The Web Rewires the Movement is a fantastic story that documents the evolution of some of the recent network centric advocacy movements.
This article is now a part of the story that documents the real world cases of network-centric advocacy. 400,000 people in NYC and 10 million worldwide coordinated by United for Peace and Justice (an organization with no staff just two months earlier).
I have been looking for the details and numbers for months. Special thanks to Andrew Boyd for telling the story.
In addition to looking at the "wow" and the big cases of web enabled activism, we need to explore the strategic supports necessary to enable ongoing network-centric advocacy. The elements needed to support broad based network centric action are not yet in place.
Whithout core network enabling supports the forces of individual and organizational preservation will tear at the cohesion created in these networked moments. Who gets credit, which organization attracts money and prestige will not matter in a network-centric movement.
We need to focus on building redundancy and reduce the single points of failure in the emergent networked movement. What if move-on makes a mistake? What if the small staff picks the wrong campaign? Law suits, disasters, staff turnover and smear campaigns could threaten a single brand.
The advocacy movement is clearly a diverse system of "hubs and nodes", large groups and individual actors. The challenge is to focus on the layers of connectivity that are needed to rewire, connect and sustain deeper working relationships that enable powerful self-organizing advocacy.
