Actics Blog

Michael Arrington’s review of Dotherightthing.com at Techcrunch a couple of days ago, clearly witness what an interesting market Actics is operating in. Dotherightthing.com is basically a way for people to raise awareness about companies’ social impact both good and bad through user submitted stories. By addressing the social impact of companies, dotherightthing resembles Actics and it is no secret that we will launch a medium to collectively assess the social impact of companies at Actics.com shortly to compliment the more individual service of our widget.

Arrington’s comments on dotherightthing founders being hypocritical by being for-profit AND addressing social awareness, his rants about ’smugs’ fighting easy targets to promote their own self-righteous glory and the 67 comments divided app. 3/4 for dotherightthing is an interesting peek into web-sociology. How easily disagreements degrade into caricatures in online discussions when people are confronted with basic values. Just as much as some people hail the new web as a powerful democratic medium for structuring stakeholder power, the web is also inhabited by alpha-geeks that proudly dismisses corporate social responsibility, sustainability and other ‘lefty’ issues as political correctness. However, most of the commentators not blinded by extreme libetarianism have no problem in telling the difference between genuine social and environmental concern and mere ‘smug‘. All in all the dotherightthing discussion points to a bright future for reasonable civic action brought about by powerful social infrastructures like the web.

Go read the post and not least the comments. And good luck to dotherightthing.com

from the Danish newspaper Information

Everybody goes green. Climate change is really on the agenda, as 2007 seems to be the warmest year since measurements begun in the mid 1800s.. Scandinavina Airline Systems (SAS-along with BA) is the first airline to suggest that passengers pay a voluntary carbon dioxide surcharge, the money will then be invested in ventures that reduce energy consumption or dispose of CO2 in a way that doesn’t impact the atmosphere. Ideally the surcharge payed during a flight from Copenhagen to, say, Bangkok (about DKK 230, €27) would be invested in ventures that reduce CO2 consumption with the same amount as that emitted during the flight (about 2.8 tons).  Here’s the point though: these initiatives require diffuse and comprehensive monitoring. It’s not enough to know that SAS spends its money well, we also need to know wether the benefitting Bangladeshi energy conservation project spends its money wisely. Thus climate thing will give rise to a global ethical economy, where value based performance will be a persistent and comprehensive criteria for a wide range of different activities. Thus, another role for Actics: a peer to peer based rating system that deploys the many eyes (heads?) of the networked multitude to survey the whole chain.

Just as environmentalism and demands for more social conduct is on the rise, opportunistic crooks seeking reward from the trend without merit is off course also growing in numbers. Luckily there are lot of bloggers, magazines and initiatives like Actics trying to attribute reputation to those who truly deserves and hopefully expose those that merely dress up in ‘green’ or ‘philanthropic’ clothes. Since the responsibility to do something about it is in the hands of everybody in a modern networked world, you might need to gear up in terms of awareness. As part of your new education to separate the real from the fake, start with this short post on ‘Greenwashing’ by Clownfish Marketing on PSFK. As a bonus to the post, a reader has provided a link to a report on the ten worst greenwashers in 2005 from The Green Life. Also, read Adam’s post here on one of these greenwashers, BP.

Financial Times writes:
‘In his quest for a defining legacy beyond the Iraq war, a chastened President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address will put energy security – reducing US dependence on foreign oil – at the heart of his political agenda for his final two years.’
Before this meant “We darn sure have to do a better job of finding more supply.”
But now there is an explicit link to the environment.. Bush also ‘went cycling,  as temperatures reached the 70s Fahrenheit (above 21 degrees Celsius), way higher than normal. Last year was the hottest in 112 years in the US.’

Nice short introductory piece in NY Times on web widgets as ‘Bling for Your Blog‘.

from the Guardian 16/1.

‘Marks & Spencer is to spend £200m over five years on a wide-ranging “eco-plan” which sustainability campaigners yesterday welcomed as the most progressive project of its kind by a mainstream retailer in the UK.
The programme, to be announced today, promises to “change beyond recognition” the way M&S operates. Initiatives within the 100-point plan include transforming the 460-strong chain into a carbon neutral operation; banning group waste from landfill dumps; using unsold out-of-date food as a source of recyclable energy and making polyester clothing from recycled plastic bottles.’

This is probably just one of many coming attempts by supermarkets and other major retailers to face increasingly well-informed and ecologically conscious consumers. The problem of course rests with eh complexity of the task: how to make sure that every step in the long production chain leading from the Chilean farmer to the UK purchased ‘ecologic’ cherry-choclate-chip ice-cream complies to these new rigorous standards, and does not cancel out efforts made at other points in the chain? The solution is to create a public space that involves all stake-holders, form consumer through middle men to farm and transport workers in rating and reporting the compliance performance of the different steps in the chain. You guessed it- another Actics application!

Daniel gave us his first take on an Actics tutorial today. It was a song:

I’m a little proxy, short and stout
Here is my value [one hand on hip], here is my action [other arm out straight]
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout
Just tip me over and proxy me out!
[as song ends, lean over and tip arm out like a spout]

I’m a clever agent, yes it’s true
Here’s an example of what I can do
I can change my value to my action [switch arm positions and repeat tipping motion]
Just tip me over and kick me out

Daniel was obviously heavily inspired by ‘I’m a little teapot‘ when he wrote the text listening to Nicolai talking to me on some ideas ….

No, we’re not cracking up
- it’s just surplus energy.

Yet another reminder of how complex economic structures can overpower the best of intentions and of how companies (and other actors) need systems-like actics- that can provide structure and coherence to their actions..

“Justice Eta, a Nigerian infant, has an ink spot on his tiny thumb to show he was immunized against polio and measles thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But Justice still faces respiratory trouble, which locals call ‘the cough’ and blame on fumes and soot spewing from 300-foot flames at a nearby oil plant owned by Itallian energy giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part one of an L.A. Times investigation reports that the world’s largest philanthropy pours money into investments that are hurting many of the people its grants aim to help. With the exception of tobacco companies, the foundation’s asset managers do not avoid investments in firms whose activities conflict with the mission to do good.

from slashdot

A nice and prominent real world example of the argument: When it comes to public goodwill, damage control is extremely expensive and often comes too late. Transforming users/customers from friends into foes

Google needs to change. They can’t kill the motto [Don't be evil], so they need to live up to it, permanently. They need to stop treating the outside world with disdain, and replace it with transparency and honesty. Users must always come first. Always. And they need to do it soon. Once the shift in public opinion becomes obvious, it will be way too late.

From TechCrunch