Just the other week many questioned American Idol’s crowdsourcing technique of asking audience members to text their vote for their favorites when Pia Toscano was voted off. Crowdsourcing was also in question with President Obama’s “Open for Questions” initiative when questions on the nation’s drug reform were at the top of the public agenda. In fact, the number one issue–not once, but twice–was the legalization of marijuana. And again, when Change.org held its crowdsourcing contest “Ideas for Change,” the legalization of marijuana also floated to the number one spot.

Before you say crowdsourcing is so 2008, give me a second. This may be an oversimplification–but I can’t get the thought out of my head. I understand the benefits of crowdsourcing–but there’s also a time and purpose to applying a crowdsourcing approach.

Here’s the leap: Is voting a form of crowdsourcing?

Having recently joined the army of weekday commuters, I just finished listening to Arianna Huffington’s Third World America on audiobook. (Note: Bush’s Decision Points is next on my “to read” list as I want to study differing viewpoints and perspectives.) Despite Huffington’s obvious leanings and strong (and sometimes distracting) language, she does make some interesting arguments. One of which is her look at education and its role on our economic and political structures, specifically, the American public’s access to quality information.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu8QDhNeNdQ&

Have you read Third World America? What were your thoughts and reflections upon reading it? And, is voting a form of crowdsourcing? One of the messages I appreciated most from Huffington’s book was her call for increased civic engagement from citizens ourselves as she did balance her argument asking for both policy changes as well as increased individual accountability.

Though I would have liked to hear more about the solutions she proposes to the problems she outlines, she does encourage people to visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/third-world-america, as a hub for getting involved and taking action (a smart move on her end I must say).

Additional Resources:

• Third World America: Why I Wrote the Book and What We Need to Do to Save America’s Middle Class by Arianna Huffington
• Editorial: Obama’s Third World America, Washington Times
• How You Can Prevent America from Ever Becoming a Third World Country, Huffington Post

“Seek knowledge. Ask questions.”

• Social determinants of health as a new topic area in the Healthy People 2020 framework, and
• Determinants of Health are also one of the four new Foundation Health Measures which will be used as guides to monitor progress toward promoting health, preventing disease and disability, eliminating disparities, and improving quality of life in the United States.

One of the greatest ways that this shift is being applied in social marketing is by evolving the social marketing approach to influence systems, networks and environments. How? Through design–Let’s take a look at a couple examples.

Bertie County, North Carolina:  Teaching Design for Change

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiIxdFBA0Sw

Designer Emily Pilloton is truly inspiring in her approach, her commitment and personal dedication to finding innovative solutions and sustainable approaches to positive social change. Pilloton founded Project H Design, a non-profit design firm where they apply the design process to catalyze communities and public education from within. In the presentation above, Pilloton shares with us the story of Bertie County. The county is the poorest in the state and faces a number of public health challenges that other rural areas may relate to including being a “rural ghetto,” dealing with “brain drain,” and having little access to creative capital.

However, the picture in Bertie County is becoming more vibrant thanks to Pilloton and others working to change the system–the environment. Pilloton walks us through the six steps her firm has applied to make change come to Bertie County:

1. Design through action.
2. Design with, not for.
3. Design systems, not stuff.
4. Document, share and measure.
5. Start locally and scale globally.
6. Build.

In short, Poilloton and the Project H team “design solutions that empower communities and build collective creative capital.” They might not say “we do social marketing” up front–but to me, that’s exactly what they’re doing and we can learn much from them. They are doing the work and taking the type of approach that the shift described above calls for and requires. And shown in Bertie County, this may mean that we need to get our hands dirty, ignite creativity, make genuine connections with those we want to serve, and have a personal conviction to see change happen.

Howard Roads, Virginia:  Designing for Physical Activity

This example comes from Rescue Social Change Group (RSCG). RSCG is a research, marketing and strategy firm where they focus on the relationship between identity and behavior to change behavior through culture. In this specific case, RSCG worked with Howards Roads, Virginia to promote physical activity amongst youth. The reason this case stands out is because it didn’t take the ‘easy button’ approach of pushing “get active” or “exercise more” messages to tweens and teens. Instead, they went a step further and actually designed an environment to promote physical activity for youth. They accomplished this by creating a step dancing league called Step Royale where teams compete throughout the year to earn the title of the best step team in Hampton Roads.

From What Ifs to What Next

Given these two examples, here are three “What Ifs” to add to the list:

• What if public health wasn’t just about the message but also about the design, the system, the network and the environment?
• What if public health wasn’t just the responsibility of public health folks but resonated and took root in our communities?
• What if we didn’t ask what if–but instead, asked what’s next?

I’m almost thinking of a Roosevelt-New-Deal-sense of shared responsibility and commitment. The global citizen can start with us and our neighbors–We can design change in our communities.

Disclaimer: Healthy People 2020 is an initiative by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services–of which, is a client that I work with at IQ Solutions.