Citizen Brand

Life's biggest question answered

Kudos to Tom Asacker for simplifying how to find happiness in our lives!

The wealth and health of nations

Courtesy of Gapminder and Jack Yan. An enlightening and educational look at 200 years of history. What can we learn from this?

A walk on the beach

There is so much change and disruption going on in the world that I thought it was time to think about a new look here at Citizen Brand.  This blog is approaching three years old which is probably some sort of accomplishment, though I doubt it will result in a red carpet appearance.

I hope to be a bit more active than I have and the first step was to think about a new look.  Now that I have found one I think fits, I just have to observe and write a little more often.  Thanks for reading Citizen Brand and if you have any comments or suggestions, please fire away.

Meanwhile, I'm going to mosey on down to the beach in my head and take a walk.

To bailout or not to bailout

A quick post tonight.  As a lifelong communicator, I have a simple question to ask.  Was the "bailout bill" the best name to call this piece of legislation that failed to pass the House today?  I mean, seriously, how easy is it for anyone to vote for something called a "bailout bill?"

Congress proved all of its detractors right today.  That was the most mishandled, bungled strategy in the history of mishandled, bungled strategies.  And everyone is to blame.  Leaders on both sides failed to make sure they had the votes to secure passage of the poorly named legislation.  Or perhaps, neither side leveled with each other of what their true agendas were heading into the vote.

The need for change in Washington just solidified today.

Green is good

Read "The Power of Green" by Thomas Friedman in Sunday's New York Times Magazine.  Friedman says the green movement not only has gone mainstream, but it represents the future platform for a "new, unifying political movement" in the United States.  He says this movement is necessary to address the three major issues all Americans now face: "jobs, temperature and terrorism."

"How do our kids compete in a flatter world? How do they thrive in a warmer world? How do they survive in a more dangerous world? Those are, in a nutshell, the big questions facing America at the dawn of the 21st century. But these problems are so large in scale that they can only be effectively addressed by an America with 50 green states — not an America divided between red and blue states."

Change is in the air.

Mounting Evidence

The rest of the world is waking up to the facts.  We are doing harm to this planet that we live on.  The question is have we gone beyond a tipping point of no return.

Audeamus points us to a report released today by the British government written by a respected economist.  It states the cost of beginning the process to turn the tide of global warming now underway will be one percent of global wealth - if we begin today.

The cost of waiting, according to Sir Nicholas Stern - formerly the chief economist at the World Bank - will be anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of all global wealth.  Read this article at Forbes.com.

Global warming is a sad example of an issue that has been clouded by political rhetoric instead of being made clear through reasoned research and science.  This is not a partisan political issue.  But it is clearly a vital economic issue that is already having an impact.  And as this report points out, the worst is on the horizon unless we put our best minds to work to solve it.

The technology exists.  The ideas are abundant.  The question now is do we have the will to put politics on the shelf and apply ourselves to identifying the extent of this problem and developing a plan to fix it.

We all can make small contributions toward a solution.  Let's all make an effort.  It is going to require the world working together to solve this one.  Can we do it?

Front Porches vs. Backyard Decks

It has been a full day of ideas and discussion at the first annual Public Innovators Summit.  The event is sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company along with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation.  Leaders representing government, nonprofit, corporate and media sectors have come together this weekend in the mountains of Utah to figure out how to generate innovative thinking to address societal challenges.  There is a consensus that the private sector celebrates and rewards innovation and that a similar approach is needed if we are to improve education, health care and the general standard of living for many people who are in need.

A common theme of our discussions is how to create a greater sense of community overall.  We have talked at length how technology can be both a hurdle to community development as well as a great generator of communities.  Not surprisingly, this group understands the power of technology and many ideas emerged about how to leverage technology to help non profits grow stronger both financially as well as reputationally.

My favorite analogy of the day came from Art Dunning, Vice President of the University of Georgia in Athens.  He talked about how there was a greater sense of community in the days when most homes had front porches.  Sitting on the front porch guaranteed interaction with your neighbors or anyone else who might be happening by.  People who knew each other and communicated regularly were more likely to be interested in each other and watch out for each other.

Art said all that changed as people moved to the suburbs and replaced the porch on the front of the house with a deck in the backyard.  The social center of the house moved from the public arena at the front of the house to the privacy of the backyard.  It became invitation only.  Neighbors were redefined not as people who you knew but as people who lived on the same street as you.

I thought this was a simple and powerful observation.  What we need to do is figure out what the front porches of the future are going to be to help us reconnect with each other.

Public Innovators Summit

I'm just outside Midway, Utah at the Zermatt Resort (feel sorry for me?) to attend the first annual Public Innovators Summit sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company.  The Summit is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The list of attendees represents a cross section of leaders in business, government, education and non profit organizations.  The driving force behind the Summit is Richard Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute.  You can easily understand the reason for this Summit when you understand the Institute's mission.  This is from their website.

Rich Harwood founded the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation to help people imagine and act for the public good. For almost 20 years, he and his colleagues have been evolving both the ideas and the practical approaches for changing the negative conditions in society that too often divide people and keep them from making progress in their neighborhoods, communities, and the nation as a whole.

At The Harwood Institute, we seek nothing less than to spark fundamental change in American public life - so that people can tap their own potential to make a difference and join together to build a common future. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works within a long tradition of small, catalytic, and public-spirited organizations in American history that have sought to improve public life and politics.

We believe there is enormous potential to unleash in America if we can pursue an alternate path for ourselves, our communities, and this nation.

What attracted me to this Summit and my desire to be selected as a participant is part personal and part professional.  One of the drivers of our company is to help our clients get on the path to becoming what we call Citizen Brands.  We believe it is now a must for corporations to be engaged in helping to improve society, not just sell their products and services.  That is my professional reason for being here.

On a personal note, I love the idea of spending a couple of days engaging with other people who share a common interest of figuring out how to make a difference in the world and to help convince others to do the same thing.  Not to mention, I'm back in the mountains for a couple of days.

I look forward to sharing some of the discussions that come out of the Summit.

Order has been restored

We have taken a lot of heat here in Kansas because of six people who have controlled the State Board of Education the past few years.  Their actions have included removing the teaching of evolution in the schools and the teaching of abstinence as the sole method of sex education. 

Kansas voters took care of this problem yesterday.  Read more in the Lawrence Journal World and the Kansas City Star.

Kansas has always been such a progressive state in so many ways and yet our reputation in the past few years has been denigrated because of a handful of individuals.  This is one of those moments that restores your faith in our electoral process.

Times they are a changin'

Need evidence change is in the air?

Jeff Jarvis recently told us that television and YouTube are going in opposite directions, viewership wise.

Steve Rubel pointed us to an Associated Press story saying e-mail is officially old school already.  Consider this quote from the article: 

“In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail,” says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, Calif. She became addicted to instant messaging in college, where many students are logged on 24/7."

But wait a minute, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Back at YouTube, as Adrants points out, the days of no control by the 'Tube may be on the wain.  Freedom of the airwaves can only last so long I guess.

Half lives are getting shorter for everything it would appear.

Anyone want a used Blackberry?