|
|
to subscribe to the monthly FLOW newsletter.
Dear FLOW members,
How do we create a new social movement based on a pragmatic idealism? We ask ourselves that question every day, and gradually we are discovering ever more wonderful answers.
FLOW ALLIANCES
To begin with, we are discovering a number of organizations, both new and old, that are already doing much of the work that FLOW would like to inspire people to do. In this newsletter we will begin to introduce you to these complementary networks and organizations. We are at various stage of dialogue with these organizations, exploring potential alliances. Regardless of the eventual nature of these alliances, the fact that so many like-minded organizations are springing up is an encouraging sign.
For FLOW to be optimally effective, we will want a presence in the international professional community. And to our delight, we have found Globond, an international networking community that has worked with FLOW to put together a panel at the 10th World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs in Sao Paolo, Brazil, an event sponsored by several UN agencies and to be covered by CNN. The topic of the panel is very FLOW: “Entrepreneurs as Global Change Agents: Can entrepreneurs create sustainable, global peace, prosperity, and happiness in the next fifty years?” My co-panelists will include Alan Weber, the founder of Fast Company, Stefan Roever, CEO of Navio, and Irene Ho, an Asian businesswoman. Thanks to Kirstin Myers of Globond for her great work in putting this together.
We will also need a web platform that is more focused on news and current events, than we can currently be on the FLOW website. Happily, Kevin Rollins has created The Free Liberal, a transpartisan journal of politics and economics based on the idea of “A Free Liberal is a person who values individual freedom, is alive to the dangers inherent in all forms of power and authority, and believes in the possibility of the rule of law, equal justice, fundamental rights, and a free and prosperous society.” Kevin worked with Charlie Frohman and Kirstin Myers of Globond, along with Global Integrated Solutions and Open World to put together a D.C. event at which I spoke to a fascinatingly diverse transpartisan audience. Strikingly, several people at the event said that they met someone whom they had been told they should meet but hadn’t yet; it was a great mix of people.
In addition to the existing FLOW networking site, we will need a community-building site similar to myspace.com or orkut.com. Happily, Brian Johnson is creating Zaadz, a complementary community-building site, which will include many prospective FLOW members. The copy on their main page sketches their Plan: “Ours involves Capitalism. Spirituality. Enthusiasm. Love. Service. Inspiration. Leaders. People CRAZY enough to think they can change the world. And courageous enough to do something about it. And committed enough to stick to it when they feel like giving up.” An ad with the same copy will soon run in What is Enlightenment?, Ode, Utne, VegNews, Shambala, Tricycle, Science of Mind and “a bunch of other mags.”
We will want to constantly be out there discovering new frontiers of exploration. And, voila, The Explorers Foundation is already doing this: “We believe that enterprise devoted to finding, inventing, presenting, and distributing tools for explorers will change the world.” See their "glyphs" for an amazing set of tools for explorers.
We will want to produce media that celebrates entrepreneurs and markets. And Free to Choose Media, producers of Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose,” have a biography of Milton Friedman coming out on PBS in the fall of 2006, a forthcoming two-part international production on the work of FLOW hero Hernando de Soto, (Institute of Liberty & Democracy), whose work Bill Clinton describes as "The most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world", and a sequel to Free to Choose that that juxtaposes Julian Simon's vision of the centrality of human capital with economic freedom and the rule of law.
We will want to support global entrepreneurs in projects that create peace and prosperity around the world. Open World is developing brilliant, innovative ways of doing this, and GlobalGiving finds the best existing projects around the world and channels funding to them.
We will want to provide top-notch expertise in helping new entrepreneurs to bootstrap their enterprises. And Bootstrap is doing this.
These are just a few of the dozens of groups, some with extraordinarily large reach, with whom we are working towards common goals. Future newsletters will continue to elaborate on our various partnerships as they develop and on specific projects stemming from these partnerships. In another six months or so we intend to be ready to market a robust, visionary, practical problem-solving network, prepared to support millions of FLOW supporters and fellow travelers.
FLOW PROGRAM & EVENTS
I also want to give you all a heads up on a forthcoming media and education project titled Working for Good – a wonderful program designed to activate the entrepreneurial spirit for good in young people). FLOW is providing a substantial portion of the content and talent for a short classroom curriculum preceding a series of videoconferences in early May. Produced by FLOW Chief Activation Officer Jeff Klein, Working for Good will be presented as a Pulse Program of the Global Nomad Group and is sponsored by Peace Cereal.
FLOW advisor Susan Niederhoffer hosted a FLOW gathering in NYC last month after FLOW member Marsha Enright gave a talk at the NYC Junto on her plans for creating a new college called College of the United States. A lively meeting ensued.
Michael Ostrolenk, whose consulting group Global Integrated Solutions helped to sponsor our D.C. event, also achieved a coup in the form of a great speech by Al Gore co-sponsored by his Liberty Coalition. Ostrolenk is a leading builder of practical transpartisan alliances. See http://www.libertyspeeches.org/ for Gore’s speech.
FLOW WEB SITE
Finally, I have written this month’s article for our Member Platform on “Liberalism vs. Leftism.” In a time when so much of our news is filtered through the lenses of the “Left” or the “Right,” it is good to remember that transpartisan message that the United States is preeminently the product of the Great Liberal Revolution of the 18th Century. This piece may spark controversy; we hope so. Join our FLOW theory group, to talk about this piece.
Towards a sustainable peace, prosperity, and happiness for all of humanity,
Michael
Michael Strong, CEO & Chief Visionary Officer
P.S. FLOW is above all a forum of free exchange for its members in the quest for sustainable peace, prosperity, and happiness. We welcome your feedback to the content of this newsletter and all FLOW activities and publications. Please send your thoughts to .
P.P.S. Please join one of our five themed discussion groups, and participate in our active and growing community, at www.flowrealism.org or www.flowidealism.org (FLOW, where idealism and realism both lead to the same place).
|
|
