Global communications and personal freedom

There is a new message moving through riseup.net. to warn internet users about the evils of Google, Facebook and Paypal. They encourage the use of non profit Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ rather than Google Chrome.

The gist of the email is that the corporate interests are using our information for marketing. "Email companies such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. offer great free services, but in exchange, they sell all information sent through their service (through emails, passwords, attachments, etc) to top marketing firms around the world, who then use this information to bombard and pollute our lives and the world with GARBAGE."

However, I am skeptical of the evils of the internet data. - Isn't it possible that if we collect enough data on spending and activities we begin to learn a lot about who we are? - With the steering of the MDG and well intentioned governments, activist groups and NGOs, it could be that the data gathered through the internet can help us to make the world a better place.

See GapMinder.org for more on the amazing power and potential good of statistics.

The internet is possibly the biggest thing humans have come up with since religion and it might soon become smart. Maybe we can use that smartness to make real positive change - groups like Avaaz, EnvironmentAmerica and 350.org (today's victory with the Keystone pipeline is a great example of the power of good use of the internet) and the collective organization and networking of riseup.net and couchsurfing.org are all examples of how the internet is making big positive changes, transforming lives!

As Al Gore pointed out with his Internet 2.0 idea the internet can also be a tool for good. The internet is helping the environmental and social justice movements in a HUGE way!

In the late 1990s and early 2000s we were networking through the post. It was expensive and slow. I was getting a few bits of mail a year from many organizations with as many as one a week from the well funded groups like Habitat for Humanity, WWF and Greenpeace. I signed the petitions and sent what little money I could to support the campaigns.

Today I am informed about issues as I sit at my morning coffee... Sometimes I sign a few petitions a day and make donations (still small but) on a regular basis to all the movements I feel strongly about..

So I would ask riseup.net of they are being properly precautionary or paranoid. Is the internet really a problem or could it be a boon‽

Ideas about Web 2.0; Social Networking to Save the Planet: Facebook, Twitter and Couchsurfing

The problems left for this generation to tackle are paramount. The facts are clear: our species is using up more than our fair share of the natural resources resulting in a period of rapid global extinction. The fate of the current diversity of life on this planet is in our hands.

The dysfunctional relationship between people and nature is paradigmatic. It cannot be addressed by scientists or politicians but must be tackled by a whole community. Community building through the medium of social networking websites is one important way that the relationship might start to get better. Facebook and Twitter among the myriad others allows people to get informed about issues as they happen and as they relate to their social network through the so called web 2.0.

Since moving back to land I have spent some time dabbling with these tools for democratic and ecological action. One that I am particularly enamored with is the non-profit organization 'Couchsurfing Network' www.couchsurfing.org.
What is Couchsurfing?
Couchsurfing is a unique idea started, naturally, in San Francisco by a bunch of activists, party animals and college kids. It has grown to become a large and effective community of movers and shakers. Although the mission and vision have no direct link to environmental action I have seen and done some good things through connection with the membership.

I have the unique honor of volunteering for the Couchsurfing Network as a Nomad Ambassador. This means that I basically travel around, doing as I do, with the added responsibility of spreading the word and creating events and gatherings in the places where I travel.

Please check out couchsurfing.org and read the introduction to Couchsurfing pages and the mission. The benefits are great - the cross-cultural and inter-community exchanges are deep and rewarding.

Couchsurfing Mission Statement

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Small is Beautiful
Give Organic a Chance
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic

Visit Farmers for the Future




Couchsurfing Vision Statement

To create a profile and make a donation visit www.couchsurfing.org.

Al Gore and the Purpose-Driven Web

In a recent speech in San Francisco Al Gore pointed out the elephant in the living room once more. “Now is the time to really move swiftly" he said, urging internet companies to use the web as a tool for positive change. The purpose of the internet has to be transformed for doing good:

“The purpose, I would urge all of you — as many of you as are willing to take it up — is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth,” (read the New York Times Article)

He shows us how this can be done in his Taking 'An Inconvenient Truth' To Congress website and the WE can Solve It campaign.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” 

― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell