Building an open source activist engagement platform in the age of Covid-19
originally published on Medium
For the last 4 years, I’ve been helping Greenpeace create an open source, activist engagement platform for Greenpeace — Planet 4. Last year on Earth Day, I asked people to support open source projects that addressed environmental issues. This year I’m advocating for broader support of the kinds of systems and behaviors that will make the world a better place.
“We must advocate for investment in the future. Rather than looking to the past to explain our current predicament, we should be looking to the future to see what must be done. A future that is open, cooperative, egalitarian, peaceful, in harmony with nature, and with public good as a driving force.”
Jennifer Morgan and Anabella Rosemberg
It is only through working together to respond to the cracks in the system that we will be able to look back at 2020 and be proud of ourselves. In this world, we take care of our planet. In this world, as it was in the world of the past, we contribute to open source projects that have values that align with our own.
Forget Clicktivism, Support Remote Activism
“The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing governments and societies to turn toward digital technologies to respond to the crisis in the short-term, resolve socio-economic repercussions in the mid-term and reinvent existing policies and tools in the long-term.”
United Nations
Planet 4 is an opportunity to cause a seismic shift that can help activists be more effective with their activism. This platform will help activists use online engagement to change real-world systems. Right now, it feels like everyone is writing sentences like: “In a time when a global pandemic has changed the very fabric of society”, or “in a time when we are forced to move to online environments for the vast majority of our social and working lives…” In this time, we can use technology to continue “expos[ing] and tackl[ing] the underlying crisis of an unjust and destructive system that puts profit before people, and treats humans and nature as expendable.” — from Greenpeace’s Covid19 response
In the world of tech, we’ve seen behavioral economics being (mis)used to create things that allow the spread of misinformation by placing people into dangerous filter bubbles and using shoddy algorithms to force feed them bias content. We’ve seen platforms that tap into our lizard brains, enabling addiction and ego-driven behavior that is neither healthy for us as individuals nor supporting the kind of world we want to see.
“We must prevent investment in industries with preexisting, planet wrecking and health destroying, conditions.”
Jennifer Morgan and Anabella Rosemberg
Activists around the world are looking for ways to ensure that the world doesn’t simply “return to normal”. This pandemic has changed the way that activists need to work. It is no longer reasonable to do in-person events and actions. The activist community, like many, need to reimagine how we advocate for a better world. Our tactics have to move online and Planet 4 is a piece of software that will help us continue to drive change.
The vision of Planet 4 supports the kind of world we want to see. It is about bringing people together and showing them the impact of choices and actions. The crisis has shown us that “impossible” changes are fully possible. We are consuming less, our footprints are suddenly smaller. We can change our behavior, seemingly overnight. It’s shown us that we care about each other and that millions of people around the world are willing to donate their energy to help their fellow humans. That we are all connected, that we all matter. Our systems were forced to put people first. What will the impacts of this be on our planet and how we live together?
Open source is values based
“The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are — and will be — defined by choices. Those choices should be based upon values, not value: compassion, courage and cooperation. Those have always been ours. Let’s lean into them now.”
Jennifer Morgan and Anabella Rosemberg
We Are Open is now supporting Greenpeace with open engagement and we have been asking people what makes them choose to contribute to an open source platform.
We suspected that one of the major motivators for open source contribution has to do with the values of both the open source community writ large as well and the values of a specific project. For years, I’ve talked about Planet 4’s open source nature as a way for people to contribute to Greenpeace’s work on the climate crisis. Indeed, the engagement platform we’ve envisioned is designed to help people take action on behalf of the planet.
So, yes, lately, I’ve been thinking about how this project isn’t only supporting Greenpeace’s environmental work. It can also be thought of as a response to the pandemic.