Mozilla

Civil Society, CrisisCamp

August 29th, 2010

Almost every time I talk to Esther Dyson about Russia, she speaks of the importance of building civil society, of developing a world where people don’t look to government and formal “non-governmental organizations” for all the answers. Here’s a paragraph she wrote about civil society in an article about the Feb 2010 US State Department Tech Delegation to Russia:

Civil society is not just politics: it is a restaurant giving unused food to the poor. It is a for-profit company such as Twitter providing its service free to rich and poor alike (even though advertisers will focus on the rich). It is successful entrepreneurs mentoring start-up entrepreneurs, and NGOs engaging not just with the government, but also with commercial outfits to get support for activities that will address vexing social problems such as maternal and infant mortality.

I was reminded of Esther’s focus on civil society at the CrisisCamp event Friday night.

There are a lot of barriers to helping from a distance when a disaster strikes. Today information technology, the marvels of the Internet, and new tools focused on crowdsourcing and crowd-sourced data provide some new mechanisms. And so there are groups of people trying to develop actionable data out of the heartbreaking SMS messages (a partial example: “village of 200 houses, 100% destroyed. 100% crops destroyed. Village still flooded.”)

There’s no official government involvement. There’s not necessarily any direct connection between the people working at this and the villages or individuals affected by the floor. There is however civil society in action: see a problem, do something. Form an association (Ben Franklin formed a surprising number of associations), virtual or formal. Build a tool — or a product. Reach out. Don’t wait for government to set up a special official organization — plunge in and do things.

The degree to which citizens believe they can, can, and do affect their own lives and the lives of others is a pretty potent marker of the nature of a society.

3 comments for “Civil Society, CrisisCamp”

  1. 1

    Pingback from Some Mozilla History, dmose, Hockey | Mitchell's Blog

    […] astonishing people can be when they love what they are doing. As Esther Dyson keeps reminding me, a vibrant civil society is an awesome […]

  2. 2

    Pingback from Matt Thompson: CrisisCamp, “humane workflow” and Mozilla | JanuJi.com

    […] Mitchell and other Mozillians attended a CrisisCamp Silicon Valley event last Friday; in her follow-up post, Mitchell draws the link between CrisisCamp and civil society, “developing a world where people […]

  3. 3

    Pingback from CrisisCamp, “humane workflow” and Mozilla « d r u m m u s i c

    […] Mitchell and other Mozillians attended a CrisisCamp Silicon Valley event last Friday; in her follow-up post, Mitchell draws the link between CrisisCamp and civil society, “developing a world where […]

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