A big ol’ shout of thanks goes out to Tara for this interview with Austin Hill of Akoha — simply described as “meaningful play” — which touches upon so many cultural aspects of social economics in day-to-day living outside of the realm of social networking.
Like at minute 2:30 in the video; I knew there had to be a reason why I enjoyed investing so much time and resources in building community!
But seriously, what Austin ends up speaking about — average people organizing and affecting change online — is something that Molly discussed with me over lunch this afternoon.
She was absolutely amazed at how Kathy Clark and I were able to make such a positive impact in the meat space with the Save Live Music in Winston-Salem Facebook group, while something as important as the International Civil Rights Museum sits collecting dust after so many years of funding and community support.
I logically argued that the WS situation was simply pointing people to a spot to petition and pressure folks to really do their job, while with the ICRM, money has already been donated, accountability for historical failures have been scarce and the future looks somewhat bleak. Molly instinctively dropped into the world of eros, determined to figure out how to affect the lethargy through online social organization, especially as Greensboro celebrates its 200th birthday over the next few months.
While we both want the museum to become a reality, I found it interesting how the eros and logos in our positions quickly came to the foreground. I usually don’t shrink away from a problem; I try to provide a solution, often creatively tapping into the mechanics of the web. But with this issue, I’ve no idea where to start:
- Funding has been both a blessing and a curse to this project
- Everyone and their mother in town wants to see this project come to fruition
- Yet residents have twice refused to support the project as a bond referendum
What type of a solution can the social economy of a Facebook offer to this type of political conundrum?
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