Causewired

Book. Tom Watson. Causewired. Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World. 2008

Summary

Bill Thompson:

"“in the book Causewired he (Tom Watson) shares his experience and understanding of the growth of what has been termed “peer-to-peer philanthropy”.

The book’s strapline is “Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World”, and Watson offers a range of examples of the way in which the network is making new forms of fund-raising and activism possible.

It documents the outpouring of online support for the people of New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina through the campaign to obtain justice for Mukhtaran Bibi in Pakistan, via Barack Obama’s internet fundraising efforts.

It’s a fascinating read, not least because the principles he outlines for effective online organising are based on his own experiences.

“Small but well-connected can be more effective than huge and widely disbursed”, for example, is something many online community organisers could benefit from realising, as is the call to “invest in conversations”.

As with many US writers he seems to believe in the power of the market to solve all our problems and has little time for regulatory or government-based solutions to problems.

He lauds Kiva.org for providing equipment for US schools instead of asking why public funding was not adequate in the first place, and sees the network as a way to encourage philanthropy rather than social justice.

But he has clearly identified the ways in which the network is making a difference, and given us a valuable primer in the ways in which those who want to change the world can make effective use of the tools and services now available.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7707913.stm)