In our last newsletter we shared what some New_ Public Advisory Board members were looking out for in 2022. On Twitter and in our partner newsletters, we’ve been sharing more responses from contributors. Let’s keep the #Lookoutfor2022 energy going. Tell us:
What one idea, issue, person, or event should people look out for in 2022?
You can keep your post related to social media and the internet, or go farther afield — we want to know what you’re thinking about in this upcoming year.
Alternatively, if you’re over the new year and ready to move on: I’d love to hear your thoughts about The Matrix Resurrections, specifically regarding what the movie has to say about social media.
We are assuming that you, like us, are looking for more flourishing places on the internet. We want this to be one of those places! Please treat others with openness, generosity, and respect.
I'm interested to see many new intellectual flowers blooming in trust & safety and moderation. It's time those folks came out of the shadows and got some agency over the future of the social web. [Edited!]
I appreciate the sentiment behind your vision @Josh. I like the idea and trust, safety and moderation being top of mind. I do, however, have a big problem with the "thousand flowers bloom" analogy. It's a horrible reference to the campaign that was launched by Mao when there was encouragement to openly express their opinions to the Communist Party. The aftermath of which discouraged dissent, resulted in persecution and loss of human rights. Millions of people died and the pattern of oppression amplified and a billion+ people continue to suffer. Please consider another term that is less egregious
I'm interested to see what happens with big tech regulation. It seems like the US is so far behind Europe in this regard and I wonder what (if anything) will be done here. - Joi
I'm looking for a deeper understanding about technology, dialogue, and democracy — and whether it's really possible to combine technology and dialogue in the name of a stronger democracy. I hope 2022 brings more opportunities for cross-discipline collaboration and putting these ideas in front people who are not already bought into them in some way.
I'm looking out for responses to the climate crisis which are more grounded in people's everyday lives and doing grassroots work for climate justice. I live in the UK and I was particularly disillusioned by COP26 which I think exposed how ineffective large institutions are being in solving the crisis - but I was inspired by the work of grassroots groups operating in the fringes, such as the #StopCambo campaign which has succeeded in halting the development of the new Cambo oilfield in the North Sea. I think it fits nicely with the themes of decentralisation which we've been discussing on New Public recently :)
Sure! The Cambo oilfield is a project to drill for new oil in the North Sea, off the North coast of Scotland. It was originally proposed by Shell and Siccar Point Energy who had applied to the UK government for a license to drill for 170 million barrels of oil. #StopCambo is a campaign to persuade the government to reject the application. In the end, Shell pulled out citing that the economic case for investment was too weak, and Siccar Point paused the project. The campaign (led by young people, mostly over Zoom atm) now focuses on making sure the project is cancelled for good, opposing the other 29 new oil and gas projects planned in the UK, persuading MPs to speak out against oil and gas projects, and raising awareness of the links between Tory politicians and the oil and gas industry. Lots to do for sure!
Hi Stella. To me, inspiration comes from those who are connected to Mother Earth. Give a search on Indigenous at earthsayers.org. I look for a balance of feminine and masculine energies in our leaders, particularly in terms of Global Warming. The warriors on the fringes are important as are collaborators and those who understand it is Mother Earth in charge, not us.
For example, there are many women in the UK that have inspired me over the years and I see get overlooked in the online conversations. There is Ellen MacArthur who has been successful at moving a circular economy into the center of transforming our economic system to Roz Savage who I met before she rowed from San Francisco to Hawaii as part of her UK environmental campaigning. Here she talks about redefining success. http://www.earthsayers.com/special_collection/Redefining_Success_by_Ocean_Rower_Roz_Savage/62/25143
Both are in the earthsayers.tv archive along with many other women leaders throughout the world. For example, Climate Justice and the Future of Humanitarian Action invited Mary Robinson, first woman President of Ireland and a member of The Elders, an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. As keynote speaker and a leader she has consistently emphasized climate justice, an "issue" often lost in conversations around climate change. Here's her speech, one of many. http://www.earthsayers.com/special_collection/Climate_Justice_and_the_Future_of_Humanitarian_Action_Hilton_Foundation/95/26061
Over the years I have come to listen to the voices of Indigenous Peoples and now see them being placed in charge of key government posts as is happening here in U.S. recently with the appointment of Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican) as Secretary of the Interior and up North the Canadian Prime Minister named Mary Simon (Inuk) as governor general, the first indigenous person to hold the post.
