Momentum

Book: Allison Fine. Momentum - Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age

URL = http://www.afine.com, http://www.momentumthebook.com/

on some new and innovative tools for grassroots activists and political campaigns. (http://www.personaldemocracy.com/conference/podcasts)

Description

"How can we move from serving soup until our elbows ache to solving chronic social ills like hunger or homelessness? How can we break the disastrous cycle of low expectations that leads to chronic social failures?

The answers to these questions lie within a new book by Allison H. Fine called MOMENTUM: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, a fresh, zestful way of thinking about and organizing social change work. Today's digital tools--including but not limited to e-mail, the Web, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), even iPods--promote interactivity and connectedness. But as MOMENTUM shows, these new social media tools are important not for their wizardry but because they connect us to one another in inexpensive, accessible, and massively scalable ways."

Notes from the text

This book doesn't really answer any particular questions, and for anyone looking for how technology can connect peers, this wiki provides far more and better information. The book's coverage of technology was dated even at the time of release, so I've left it out entirely. However, Fine does provide some good talking points for organizations; the points and principles can be applied broadly, so I've focused on those only. --S Rhodes 23:38, 23 January 2008 (PST)

Power-the-edges, in practice, is guided by the following principles:

1. Power is not a zero-sum game.
2. People are smart and caring; treat them that way.
3. Being a donor is not the same as being a community member. Having donors is not the same as having a community.
4. People know when participation is meaningful, and when it is superficial.
5. An energetic, caring community is more effective than a static organization with a well-crafted mission.
6. Organizations are meant to guide and help steer, not do the heavy lifting.
7. The cycle of life is real in social change; some communities and institutions are meant to die after a time.
8. Communities are self-regulating for the most part, but still require steady and inclusive leadership.

From page 97

Providing support to activists:

• share information widely freely and often
• facilitate conversations
• spread technical expertise
• maintain institutional memory
• training and facilitation of skills and values

From page 105

Organizational questions for the staff:

• How are people inside and outside the organization participating in decision-making?
• Who are our network members and how are we interacting with them to achieve mutual goals?
• Are we making as much information as we can openly and freely available to network members?
• What conversations am I having with whom, and for what purpose?
• When and how can we apply these lessons?

From page 136

Leadership questions:

• Deadlines?
• Starting direction?
• Where are the bottlenecks in the process?
• What are specific points along the way when decisions are needed to push it forward?
• Do potential conflicts exist in our network, and where?

From page 140

On the use of information:

• let information out
• archives must be easy to access
• not all biases can be erased, show the thinking behind results and analysis

From page 152