Aesthetic Consumerism, Visual Culture & the Social Web

Last month, the Oxford Dictionary Online invited the words "buzzworthy" and "selfie" "off the street and into their database," recognizing the permanence of our cultural obsession with the fleeting. We want to talk about what everyone else is talking about right now, but we rarely dig deep to find out what's really going on. When traveling or celebrating, rather than living in the moment and finding our flow, we capture a two-dimensional representation of the present to present to others.

The always brilliant Maria Popova points out that Susan Sontag’s thoughts on photography (published in 1977) help shed light on the "psychology and social dynamics of visual culture online."

We fill our social media timelines with images, as if to prove that our biological timelines — our very lives — are filled with notable moments, which also remind us that they are all inevitably fleeting towards the end point of that timeline: mortality itself. And so the photographic image becomes an affirmation of our very existence, one whose power is invariably addictive:

Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted.

[…]

It would not be wrong to speak of people having a compulsion to photograph: to turn experience itself into a way of seeing. Ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it, and participating in a public event comes more and more to be equivalent to looking at it in photographed form. That most logical of nineteenth-century aesthetes, Mallarmé, said that everything in the world exists in order to end in a book. Today everything exists to end in a photograph.

I'm not entirely comfortable with Sontag's assertions about the violence of photography, but it is incredible how relevant her words are today, more than thirty years later. Now, more than ever, photographs seem to have become "a way of certifying experience," as well as "a way of refusing it — by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir."

After all that, don't you want to follow me on Instagram?

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

“​When you’ve got interest, then you have education.” ”

— Arthur C. Clarke​

Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Newcastle and originator of the Hole in the Wall project, walks us through the program's history.

"The whole point of the   Hole in the Wall project was to encourage children to think beyond monetary   gain and want to change the world, not simply become rich," Mitra told the Telegraph a few years ago.

In this TED talk, Mitra shares wonderful anecdotes about children and the discovery process and introduces the concept of his Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs), designed to provide "a healthy mixture of   competition and collaboration."

Technology, global community, independent thinking, and creative problem-solving? Sounds like the kind of hands-on education this generation needs.

Edupreneurs in Africa & Asia

On CNBCAfrica's Beyond Markets, Dr. Pauline Dixon talks about edupreneurs and the schools which are growing organically in under-served areas in slums and remote rural areas in some of the poorest regions in the world. Her research has taken her to India, China, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Sierra Leone where she is gathering stories of parents and communities who are investing in their children's future.

Pauline's new book is International Aid and Private Schools for thte Poor: Smiles, Miracles and Markets.

Customer Service Still King

Inc. offers 10 Reasons Customers Will Pay More

Chief among them are reasons of convenience (lower transaction costs & quicker turnaround). In the world of overnight delivery, how do you think you'll come out ahead with a "please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery" disclaimer?

Also important to the customer is signaling (the status-symbol effect), but there are longer term considerations. If you promise less work in the long run, the customer will choose your product. Forget about the rainbow of colors, low-maintenance functionality is how Apple really retains so many customers, at least on the Mac front.  

And here's why branding is still key:

Customers are human and humans prefer doing business with their friends.  That's one good reason that developing rapport is so crucial in customer relationships; it provides a buffer that keeps the competition at pay.

If a customer knows your story -- and your mission! -- she'll feel like she knows you. This is how you earn brand loyalty.

The Next Wireless Revolution: Electricity

For many of us in the wired world, going off the grid is a choice, perhaps even a luxury. Reading by candlelight is romantic and a "real vacation" is defined less by how far we have traveled and more by whether or not we are unplugged. We take global connectivity for granted and seek to escape it when we need to relax.

"Going off-grid", in many ways, has become the great American getaway, but when it comes to global access, we are still the fortunate few. In Africa, the grid is growing more slowly than the population. As Tina Rosenberg points out today on the New York Times Opinionator, "around the world, billions of people are off-grid by necessity: they live without wired electricity, piped gas and water, or sewers."

Tech innovators focus may not be working to solve the problems of the rural poor, but they are serving their needs by meeting our desires. The more efficient laptop batteries which afford us the luxury of working poolside mean reliable, affordable energy for the rural poor. 

We've seen the enormous impact of off-grid communication. Mobile phones haven't just connected families and friends, they've provided financial solutions and even helped mitigate the spread of AIDS. Imagine what off-grid power can do.

Power brings more than consumption. It brings safety: people can walk at night, women no longer have to range so far to gather wood for cooking. It brings education: children can study after dark. It brings prosperity: stores can stay open longer. Producers can get the tools they need to produce more — a milk-chiller for dairy farmers, pumps to irrigate crops.

While there are many NGOs facilitating the spread of off-grid power in the developing world, for-profit ventures have had less success. This isn't for lack of entrepreneurs, effort, or even the lack of viable business models. As people on the ground seek investors, they face challenges because "bankers are quite conservative and they are not comfortable in these markets." Given political corruption and the general lack of stable institutions in most impoverished regions, the hesitation of investors and lenders is understandable.

Rosenberg outlines multiple ways governments. multilateral institutions, and public-private partnerships can help attract investors, and you can read the full article here. If you're interested in this growing sector, FreeMovement is fortunate to have friends doing good work in this realm. Among them are the folks at SolarAid, an international charity combating poverty and climate change.

SolarAid understands the importance of selling, rather than giving away, solar lights. To attract attention to their products, their solar roller hosts movie nights in rural communities, demonstrating the benefits of solar power. After the presentation, they pitch their product: affordable, portable solar lights. As Solar author and SolarAid supporter Ian McEwan says, getting light into homes is "an extraordinary leap for civilization," transforming humankind's fate.

