Here is a line I will use again and again. "connectivity is productivity" from Iqbal Quadir. We are focues
I have been thinking a lot lately about the reasons to do a network diagnostics of coalitions and advocacy movements. Social network analysis of large distributed movements and using the analysis to guide strategic projects to power the movement.
I know that building redundant layers of layers of connections (social trust, communications lines, common language, shred resources, etc) makes sense for a political or issue base but in the past my thinking and language focued on the way that ideas and communications campaigns spread messages with only slight focus on productivity.
Just as I was slow to jump the linguistic gaps waiting for Gideon to say "movement as network" in a way I danced around for 2 years. I now see "connectivity is productivity" as a new bold statement for issue and political networks.
Link: TED | Talks | Iqbal Quadir: The power of the mobile phone to end poverty (video).
Iqbal Quadir explains why "aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people," and advocates a new approach to development from below, "by the people for the people." His own experience as a child in Bangladesh and later a banker in New York brought him to realize that "connectivity is productivity" -- and that a simple cell phone has enormous power.
