Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org, spoke with HuffPost Live at Davos about the “false divide” between what he called “clicktivists” — people who engage in activist causes “on their couch” — and people who are out in the streets fighting for change.
“I think the measure of the effectiveness of online action isn’t whether it’s easy to do, it’s whether it actually accomplishes a specific goal,” Rattray said.
“I think there’s a false idea between the idea that people are just clictivists, that are slactivists sitting on their couch, and people in the streets,” Rattray added. There’s an intimate intertwining between the two, that support each other.”
Rattray also weighed in on the White House’s “We the People” page, which accepts petitions from Americans and response to those that reach a certain number of signatures.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction,” Rattray said, noting he wants “to see a world in which social movements and organizing is an every day experience.”
Rattay said the spread of online petitions shows people are recognizing they can influence big institutions, making them “more likely to take action.” But he did offer some criticism of sites like “We the People,” which are run by the government.
“The challenge is that when tools are owned by and built by government, they tend not to be optimized for citizen empowerment,” Rattray said.
Below, more updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:
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Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Mark Penn zeroes in on the issues that may decide the next presidential election.
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Felix Salmon broke down the difference between the way global issues are covered in newspapers and online.
“If you have a newspaper which printed the same story every day about global inequality or about climate change or something, no one would buy it… but the Internet doesn’t have that problem.”
Salmon, who works at Fusion now, also reflected on his former employer, Reuters. He said the wire service “tells you what’s new in the first few seconds,” but said the company wouldn’t “put a huge amount of effort into web-based innovation.”
Financial journalist Felix Salmon had some choice words about Davos, saying the gathering is rich people hanging out together, but he did note the rarity of having such influential figures in business, politics and more gather in one place.
“If your way to conquer global inequality is for rich people to get together and conquer it for you, then it’s not going to happen. Really,” Salmon said.
Getting ready to start filming in our beautiful @huffpostlive studio here in #Davos #wef2015 http://t.co/ynAq15iOgZ
— Alyona (@AlyonaMink) January 21, 2015
In a blog for HuffPost, Kadi Jumu, Save the Children Director in Sierra Leone, writes:
Every weekend the markets are packed with shoppers stocking up on their weekly groceries. The markets are always hot and buzzing with vendors shouting, buyers haggling, and children weaving in and out of stalls. This is what any weekend in Freetown looks like — at least it was, before Ebola hit.
Today businesses and vendors are lucky if they get their full shipments of food delivered and, when they do, the prices of food are now high enough to keeps buyers away, especially poor families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs as a result of the outbreak.
Read more here.
