Yesterday I met with Yochai Benkler, Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where I work as a research assistant. What a spectacular and inspiring meeting! Prof. Benkler is one of the top intellectuals thinking about the effect of the Internet on society. He literally wrote the book on the topic (The Wealth of Networks, pictured above).

My fellow RA, Josh Goldstein, set up the meeting to learn more about Prof. Benkler's current research on cooperation and possibly lay a groundwork for future collaboration with the

[Contents: An Offline Example: The Local Soup Kitchen / Applying These Lessons Online: Freeing a Blogger / How Small Campaigns Can Solve the Volunteer Utilization Problem / Solutions for Big Campaigns: Barack Obama's Campaign for President / Pitfalls of

In his 2006 article, "Changing Media, Changing Politics," University of California professor Samuel Popkin talks about the importance of distribution in stimulating intellectual and political change. He is not referring to the Internet though, but rather to the printing press.

Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg in 1517. In our history classes we are taught that this was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, but there is a key factor that we aren't taught: distribution. It was not the ideas

Traditional social change orgs are beholden to rich people. Internet organizers aren't.

On Wednesday I wrote a post about why grassroots digital activism is potentially more revolutionary than institution digital activism. My logic was based on a fuzzy proposition that institutions necessarily have "credibility, legitimacy, and resources" invested in the status quo, which makes them more likely to seek victories within the current system than try to create a new system.

Well, I'd like to flesh that argument out a bit by focusing on the resources part. The fact that social change institutions need a lot of money to operate

So, what is the connection between transformative digital activism and grassroots digital activism? Why is

Digital activism is an array of tactics but implies no moral value. I am interested in digital activism because it empowers global progressives, but am I being naive?  Will an equal or greater number of conservative political actors use the Internet to

So what is this big goal? I want digital activism to be a global practice and a global language. I want people around the world to be able to use