Using new technologies for the public good

In general, I am a late adopter of technology.  This partly results from having lived in a mud hut during the smartphone explosion and returning after three and a half years abroad to a faster-paced America.  However, being in a graduate program that relies so heavily on virtual communication, I’ve adopted some technologies…with a questioning eye.

Technology can be a source for positive social and environmental innovation, but we must remember that the sleek, energy-efficient designs we employ in products are not the only cost to society and the environment.  Even the clouds have a carbon footprint, sometimes bigger than we think.

When employing technology to solve problems, we must ask ourselves: why should this technology exist?  Who will benefit?  Who will lose?  Is the tradeoff worth it, and why should we care?

In my final quarter of school, my entrepreneurship team is working on a business model to facilitate finding the safest bike routes and ultimately leverage better infrastructure for human-powered transport.  We are beginning our exploration by asking our customers what they care about when riding.  Why are safer roads for bikes and pedestrians essential for strong, healthy communities?

Please fill out our survey here.

What happens when the moderates leave?

Hello readers,

You have not heard from me in a while because I’ve been finishing up my penultimate quarter at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, getting my MBA in Sustainable Business.  Only three months and two days to go.

In this column I often write about bridge builders, individuals and organizations who bring diverse parties around the same table.  Last week, something happened that leaves me greatly concerned for our future: Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine decided to step down.  Her move represents a growing trend in moderates on both sides of the aisle bowing out to the increased polarization in the US Congress.   When those with the most extreme opinions are the only ones staying at the table, how can we possibly have constructive dialogue?

I understand Senator Snowe’s reasons, and I respect them.  I hope that even outside the Senate Chambers, she uses her influence to raise the level of conversation around issues that matter for the economic health of the US, not topics geared at politicking for votes, such as the denial of birth control for women — formulated and driven by a panel not including a single woman.  I ask: why is this even being discussed, and why were no women included?  Are we going backwards on Civil Rights?

How did we get here, and how do we get out?  As citizens, it is our duty to send messages to those we elect into office that we want them to help steer us towards a brighter economic future, not argue across the aisle about whose rights are more important.  We also have a duty to take matters into our own hands when our elected officials lose the path.

How can we each build bridges in our own communities and across diverse boundaries, and how can we tell Congress that the time for burning bridges has passed?  For if the burning continues, there will be nothing left to be proud to call America.

Valentine’s Day is for Love, Love is essential for Community

The blog Cacao for a Cause posted today about purchasing a chocolate that expresses the authenticity of your love.  High quality, sustainable chocolate offers a story about community.  Each bar of chocolate produced and distributed with the livelihood of its source community in mind sends a message to your loved one that you care about them and about the world in which you live.  Be with your loved ones this holiday, and remember we are all part of a larger global society.

Life in one Melting Bite

~ Mike Greenberg, February 2012

Examine the sheen, how it reflects light,
your reflection in a bar of heaven.

Then break off a piece, split it in half,
How does it split?
Cleanly, crisply, with a sharp crack?
or mushy, silently, like wax?

Sniff the aroma, the cacao of a plantation,
the scent of workers,
the village of its creation.

I smell berries and wood,
smoke from fires, aromatic symphony in a
tiny
bar.

Then chew, only a little,
let the bar melt.
Stop chewing now or you’ll miss
half the texture,
devouring the piece in three bites.

Melting, melting, dark chocolate goodness,
no need for adulteration by milk.

Taste the labor of nature and humans,
a compact of development,
creating a beautiful substance, not a vice
(that’s Hershey’s domain).

Savor the melting bar,
then rinse and try another.

What’s in a bar?
Everything.
Taste place and purpose,
A combination of elements,
Natural, for our senses.

Life in one melting bite.

Stories, stories everywhere

This Fulani and his camel have a story to tell.

How many stories have you heard today?  How many this week?  Did you lose count?  Everything these days seems to be filled to the brim with stories.  Some of these stories are direct narratives, and others are non-linear snapshots.  A collage of people, emotions, senses, and moments.  We persuade through stories, as evidenced in this PsyBlog (thank you to Christopher Allen for sharing).

When we tell with numbers or other forms of data, even if we make the data talk, people rarely experience a deep response.  A story creates a point of reference, either through a sympathetic character or setting or through something or someone completely foreign but deeply interesting.  Stories embody that which makes life worth living.

So, what do stories have to do with creating compassionate communities or building bridges to rich diversity?  Everything.  Who are the people you pass in your everyday comings and goings?  Who are your neighbors?  What do they expect from you and from each other?  A stronger fabric of stories leads to a stronger community, for we cannot feel empathy about that which we do not see and do not understand.

