After more than 25 years working in the social justice/advocacy and community sectors, I’ve developed some pretty clear ideas about how to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, the power to do such things is limited and is currently being twisted and tweaked by those who have begun to figure out how to capitalize on what’s called “double” or “triple” bottom line philosophies-organizational structures that propose to balance the differences between nonprofit and for-profit operational models.

But the funny thing is that as good as some of these ideas are they fail to represent the single most important element of successful social change: empowering people to have a voice in their own lives and over the forces that control the access they have to power, which is usually the money. While the underlying technology is, for example, usually the key interest of those wanting to invest in innovative social networking strategies, the real key to bringing about change is using these systems in different, more effective ways. Seldom do venture capitalists or other do-gooders do this.

I’m looking forward to writing here about a few such ideas with a focus on how entirely new ideas could impact California’s obesity catastrophe, develop a new genre of Entertainment Justice, and showcase how Main Street retailers could really maximize their viability by using technological scales of efficiency. Unfortunately, few people have started exploring these possible solutions … at least not yet. But maybe this forum will inspire some policymakers to try and try again with new models for real change.

A good way to start is by reading Paul Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest. It’s been around for a while but its value remains untapped. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say as we start these kinds of discussions, assuming this is a good place to seed real change.

Allan