I had written previously about the opportunities to reduce air travel by substituting virtual meetings for physical meetings, however reading through the excellent work already being done for Blog Action day has really got me motivated to make a change today.
I'd like to make a bargain with you......
For the remainder of the year, don't fly. Neither will I. Instead, we will use the amazing array of tools at our disposal, from Telepresence to WebEx to avatar-mediated communications, to approximate the magic of physical proximity.
What's the bargain? I promise to pay $1000 out of my own pocket per airline trip that I take between now and the end of the year. Where does that $1000 go? The Nature Conservancy. So the result is a win-win, either I fund the Nature Conservancy to look into solutions for combating rising emissions, or I reduce my share of airline-related emissions. I don't drive to work or else I'd suggest the same for cars. If you are game, then publicly promise to do the same.
There are a number of us in the virtual world space that travel from virtual world event to virtual world event to speak and do business, and the question always arises 'why cant we do this virtually?'. Well, if 30 or more speakers were looking at $1000 fines each for flying, I bet you'd see a really big virtual world event conducted in the virtual world.
Feel free to track me on Dopplr to confirm I am keeping my side of the bargain. How do I reach you again?
Sigh, if only virtual Christmas were possible-- and I doubt my extended family would jump for joy at the thought of carving the virtual turkey (Although most of them have already adopted Facebook with surprising zeal).
Impressive commitment all-the-same, and here's hoping you get some folks to join you on this.
Posted by: Aaron Sarazan | October 15, 2007 at 04:22 PM
I'm all for not flying. Count me in!
Posted by: Baba | October 15, 2007 at 07:48 PM
I have too many existing commitments to allow me to make this a reality in Q4, but I am thinking about doing this in Q1.
Great talk by the way.
Posted by: Jeff Barr | October 16, 2007 at 04:51 PM
See you in Second Life ! : )
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | October 17, 2007 at 07:00 PM
Great idea ! As I appreciate what you write (so may be who you are), I hope to see you mainly in SL :-)
Posted by: Pierre-Olivier | October 19, 2007 at 11:05 AM