Planétisme / Planetism / Planetismo / Planetismus

How to fix social media before it's too late?

While some in the US administration are calling for the dismantling of major players on the web and the EU is heavily taxing them, it is interesting to read the opinion of an actor evolving at the heart of this business.

The text below is an abstract of an article of Time of January 28^th, 2019, written by Roger McNamee who has been a Silicon Valley investor for 35 years.

"It owns your data. It owns your friends. It has your credit cards. It hears your conversations. It follows you everywhere. And you can’t go a day without it. I helped create this mess. Here’s how to fix it. 

Democracy: Facebook, along with Google and Twitter, had undercut the free press from two directions: it has eroded the economics of journalism and then overwhelmed it with disinformation. On Facebook, information and disinformation look the same. The only difference is that this information generates more revenue, so it gets better treatment.

Regulate: Google and Facebook are artificially profitable because they do not pay for the damage they cause. Google Amazon and Facebook has followed the monopolist’s playbook and built « no go » zones around there core corporations … The economy would benefit from breaking them up …Our parents and grandparents had a similar day of reckoning with tobacco now it's our turn, this time with internet platforms.

Make it human: The Next Big Things … shifting the focus of technology from exploiting the weakest links in human psychology to a commitment to empowering users.

Addiction: every pixel on every screen of every internet app has been tuned to influence user’s behaviour. Not every user can be influenced all the time, but nearly all users can be influenced some of the time

Protect children: we have allowed unsupervised experiments on millions of people. The political and social power of Facebook and other internet platforms is unhealthy and inappropriate in a democracy like ours. We must hold them accountable and insist on real-world solutions, not more code."

Didier - Citizen of the World

 

Image: Social media collapse by Didier

Why experience what we learn ?

I currently take classes online (MOOC) about permaculture, through "L'Université des Colibris" in order to get ideas and insights about management. 

I would like to share with you the following inspiring video from one of the teachers of this MOOC. 

The text is in French but the speech is in English. Enjoy !

Didier - Citizen of World

 

Planetism: moving from theory to practical implementation

Why writing this note? Because we see growing from all sides social, societal, political, geopolitical and environmental crises. Because we feel the fragility of the economic system, and especially we see no solution emerging nor from national politicians, overwhelmed and not so much representative, neither from instances of global governance (UN, G20,...), neither from other forms of representation (local authorities, NGOs, associations,...) that can be effective in their field but not sufficiently coordinated to meet these crises globally. For my part, to my modest level, I inquire about all of this, seek and train me on solutions, act and participate in various movements seeking to improve things... and I conclude that despite much of good intentions and good ideas, crisis worsen and no solution adapted to the gravity and the urgency of the situation emerges.

This text will appear perhaps sometimes presumptuous, or unrealistic, or the global idea too complex to achieve. This is inevitable given the enormity of the subject. But we have the choice between not believing the finding above, or believe it and be fatalistic, or believe it and dare to propose a solution, or... It is this third choice which is expressed here.

This proposal contains the four axis of Planetism initially described in 2008: Humanism, Sustainable Development, True Globalism and Common values, enriched by additional readings, trainings, experiments and more recent thinking.

Is true business compatible with true sustainability ?

I participated on Septembre 21st, 2012 in Fontainebleau to the "28th Sustainability Executive Roundtable", organized by the Social Innovation Centre of INSEAD. The programme was focusing on "Sustainaibility and HR, challenges for the firm and its members".

This roundtable crossed presentations, opinions and ideas from business leaders, managers, consultants and professors about the following topics : how can we integrate sustainability in the DNA of the company and the mind of its employees ?

The world is being transformed, so companies are going to be transformed, therefore employees and first of all managers have to be transformed

 

Piano stairs or how to make people using stairs rather than escalators

 

How can we drive and cause a minimum pollution ?

Pierre R : As you come from car business and are involved in the preservation of the environment, can you tell me what is your opinion about the various motor technologies ? First, diesel motor with particle filter? Is it really performing?
Didier D : A filter allows less particles in the air but doesn’t solve the serious problem of the greenhouse gazes which is worsening in a lot of countries and might prevent them to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.

 

Climate disturbance and energy transition

Two French senators have written in June 2006 a report named “Climate change, energy transition : overtaking the crisis”. I strongly recommend that you read at least the summary ( written in English ) of this report ( in French ). It is based on discussions with 200 experts and leaders from France, Germany, the European Union, China and USA. This report explains why the world energy model is on red alert, how the climate is disturbed and can become worse and the serious economic and social threats. But it’s relatively optimistic. The two authors Pierre Laffitte and Claude Saunier believe that the energy transition is compulsory but that it is also an opportunity to grasp. They make numerous proposals to change this dramatic situation.

Didier - World citizen

Drastic improvement of the environment situation thanks to the young people

According to the scientific information available ( and some articles in this blog ), it is obvious that we are preparing for the second half of the 21^st century a very difficult, if not disastrous environment. Nobody can argue the fact that the adults are responsible of this situation and that the most concerned victims will be the current young people. A young born beginning of this century has great chances to be alive at the end of it, yes but in which environment situation ? We must change drastically and quickly our behaviour, but it is obvious that in our society the preservation of the environment has not yet a high priority. Therefore, we must quickly give to the young the as most as possible powerful and adapted means to influence smartly the choices of our society. As they are vitally concerned ( just think about the life of their own children in the 22nd century ), they are the best driving force of the change.

Didier - World citizen

Saving your earth and your money

Making ecological progress and making profit at the same time is possible. The city of Berlin made the demonstration. The web site www.oekoprofit-berlin.com ( in German, use on-line language tools for the translation ) announced 7,26 Million € and 8.119 t CO₂ saving between 2002 and 2005, thanks to the actions of 61 companies and organizations. The web site supplies data about energy, wastes, water and raw materials saved, the list of companies and organizations which are participating, their actions, their ROI ( Return On Investment ) and other interesting information.

If people, companies, organizations, … are not motivated by the saving of the earth let’s convince them that it is a way to save their money, then as usual they will be more motivated …