SolarAid's not-for-profit trading arm, SunnyMoney, features on a February 2013 episode of BBC Newsnight. The programme explores how the solar lights that we sell in rural Africa are effectively saving money and improving education for households. Well done to all SunnyMoney folk involved. Great seeing Project Manager Victor Koyier and Project Officer, Hudson Mungafu in action.

The Path out of Poverty

Last week, the Ashoka blog for social change at Forbes, wrote about The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a Harlem-based organization dedicated to helping kids by strengthening community ties, and teaching critical thinking, conflict resolution, and leadership skills. Creative expression and individual empowerment? What's not to like?

Summer of Fire

Fire is an important part of nature. Knowing when and how to fight forest fires can be difficult. The New York Times Retro Report video series takes a look at the Yellowstone fire of 1988 and US fire policy. Even if you grew up in fire country and understand why it's vital to let some fires burn, this video is worth ten minutes of your time.

Mapping Entrepreneurs

There's some interesting personality research these days exploring the traits which make us good leaders or successful entrepreneurs. Staffan's Personality blog explores what we assume makes a good entrepreneur on a state-by-state basis.

The map above shows us where we are more likely to meet entrepreneurs, based on higher concentrations of extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness, and lower concentrations of agreeableness and neuroticism.

The map below shows us the extent to which people are actually engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

Assuming the personality research is correct, the real story these maps could tell is one of policy impacts. As Staffan points out, these maps are fairly crude representations of some pretty raw data.  We probably have a good understanding of what legal and economic conditions foster the right environment for successful new business ventures, but there is still much work to be done to understand what it takes to make a successful entrepreneur -- other than hard work and determination.

Map of entrepreneurial activity. The darker the state, the more startups and self-employed. Also from Staffan's Personality Blog.

the best leaders are usually humble

Are women more likely to adopt more effective leadership strategies than men? This post at the HBR blog discusses leadership qualities and suggests that women are more likely to "approach problem-solving in a more flexible and creative way."

The analysis of gender differences is interesting, but the key finding, in my mind, is this:

Arrogance and overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent — the ability to build and maintain high-performing teams, and to inspire followers to set aside their selfish agendas in order to work for the common interest of the group. Indeed, whether in spots, politics or business, the best leaders are usually humble.

Learning How to FIsh

Fishers like Jesus Sucajel from Hambongan Island, Inabanga, Philippines, do not need charts and statistics to validate the depletion of marine resources. He sees it in diminishing daily catches, lost income and increases in illegal fishing methods like those using dynamite and cyanide.
(from the Rare Blog)

The UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy has just published an excellent overview of various approaches to fisheries management. The authors, Jonathan Adler and Nathaniel Stewart, look at various top-down regulatory approaches to fisheries protection, many of which have failed. They also examine the results of various catch share approaches to fishery management, concluding that such property-based solutions generally lead to better resource management.

Read the paper to better understand the importance of aligning economic and ecological incentives, and explore ways that long-term security of fishing rights can help prevent overfishing and promote ecological stewardship.

it all started with catch share

When catch shares were first into place, California's fishermen were limited to certain numbers of certain species and would end up throwing perfectly good fish overboard, logging it as dead bycatch in order to avoid punitive fines. Now, the catch-share program has aligned incentives, allowing fishermen to trade species they've already caught. These tradeable quotas allow fishermen to avoid punitive fines, thereby ensuring less waste in terms of biomass.

To complement the shift in policy, one fisherman has designed new trawling equipment to further minimize the environmental impact of his trade. Giuseppe Pennisi has designed light-trawl gear which floats just above the sea floor, rather than dragging across the bottom. Thanks to the reduced drag, this new method reduces fuel costs while preserving bottom-dwelling fauna.

Read more about it at the Monterey County Weekly. 

Seafood Shares

Community Seafood now has Sunday pickups at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.

This community-supported fishery (CSF) out of Santa Barbara is modeled after community-supported agricultural programs (CSAs). The founder is a Bren School alum who launched her business with a group of local fishermen and help from a UCSB Coastal Fund. Their goal is help seafood harvested in the Santa Barbara channel stay in Santa Barbara. Before they got started, most folks in Santa Barbara were buying seafood caught elsewhere and most Santa Barbara-based fishermen had a 90% exportation rate. Now, the fishermen make more money and folks in Santa Barbara (and now Santa Monica) have more direct access to locally harvested fish.

I'm really excited to join the CSF. It's a great way to support the people earning their livelihoods in the waters around California's Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and I'm eager to see communities benefit from the increased biodiversity and ecosystem health promised by MPAs.

I'm always interested in an empirical approach to understanding where my food comes from. I think tracking your food back to the source is an excellent way to learn about geography,  ecology, and agriculture. The "eat local" movement has been really interesting to watch over the years and it has helped bolster various groups of growers and producers as well as an awareness of agricultural, environmental, and economic issues, which is great.

While people in colder climates may not be able to enjoy a varied diet of fresh foods and eat local, I'm glad to be in Mediterranean climate where I have an abundance of fresh, local options available to me year round. Of course, my coffee always comes from farther afield. This isn't the tropics.

Pictured above: This is not a CSF dinner, but it is a Channel Islands dinner. You're looking at grouper & sand dabs grilled and served on a bed of grilled green tomatoes drizzled with bourbon-basil butter.