The .org Revolution

by Zaid Hassan (September 2000)

There are two revolutions sweeping across the globe, both traveling under the same name, the new economy. They have yet to meet, here we (briefly) consider the shock of recognition that will occur when they meet.

The first revolution

The first revolution is a storm, a virtual hurricane of change, bringing with it spectacular amounts of noise and debris, nuggets of gold along with the odd dead cow, all but impossible to avoid. The press sits in awe of the obvious violence of this revolution, of the mythic wealth that it promises can be made in the swathes of destruction it brings. Indeed they worship it daily on the covers of broadsheets and global gossip rags everywhere. This storm has captured the imagination of the planet, many look to it as a global panacea. It will solve many, if not all, of our problems. Those who are skeptical are in a minority, outcasts, shunned and living in the Montana backwoods.

The watchwords of this revolution are the IPO, data, bandwidth, browser wars, Microsoft, globalization. This revolution has been dubbed the next industrial revolution; it has been christened nothing less than the new economy.

The second revolution

The second revolution is more sedate, sweeping in low under the global radar. It is darker, brings with it more ominous facts and yet its proponents promise us that by embracing it we will solve many of our most daunting planetary problems. It is not a storm that has broken across the global consciousness; it is a slow, sweet, cleansing breeze coming in after the violence of an older storm. Revolution number two is about damage limitation, more mature and serious in its outlook, more long term in its focus, yet more gripping in its urgency, it is about cultivation and not war.

The watchwords of this revolution are values, sustainability, the triple bottom line, corporate social responsibility. Our second revolution has also been dubbed the next industrial revolution, natural capitalism, among its proponents it is seen as heralding in a brand new economy.

The .org revolution

The meeting of these two revolutions will lead to a single, further revolution that, in the spirit of the zeitgeist, I call the .org revolution. The .org revolution will become significant when it occurs on a scale that provides visibility, in an organization that has something to risk. The meeting will be a signal to the world about that particular organization, that they have much, much more than technical mastery of the medium, that they actually and actively believe in the medium, in its history and its future.

Today it is all to easy to find companies who believe in hedging their bets, whose CEOs in the back of their minds think that perhaps this thing will blow over and we�ll wake up one fine morning in the old economy. To date those CEOs who do believe in the medium, the Steve Cases and Bill Gates, seem to have focused on a technical mastery of the medium, without worrying too much about the origins of the technology or its social implications, in such they are not truly innovators; they are simply talented exploiters, opportunists.

The meeting of our twin revolutions is happening today, but on fairly small scales, exceptions rather than rules. Linux is an interesting, much pondered and tentative case of the .org revolution in action.

The organization (or movement) that marries our two revolutions will demonstrate both a mastery of the medium and a mastery of the values that have propelled the internet technology revolution to the dizzying heights of today, values which are eerily echoed in our second revolution.

Just try and imagine a Microsoft with values. Now that�s a scary thought�

Further Reading

Revolution One

Red Hat Center - www.rhcenter.org
Salon�s Free Software Project - www.salon.com/tech/fsp/index.html
The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S Raymond - www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/
�Making Microsoft Safe for Capitalism� by James Gleick - www.around.com/microsoft.html

Revolution Two

Sustainability Ltd. - www.sustainability.co.uk
The Natural Step � www.naturalstep.org/
Business for Social Responsibility - www.bsr.org
Natural Capitalism � Paul Hawken et al. (book)