White House

Each week, we’ll cull the interwebs for the most relevant articles, videos and commentary about Millennials and social change, and then present them right here in a weekly round-up. It’s not to say we won’t also provide our own fresh content and perspectives throughout the week, because we will—as will our provocative and savvy Social Citizen Ambassadors. But you can view this space as a central repository for all of the great stuff that’s filling our newsfeeds, twitter feeds, and Facebook streams.

We’ll do the curating for you, just come by and pay us a visit – and drop a comment every now and then to let us know how we’re doing and what we’re missing. And now for this week’s round-up…

What’s up with all this talk about SOPA?

A number of popular websites went dark yesterday to protest two pieces of legislation—the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. As explained by David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, “Both are meant to attack the problem of foreign Web sites that sell pirated or counterfeit goods. They would impose restrictions forcing U.S. companies to stop selling online ads to suspected pirates, processing payments for illegal online sales and refusing to list Web sites suspected of piracy in search-engine results.”

Fahrenthold notes that “The idea is to cut off the channels that deliver American customers, and their money, to potential pirates. But tech companies see the laws as a dangerous overreach, objecting because, they say, the laws would add burdensome costs and new rules that would destroy the freewheeling soul of the Internet.”

Congress is set to begin voting on the legislation next Tuesday. Make sure your voice is heard no matter which side you are on in this debate.

Get Your Degree from Codecademy

We love Codecademy here at Social Citizens—it’s a quick and easy online platform that teaches anyone who cares to learn the basics of coding. Codecademy, along with the White House, this week announced the launch of a new condensed version of its program called “Code Summer+.”

Tech Crunch reports that this new program is designed to educate the nation’s underprivileged and disconnected youth as part of Obama’s larger Summer Jobs+ initiative. If all goes accordingly to plan, both Summer Jobs+ and Code Summer+ will link to lead youth to jobs, with Summer Jobs+ aiming to create 250,000 job opportunities for youth by the beginning of this summer. Employers can also get involved here and offer jobs as part of this program. 

Each week, we’ll cull the interwebs for the most relevant articles, videos and commentary about Millennials and social change, and then present them right here in a weekly round-up. It’s not to say we won’t also provide our own fresh content and perspectives throughout the week, because we will—as will our provocative and savvy Social Citizen Ambassadors. But you can view this space as a central repository for all of the great stuff that’s filling our newsfeeds, twitter feeds, and Facebook streams.

We’ll do the curating for you, just come by and pay us a visit – and drop a comment every now and then to let us know how we’re doing and what we’re missing. And now for this week’s round-up…

Millennials to business: Social responsibility isn’t optional

Earlier this week, Michelle Nunn, CEO of the Points of Light Institute, cautioned businesses and organizations across the country to sit up and take notice of the changes that Millennials are driving in the workforce in an article for The Washington Post. Nunn believes that, “As consumers, employees and entrepreneurs, Millennials are shifting the norms of corporate America’s conduct, ethical imperatives and purpose.” It is clear that over the course of the next decade that Millennials cannot be ignored by the corporate sector, and those that do will be quick to pay the price. The inevitable “change” for companies is both internal and external—Millennials will continue to gain an increasing amount of consumer power relative to their spending and similarly over time they will take on more and more leadership roles within organizations.

At Social Citizens, we are actively engaging others in this dialogue about Millennial-driven change within organizations and we welcome your thoughts on this. Have you seen any examples of companies that are embracing this shift? As for companies that have not already started discussing this issue, how do you think they should respond?

What could you do with $40?

No matter what political party you affiliate yourself with or not, all Americans who receive a paycheck are looking at a $1,000 tax hike because Congress did not approve a proposed payroll tax cut extension. If Congress does not act to approve the extension before January 1, 2012—which is very likely—the average American would see a $1,000 tax hike take place. Broken down, that $1,000 will cost the typical family about $1,000 a year, or $40 per paycheck. Also to consider, since payroll taxes are only collected on the first $106,800 of income, as noted by ABC News, “cutting the rate has the greatest impact on low and middle income earners, groups that tend to spend the largest proportion of their income.”

You may have seen an outpouring of responses from concerned citizens via social media, and in particular twitter using the #40dollars hashtag. The White House launched this initiative in the hopes of striking a chord with Congressman who seem unable to agree on the extension. The Washington Post reported that “Opponents of the payroll tax cut dismiss its impact by insisting $40 isn’t a lot of money,” David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser wrote in an email to supporters, “but that’s not the case for many families who are already working hard to make ends meet. Forty dollars buys a tank of gas or a fridge and pantry full of groceries. It covers a water bill or the cost of a prescription.”

What does $40 mean to you?

Failure is the name of the game

Jeff Stibel, Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. recently posted in the Harvard Business Review blog about the importance of acknowledging and accepting failure—in one’s life and one’s work. For anyone this can be a challenging concept to embrace, especially for Millennials who are either just starting out in their careers or entering into a leadership role on their career path. Contrary to what I would say many believe about “failure” and what that failure says about someone, Stibel notes that “If you're not failing every now and then, you're probably not advancing. Mistakes are the predecessors to both innovation and success, so it is important to celebrate mistakes as a central component of any culture.”

As CEO of his company, Stibel has come to realize that “When you make a mistake, you're forced to look back and find out exactly where you went wrong, and formulate a new plan for your next attempt. By contrast, when you succeed, you don't always know exactly what you did right that made you successful (often, it's luck).”

 

And, that's where we've rounded out this week, but stay tuned and let us know your favorite picks and "wish I wrote this" moments. We're excited to reengage and look forward to making 2012 the year of the Social Citizen.