In short, I have found it takes pressure from above and below to effect change and things don't seem to work so well when it is one, but not the other. In this regard I have given you the voices of some of those who have given me inspiration and enable me to keep going when things are quite grim. As many leaders have said, "We are all in the same boat." Hope I have been helpful.
Maybe 2022 will be the year of democratic paradigm shift towards an open democracy - representative and participatory democracy without elections. I think this year we’ll see more experiments, and more ambitious experiments, to establish new democratic institutions like the ones described in the OECD paper “Eight Ways to Institutionalise Deliberative Democracy”. By involving people selected by civic lottery rather than election, these deliberative institutions shift power to everyday people by extending the privilege of representation to a much more diverse and representative group of people than those currently filling parliaments across the world. They alter the incentives around public decision making, as it’s not possible to be re-selected, there are no campaigns to run, no party line to toe, and it’s not possible to lobby the decision makers. By giving people time and access to experts, scientists, and stakeholders through facilitated deliberation, they create the conditions for people to grapple with complex policy problems, and to find common ground. Combined with participatory processes that can tap into a wider civic energy, I think, and also hope, that they’ll inspire others to go even further on a path towards open democracy. Perhaps this year the size of the minority who demands democratic system change grows towards being big enough to be a tipping point. Rather than yet another plaster for a broken system (changing electoral rules, stopping gerrymandering, increasing voter turnout, taking money out of politics, reinventing parties, etc.), a new democratic paradigm that tries to tackle the underlying structural issues with our democratic system will continue to emerge instead.
Wanted to bring Mark Trexler to the attention of the group. His Climate Web is an unbelievable source for climate and climate risk. He has a more positive take on the Paris Agreement based on what he is hearing. "Nobody thought that a country could be held liability for their emissions, nobody thought that a company could be held liable. Now we know they can be."
Exploration of a new Third Way to take action on climate and other changes in our changing times that require action at the scale of climate through Fiduciary Money.
The Third Way is a way of discovery.
Discovery begins with exploration.
Exploration begins as inquiry and continues through conversation.
Social media will be the way of conversation on the Third Way, in much the same way that print/broadcast media have been the way of conversation in the Second Way, the way of Corporate Money.
I'm interested to see many new intellectual flowers blooming in trust & safety and moderation. It's time those folks came out of the shadows and got some agency over the future of the social web. [Edited!]
I appreciate the sentiment behind your vision @Josh. I like the idea and trust, safety and moderation being top of mind. I do, however, have a big problem with the "thousand flowers bloom" analogy. It's a horrible reference to the campaign that was launched by Mao when there was encouragement to openly express their opinions to the Communist Party. The aftermath of which discouraged dissent, resulted in persecution and loss of human rights. Millions of people died and the pattern of oppression amplified and a billion+ people continue to suffer. Please consider another term that is less egregious
wow I definitely did not realize that this was a Mao quote. My mistake! I'll edit to something else.
I never thought you would post it if you had awareness of it. Not mistakes, simply learning journeys for all of us. Thanks Josh 🙂
I'm interested to see what happens with big tech regulation. It seems like the US is so far behind Europe in this regard and I wonder what (if anything) will be done here. - Joi
I'm looking for a deeper understanding about technology, dialogue, and democracy — and whether it's really possible to combine technology and dialogue in the name of a stronger democracy. I hope 2022 brings more opportunities for cross-discipline collaboration and putting these ideas in front people who are not already bought into them in some way.
I'm looking out for responses to the climate crisis which are more grounded in people's everyday lives and doing grassroots work for climate justice. I live in the UK and I was particularly disillusioned by COP26 which I think exposed how ineffective large institutions are being in solving the crisis - but I was inspired by the work of grassroots groups operating in the fringes, such as the #StopCambo campaign which has succeeded in halting the development of the new Cambo oilfield in the North Sea. I think it fits nicely with the themes of decentralisation which we've been discussing on New Public recently :)
I don't know the #StopCambo campaign, do you mind explaining it a bit? Sounds interesting! –Josh
Sure! The Cambo oilfield is a project to drill for new oil in the North Sea, off the North coast of Scotland. It was originally proposed by Shell and Siccar Point Energy who had applied to the UK government for a license to drill for 170 million barrels of oil. #StopCambo is a campaign to persuade the government to reject the application. In the end, Shell pulled out citing that the economic case for investment was too weak, and Siccar Point paused the project. The campaign (led by young people, mostly over Zoom atm) now focuses on making sure the project is cancelled for good, opposing the other 29 new oil and gas projects planned in the UK, persuading MPs to speak out against oil and gas projects, and raising awareness of the links between Tory politicians and the oil and gas industry. Lots to do for sure!
