Anyone who works in media or media relations knows that Friday afternoons are an information graveyard perfect for burying bad news. Last Friday, the gravediggers were particularly busy.
First came the news that the State Department had concluded that building the Keystone Pipeline to export oil from Alberta’s tar sands, across the US to ports on the Gulf of Mexico would have little impact on climate change. The logic? If you block one export route, another will emerge, so why bother. Now that is motivated American leadership.
The second putative news corpse was a brief item from the New York Times that its green blog is going the way of its environment team…extinct. We’ve already written about the demise of the Times e-team. What was galling about this brief announcement was the continued insistence that innovative, online coverage of the environment would continue unabated; greenwashing from the old gray lady reminding me how far the mighty have fallen.
But I bury the lead. It was the third item, that Groundwire was officially logging off, that really got my attention. There was no official release or news coverage. It is an inside story…but one that strikes home for those of us trying to counter the inherent advantage entrenched interests have in blocking social change.
Groundwire, formerly ONE/Northwest, was a nonprofit that sought to help environmental nonprofits join the modern age when it came to online tools. At first, that often meant simply a functional website or even a working computer network with an internal shared database. But Groundwire was never content to be a subsidized IT consultant. Early on, Groundwire’s staff saw the potential to use online tools to meaningfully reach people, connect people, and motivate people in new ways. What is now gospel for building campaigns was new when Groundwire began promoting it. The promise of technology was always far more present in a conversation with Groundwire staff than the practice.
Funding innovation with grant dollars is challenging. Largely, you need to do it on the fly, creating and serving simultaneously, which can be a real juggling act. All of us who occupy this “capacity building” space were better for having Groundwire as part of our field; whether as collaborator or competitor.
Groundwire’s talented staff will continue to help promote social change. Most had already departed, some to form new firms, some to join existing ones by the time the coffin lid closed on this remarkable enterprise. I am not here to speculate or second-guess what led to that demise. It is a tough world out there for nonprofits and for profits alike; one where misjudgments can be magnified quickly. All of us at Resource Media will miss having Groundwire as a peer and we wish those that came from Groundwire’s ranks nothing but the best.
Image from Flickr creative commons, courtesy rcbodden
