What is a Good Virus?

What is a Good Virus?
"We have the power to imagine better." --JK Rowling
"Small acts, when multiplied by millions, have the power to transform the world." --Howard Zinn
“What’s a virus? A virus is just a string of nucleic acid with attitude.” --Dan Dennett

A Good Virus is a social media wiki and participatory archive for story-sharing, reporting, linking and how-to demos for creating successful viral messages for the greater good.

It traces successful millennial message campaigns created by social entrepreneurs, visionaries and collectives that have deftly used social media to initiate contagious social change via Web 2.0. Along the way you will encounter viral messages that have taken to the Internet in epidemic ways, pollinating thousands, then millions with their how-to solutions and strategies for possibility, hope, and calls to action.

• Where do good viruses originate? What do they look like? Who starts them?
• How do some messages become epidemic?
• How do social media tools serve as conduits for viral enthusiasm?
• How does a message transform from static noise to sticky meaning that inspires change?

Just as biological viruses use the DNA of the host to replicate themselves, Social Media, including Facebook’s “share” button and the Retweeting of Twitter can easily manufacture viral messages. Web 2.0 software provides a petri dish for duplicating “memes” that can be passed from one computer to another for further pass-it-on replication.

These message-viruses or meme-viruses have the potential to create epidemics of all kinds. The type of content is up for grabs, which is why visionaries have such a unique opportunity to shape the web’s cultural laboratories.

A Good Virus samples social change taglines, images and videos that have been cut and pasted into our digital existence influencing political outcomes, consumption patterns and taste. In this sea of “memes,” ideas pass from person to person to person, taking on a life of their own.

With social media tools adapting and sending messages and new technologies at an exponential rate, as noted by Nick Bolton in a recent New York Times "Bits" blog post "Has Viral Gone Viral?"

Clearly what we say matters to the potency of solving global puzzles of sustainability and justice. A Good Virus is dedicated to spreading the memes of those who are masters of communication for the greater good, who talk the talk but also create nuggets of information that translate in a single spin cycle and lead to significant solutions, actions and social change.

Altruism is contagious. Enthusiasm is contagious. These are the foundations of A Good Virus. It’s a big experiment and millions are playing along, seeking solutions to global community and survival using the most creative tools available. Catch the epidemic.