Hi Stella. To me, inspiration comes from those who are connected to Mother Earth. Give a search on Indigenous at earthsayers.org. I look for a balance of feminine and masculine energies in our leaders, particularly in terms of Global Warming. The warriors on the fringes are important as are collaborators and those who understand it is Mother Earth in charge, not us.
For example, there are many women in the UK that have inspired me over the years and I see get overlooked in the online conversations. There is Ellen MacArthur who has been successful at moving a circular economy into the center of transforming our economic system to Roz Savage who I met before she rowed from San Francisco to Hawaii as part of her UK environmental campaigning. Here she talks about redefining success. http://www.earthsayers.com/special_collection/Redefining_Success_by_Ocean_Rower_Roz_Savage/62/25143
Both are in the earthsayers.tv archive along with many other women leaders throughout the world. For example, Climate Justice and the Future of Humanitarian Action invited Mary Robinson, first woman President of Ireland and a member of The Elders, an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. As keynote speaker and a leader she has consistently emphasized climate justice, an "issue" often lost in conversations around climate change. Here's her speech, one of many. http://www.earthsayers.com/special_collection/Climate_Justice_and_the_Future_of_Humanitarian_Action_Hilton_Foundation/95/26061
Over the years I have come to listen to the voices of Indigenous Peoples and now see them being placed in charge of key government posts as is happening here in U.S. recently with the appointment of Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican) as Secretary of the Interior and up North the Canadian Prime Minister named Mary Simon (Inuk) as governor general, the first indigenous person to hold the post.
In short, I have found it takes pressure from above and below to effect change and things don't seem to work so well when it is one, but not the other. In this regard I have given you the voices of some of those who have given me inspiration and enable me to keep going when things are quite grim. As many leaders have said, "We are all in the same boat." Hope I have been helpful.
I’d like to get an updated second report from our Public Media Stack project out into the world. Anyone willing to help, let me know!
I still owe you an email about something more speculative Matt but just to say I'd be interested in helping out where I can
I suppose what I look forward most of all on a personal level is discovering a Web of what Paul Ford called "the next many little things".
https://www.wired.com/story/my-dream-of-the-great-unbundling/
Maybe 2022 will be the year of democratic paradigm shift towards an open democracy - representative and participatory democracy without elections. I think this year we’ll see more experiments, and more ambitious experiments, to establish new democratic institutions like the ones described in the OECD paper “Eight Ways to Institutionalise Deliberative Democracy”. By involving people selected by civic lottery rather than election, these deliberative institutions shift power to everyday people by extending the privilege of representation to a much more diverse and representative group of people than those currently filling parliaments across the world. They alter the incentives around public decision making, as it’s not possible to be re-selected, there are no campaigns to run, no party line to toe, and it’s not possible to lobby the decision makers. By giving people time and access to experts, scientists, and stakeholders through facilitated deliberation, they create the conditions for people to grapple with complex policy problems, and to find common ground. Combined with participatory processes that can tap into a wider civic energy, I think, and also hope, that they’ll inspire others to go even further on a path towards open democracy. Perhaps this year the size of the minority who demands democratic system change grows towards being big enough to be a tipping point. Rather than yet another plaster for a broken system (changing electoral rules, stopping gerrymandering, increasing voter turnout, taking money out of politics, reinventing parties, etc.), a new democratic paradigm that tries to tackle the underlying structural issues with our democratic system will continue to emerge instead.
Wanted to bring Mark Trexler to the attention of the group. His Climate Web is an unbelievable source for climate and climate risk. He has a more positive take on the Paris Agreement based on what he is hearing. "Nobody thought that a country could be held liability for their emissions, nobody thought that a company could be held liable. Now we know they can be."
Here is his post on LinkedIN. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/timely-climate-risk-webinar-mark-trexler/
Exploration of a new Third Way to take action on climate and other changes in our changing times that require action at the scale of climate through Fiduciary Money.
The Third Way is a way of discovery.
Discovery begins with exploration.
Exploration begins as inquiry and continues through conversation.
Social media will be the way of conversation on the Third Way, in much the same way that print/broadcast media have been the way of conversation in the Second Way, the way of Corporate Money.