If you follow my posts you will know that I have been pointing out the sea change going on in the blogosphere in terms of video and moving beyond the role the traditional (I use the term advisedly) blogs play in mobilizing citizens as referenced in today’s NY Times report of the protests in Russia by Ellen Barry. She notes, “The blogosphere has played a central role in mobilizing young Russians.”  Ok.

The “beyond” is found in these two quotes from her report (is it a story?) and highlights what I wrote in an earlier blog post about  the shift that’s going on with user generated content, most particularly in the context of news to ONLINE VIDEO.  Two references one needs to note:

“Younger protesters — so digitally connected that they broadcast the event live by holding iPads over their heads — said this was a day when a group that had been silent made itself heard” and

‘During the parliamentary campaign, Russians using smartphones filmed authority figures cajoling or offering money to subordinates to get out the vote for United Russia. More video went online after Election Day, when many Russians in their 20s camped out in polling stations as amateur observers.” and

“We have a lot of evidence,” said Leonid Gigen, 26. “A lot was shot on video. And then Medvedev says these videos are fake. But people saw it themselves, because they voted.”

And what about our upcoming election for President?  Here’s one online publisher who is encouraging and supporting this sort of thing here in the U.S. the “Off the Bus” folks at the Huffington Post.

OfftheBus has been publishing the work of citizen journalists from Occupy Wall Street events for the past few months. If you happen to attend any of these Occupy the Ports events, please consider sending us your photos, videos or first-hand observations for publication on The Huffington Post.

What’s all this got to do with sustainability?  Increasing sustainability awareness requires the adoption of Web 2.0 practices as well as the technologies to shift the thinking and behavior of our citizens.