I am currently reading a book, The Laws of Simplicity, by John Maeda.  Stories can be simple or complex, and often we desire both.  A complex story appeals to our desire for something to chew on, something to stir up the pot and stimulate our nerve endings.  A simple story with a powerful message, however, is equally good as a stimulant.

In this TED talk about the ideas in the book, John Maeda weaves a kind of meta-narrative.  Very little in our lives these days is simple, yet the simple stuff provides much joy.

Have a Dream, Be a Citizen

BRAC Community Meeting, Bangladesh. http://www.flickr.com/photos/knobil/66832643/ Creative Commons 2.0: Mark Knobil, 2/11/05. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

As Martin Luther King Jr day 2012 comes to a close, I’m reminded to think of this “holiday” as a day on, not a day off.  Dr. King’s message to all of us resonates in how we come together over community issues and recognize our part.  Inequality is toxic; the more we act to keep differences divided, the further we remove ourselves from the possibilities of true growth.  One student in my MBA program said this past weekend that America is not a melting pot.  Rather, it is a salad of rich colors and textures.  We all belong in this salad of diversity, and we all have a role to play.

Community activism spokesperson, Paul Rogat Loeb writes in Soul of a Citizen about Rosa Parks’ story:

Parks’s story also reminds us that as we do tackle common problems, we can discover and develop strengths and passions we never knew we had.  We can begin to reconnect with our fellow human beings, with our wisest and most humane instincts, and with the core of who we are, which we call our soul. – p. 3

How true.  To push away diversity is to eliminate the soul of a community.  In my travels, the tightest and strongest communities, the ones with a palpable heartbeat, are the ones that recognize life as a messy business.  To be alive is to be filled with wonder at the awesome spectrum of fellow citizens we see everyday.

To serve others as a citizen is to have a soul.

To serve only one’s own interests is to discard the web of life and to be dreamless.

I have a dream that everyone digs deep to find their inner citizen who serves, and by serving, everyone plays their part in the resurrection of a community’s soul.

Happy MLK day, with much love and peace.

Raising the level of conversation in 2012

Working Together to Remove Unwanted Invasive Vines, Saw Mill River Parkway, Hastings-on-Hudson NY, 2005 "Free-A-Tree" by Groundwork Hudson Valley

As we begin 2012, a presidential election year, I am reminded of eight years ago when I worked as a field organizer in three rural counties in Maine.  Organizing the local committees to think nationally while acting locally required strong diplomatic skills, and in many ways, communicating between multiple stakeholders to convene around one key objective involved finding the bridge across divergent view points and rallying behind clear solutions, not rhetoric.  A quick glance across the political blogosphere today unveils more rhetoric than solutions, and more character killing than a deep discovery of all the possibilities open to us. There is hope, however, in the solutions-offering writers, like this guest opinion piece in the Seattle Times, where Jamie P. Merisotis discusses opportunities for helping Washington state residents get college degrees.

Furthermore, through the innovation of companies like Lucky Ant and the enabling of crowdfunding, 2012 presents a possibility for new start-ups to become reality. 

My hope and dream is that 2012 is a year of bridges and a year of opportunities.  Arguing policy and criticizing character are both toxic practices.  We should expect more from each other, for the architecture of the future lies within us individually and within our communities.

Year’s End: Seeing Through a Different Lens

Tonkossare, Niger. "Family Wisdom"

The final week of December is a time of paradox.  As a student, it is my break time, a time to read books not related to school (I’m resisting the temptation to crack open texts for the new quarter).  This is a week to curl up with a hot beverage and enjoy the solitude of long dark wintry nights, remembering to be thankful for the shelter above your head if you have one.  It is a time for thinking about those with no shelter from the storm and ask yourself, how can I be a contribution for a more equitable society?  In philanthropy, it is a time to wrap up a year of donations with a final push (I counted 6 charitable giving emails in my inbox just today).  Time to finish the year strong, prepare new resolutions, break down 2011 calendars and replace with 2012.  It is a time for family and a time for reaching out to the community.  Year end is prime time for relaxation but not laziness; there’s still much work to do.

A new year is defined by both the continuation of traditions and the commencement of new practices.  This coming January 13th will mark six years since I arrived in Niger for the first time, and nine short months from that point I will have been back on American soil as long as I had been away.  We’re all changing, slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, seeing the world slightly differently each season.

How can we alter our lens to see something ordinary in an extraordinary light?  How can we look to our elders and our youth for the next big solution?  Good Magazine, in its 30 Days of Good column on microphilanthropy this month offers the wisdom of children, creative solutions from creative young minds on a shoestring budget.

This form of philanthropy is not about the size of the account or the number of zeros on the check; it’s about community and engaging our youth to be the artists of future ideas.

Happy New Year, fellow citizens of the world.