Remember Arlo Guthrie?

Photo

What follows is a quote from Seth Godin's daily letter:


What happens when we organize?

Most power occurs because one side is better organized than the other. Labor is usually less well

organized than management, criminals are usually less well organized than the police and customers are

always less well organized than producers.

The internet promises to change that. It does it occasionally, sort of randomly. Sometimes, users will rise

up and complain (as they did at Facebook). Or voters will organize online and hurt (or help) a politician

or candidate.

Wikipedia works because so many contributors figured out how to self-organize into a group that

produced something far more useful than a traditionally organized document.

I think we're at the earliest possible beginning of the changes we're going to see because of this sort of

grass roots coordination.

Simple example: the Starbucks in Larchmont, NY keeps their thermostat at 64 degrees. And the stores

in Breckenridge, Colorado keep their doors wide open all winter. If you're raging mad about energy

waste, you could say something. And nothing would happen. But if customers organized and ten people

said something or a hundred people said something... boom, new rules.

The system doesn't know what to do with a movement.