Ecosia statt Google? Nein, danke!

Es kam heute die gefühlte zwanzigste Ecosia-Einladung über StudiVZ rein. Komischerweise reagierte ich so emotional, dass ich jetzt diesen Blogeintrag verfasse, der sich gegen all diese one-click-and-you-can-safe-the-world!!-Ideen richtet.

Ich finde einfach die Verführbarkeit für solche digitalen Opiate unappetitlich. Nennt mich ruhig defätistisch — ich glaube an Bio-Lebensmittel, weniger konsumieren, weniger fliegen usw. Aber ich glaube nicht an die Weltrettungs-Wirksamkeit von Suchmaschinen und Feed a Child with a Click sowie Konsorten (m.E die perverseste digitale Variante, Menschen glaubhaft machen zu wollen, das Schicksal eines Kindes liege in seiner Hand).

Jede Ecke des Lebens soll also mit Charity zugespachtelt sein, irgendwelche intransparenten Unternehmen die sich bei Sponsoren anbiedern. Nein, danke.

Beispiel Ecosia, tolle neue-alte Marketing Idee á la Krombacher mit klischeehaftem Urwaldbild. Aber nichts dahinter, weil

• Man unterstützt Yahoo und Microsoft, die sich eins ins Fäustchen lachen.
• Ecosia bündelt informationen nicht sinnvoll und ressourcensparend wie Google, ich muss also immer eine ganze Internetseite laden (Co2 durch Server!) um Wetter oder Wechselkurse zu erfahren (“Pfund in Dollar” oder “Wetter in Hannover” geht nicht ) außerdem…
• …ist das Gesamtkonzept von Google durchaus ressourcensparend, wenn man sich nicht bei einzelnen Anbietern durch grafiklastige News klicken muss, sondern alles durch ein paar Klicks bekommt, News, Docs, ein Emailaccount der mich nicht penetrant mit Boulevardnews auf der Startseite zuschüttet.
• Wie schon gesagt: Ecosia hat mit seiner Schmalspursuchmaschinenvariante keine Extras wie Mailsuche, Books, News oder Docs. Als ob eine Suchmaschine heute nur eine Suchmaschine ist; Dass Ecosia so reduziert ist, kommt mir wieder so á la Jahr 2000 vor — spricht ja wieder für die StudiVZ-Steinzeit-Nutzer, die mich immer in Ecosia Werbegruppen einladen wollten (Sorry für den Seitenhieb, bin halt ein Nerd.)

Don’t be evil, hat Google als Eckpfeiler seiner Firmenpolitik angegeben, und die Kategorie evil in der Firmengeschichte deutlich gestreckt. Ökologischer Lebensstil mit Yuppietum und Öko als Marketingidee gibt es sicherlich auch bei Google (Stromautos sowie seine Server, die lt. Google Öko sein sollen). Aber ich halte es für besser, bei einem Suchmaschinenanbieter zu sein, der mir nicht seine Mission penetrant aufdrängt. Und ich muss hier nicht die alte Diskussion anzetteln, dass Charity auch immer die Verantwortung von Staaten abnimmt und aufs Individuum abwälzt, oder?

Was für eine gefährliche Botschaft kann es sein, wenn Ecosia impliziert, der Regenwald sei durch Gesuche von ein paar Millionen Menschen zu retten? Damit soll es also Getan sein? Für mich hört sich das ganz nach einem dititalem Lifestlyle-Opiat an.

Ecosia ist wie alkoholfreies Bier oder koffeinfreier Kaffee. Diesen Pseudo-Produkten wurde ihr grundsätzlicher Stoff entzogen, der eigentlich ihre ursprüngliche Existenzberichtigung ausmacht. Das ist wohl der Monolog eines Ecosia-Nutzers: Qualität der Suche? Extras wie Bilder und Büchersuche? Mir doch egal, der Regenwald muss gerettet werden!

Und wer will schon ein alkoholfreies Bier wie Ecosia trinken, wenn schon ein O-Saft einen Energieverbrauch von 1.050 Googlesuchen hat? Dann doch lieber das richtige Google. Prost!

featuring: Social Business

I already wrote about the HUB-Berlin on this Blog, but as I want this personal Blog to be about the ideas that drive me, I want to add another important topic: Social Business. And starting with a very basic question: What is this?

I read a good example of Social Business genius Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) in his autobiographical accounts “Banker to the Poor.” To keep it short:

Imagine a bridge that is needed in a very poor, underdeveloped place.  A bridge, that is extremely necessary for the rural population to transport goods and earn a living. How can you run this? Old way: An investor builds it, runs it, makes profits through the toll, wants to make more and more profits. Or the investor brings the money to a different place.

This is the old way. The new way, it’ s Social Business: The ownership of the bridge is given in the hands of the actual population in the form of shares. Micro-credits can make it affordable to poorer people. Money made out of the bridge-tolls will be reinvested; either in similar projects or a higer share-value can be realized and it definitely goes to people that need it.

