Professional Documents
Culture Documents
New Power
New Power
New Power
Infrastructure?
And how can it
help our economy?
Version 2
New Power
The idea of power typically has a bifurcated response equally attractive (dont you want some?) and yet somehow simultaneously
repulsive (to want it is wrong, right?!).
But no one doubts that power matters. When you understand how
power works, you understand the world how resources get allocated, what creates economic outcomes, and certainly how policy
is created. Society is shaped by power; by who is able to participate,
to what degree they can affect change, and how they participate
in the economy. Power thus informs the fundamental conditions
for prosperity.
Throughout history, innovations in technology resulted in significant
and often unanticipated shifts in the balance of power. The Internet
is no different. If knowledge creates power, then the free flow of information surely does something to power. The question is, what?
Many people think social media shifts power when, in reality, there
is often more noise than actual new outcomes. For example, the Occupy movement did not disrupt capitalism or occupy much. Bring
Back The Girls had the support of celebrities and global leaders yet
the Girls are still gone a year later. And while the Arab spring was
inspirational for many, the political power schema was left largely
1
players deciphered the structure of an AIDs-related virus that had puzzled scientists for fifteen
years, a discovery that has already helped the development of new medicines. Theres even a database now, roughly a protein folders periodic
table, that is accelerating medical progress.
However, the final lesson of Fold It a surprise to the UW team concerned the winner of the game the person who turned out
to be the best protein folder in the world. Was
it the most credentialed expert? No. Was it the
most influential person in the field? No. Was it
the most authoritative person leading an existing organization? No. In fact, it was someone
who lacked authority, personal influence, and
organizational heft. It was a person who by
traditional measures was powerless.
pening. It was Hilary Austen (associated with Second, they re-aligned everyone against a
MPI) that pointed out that Halitzgy didnt common purpose, not just commonalities. By
change at all. Which got me thinking her in- accounting for how all humans screen based on
telligence didnt change, neither did her sense some preconceived pattern recognition (aka
of agency. Nor did she get new knowledge, or bias), they shifted the focus. Their construct let
become more influential. So, what actually the focus be on the best idea for the shared purpose,
happened?
not the best (or loudest) person we expect to have
the best idea. Its true that ideas have no gender,
She got revealed.
no race, no disability, sexuality, age, or religion.
Yet power sometimes precludes participation of
Her ability to make a dent (affect change by her new ideas based on who has them. By focusing
participation, the definition of power) changed on common purpose, not commonalities, those
because of the conditions created by Fold It. In too often left on the sidelines the young and
this slow march towards a new outcome, her ca- the old, women, members of the LGBT compacity was unlocked. If new power is the capac- munity, people of color are able to contribity to participate in a way that creates an out- ute to the solution. Solutions to some of our
come (by a previously denied party), then its more persistent and complex problems are not
the Fold It approach that enables new power.
going to be algorithmic but people-powered.
Can this approach be used repeatedly towards
other predictive outcomes? Perhaps. To understand that, lets focus on what exactly Fold It
did. At the most obvious level, they are using
platforms, networks, crowdsourcing something that allows many to participate. But what
they did specifically different matters. They
drew on all available talent, not just the things
that matched what they expected to see, and
then built a community united in a shared purpose, and then engaged them act as one.
Traditional
Authority
Core Assets
Accountability
Visual
Economic
Constructs
Constructs of Power
Comments
When we can understand how to scale onlyness I imagine what would happen if the lessons
and the scaffolding that lets that new architec- from Fold It and Susan Halitzgy could be apture exist, we will benefit our economy in both plied to other things? Who could contribute?
financial and social ways.
What could they create? What new problems
might we solve? What new opportunities could
The next step is to study more examples. They we open? What kind of prosperity would it genmight look like entrepreneurship or technolo- erate? (What could you do?)
gy releasing untapped potential or even social
media-driven activism but when studied close- And if that excites you, too, I hope youll get in
ly, well find those that unlock new forms of touch and join me in chasing this question.