Week 8: Social Organization

Week 8 Word: Social Organisation 

The most prominent topic and reading that stood out to me this week, clearly has to be The Knife Party's Climate Change video.

Whilst this is by no means a video that will generate the same level of discussion as one of Gore's Inconvenient truths (most likely because it didn't have the budget), it concise;y does something that many activists and politicians fail to do on the subject of climate change... it offers a clear METHOD of solution.

It's one thing to claim an answer, but another to define a path of deliverance for those whom it affects. The Knife party however, uses the incumbent application of social media, networking and the historical learnings of the 60's Individualist movement to provide a new context for advocating change. 

A simple, three fold medium to aid global efforts. The first, an information forum (or 'green wiki' as they put it) to be a internalised 'go-to' place for advocates. The second, an 'open innovation forum' that allows parties and individuals to collectively problem solve issues. And third, a 'catalyst system' or simpler put, a social network that allows individuals to connect with others souly for the purpose of fighting the global pandemic.

So their you have it. Problem: global warming. Solution: Collaborative effort. Method: an  Information archive, a Forum and a Network.  A simple layered idea that holds the potential power to become a great catalyst. Al Gore will be spewn'.

But does collaboration always work? ... Does stewardship fail without any centralised leadership. Or worse yet, would Douglas Rushkoff  be right and the government will switch off the net?

Let's hope not on that one. But one thing to question is the value in individual efforts. Collaboration is always thought to be primal to human efforts of survival but the value of the social organisation is undermined with examples of the ulterior. Apple computer's co-founder and inventor of the personal computer is perhaps the best example...

"In his memoir, Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors: 

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me ... they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone .... I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

A great example sure enough, but perhaps only in the cases of discover Vs solution could his be applied. It took Wozniak only himself to screw in that light bulb. But it takes 90% of climate scientists in the world today to prove to governments that climate change is real. 

Source: Click Here

...... Evidence it seems, is just an inconvenient truth to them.