Friday, January 6, 2006
The Power of Online Communities to Effect Change
When I first discovered the online world (pre-Web, as a user of the old
CompuServe online service), one of the first lessons I learned was how
niche online communities could influence decision-makers. Groups of
people with a shared interest, passion, or career could pressure
institutions to change things just by having a conversation, griping
about something, and suggesting changes.
That lesson came back to me today because of a conversation on an
e-mail discussion list about running. Some members of the Boulder Trail
Runners list this week have been griping about race organizers mostly
giving out cotton t-shirts to entrants. Anyone who exercises knows it's
dumb to wear cotton t-shirts anytime your activity makes you sweat
significantly; modern wicking (or "technical") fabrics designed to
help sweat evaporate are much, much better.
I usually just lurk (that is, listen in but not talk much) on this
running list, but I did weigh in on this issue -- suggesting that race
directors should offer entrants a choice, so we don't get stuck with a
bunch of cotton race t-shirts in our closets that never get used.
Well, this week's discussion prompted action by the t-shirt provider of
the local Boulder Backroads Marathon/Half Marathon. The race director
listened in on the discussion, and today the CEO of the (local) company
that produces the shirts for the race wrote to the list: "Following on
recent postings, you'll all be pleased to know that the race shirts
provided for the Boulder Backroads this year will be in a technical
(wicking) material called DriMove from GoLite and will also be in both
men's and women's cuts and sizes."
Behold the power of online communities! It's a lesson that media companies could be reminded about.
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