Heimans and Timms provide fascinating examples of new power at work: how NASA enlisted the crowd (nonexperts) to foster open innovation the heightened participatory experience of worship at Denver’s House of All Sinners and Saints, where whoever shows up is in charge and how crowdsourcing of ideas rejuvenated the Lego brand. Old power has the top-down voice of a corporate press release new power soars through “meme drops,” which “spread sideways, coming most alive when remixed, shared, and customized by peer communities”-e.g., in the ice bucket challenge and Pepe the Frog. The authors detail how power-old, new, or a combination of both-is now exercised by people, companies, and movements to quietly shape our lives in impactful ways. Using online engagement, crowdsourcing, and peer-to-peer approaches, new power offers a fresh means of participation and a “heightened sense of agency” for all involved. New power relies on connectivity and the desire to participate and collaborate, as in Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook (as well as protest movements like Occupy and Black Lives Matter and terrorist groups like the Islamic State). Old power, write the authors, depends on expertise and what you own or control, as in Fortune 500 companies.

Heimans, CEO of Purpose, which “builds and supports social movements,” and Timms, executive director of the 92nd Street Y, debut with an illuminating discussion of how technology and our rising expectations have enabled us to achieve our goals on a greater-than-ever scale. A study of the “new power” made possible by connectivity.

New Power by Jeremy Heimans