Tuesday
Nov162010
Wasted Cognitive Surplus
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 8:15AM
When you drive your car down the highway you are awake but not using your brain to its full capacity - you have a cognitive surplus. The same is true for your organization, it has a lot more brain capacity than used in everyday work. How to make use of this collective cognitive surplus is an enormous possibility for doing good, for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Photo by dmealiffe Flickr CC
Just to give an idea of the volume of cognitive surplus in the world, think about all the crowd sourcing initiatives. Linux is a good example, untold millions of hours are invested by thousand of able persons throughout the world, the end-product are philanthropy projects like Ubuntu.
Copious amounts of time is donated every day, a lot of it is invested into volunteer work organized by religious groups and community organizations. Much of this work gives a feeling of belonging, of social interaction and certainly contributes to the well being of both the person volunteering as well as those benefiting from the efforts.
Clay Shirky, in a Wired interview, argues that:
I believe that we could possibly combine the two movements of independent volunteer work with companies' CSR efforts. To build the communities we need to sustain business and employment.
All over the world, and certainly in Europe with its aging population, companies are "stranded" in geographical regions deserted by the young. Some of these companies can simply not be moved since they are linked to natural resources, others are the foundation of societies. In many villages and small towns life would simply collapse if the main industry left.
The challenge I would like to launch is how to use cognitive surplus to recruit and retain talent in small towns and villages. Any suggestions or ideas?
Photo by dmealiffe Flickr CCCrowd sourcing
Just to give an idea of the volume of cognitive surplus in the world, think about all the crowd sourcing initiatives. Linux is a good example, untold millions of hours are invested by thousand of able persons throughout the world, the end-product are philanthropy projects like Ubuntu.
Volunteer work
Copious amounts of time is donated every day, a lot of it is invested into volunteer work organized by religious groups and community organizations. Much of this work gives a feeling of belonging, of social interaction and certainly contributes to the well being of both the person volunteering as well as those benefiting from the efforts.
Clay Shirky, in a Wired interview, argues that:
... the time Americans once spent watching television has been redirected toward activities that are less about consuming and more about engaging—from Flickr and Facebook to powerful forms of online political action. And these efforts aren’t fueled by external rewards but by intrinsic motivation—the joy of doing something for its own sake.
CSR initiatives
I believe that we could possibly combine the two movements of independent volunteer work with companies' CSR efforts. To build the communities we need to sustain business and employment.
All over the world, and certainly in Europe with its aging population, companies are "stranded" in geographical regions deserted by the young. Some of these companies can simply not be moved since they are linked to natural resources, others are the foundation of societies. In many villages and small towns life would simply collapse if the main industry left.
The challenge I would like to launch is how to use cognitive surplus to recruit and retain talent in small towns and villages. Any suggestions or ideas?
Reader Comments