Part II: Power to da People

[photo credit: eecue at BarcampLA]

Something happens when people all over the world get an idea synchronously [thanks Joe] and they have tools available to connect on those ideas.

We build power in numbers.

Think of flashmobs. Think of eBay. Think of Craigslist. Blogging. P2P networks. As more people adopt these technologies, more of the old hierarchies are subverted. Big, fat, rich companies and totalitarian governments who had the only ability to reach large numbers of people before are thwarted by peer to peer messages: "Don't buy this doohickey, it is tinny and overpriced." or "The messages you are receiving are not reality. Meet us at the secret place to discuss." or "Gathering at 53rd and Lex to do some strange thing that will make everyone really confused."

Sure, big corporations and corrupt governments catch on and shut down or interupt (for this important sponsor message) these communication forums, but there is always something there as an outlet for us to tap into. To continue to subvert. To send out our smoke signals, our beacons, our rays of light to others of like minds and goals. You'd think that over 29 million blogs would totally fragment us. Nope...we find one another and build communities and niches of like-minded individuals within that tangled mess of spam and porn and catblogs (nothing against catblogs...they have their own niches).

You see, monetizing this stuff is a double edged sword. It usually involves interupting the community from making their own decisions. But if we don't monetize this stuff it won't survive to reach further. Thus, it gets dilluted the further out it reaches.*

Which brings me to the next part of this: Who is going to f&*k it all up for us if we don't stop them?

*If we could only find another solution...

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