New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You

by Jeremy Heimans

THE BIG IMPLICATIONS OF NEW POWER FUNDING

Implication #1: More “bosses” do not equal better governance

other than sit

and hope, or dispatch an irritated tweet, no single backer can do much about it.

More bosses do not, in fact, mean more or bet...

it is very tough to mobilize a Citizenry of low-stakes investors to question a commitment for whi...

A conspiracy of optimism is hard...

The irony here is clear.

These almost-a-million bosses ended up imposing less oversight than the old power construct of a handful of key financial backers with a lot on the line;

The dark side of new power funding is that often, in our enthusiasm to be part of something, we don’t spend enough time considering the nature and terms of that participation.

We grasp for what we might get, and fail to grasp what we might give up.

For better and worse, regulators in some countries are already moving in to protect backers from unscru...

Implication #2: Viral ≠ vital

the aggregate picture that emerges from the many cases of new power funding is more complicated.

Taxes are the antithesis of crowdfunding:

we get almost no agency in deciding how funds are spent (other than a vote every few years to pick the government that makes those decisions); we get no “feedback loops” that give us that visceral, rewarding sense of having been part of building something; we have no personal connection to an individual story or challenge.

It’s no surprise, given the deeply unrewarding “user experience” of being a taxpayer, that people feel increasingly skept...

But let’s imagine that a town did crowd-fund its infrastructure spending, rather than...

mechanism of taxpayer-funded ...

Chances are that the most interesting public infrastructure projects with the best stories would attract...

Environmentalists have known this slightly depressing fact for years.

“charismatic megafauna.”

“Save the panda bear” will always beat presenting the strategic plan to conserve the mountainous regions in central China where pandas live.

GoFundMe has become the biggest crowdfunding site in the United States in large part because it has become a way for people in distress to raise money for their own basic health care, something that is state-provided in many other countries.

Crowdfunding may also act to reinforce privilege.

For every true “outsider” story in this new, disaggregated world,

we often see the already-powerful proving to be the most capable of whipping up the support of the crowd.

Though there is no question that crowdfunding has opened access greatly for people to run their own initiatives and put them to market, it currently lacks any mechanism to ensure that its b...

Fans like Nehkara have already seen real returns on their investments,

paid to them in the currency of community ties and opportunities to contribute and imagine.

The whole venture had been what we call

“crowd-jacked,”

separated from its original intent through the whi...

if you ask “superficial, low-stakes questions” you’ll get a different response than you might on weightier topics.

NERC didn’t have an entirely sincere interest in the crowd’s opinion.

It liked the idea of the public suggesting something, as long as the something was suitably august. It didn’t have any kind of trusted community it could count on to participate earnestly. Nor did it have a long-term (or even a short-term) plan to meaningfully engage the crowd it attracted. And as soon as the naming project started going in a direction the executives didn’t like, they defaulted to old power and imposed the

outcome they ...

it is fairer to say that science trivialized the internet.

But NERC’s unforgivable sin was in abandoning Boaty at precisely the moment it should have embraced her.

The agency had attracted hundreds of thousands of people—and much of the mainstream media—all of whom now had a vested interest in Boaty.

Had it leaned in to all that engagement, and proudly smashed the champagne bottle on the hull of Boaty McBoatface, it could have built a community tha...

You might imagine a generation of Brits following B...

NERC had an admirable impulse when it began this misadventure. Like many old power organizations, it sensed a need to engage with a bigger community and open up to the world.

But, also like many old power organizations, it didn’t go about this in quite the right way.

For old power organizations wishing to move into the new power world beyond the occas...

there are four fundamental issues to consider as they set out...

Strategy:

The first question to consider is whether new power really fits with your strategy.

What problem are you trying to solve that your old power repertoire can’t handle? What opportunity exists in the energy of the crowd that could add real value for your efforts? What new innovations might come from ...

The crowd cannot be seen as an asset to be strip-mined: any new power strategy needs to consider what’s really in it for the people you want to engage with.