New Power

An important Network Climate Action is raising money for environmental and women’s health NGOs.

Although our fundraising efforts don’t all go viral, design principles derived from successful campaigns—such as the Ice Bucket Challenge—help us exploit the way power is leveraged over the internet.

In addition to connectivity or creating a feeling of community, “new power” campaigns encourage participants to customize ideas for their own context.

Arising in opposition to consumerist Black Friday and Cyber Monday, GivingTuesday is about donating money to nonprofits. Its heart-shaped logo is designed to be adapted for different causes, including climate. 

The authors narrate the rise of the mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber, the out of nowhere victories of Obama and Trump, and the unexpected emergence of movements like #metoo, explaining these in the context of the emergence of a new type of networked power which they liken to a current. They brilliantly argue that today what matters is how you create and use the connections that you form to shape the direction of opinion currents, and that those who do this well have outsized power and influence in today’s hyper-connected world.