Connection, participation and real innovation to solve big problems
April 29th, 2008 | by dnw |
I’ve had a hard time getting motivation to get stuff out on Lifekludger of late. I seem to have an unplugged energy drain somewhere.
However recently the following produced a spark in the Lifekludger engine room….not sure there’s fuel to make it combust, but it’s more than I’ve experienced recently so I’m sharing it.
I have had Deborah Schultz in my feed reader for some time, mulling over some of the snippets she posts, seeing what it is that gels with me and my thinking.
The other day she posted these points. I’ve highlighted the salient bits:
- The social web and web2.0 - c’mon, this is so much more than throwing sheep and twittering that we are stuck in airports. As I have ranted on this before, in various ways, if you *only* look at these tools as a bigger megaphone for communication you are not looking hard enough! Think real innovation, business and cultural transformation!
- Back in September, I was sitting with a friend at a conference and he said it best: “never before have so many done so little with so much” [I will provide attribution once/if I get approval from him]
- The power of tech to bring people together is REAL and VITAL [my trip to Israel reminded me of this]
- This is only the beginning of some really cool stuff - the beginning. Per Clay’s point yesterday: “the size of our collective cognitive surplus is so large that just 1% participation can bring about HUGE change.
- How do we encourage and nurture greater participation and develop an “architecture of participation” [nice turn of phrase clay - more on this to come] that benefits business, cultural and political innovation.
- O’reilly yesterday finally discussed using this stuff to solve big problems - as the pied piper for many developers - I thank you for leading them to a higher cause - hope they hear you.
The highlight points are exactly why I think Lifekludger is needed.
The way that the disenfranchised are treated and empowered needs real innovation to change the current culture in that area.
The real power lies in the people networks and technology needs to be pressed into play with much greater force and urgency to bring people together in a focused participatory framework and harness this cognitive surplus for the good of a people group which faces some big problems.
Lifekludger may focus on a people group that makes up the community of world citizens - those who are disenfranchised, living with disability or other physical obstacle in their life.
However while this is only one sub-culture that needs transforming - the principals remain the same - get serious about what technology can do to sustain and enhance the lives of real people with real need - NOW!
Dave
[Flickr photo by cirox]