I wrote: The ownership is given. But who gives it into the hands of people that really need it? A company that is founded by a passionate  person (e.g. Yunus), but also makes sure, that ordinary people can own shares, that need the services of the company and also are willing to contribute to the company in more than a material sense. Investors should have an emotional association, more than the abstract worth of the share.

And here we are in Berlin, in the HUB Berlin. It is a cooperative, run by the self eG, shares are mainly owned by people who are either experienced in projects/initiatives that are not neccessarily Social Business, but new and creative. And these people also want to be sorrounded by people that think about making the world a better place in an entrepreneurial sense or in a private sense (LOHAS –  Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability). This is the difference of sitting with a Notebook in Starbucks and pretending to work.

As it is with the bridge, which seems to be a totally different example: People can invest money and their ideas (look at the HUB’s events on the Blog) and earn later on in a material as well as immaterial sense (There is nothing more worth than seeing positive change in your immediate environment!).

Of course, Social Business also sounds like a marketing idea, and lots of people want a softer definition of Social Business, because some think, it is social enough to employ people. Which is wrong because if people don’t see the sensibleness of their work and their impact, might become alienated (see Marx) or less motivated and productive (see Adam Smith). However, there is still this idea that Social Business is just a new formulation of the old CSR/Corporate Social Responsibility. I organized an event for the self eG in March and here is a report:

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Article: Social Business is hot in the HUB

With about 40 participants on the “Social Business” dialogue evening in the HUB, the self eG proved its power to bring together people from various fields. Norbert Kunz and Ralf Weiß introduced the topic “Social Business” with their expertise. With iq-consult, Kunz enables young people to found their own business.

The second speaker, Ralf Weiß from akzente advises large companies on Corporate-Social-Responsibility (CSR). Clear is: it is not clear what Social Business is, and whether there even needs to be a definition. Ralf Weiß presented the example of BASF chemicals working together with Noble-Peace-Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus in a joint venture. He referred to a broad variety of CSR concepts and pointed out that CSR and social business may contribute to a further development of social market economy. Norbert Kunz stated clearly, that a Social Business’ main aim is improving social aspects of society. It is not creating profit from clever and innovative products. “Bill Gates’ Microsoft is not a Social Business, because Software avoids much waste.”

However, Kunz stressed that he cannot coin the term Social Business, but that arbitrariness must be avoided in order to distinguish between charity and CSR: “It’s on Social Businesses to fulfil society’ s needs, whereas demands are fulfilled by the “regular” profit-driven market economy.”

Afterwards, the “Social Business Café” allowed for a dialogue and sharing of the experience of all participants. Hans Jürgen Döring, a new member of the self eG, shared the following on his table group: “The importance of a Social Business definition was stressed, but I think of a seal, maybe also a legal Social Business status for companies in the future”. Julia Homilius from stratum GmbH, a CSR-research and consultancy company, is sure that CSR and Social Business belongs together. In her table group, she brought the topic of a CSR-seal forward, to ensure sustainability. She does not see a clear separation of CSR and Social Business: “The aims are basically the same.”

There are two lines of argumentation: Some see a strict separation from Charity and CSR, others see Social Business as an inbetween solution of Charity and CSR. The self eG looks forward to another dialogue, to bring forward the Social Business idea in society, or as Döring says: “Social Business is not a short termtopic, no trend. There needs to be more dialogue among different groups of society.”

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If anyone wants to hear abot the HUB Berlin life, come to Social Bar Hannover on 6 August. I think the Social Bar is also a HUB in its literal sense, because it offers almost no restraints on what you want to present or hear about, and is therefore very good to connect to people with ideas of any kind.

Join here: http://socialbar.de/wiki/Hannover

promoting: HUB Berlin Sustainability Week

I gonna try it for the 1.000.000 time. This is just one sentence, straightly typed into my notebook to describe the HUB-idea:

The HUB is an international connection of passionate people, working professionally or semi-professionaly on innovative projects. The HUB provides new people with new ideas almost every day.

Yeah,  sounds like the usual-fluffy, exuberant marketing sentence. But it’s really that way in the HUB.

Have a look at the programme a former colleague is responsible for. It’s about the sustainability week, consisting of discussions, guests, thematic lunches, a movie screening. A week all about sustainability to protect the environment. In the HUB, which is a larg, open workspace, also whithin the sutainability week.

I participated in several sustainability events when I worked in the HUB and — being honest — I didn’t become much more sustainable. Only slightly more. But I definitely became more aware of the topic and the need of sustainability. One doesn’t change from one day to the other. There’s firstly an awareness and questioning-yourself-process.

Maybe it’s not that good to eat meat every da (apart from diet issues), maybe I should take the bike? Maybe I should buy bio-coffee? Maybe I should take a bio- internet-service-provider? Maybe bio-products aren’t that expensice? Maybe, maybe, maybe…

So, if you want to search for the right questions on how to act sustainable, attend this event in the stylish Berlin-Kreuzberg Loft.

I am sure (and this is hopefully also right for me), the actions will follow the questions.
Link to the HUB Berlin Blog