<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Quora</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:noreply@quora.com">noreply@quora.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 11:05 PM<br>
Subject: New answer to "Are social networks the new platforms for social activism?"<br>To: <a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a><br><br><br><div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">
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New answer to "Are social networks the new platforms for social activism?"</h3></td></tr><tr><td width="65">�</td><td style="padding: 5px 0pt 10px;" width="535"><div style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.4em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">
<b>Seb Paquet</b>:<br>Social networks in their current incarnations do offer a rudimentary platform for awareness-raising (through word-of-mouse information sharing), petition-style activism, and passive group-forming (join the group, become a fan, forget about it).<br>
<br>As such, they serve an important function. Deep change rarely happens unless people (1) are pissed off, (2) know that lots of others are pissed off too, and (3) are aware that everyone knows that people are pissed off, which makes action socially acceptable (credit for this observation goes to <span><a href="http://www.quora.com/Henry-Copeland" target="_blank">Henry Copeland</a></span>)<br>
<br>Awareness is necessary but insufficient for change, however, and <i>action platforms </i>are needed to conduct effective activism online.<br><br>In this century, effective activism is no longer about taking institutional power to effect change; it's about <i>getting new things started</i> and <i>building alternatives</i>. Project-based, creative and viral activism is where it's at.<br>
<br>Current-day social networks are not really designed to support this kind of activism, but there is already some promising work in that direction. See e.g. <span><a href="http://www.quora.com/Open-Projects/What-websites-help-you-start-plan-and-run-open-projects" target="_blank">Open Projects: What websites help you start, plan, and run open projects?</a></span><br>
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