Last night’s Giants’ win was another notch on our belt—sorry Gisele #prayhardernexttime—after quite a victorious couple of weeks for issues crucial to Vixely’s mission. The 2 biggest wins, Komen vs Planned Parenthood and SOPA taxes, demonstrate the power of social media in producing change. These two case studies also provide interesting insights on the industries that will shape the future of the American economy.
The Women and Technology Wins of 2012:
Komen Site Hacked
1. Komen Reverses Planned Parenthood Decision: Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure reversed its decision to pull funding for breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood following a massive public backlash. Brinker apologized on Friday and said Komen will preserve its eligibility for future grants and to continue funding existing grants (note this is not a promise though to renew Planned Parenthood funding). The bigger win, however, is that Planned Parenthood has raised close to a million dollars in the past several days—far surpassing the $600,000 Komen donates to Planned Parenthood a year (including a $250,000 donation from NYC Mayor Bloomberg) due to an outpouring of public support. Social media played an instrumental role in this reversal with the majority of the public backlash occuring online. While most of the online protests were fair play, hackers did got ahold of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation’s website for several hours altering its copy (see image to the right) to read: “Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank”—a blunt take on the organization’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.
2. SOPA Protests Sway Congress: In recent weeks, internet users as well as companies came together to stop SOPA from advancing through Congress, demonstrating the power of the Internet to rally people around an important cause. Online protests- led by Google, Wikipedia and others- illustrated the new power of the internet over DC lobbyists in influencing policy makers. In 1 day we completely reversed the congressional vote.
So, what does this demonstrate?
That the internet is a scary place to not be a part of and that it is the tool for our generation’s protest. This is not the era of hiding behind your computer but of leveraging the connectivity and the amplification power of virality to achieve huge milestones. Social media has been critiqued as a shallow tool of self-promotion, yet in these past 2 weeks, we have seen progress that could not have been accomplished without facebook, twitter and blogging. This gives people- from anyone to the President- a voice and the opportunity to shape the public’s perception of themselves.
The internet has transformed from a place where new identities can be forged to the place where the truth is forced—where individuals are held accountable for their actions because the instant transfer of information and knowledge leads to a transparency never before allowed. And while those who know how to best navigate it may win in the short term, this levels the playing field for the truth.
So what does this tell us about the thought leaders of our generation, the digital generation, that will drive the next American economy?Where does this unique vantage point,with information at our fingertips, and the ability to create and tell our own stories to the world, position those of us who strive to be successful, as we decide what career path to follow? Facebook’s IPO is a demonstration of the value that we strive to achieve and the power that information accessibility gives to the individual. It opens the potential to not just make a lot of money, but to create an entirely new market whose product influences the lives of millions and that could never have been predicted nor replicated without the leaders who built it. Mark Zuckerberg, at the age of 28, has access to and controls massively more information on every individual in the United States than our own government does and yet Facebook has protected our privacy and adapted to the needs of its users, continuing to produce solutions that strive to foster deeper connections even at the sacrifice of profit.
This era of business leaders in entrepreneurship and technology does not have the likes of the Wall Street greed at its helm. Our generation is disgusted by the unethical greed of the financial industry as well as the lack of accountability that our government has held to the industry. We have come to the realization that the best way to ensure a business can be run ethically and efficiently is to start and run that business ourselves.
So what next?
Support
Start-up America, Obama’s Initiative to helps entrepreneurs start and scale the companies that can change the world
while creating jobs. Support the start-ups that are determined to solve unmet needs—that are providing a product or service in an innovative way that tackles head first real problems that people are facing.
The results of the creativity, innovation and multi-disciplinary collaboration of talented individuals in Silicon Valley- of engineers, designers, businessmen and women- coming together, cannot be replicated or replaced in a global economy. The future of America’s economy and jobs are in supporting this next era of innovation that a knowledge economy can produce. Fear should not be the catalyst in supporting “Start-up America,” as the unique solutions derived from entrepreneurship cannot be globalized as manufacturing has, the catlyst should be the successes we have seen when the visions of those who strive to build a new solution are executed. Accountability and transparency are core values of these internet endeavors.
But hey, I might be biased.
About Jennifer Eident
Jennifer Eident is Co-Founder and CEO of Vixely. She moved out to Silicon Valley from New York to receive her MBA at Stanford Business School and hasn’t looked back. Most recently, Jen served as Director of Marketing for XOJET, a TPG portfolio company. She was on the founding team of two previous start-ups and co-founded an innovation incubator between the Stanford Design School and GSB. Prior to Stanford, she worked in Investment Management at Cambridge Associates as well as for the High-Technology division of the Abu Dhabi government. She grew up in the United Arab Emirates and Connecticut. She is determined to be a hacker and loves a late night on W3Schools. As CEO, she swiftly enacted a strict No Pants Policy on Fridays.
So what does this tell us about the thought leaders of our generation, the digital generation, that will drive the next American economy?
