At four-thirty in the afternoon on Monday, February 1, 1960, four college students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. They were freshmen at North Carolina A. & T., a black college a mile or so away.
Interesting and insightful. Gladwell points out that 'activism' on facebook and twitter is not the same as 'activism' in real life (ie on the the lunch counter in Greensboro). He also points out that networks are good for somethings but strategy is not one of them. He pours cold water on the twitter revolution in Iran and other much celebrated but somewhat overblown case studies.
It is true that everything in this world has its own strengths and weakness, but some people use it for good and some use it for bad. It should be taken care of. That is the reason why some people want the social media sites to be banned permanently.
Posted by: Braden | 08 October 2010 at 11:23 PM
It's interesting that Gladwell did not mention Obama's 2008 presidential campaign in comparison to Howard Dean's 2004 efforts - as this is an example that would support his argument. Obama's team coordinated "boots on the ground" very effectively AND used social media for broader awareness and connection. Dean's team did not have that physical world discipline.
Posted by: Matt Moore | 13 October 2010 at 02:09 PM