Free Agents in UK: Militant Optimists and Positive Disruptors

I arrived in London yesterday on my way back from Kenya to give a couple of talks about The Networked Nonprofit.  Some of the first nonprofit and social media I connected with through blogs five years ago are in the UK – so it was nice to catch up with Steve Bridger begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting,  Nick Booth, and David Wilcox.   We took a photo walk at the Tate.  I also met Mark Charmer and Anne McCrossan.

I had a lovely dinner with Nick Booth and Steve Bridger and we discussed the idea of Free Agents in the UK.   Nick said they existed but they used a different phrase,  “Militant Optimists” – a term that was inspired by the book “handmade” by Tessy Britton and coined by Dave Barrie.   Nick describes them as ” People doing good  things because it made sense to it.  They get on with it regardless of what the system says.”   Interesting, challenging but remarkable people Steve Bridger also pointed another type of Free Agent, working from the inside of NGOs called a positive disruptor.