As part of the background research for our Hobbypreneur report, I revisited an essay on the new localism movement written last year by Chapman University Presidential Fellow Joel Kotkin.
It is one of my favorite descriptions of the new localism movement - a broad movement that includes many of the Makers and Hobbypreneurs we discuss in our report. Key quote on the role technology is playing in this movement:
"The final factor driving the localist trend is technology, which has led to a rapid expansion of home-based work and to companies' setting up work locations closer to where their employees live. The number of home-based workers has doubled twice as quickly in this decade as in the last and is now about 9 million. Nationwide, 13 million people telecommuted at least one day a week in 2007, a 16 percent leap from 2004. And more than 22 million people run home-based businesses."
The essay is well worth reading as the New Geography website it posted on. New Geography covers a lot of trends and issues of importance to small business, but does so from an urban planning/geography perspective.
In this day, people really have a lot of power. The Internet has been the great equalizer with social movements and grassroots campaigns gathering lightning speed in just a few clicks. Social networks and utilizing social media marketing can help perpetuate whatever movement you are trying to create. Not all movements create great social change, some are just for fun and entertainment.
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What could be possible be nothing that what we thought is possible, thinking about more than the usual is not that appealing to be exact.
Posted by: Arnold | January 06, 2010 at 09:52 PM
Took me time to read all the comments, but I enjoyed the article.
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