Continuing on American themes, Larry Lessig, who has led calls for an open Internet, talks on a webcast here at the recent Web 2.0 Summit in the USA on how money overcomes consumer protection and ultimately trust in government.
As the Presidency changes, he calls for an online activist movement for change in the nexus of politics and corporate money.
210,000 people from over two hundred countries have signed up with messages and pictures to go up on a wall in Washington. You can add yours on avaaz.org.
One who has, David from Citizens Advice in Leeds, also points me to the radical work on energy of Obama’s newly appointed Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. We could perhaps see a greater contrast on energy policy between old and new administrations than on almost any other issue.
I think it is good to complain – good for you and good for others. And the complaints movement is taking off. Complaints are set to music (the Complaints Choir of Birmingham – see Youtube here), treated as philosophy (Julian baggini’s excellent Complaint: from minor moans to principled protests) and are now the basis for a new online community.
Neil, the founder, says to me that he is launching the new complaint community site today at an Advantage West Midlands conference. Good luck!
One aspect of Obama’s success in politics is his time and experience spent as a community organiser. Community organising was born in Chicago and I have seen from my time working on community banking how this has transformed poorer neighbourhoods across the city as well as other parts of the USA. A few spots in Britain that have benefited from broad-based community organising, such as East London. 
The architect of community organising was Saul Alinsky, who idea was that just as people were organising together as workers and as consumers, so they could mobilise people as communities. His book Rules for Radicals remains a great text… and perhaps an insight into what we may hope to see ahead with an Obama Presidency.
How energy efficient is your home? The way to find out is to check your ’standard assessment procedure’ score…or SAP. It is a score out of one hundred, and over time, this is an acronym that could become as important as APR and IQ.
Through the initiative of Consumer Focus’ Chair, Lord Whitty, we have introduced an amendment that we are now lobbying for on the current Energy Bill. We suggest that fuel poor consumers should be charged the lowest available tariffs until their homes have been brought up to a minimum SAP rating of 81. This SAP rating would on average cut demand for heat by half, lifting the majority of households out of fuel poverty.
Where are we now? The average home in fuel poverty in the UK has a SAP rating of 33. Despite the social, environmental and economic case for it, the UK still has a long way to go to get serious on energy efficiency.
I have just finished the very best and funniest novel about consumers and marketing that you could read.
Syrup is by Aussie Maxx Barry.
