Networking has carved out a stronghold in activism worldwide in the social and environmental sphere. Very often the two spheres overlap.
Carrotmob is to launch new technology on its website that will be helpful to anyone setting up a campaign for better environmental sustainability- Anne Zammit
Revolutions continue to be sustained and important battles won in a world where increasingly the keyboard is turning into a weapon that is mightier than the sword.
Currently the largest global online community in history, Avaaz is proving how change can happen when people speak out as one voice. Careful timing of a campaign can make the decisive difference when a crisis reaches tipping point.
Some have criticised the way Avaaz works. Focusing on e-mail campaigns and online petitions could encourage laziness and transform potential activism into ‘clicktivism’.
Aside from its campaigns against corruption and injustice, a number of environmental petitions organised by Avaaz have resulted in real change. One campaign helped dissuade the Brazilian government from handing a large portion of the Amazon rainforest over to agribusiness.
The organisation, which takes its name from the Persian word for ‘voice’ or ‘song’, also managed to influence the decision for elephants to be listed as an endangered species. The fight against trading in ivory is an ongoing battle against poverty, greed, poor governance, habitat loss and lack of law enforcement.
When €23 million of disaster aid was diverted to the whaling industry half-a-million registered petitioners went into action. It took them just a minute to hit ‘send’, with their message reaching the Japanese prime minister direct by e-mail.
The efficiency and widespread nature of online petitioning also helped create a marine reserve in the Indian Ocean where the world’s largest coral atoll is home to more than 220 species of coral and 1,000 species of fish.
Tapping the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ through technology requires having a full-time staff in 30 countries, sifting through thousands of suggestions for worthy causes. Wider member groups across 193 countries are then polled to decide which issues to back.
Word of the differ-ent campaigns spreads quickly between users of Facebook and Twitter. People in France, India and Brazil are the most frequent users of this campaign network.
The brains behind this global advocacy organisation believe they are only scratching the surface of their massive, multi-issue potential. Avaaz is expanding its 52-strong team of inspired public entrepreneurs and brilliant campaigners and is seeking to engage another 40 ‘super-smart, globalist change-makers’.
Another positive way of supporting the environment is springing up in high streets from San Francisco to Europe and beyond. Complementing armchair activism, it is an organised reverse boycott favouring businesses supporting the environment, known as a ‘buy-cott’.
Carrot-mobbers provide the carrot… a crowd of activists descends on the shop or café pledging to make the most effort in a race with local competitors to go green.
The establishment with the most compelling proposal becomes the beneficiary of funnelled sales to Carrotmob supporters. Profit generated is channelled towards promised energy efficiency investments or other improvements to the enterprise’s environmental sustainability.
In a direct comment to The Sunday Times, Brent Schulkin, the San Francisco-based leader of Carrotmob, comments:
“We are excited about all the campaigns springing up around the world. Here in San Francisco we are building a central organisation to advance the Carrotmob mission.
“At the same time, there are many communities around the world who are working on the same mission. We are sort of a hybrid movement, with one part which is centralised and one part decentralised.”
This is a clear reference to the concept of a book on decentralised networks called The Spider and the Starfish – The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organisations. It speaks of the internet as a breeding ground for organisations connected to the digital world which share a simple platform or idea.
If you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one which can grow into an entirely new starfish. Environmental scientist Jane Lubchenco came up with the idea of using the starfish, with its decentralised nervous system, as an image to represent decentralised networks such as Wikipedia, Avaaz andCarrotmob.
Schulkin sees Carrotmob as a hybrid of starfish and spider (hierarchical) although the boundaries of a formal campaign still have to be set.
“Even as we create some limits for what we will recognise as Carrotmob campaigns, we will still empower local organisers to do what is best for their own communities and be creative with how they create campaigns,” he said. Carrotmob, born in the think-tanks of Silicon Valley, is about to launch new technology on its website that will be helpful to anyone setting up a campaign for better environmental sustainability in local or global business. On a cold day in Wisconsin a poster during a recent event held at an ice-cream shop read: ‘Be a part of the (carrot) mob – save the environment one ice-cream scoop at a time’.
Sales were brisk despite the temperature as people showed their appreciation for the shop owner’s promise to start composting and saving water. Last month in Vienna a café was encouraged to switch to organic produce by another Carrotmob. The most successful campaigns are expected to be created by individuals or non-governmental organisations using the advocacy tool as a platform. The network is intended as a ‘commons’ and makes sense from a business strategy perspective. Yet, businesses will not be able to benefit unless they earn it by taking a significant action in a win-win formula for both sides.
Activism for profit on both sides – the businessman and the community – draws on positive synergies between the real and the digital world and anyone can be a catalyst.
www.avaaz.org
www.carrotmob.com
razammit@hotmail.com