Coordinating many people across state or national borders
December 20, 2017 7:54 PM Subscribe
I’ve been thinking deeply about global climate response. The need to act is existential, more than merely urgent. How can we as citizens of Earth care for our planet despite forces resisting change. How can many people's actions be coordinated? (more inside)
We need a way to coordinate all our small, often disparate actions, rather than working at cross-purposes or ineffectively because some actions don't scale or ripple outward sufficiently.
I need strategies that scale, that help to see where and what to chip, and then a system to support us as we chip away (to maintain culture; to harvest and winnow actions, to message actions to chippers; to pay, resource and protect those chipping…). A movement of millions is urgently needed but even small orgs fail due to burnout from maintaining culture, resourcing and management. While lots of grass roots actions are occurring, far far more could be accomplished if all could pull together.
Do anyone know if anything like this is occurring on a transnational / global scale in any domain? I'm not only thinking apps here as apps or internet comms can be shut down, so also thinking passages in books/texts, 'warchalking' methods, proven social network models. What else is out there?
Also been reading much on blockchain re some of above as need system that is resistant to interference, but also a system that can link different actors across many protest fronts. What I mean is a way to unite individuals despite ideological differences. I'll put up a diagram on weekend to illustrate this better.
We need a way to coordinate all our small, often disparate actions, rather than working at cross-purposes or ineffectively because some actions don't scale or ripple outward sufficiently.
I need strategies that scale, that help to see where and what to chip, and then a system to support us as we chip away (to maintain culture; to harvest and winnow actions, to message actions to chippers; to pay, resource and protect those chipping…). A movement of millions is urgently needed but even small orgs fail due to burnout from maintaining culture, resourcing and management. While lots of grass roots actions are occurring, far far more could be accomplished if all could pull together.
Do anyone know if anything like this is occurring on a transnational / global scale in any domain? I'm not only thinking apps here as apps or internet comms can be shut down, so also thinking passages in books/texts, 'warchalking' methods, proven social network models. What else is out there?
Also been reading much on blockchain re some of above as need system that is resistant to interference, but also a system that can link different actors across many protest fronts. What I mean is a way to unite individuals despite ideological differences. I'll put up a diagram on weekend to illustrate this better.
This is basically 350.org's raison d'etre. Is there a chapter near you that you could get involved with?
posted by lunasol at 9:34 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by lunasol at 9:34 PM on December 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
350.org looks great, and they have an Ottawa chapter - I'll check them out, lunasol.
unearthed, I think if you talked to climate activists they would tell you they have a strong need for more people doing unglamorous stuff in the trenches right now, like tabling, lobbying, door-to-door, reading documents, letters to the editor and picketing. And that they are already aggressively liaising and coordinating with other orgs. And that many of them are already pretty experienced about having their smart phones searched at border crossings and so on.
Consider doing six months in the trenches doing unglamourous stuff, and then you'd have a sense of their needs, and what people are doing to connect with other groups and their personal technology needs.
350 New Zealand:
http://350.org.nz/our-work/
https://twitter.com/350nz
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:48 AM on December 21, 2017 [6 favorites]
unearthed, I think if you talked to climate activists they would tell you they have a strong need for more people doing unglamorous stuff in the trenches right now, like tabling, lobbying, door-to-door, reading documents, letters to the editor and picketing. And that they are already aggressively liaising and coordinating with other orgs. And that many of them are already pretty experienced about having their smart phones searched at border crossings and so on.
Consider doing six months in the trenches doing unglamourous stuff, and then you'd have a sense of their needs, and what people are doing to connect with other groups and their personal technology needs.
350 New Zealand:
http://350.org.nz/our-work/
https://twitter.com/350nz
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:48 AM on December 21, 2017 [6 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks lumasol, sebastien and clew. My Q may have been a bit premature; I'm working on a lot of threads to bring coherency to the idea and talking to lots of folk bother here, via wordpress and IRL. seb. re letter-writting and actions, yes but I want to help people coordinate themselves across orgs, and across borders and across ideologies.
Yes I'm involved in several 'on the ground things, much unglamorous', but see that many folk in different orgs are bound up with the ideology of the org and also that the org becomes overburdened with running itself - I'm seeking to solve this. Having a face-to-face conf in a months' time and will likely revisit this question then.
posted by unearthed at 1:13 AM on December 22, 2017
Yes I'm involved in several 'on the ground things, much unglamorous', but see that many folk in different orgs are bound up with the ideology of the org and also that the org becomes overburdened with running itself - I'm seeking to solve this. Having a face-to-face conf in a months' time and will likely revisit this question then.
posted by unearthed at 1:13 AM on December 22, 2017
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posted by clew at 8:24 PM on December 20, 2017