Black Swan Effect of Social Networking on Green
Although I did not attend, ONE/NW had a recent event that I wish I had witnessed. The meeting minutes were posted on John Stahl's blog. Eldan Goldenberg alerted me to the discussion, and posted a very interesting response.
I am currently reading Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. One of the central points of the book is that we are biologically/historically built to live in Mediocristan (a world of average stuff), but modern life is actually Extremistan (of dwarfs and giants). 
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The reason I bring up this book in this conversation is that I view social networking sites and some blogs as being examples of Extremistan. The A-list bloggers, and celebrity facebook/myspace-ers have a vastly disproportional presence. A new meme, fad, fashion, or celebrity can displace them... but it is important to realize that we're living in Extremistan when we participate online.
I may sound like an old fogie, but once upon a time I described Blogger as a "great democratizing agent" -- only later did I see that these social networking sites and tools have the potential to be king makers.
Of course, it is possible to harness this power for highlighting a cause. But let's not fool ourselves that it necessarily means that the amplified messages will be for the betterment of humanity. I have no doubt that these tools could amplify hate just as powerfully as love/peace.
So how can the power be harnessed? The incremental and the dramatic. This blog is incremental: another brick in the wall amplifying green messages for positive change. The dramatic can either be a singular, incremental voice that (for some highly improbable reason) gets elevated to extreme popularity, or because someone who already has the ear of a huge number of folks takes up the cause (ex: Al Gore).
Regardless: welcome to Extremistan. Please wipe your feet.
Labels: green
