Scheduled to give a talk on genetic technologies at the March 17, 2020 Singularity University global COVID summit, Jamie Metzl switched gears that morning to instead discuss what he felt was a more burning issue. Calling the COVID-19 pandemic another symptom of the dangerous mismatch between the global nature of our biggest common threats and the national way we have organized ourselves to address them, he argued that only a structural response could solve this structural problem. He then called for people around the world to come together to build this better future. The YouTube video of that talk went viral:
Scheduled to give a talk on genetic technologies at the March 17, 2020 Singularity University global COVID summit, Jamie Metzl switched gears that morning to instead discuss what he felt was a more burning issue. Calling the COVID-19 pandemic another symptom of the dangerous mismatch between the global nature of our biggest common threats and the national way we have organized ourselves to address them, he argued that only a structural response could solve this structural problem. He then called for people around the world to come together to build this better future. The YouTube video of that talk went viral:
Scheduled to give a talk on genetic technologies at the March 17, 2020 Singularity University global COVID summit, Jamie Metzl switched gears that morning to instead discuss what he felt was a more burning issue. Calling the COVID-19 pandemic another symptom of the dangerous mismatch between the global nature of our biggest common threats and the national way we have organized ourselves to address them, he argued that only a structural response could solve this structural problem. He then called for people around the world to come together to build this better future. The YouTube video of that talk went viral:
March 17, 2020 Singularity University global COVID summit
Staying up all night, Jamie drafted and then posted on his website a Declaration of Global Interdependence drawing on the works of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Barber, and others, then sent the link to his large personal email list. The response was strong and immediate, inspiring Jamie to call a global virtual meeting.
That first meeting, held April 1, 2020, included people of many different backgrounds and levels from 23 countries on five continents, all recognizing a shared responsibility to fix our broken world. After Jamie outlined his vision for this movement’s potential, the group explored next steps and developed focused action plans to move a common agenda forward. To realize these aspirations, working groups were established to address the following questions:
- What lessons can we learn from other experiences of popular democracy and global campaigns?
- How can we best include and engage the younger and older generations?
- How can we utilize a network of networks approach to best leverage existing communities that could be allies and partners?
- How can we best connect with people who may be outside of these networks due to poverty, national political contexts, lack of internet access, etc.?
- How can we best engage creative communities and best embrace arts and culture in our work?
- How can we best articulate what we mean by global interdependence and frame our vision?
- What is the best process and architecture for building our community and movement?
- How should we think about funding our work?
The groups worked actively over the following three weeks to develop and begin implementing action plans in each area and to recruit a broader and more diverse community of co-creators. The community also collectively crowd-sourced multiple rounds of edits to what became a highly revised and improved Declaration of Interdependence.
At the April 22 global virtual meeting, groups discussed progress to date and additional working groups were established to focus on the social architecture of the movement and on specific action plans targeting areas of greatest and most urgent need. The revised declaration was also moved towards provisional acceptance (it will likely be revised collectively as people with new voices and perspectives join our community). The group adopted the name OneShared.World and set the global launch date for May 6, 2020.
From a blog post to a global movement in 44 days…and our journey had only just begun.