Hedge-Your-Bets Activism
Ever feel like you were unsure of whether to join or support a particular social issue campaign? You might ask yourself, "Why give these folks money or time if their cause is not generating support from others?" Well, someone's got an answer for that now.
At thepoint.com (alpha version) you can be a committed activist (in escrow). According to their web site - "Campaigns are at the center of The Point. Find a Campaign that addresses a problem you have. Join it and do nothing now. If and only if enough people commit(the tipping point) the entire group takes action to solve the problem."
Although this is an interesting application of technology for mobilizing individuals around a cause, there is something unsettling about someone committing to a cause, if and only if others join them. Maybe we're old-fashioned, but when you believe in something, you work for it without contingencies. Your passion is, perhaps, what motivates others observing you. Promising to fight at a later date, in other words, misses the moment and deflates the psyche.
Further, listing a genuine challenge to right an injustice alongside a glib challenge to match an employee's cost of providing coffee for his workmates detracts from the site's overall credibility.
On the other hand, it is fun to watch campaigns or challenges grow incrementally as a few timid souls join the bandwagon, albeit tentatively. And, yes, perhaps there is some value in displaying to the objects of these actions how things are going against them. It might change their stance.
But for now, this concept needs a lot of work - but it is a good idea designed to promote the success of actionable social issues. I'll sign up for that!