You have probably heard about the "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" madness that is sweeping across the U.S., the U.K. and Asia. The bag is designed by British bag designer Anya Hindmarch to benefit the U.K. non-profit, We Are What We Do. The mission of the bag is curb shoppers from using plastic by offering a nice stylish alternative.

As a collaboration between a cause and a culture maker this is a good one: witty message, useful product and easy action. After a few celebrities were spotted with the $15 tote it quickly became the next "IT" bag. Unfortunately its popularity has made it fodder for backlash and criticism. Critics are calling into question the bag having been made in China and the environmental impact of production and shipping. I watched a segment on the news the other day as Whole Foods clerks placed the tote bag, already wrapped in plastic, into a double bagged plastic Whole Foods bag. And then of course there the slew of sarcastic slogan bags popping up on the market in response to the craziness of the popularity.

Again, it is a good example of how a cause and a artist can come together to produce a great looking product but hopefully once the craziness dies down the real purpose will be remembered: we are what we do and this world can definitely use a lot less plastic bags.

Folks have been asking me to give the studies I've mentioned in my previous post. Here they are mentioned throughout this blog, but condensed here for your pleasure:

++ A study published a few months ago in California called "California Dreamers" found that music + fashion was just behind race/ethnicity in identity formation for young people.

++ Another study published last year by the Intelligence Group called "The Cassandra Report: The Vital Stats Issues" (May 2006) asked young people what they are most addicted to. Music & sex tied.

++ Recording Industry Association of America that tell us young people under 30 constituted 42% of record sales, continuing their trend to be the top consumers of music.

Enjoy!

As part of the work we do with musicians, I was featured in a piece on today's
BBC's the World to discuss the impact of Amnesty's Save Darfur Imagine Benefit CD,and of music + activism in general. My main points were:

1.) These efforts are a beginning. They are not intended to be the silver bullet or the end point, but a stop along the way in learning how to do things better.
2.) Can rock stars change the world? They have a role to play in bringing us together and inspiring us. But people make change.
3.) Music and other cultural means of expression are an important part of how young people engage in social change. The role of music in young people’s lives cannot be overstated. (This point didn't make it in the piece, unfortunately.)

You can check it out here. Feel free to leave your thoughts here, or on the BBC discussion page.

A friend forwarded me a recent article from the NY Times on a man named Dr. Wulf, an engineer and entrepreneur, who is "determined to reinspire a culture of innovation" in America. My friend actually read a stand-out quote to me over the phone:

"The United States has already ceded its dominance of mass production manufacturing to low-wage countries, and unless something is done the nations will lose its chance for a comeback in what he calls the coming age of mass customization."

Dr. Wulf goes on to express his concern that America is not preparing itself to become the go-to place for the knowledge-intensive manufacturing needed for "mass customization", and therefore missing the opportunity to become the "greatest manufacturing country in the world".

After reading and re-reading the article, and particularly this sentence, it dawned on me that much of the work that our company and colleagues do touches on, perhaps specializes in, this customization.

We've been receiving a flurry of articles, mostly damning Live Earth, from relatives, friends and colleagues. This one states that Live Earth's TV viewership was ridiculously low. Here is the response that I sent to my colleague who forwarded it to me:

Yeah, Live Earth sucked on TV-viewership, but that is an incredibly "last century" metric anyway. In my opinion this is more a commentary on how people engage than what they engage in. The concerts blew the roof off of watching via the internet--9 million viewers!

Besides, if I was organizing the events (and how thankful I was to not be), I would have pushed people to the Internet so that they interact with my message, call to action, etc. Can't really do that so good via television.

To throw a bit of criticism in, the Live Earth website doesn't make it easy to sign up...and I've not received much in the way of follow-up since.

Ultimately, whether or not Live Earth succeeds remains to be seen. They did a lot of stuff wrong, and they did a lot of stuff right.

Nonprofits need to have more of a public face. We've been intrigued with 826 Valencia's use of storefronts. We're wondering if radio might be a similar tool for nonprofits to use to communicate in new and exciting ways.

There is an opportunity to do just this--for nonprofits to acquire new FM full-power radio stations. A colleague just wrote me an email about this:

This October, for a two week period, non-profits that have been in existence for more than 2 years can secure new FM full-power radio stations where the FCC has found holes in the spectrum. For the most part, the stations are available in rural regions but there are some openings in a few metro areas. You can plug in your zip code to see if spectrum is available at www.getradio.org.

The licenses are non-commercial educational (NCE) and have no fee, but there are technical and legal support costs associated in preparing the application from between $3,000-10,000, and you have to prove access to capital that will allow you to run the station once your license is approved.

If your group, a partner group, or one of your grantees is interested in securing a full power radio station, a good place to start is a fact sheet put out by the Future of Music Coalition. I would recommend looking into it ASAP because it takes a while to pull together all the required elements for the October application deadline.

Watching Live Earth on MSNBC.com, enjoying the music (or most of it) but also nagged by the desperate hope that something great comes from all of the energy (fuel and otherwise) that went into these events.

One of the most interesting things about the call to action from this event is that it focuses squarely on what an individual can do. Live Aid, Live 8, and other mega-benefits have always been about what we can do together. But really, this focuses almost entirely on individual actions: changing light bulbs, riding bikes, reducing air flights, unplugging electronics, even downloading music as a way to reduce production and transportation costs associated with delivering CDs to stores.

Here are some of the websites involved:
The Alliance for Climate Protection
Live Earth

Often times, I am concerned that a more community approach to movement building will not create the scale that is needed to create the type of change that is needed. A friend told me a bit about her research of Saddleback and the Purpose-Driven Life. She told me that the recent members are the ones that are most empowered to bring in others. She explained the genius behind this investment: the new members are the ones that are most connected to those not yet a member, and also most often most excited about the offerings of being a member.

Scale in the new model of engagement and community-building depends on a focus on the most recent folks to get involved. Empower them to bring in their own networks. Support them to nurture this network, or empower those in these networks to create + nurture their own.


By the way, Saddleback Minister Rick Warren often uses a thought-provoking slogan: Believe, belong, become. He also talks about how a critical piece of his membership recruitment and retention/W.O.M marketing efforts is a 48-hour retreat. It would be interesting to see how nonprofits can run retreats such as this for its members, not just its staff. (On a tangent, we really think that the nonprofit staff person's primary role as a skilled professional needs to change to that of a skilled community manager. We'll talk more about that another day.)

We spend a lot of time looking into ways to build community. After several trips to New Orleans, I've learned a bit about Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs. These organizations, like friendly societies, were established as a people-to-people ties that functioned as our modern day insurance companies and welfare systems do. Apparently, these things have been around since the Roman era, but became widespread in the Industrial Era. These societies were membership-based, and usually came with a doctor to care for you if you were sick. The society would take care of funeral arrangements (much as the New Orleans' social aid & pleasure clubs do for the jazz funerals). Wikipedia says that as many as half of the population once belonged to these organizations.

My study of community has always been about how we form our identity: what and who influences us. These friendly societies and social aid and pleasure clubs remind me that there is an economics to it as well; a benefit exchange where the member gets much more than a good feeling after becoming a card-carrying member. These are good things to be reminded of.