Could we change the world?
Oh these are interesting times! I should be writing a post about what I’m doing at Eastercon and editing the third Split Worlds novel but last night I was seized by an idea that just won’t let me go. I slept on it and it’s still there this morning.
The idea in a nutshell: Creating a platform like Kickstarter for massive environmental projects* that have international scope and require funding that surpasses that which individual governments can / are prepared to commit.
*This is an example: Removing 7250000 tons of plastic from the worlds oceans
And here is the proposed project’s site: http://www.boyanslat.com/plastic4/
Even writing this now my pulse is racing and I’ve got that fluttery feeling behind my ribs. Let’s take a step back a second and look at what exists now.
Kickstarter – this has really started to break into the mainstream (in the online world – not mainstream as measured by breakfast television or old markers like that). I backed my first project (Nine Worlds) this year which made 232% of its original target. This made me happy. However, what’s even more exciting is that Kickstarter mobilised over 60,000 fans of Veronica Mars (a TV show) to pledge over $3 million to have a film made – and there are still 16 days to go at the time of writing this.
Holy crap.
Then there are two other things I’ve been involved in lately along similar lines – i.e. using social media to bring passionate people together to change things, hopefully for the better.
The first is Kiva, which I discovered last week through Laura Resnick on Facebook. This TED talk by the co-founder Jessica Jackley says everything you need to know about it brilliantly – if you have a few minutes spare I totally recommend you watch it right through to the end (very important) and have a tissue ready. I sobbed. I’m tearing up just thinking about it (but then I cry at everything. I mean, Toy Story 3, my God, I almost died of dehydration).
Basically this platform has enabled a worldwide network of micro-financing for people and communities too small and too poor to be served by banks. It is incredible. I made my first loan last week to this farming group in Cambodia and it has since been fully funded. At some point the money will be paid back (there’s always a risk it won’t, of course, but I am happy to take that risk with $25 in the hope it will make something wonderful happen for those people). Then I will reinvest in another project. If I sell a few more books, I’ll probably fund several at once.
The other thing I wanted to talk about is 38 degrees. This is all about getting the British public to stop politicians doing things we hate (which seems like everything at the moment – dark times here indeed) in a very British way: signing petitions and writing emails to our MPs. The power of this is the sheer numbers, of course, but it’s also the fact that it makes expressing our concern (often outrage) so very easy – 38 Degrees removes barriers to low-level action. I got on board when they mobilised people to fight against government plans to sell off woodland that sorely needs protection. It worked.
Okay, so what have we got here?
Kickstarter is being used to fund primarily artistic ventures, but I’ve also seen it (and Indiegogo too) used for local community arts projects and things wider than one artist/creative group producing one product. Exciting.
Kiva is enabling micro-financing on a global scale. I mean, good grief, it’s just mind-blowing. It means that people like me, not well off at all but with everything I need, can help entrepreneurs all over the world that the banks ignore. We are cutting out the powerful middle man (who also played a massive role in the latest massive global economic meltdown) and helping people directly. Of course, these loans are managed and vetted by local groups – they have to be to join up all the dots and ensure the money is going where it should. What makes me so excited about it is that it feels like a genuine, positive force for change – and has been linked to better treatment of women too – but that’s another post.
38 Degrees is informing the public and getting them to act in a tiny, low effort way on such a huge scale that together it makes a loud voice.
Could a combination of these three be used to fund something even bigger?
That’s what keeps banging on the inside of my skull at the moment. Take that ocean clean-up idea. International waters, thousands of miles away for lots of people, but it’s an issue I believe many are concerned about. It’s also the kind of thing that governments are not likely to back. I’m sorry, but I have no faith whatsoever in one, let alone several, agreeing to properly fund any of the technology or make it easier to happen. Why?
1. Politicians have limited resources at their disposal. I have no idea what the real picture is, as it’s all obfuscated behind rhetoric, blaming previous governments, the economic crisis and countless other things, but there’s a lot of demand on a finite budget.
2. They are not prioritising the environment. Or space technology – imagine if we could crowdfund a proper space program back into existence!
3. Being voted in next time on a shorter time frame than many huge projects require means that politicians are looking for short-term high impact stuff to send to the newspapers. I’ve heard of schemes being trashed before any scientific data could be produced on their efficacy because “they had to be seen to be doing something”. Le sigh.
4. Big business has a direct line to government and the money to keep throwing persuasive lobbyists at them. I don’t think big business (oil companies, mass media corporations) have goals compatible with caring for the planet and finding a way to make life here better for everyone, rather than a miniscule percentage of people.
Is this a suggestion to replace or give up on taxation?
No. A very good friend (Hi Dom!) made an excellent point on Facebook this morning: “Kickstarter for environmental projects may be a good plan, but we should not on any level accept a failure of government to do this stuff. Charitable funding is no substitute for funding via taxation.”
I couldn’t agree more. However, for the reasons outlined above, I have no faith in the governments of the world ceasing to fail at this stuff within an acceptable time frame.
It’s also all about bypassing the mass media
Before Kickstarter, Kiva and 38 Degrees, before Twitter and Facebook and blogging and, okay, the Internet, a very small group of people controlled what information we were exposed to. A tiny amount of stuff reaches mainstream TV news and newspapers. The mass media seems far more interested in making us miserable so we buy more crap, rather than saying “Hey, there’s awful stuff going on in the world but these people are actually doing something. Want to get involved? What can we do together?”
I don’t feel that any of what mass media chucks out on a daily basis represents me.
I don’t give a crap about losing weight, getting older, whether men will find me attractive or how to cook sumptuous feasts whilst starving myself thin or what an endless parade of celebrities are doing with whom, which is what the marketing people think women of my age are obsessed with.
I do care an awful lot about this world in which we live – improving and safeguarding the state of the environment, fundamental human rights, giving everybody the chance to be safe, healthy and respected regardless of gender, race and sexual orientation – and I do believe that there are many, many thousands, if not millions of people who would love to do something to make that happen. We just don’t know how.
There’s the psychology behind these crowd-funding projects too…
When you back a project, you are actively supporting something, willing it to succeed and likely to tell friends in the hope they’ll get on board too. But more than that, it’s usually a finite, understandable, often physical or at least visual thing that you can fully grasp in a way that’s different to so many charitable campaigns that exist today. I think we could do so much more if we could identify key projects, like that ocean clean-up one, see it through being researched, built, working away and the results afterwards.
What now?
I don’t know how to make anything like this happen. I’m just an author and most things terrify me. There are dozens of flaws, potential pitfalls and it’s all far more complex than I present it here. I’d like to open a dialogue about it. I just want to feel that we are living in an age where people may be empowered by social media and use it as a force for fixing big problems, as well as somewhere to hang out with lovely people just as geeky and laugh at cats. Because that’s all great too.
What say you?
