to the people who are looking for answers.
ON advocates an earthly truth, based on ecology and kindness. Inspiring populations by creating an informed awareness about what really matters, if we are to prosper, in an equitable way. Our belief is that if people could actually see the progress that is possible they would embrace the hope they find within it.
Here is a short, introductory film. Dur: 1m 14s
MEDIA LANDSCAPE
The media landscape today thrives on disinformation and sensationalism, pumping algorithmic chaos into the system. The manipulation of social media by bad actors has been a major source of socio-political instability globally in recent years.
The Olive Network has been created to counter this. At the heart of the project are stories from bona fide sources, writers and organisations who check the facts and consider the long term.
A BRIDGE TO PROGRESS
There is a stronger force for progress and understanding than there is for regression. There are many people working hard to rectify the climate crisis and create enduring sustainability, to give refuge to those displaced by war and disaster, to raise people out of poverty, to foster peace for future generations. People pushing hard across the globe, grass roots ground up, to find new ways of seeing, believing and acting. But it is how to get those sentiments and messages heard above the constant babble of other media that is a major part of the battle. The good stuff is often hidden beneath the shouting.
The Olive Network has been created with this in mind. By sharing stories from the people who are trying to forge this change - NGO’s, International Orgs, charities, museums, eco warriors, writers, scientists, artists, educators...we focus on the humanities and progressive, long-term thinking. Our aim is to create a bridge from the people working hard to make things right to the people who are looking for answers.
A FOCUSED VOICE
Within the website there are Platforms dedicated to the Climate Crisis, Education, Museums as Agents of Change, Dwelling and The Arts and Sustainable Ecology among others, drawing threads together, extending a focused voice to issues of the day.
AN ETHICAL NETWORK
Integrated within ON, is a social network (in many ways the antithesis of established social media platforms) for sharing stories and the new ideas that spring from them. In addition to being a story sharing and networking space, users can also create their own libraries, run surveys and debates and hold citizens assemblies.
FROM UNDER THE OLIVE TREE, WATCH THE VIEW CHANGE
Our ethos is reflected in the story of the olive tree which offers fruit and fuel and healing, the olive branch, a symbol of peace.
WHO WE ARE
The Olive Network has been created not just as the consequence of internet innovation but as the result of years of work in ethics, charities fundraising, the NGO sphere, media, communications and the arts.
Roger Thorp – Founder: Roger is a film-maker and artist. An important tranche of his career has been working as a producer/director for NGOs and Charities including WWF, International Labour Organisation, International Red Cross and United Nations Environment Programme.
Lucy Margaret – Founding Partner and Communications: Lucy’s background is in media relations at Greenpeace UK and Sustrans – the National Cycle Network - and in establishing new online ventures.
Peter Kirby – Founding Partner and Copywriter: Peter’s background is in the advertising world working on extensive national and international campaigns. His creative writing has appeared in The Guardian, Design Museum, Channel 4 and Tate.
Ben Suffell – Founding Partner and Marketing: Ben currently runs a charity fund raising organisation. Marketing, account management, people management, finance, business direction, new technology and fundraising consultancy are where his skills lie.
Donovan Preddy - Design advisor: Donovan's background is in web and digital product design for clients like Comcast. At The Olive Network, he's helping to make the website serve its readers even more than it already does.
FRIENDS OF THE OLIVE NETWORK
We are very grateful for the moral support given by our Friends as we venture into our next exciting phase, launching in 2025.
Anna Cestelli Guidi is an art historian and curator based in Rome. After completing her education in Rome, Siena, and Berlin, from the mid-1990s she has worked in Spanish institutions such as the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela, the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and the Fundació Metrònom in Barcelona. Since 2005, she has led the Visual Arts Section at the Fondazione Musica per Roma, based in the Rome Auditorium, where she developed projects like ‘One Space / One Sound’ and ‘Sound Corner’, linking sound with visual arts. Among her curated exhibitions are the sound projects Italian Art To be Listened To at the NCCA in Moscow, 2010; Score. Between Image and Sound at the MARCO Museum in Vigo (Spain), 2014; Il corpo della voce for the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, 2019.
Christopher Morris is a BAFTA award winning filmmaker and broadcaster. His recent feature documentary, ’A Year In a Field', released in 2022, reflects upon human existence, its relationship to the environment and the urgent need for compassion and transformation. A Year in a Field meditates on the passage of time through its appreciation of nature, highlighting the subtle changes of the seasons, but also the need to act in order to battle man-made changes that will forever change our planet.'
Sheffield Doc Fest
Career awards include: a BAFTA and two BAFTA Cymru Awards, a Royal Television Society Award, five Torcs at the Celtic Media Festival, The Premios Ondas (Spain), a Special Jury Award at Le Prix Jeunesse and prizes at the Berlin Film Festival and Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
Working mostly in photography, video and digital technology, Max de Esteban is best known for his examination of the human condition under a technological regime, and of the endless media overflow of images and information, technologies and virtual realities.
His projects have been exhibited at museums and institutions including NRW-Forum in Dusseldorf, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, XIII Bienal de La Habana, Deutsche Technik Museum in Berlin, Virreina Centre de l’Imatge in Barcelona, XIII Cairo Biennale, XVI Cuenca Biennale, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, Staatliche Museum für Fotografie in Berlin and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
SUMMARY
Aware we need to heighten user experience we are heading into a period of renewal
What - ON is a new media platform that curates stories from reliable fact based sources that subscribers can share via the integrated social networking facility.
Why - to share long-term progressive thinking to counter the divisive short-termism that can be found in media and politics.
Who for - everyone. ON is grass roots ground up, focusing on the arts and humanities with an open door to education. ON advocates listening to people who understand ecology and consider the well being of others.
What stage - redevelopment of the existing model to a more intuitive version to launch in 2025.
What future - ON becomes a factual resource for students and researchers and has the potential to produce content. ON extends its reach into global communities thus sharing the deep understanding of our contributors to create an honest, factual picture of ‘where we are’.
ENDS
