John O’Brien is someone that will probably won’t ring any bells in anyone’s ears because his work has always been about putting others first. In March 2012, inspired by what royal documentalists reported on Her Majesty the Queen’s 60 years of public service, John decided to motivate the entire nation into volunteering one hour of their time to local causes. This pledge is not new and there has been thousands of enterprises put forth to deliver similar activities before. What makes John’s ‘Jubilee Hour’ pledge special is that it has become the largest global mobilisation since World War II. What’s puts it in the Positive Devianisim’s radar is that it is testament to a global trend that started to form in 2009 and took initial shape in 2010 becoming a very influential societal change: the emergence of hyper-local.

‘Jubilee Hour’ encourages people in a very public way to give back to their communities, their LOCAL, communities. This is not an NGO that rallies for a far away third world country’s famine: it is a call to look up from one’s bellybutton to acknowledge that local communities are key strong footholds of society.

The site has a candor and a beauty that has been delivered thanks to a very clever design and UI: it is a digital album  of pledges, where one can turn page after page and read the long list of volunteers and their backgrounds, their stories, their pictures, their communities. Do have a look.
It is beyond monarchy. You may not be a royalist and still get the message that today, local communities is what drives society.