Justin Yuen

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With the internet being the next business frontier, and our children inheriting many environmental problems, I do believe the big social media internet companies will have to carry their weight with sustainability. That being said, I think many of them are doing a good job of that and in doing so, providing an excellent model for others to follow.

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For more opinions on this topic, also view the discussion happening at: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/Sustainability/green-business/ SUS_BUS/277051-709244?browseIdx=0&sik=1216909920619&goback=%2Eamq

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This article raises a few interesting points. First, Justin's right that the tools aren't super-important, because they're becoming ubiquitous, and thus easy to add, or subtract, or swap out. One of the ways that this is changing Web development projects is a strategy of "put it up there and adjust" instead of "plan, debug, and push." Second, "social marketing" is an important concept. The old way of marketing ("identifying, anticipating and supplying customer requirements efficiently and profitably") implies that the consumer is passive in the process. What's now happening is that the process is inverting. Music fans are mashing up their own songs. Lego enthusiasts are co-creating the future of the Lego Mindstorms product line. Consumers are hacking Sony PSPs, iPods, cars ... the list goes on and on. If a company believes they're the source of innovation, they're wrong. One of the consequences of an open-source world is the mass innovation Justin describes. The formidable challenge for businesses is coming up with a business model that allows open innovation that in turn adds value to the product or brand. (A good limited example of this is Nike and iPod collaboration, and the community that's sprung up around nikeplus.com. But what happens when companies can't keep pace with consumer-driven innovation?) Third, this coming storm of consumer behavior is really good for sustainability efforts, because the ethic of transparency and collaboration that's come from sustainability movements ties in really nicely with the open source ethic. (continued below!)

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More important, it's just hubris to think a small group of people are going to work in isolation and come up with a perfect product or innovation. Besides, it takes too long. Why not tap the power of the community, by sharing it and allowing people to hack your ideas and make them better? Heading from our current lifestyle to one that's sustainable requires rapid, drastic changes in lifestyle -- in other words, fast innovation, and rapid knowledge transfer. Luckily, open source collaboration is a great way to go about doing that, and social media gives us the tools to do it.

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