Activists, Rejoice! We're All Connected Now

By Allison H. Fine, AlterNet. Posted October 6, 2006.

In 1999 the ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir as-Sabah, issued a decree granting women full political rights. Advocates for women's suffrage in this small Arab country were hopeful that legislation would soon follow to codify the decree. Six years passed in vain while legislation stalled. Suddenly in May 2005, the Kuwaiti legislature voted by a surprisingly large margin of thirty-five to twenty-three, with one abstention, to remove the word men from Article One of the election laws, thereby guaranteeing women the right to vote and the opportunity to run for elected office. Who voted for the legislation was clear. Why they voted for it was something of a mystery. So what happened? Privately, often beneath their burkas, women used their Blackberries and cell phones to send text and e-mail messages urging legislators to vote in favor of full women's suffrage. Kuwaiti legislators learned that e-mails don't wear skirts or burkas.

In the click of a mouse we have traveled from an old century to a new one, from the Information Age to the Connected Age, from silent majorities to connected activism.

Our passion for participation and social change is colliding with the reality that we are increasingly connected to one another. The digital tools that promote interactivity and connectedness, including e-mail and the World Wide Web, as well as cell phones, handheld computers (or personal digital assistants), and even iPods that play music and videos, are called social media. Combine the intimacy of the telephone with the reach of broadcast media and you have social media, the collection of tools used to connect people to one another and share information. In addition, and perhaps more important, these tools enhance the ability of many people to connect to many other people instantly. And they are becoming smaller, increasingly wireless, and more ubiquitous every day.

Broad participation is the wellspring of community power. Wide, deep, meaningful participation is more than a theoretical possibility today; it is a cornerstone of the Connected Age. Understanding, improving, and broadening participation is critically important to moving us closer to solutions to social problems. Through connected activism, we have the ability to make participation possible for a breathtakingly large number of people.

Connected activism has two component parts: the array of digital tools that are widely and inexpensively available, and an open and inclusive worldview that invites meaningful participation by a wide network of people.

Social media, which offer simultaneous connections between, among, and by many people at the time of their choosing, facilitate connected activism. The tools can be divided into four main categories (with examples of specific tools in parenthesis): communication (email, instant messaging), collaboration (wikis), developing new content (blogs), and organizing collective action (smart mobs.)

Social media promote many-to-many connections, but they are not intended to be online direct mail, a message from one entity to many docile consumers. In the early days of the Internet, many organizations posted static copies of their existing written materials (such postings were derisively dubbed brochureware). An online document archive is helpful, but it misses the point of interaction. Social media offer a simultaneous, interactive connection between, among, and by many people, at the time of their choosing. This type of connection is the heart and soul of the Internet.

Just as important as the fact that the Internet can allow many people to talk with one another is the fact that more and more people can talk with one another at no additional cost. This point is critical for understanding the potential that the Internet has for facilitating large-scale social change. Unlike broadcast media, the Internet involves almost no marginal cost increase for geometrically increasing the number of people connected to you, your cause, or your organization.

The tools are important not for their wizardry but because they are inexpensive and accessible and can make interactions, and therefore social change, massively scalable. Connectedness does not come from technology but is facilitated and strengthened by it. Being successful in the Connected Age means using technology to achieve an end.

Do you remember the Nike commercials with Spike Lee watching Michael Jordan dunk a basketball and exclaiming, "It's gotta be the shoes!" The joke was, of course, that Michael Jordan could have been wearing cowboy boots and still been the best basketball player ever. A lot of people mistakenly think that it's "gotta be the tools" that make the difference in connected activism.

Cool gadgets are a big part of the Connected Age; they make up the physical part of the connection. But there is also an emotional part. People are encouraged to participate in decisions and actions regardless of their position inside or outside the organization. Resources within social networks, connecting webs of people who are voluntarily associated with one another, are put to work creatively. There are no prescriptions, no right or wrong answers, simply enormous opportunities for participation and change if we engage in the process of connecting with one another.

Allison Fine is the author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age.

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