Blamestorm
by Brian Reich | 14 Mar 2010, 1:09pm
I presented at SXSW in Austin, TX this morning as a part of the technology in government Future15 series. My talk was called ‘blamestorm.’
The basic premise of the talk was this: “Technology and the internet can help drive change in the world. We can solve real problems. Address complex issues. But its not happening. Not enough is getting done. Why not? Because most people don’t understand… and they are holding us back.”
And then I launched into my blame-fest:
- I blame the media for telling the wrong story — promoting what drives attention and delivers ratings, instead of helping people to understand and take action.
- I blame politicians for making promises — but not living up to them, and sending a message that politics is more important than public service.
- I blame government for passing laws and promoting policies that don’t do enough to help people, instead of connecting and serving the needs and interests of the community.
- I blame corporations for saying they care, but not changing (enough about) how they act — when they could serve their customers, contribute to the world, and make money.
- I blame nonnprofits for not doing enough to advance their causes - for mistaking awareness for action, and tools for answers, for being afraid to try new things, when they have the greatest potential to educate, engage, and mobilize people to action of anyone.
- I blame the people who fund projects, invest in ideas and promote new ventures for maintaining the status quo and sticking to old ways of doing things, instead of making it possible for new things to happen.
- I blame our elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and graduate schools for not teaching people differently — for not adapting fast enough to changing times, and preparing the next generation of leaders, innovators and activists.
- I blame you for not using your creativity, your passion, your technology prowess, your business acumen, your experience, your insights, your vast networks, your significant influence and your bold ideas to do more, to fix the problems that exist in the world, and address the challenges that continue to challenge our society.
- I blame myself for not thinking differently and using the channels and platforms that are available to me — and emerging every day — to promote new ideas, ask tough questions, challenge assumptions, ask for help, work differently, change my behavior… and more.
You can see/download the presentation I used to guide the talk here: http://www.slideshare.net/BrianReich/sxsw-presentation-blamestorm
My hope was to come across as a little angry, cynical, frustrated, disappointed, and maybe even sort of aggressive in challenging what people are doing, and how they can do more. I think I did.
I wanted to make people uncomfortable, have them squirm, have them feel compelled to do something they might not have been willing to do before. Jury is out on that one, but I have a good feeling.
I wanted to set a tone, since I was up first (with a group of very talented folks speaking after me - including Julie Germany (Yes, Mr. Lessig, we can change government), Will Hampton from Round Rock, TX (how nerds can foster democracy), Bev Godwin from GSA (about whether the government should tweet), and more), that challenged people to think differently about how technology, information, media, the internet and such can be used to do incredible things. I think I succeed, or at least hit a nerve.
Glad I made it to Austin and had the opportunity to participate. Let the blaming continue!
TAGS
: blamestorm sxsw
by Weekly Link Roundup (3.16.10) // The Cool People Care Nonprofit Resource Blog
[...] Brian Reich is on the forefront of innovative, change-related thinking. His SxSWi presentation spread the blame around. Check it out here. [...]
[...] FOR THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE [...]
[...] to incite real change and solve real problems. So – who got blamed today? Host Brian Reich let the following blamestorm fly: - I blame the media for telling the wrong story — promoting what drives attention and delivers [...]
[...] to incite real change and solve real problems. So – who got blamed today? Host Brian Reich let the following blamestorm fly: - I blame the media for telling the wrong story — promoting what drives attention and delivers [...]
Hi Brian,
Do you have video of your presentation?
by Brian Reich
Karl - no video yet. The session was recorded, audio and video I believe, by the SXSW folks, but it hasn’t been posted yet. I am anxious to see/hear how it went as well, so when I find it, I’ll let you know.
Brian,
I wasn’t at SXSW so thanks for posting this. This topic is of particular interest to me and I love the blame list. I firmly believe in the premise of your talk that the current state of technology and the internet has the power to change the world in ways never thought possible. With regards to it not happening yet, perhaps is it simply too early? The social technologies that can make this change a reality have only been around about 5 years or so, and even then it’s only been in the past 2-3 years where they’ve seen tremendous growth. Significant change in society takes much longer. The technology should and will speed up the typical rate of change but I don’t think we’ve reached that tipping point yet.
For people like you and me who work within this new medium everyday it’s easy to envision how it can make large scale change possible, but as you said in this post most people don’t understand. But I don’t think it’s simply that they don’t get the basic premise of internet driven change. Many people are still struggling with the basics of what this “social media thing” is they keep hearing about, let alone how Twitter can save the world. Even with millions of people on Facebook, YouTube, etc. it doesn’t mean they fully grasp the potential of this technology for making a difference in the world, and their own lives. To them it’s just another new toy.
With that said, this doesn’t mean we should just do nothing. We need to continue to think big. We shouldn’t be afraid to think about how we can tackle the largest problems out there using social technology - Reset, Shift, Change Everything — as in your presentation. We need to take a macro-approach to change. As Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics said in his blog, “…we can reinvent and rebuild just about every institution in society for an age of networked intelligence.” [ref:http://tinyurl.com/ye5822q] And his next book happens to be called “MACROWIKINOMICS: Rebooting Business and the World”.
But there is a lot of noise out there that makes it difficult to get this message through. The very decentralized nature of the internet, which makes it so easy to self-organize and form groups, also creates fragmented efforts with mixed messages that, while still doing good, causes too much noise for the average person. So the first step in all of this I believe is communications. Getting the word out about what “the Internets” can do to make things better for us all. Many like you and Mr. Tapscott are already doing this (so don’t blame yourself; by preaching this message you’re playing an important role at this point in time). But we need more voices and we need messages that are simple enough for everyone to understand. Communication is the first step to real change. Nothing will happen until we get this message to really stick.
As for me, I’ll add myself to the blame list too, because when I talk to people about this topic I know I don’t do a good enough job of explaining it (despite doing communications for a living), plus I need to also put a little more action behind my words, and change my behavior as well.
The more often and the better we communicate about this topic, the more progress we’ll make. So I guess this was a long winded way of saying keep up the good work and continue to communicate, communicate, communicate!