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"Powering the Edges" View the document (pdf) July 30, 2006 Powering the edges By Allison Fine Boston Globe AFTER THE ENDLESS rains of spring, this sizzling stretch of summer has turned my thoughts to my beloved Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. An ode to Good Harbor would have seemed odd years ago, when the vistas were lovely, but the sand was often strewn with garbage. Even before noon, the barrels, overflowing with soda cans and food wrappers, were foul havens for bees, birds, and rodents. Then there was the transformation. In 2001, Patti Amaral, who chaired Gloucester's all-volunteer Clean City Commission, took her family to vacation on Martha's Vineyard. While there, she noticed signs about a Carry In/Carry Out program, encouraging visitors to take their trash home with them. Gloucester's Clean City Commission had spent many years wrestling with the beach garbage problem to no avail. Should the city add trash cans, fine the litterbugs, or increase the frequency of trash pickup on the beaches? The obvious solution, Amaral realized, was the least intuitive. What if Gloucester took the Vineyard's Carry In/Carry Out program a step farther, she proposed upon her return, and removed the trash barrels entirely, so people had no choice but to take their garbage with them? The Clean City Commission passed a Carry In/Carry Out resolution in April 2002 and immediately removed the trash barrels from the beaches. Signs were posted, stating emphatically, ``No Barrels, No Litter, No Kidding." The result delighted proponents and surprised opponents. Gloucester's beaches are not just somewhat cleaner, they are much cleaner. Each beach now generates the equivalent of just three bags of trash a day. But there is something more important than just reducing the size of government at work here. Gloucester's clean beaches represent efforts to "power the edges" of communities. People's ability and willingness to take control over and participate in their communities directly correlates with our sense of connectedness to one another and a sense of responsibility that is larger than our narrow, individual interests. The Gloucester beaches are just one example of how individuals are actively taking responsibility for their communities. And it is not just happening on land. Online, people are clicking like mad, sending petitions, participating in surveys, discussing issues, writing their own blogs, and commenting on others. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, approximately 147 million American adults use the Internet, an increase of 7 percent in just the past year. Our online communities will continue to grow and become an ever-larger part of our lives. Because of this, powering the edges and participating in communal efforts, whether they are geographic or virtual, is going to look and feel differently in this new century. Powering the edges in Gloucester meant throwing responsibility out to people. Powering the edges online, individuals can become strategists, working with others around the country, even around the globe, to decide about when and how to organize their efforts. For instance, young people used the MySpace website, plus their blogs and cellphones, to recruit their friends to the immigration marches last spring. Pushing power to the edges does not mean that government or nonprofit entities are on death's door. We desperately need institutions involved in social change, but we need them to work differently. They have to want to push power out, to share information; they have to participate, not dictate. When power is pushed out, when leaders learn to lead more and do less, when we trust that people will do the right thing by others in the community, good results will follow. If we can make beaches cleaner, imagine how we could improve schools and the environment by pushing power out? So, please don't rush to Good Harbor Beach. I don't like crowds. But if you come, do save me a spot not too far from the snack bar, and remember to carry your trash out with you. Allison Fine, a social entrepreneur and philanthropist, is author of the forthcoming book ``Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age." |