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Kent Kirschner - Are We Changing the World?
 

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Are We Changing the World?

Are We Changing the World?

By: kentkirschner OffLine

On: 3/20/2009 3:32 PM

Posted To: The Circuit

Yesterday I sat with a 30 year veteran of the marketing agency world, my friend Enrique Dussan.  Enrique has worked with several of the biggies: BBDO, JWT, Ogilvy as well as with some boutiques on the Hispanic and Latin American side.  Over those 3 decades, he's certainly seen plenty of changes.  But I don't think his head has ever been spinning as wildly as it is in today's environment.  Change is coming down the pipe with the force of a hurricane storm surge.  Are these rapid evolutions really going to change the world?  Without a doubt.  Here's why.

When Albert Einstein stumbled upon his contrasting theory of gravity, precious few of his peers were willing to take him seriously.  Imagine the pushback when you try and contradict three hundred years of collective accepted wisdom surrounding Newton's theory of gravity.  None of that mattered to Einstein though.  He needed some money to get out of a bad marriage and the easiest way in his mind to get there was to win the Nobel.  So, he set out to win the prizel by demonstrating that Gravity was actually a push from above rather than a pull from the earth's core.

Noone lives in a vacuum however and Einstein's theory could not be proven without the collaboration of other great scientists who were scattered around the world.  He needed a giant telescope and help from an astrophysicist from California.  He needed a support team led by a young believer/scientist who was based in Germany.  And in order to communicate and coordinate with the various different actors he needed time......several years for that matter.  Let's contrast that scenario with something called INNOCENTIVE.com

       

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Sites like Innocentive and Kiva.org are amazing representations of how Thomas Friedman's flat world is becoming even flatter.  Our ability to solve complex problems has now been enhanced and enlightened exponentially over the past three years or so.  Our ability to transform entire industries in a frame of several months is now a realization that is demonstrated all the time: media, music, publishing, health care, public processes.

While the myth surrounding humans using only 10% of their brain is completely false, I would challenge that up until this point we've only used 10% (if that) of our collective wisdom.  Now it seems, the human race is fully capable of harnessing 100% of the collective wisdom on the planet and the results will be transformative. 

Tags: innecentive, micro lending, philanthropic, social media

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Comments:

robsalk said:

Hey Kent - I saw a link to your post on the Columbia LinkedIn feed. I'm working on a book on how social collaboration, GenY and "flat world" economics are transforming emerging economies, and am looking for perspectives like yours. Interested in chatting? DM me on Twitter (robsalk) and we can set something up.
4/17/2009 12:22 PM

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pancho said:

Interesting. Have you seen data if cultural groups are more inclined to incorporate, adopt or use these kind of cooperative approach?
3/24/2009 4:20 PM

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