Skinhead or Environmentalist, it Matters Little

It can’t be easy to take the writing of 15 web practitioners and experts and turn them into a cohesive guide for using social media sites as a political tool. Julie Barko Germany does precisely this in Person-to-Person-to-Person, her collection of essays on social networking. What’s striking about the book is not the distinction in the writings of Ms. Barko and her colleagues, it’s the similarity in the assumption of reader agendas made by her contributors. Moving an idea forward, advocating for policy change, political action. All of these seem to be the driving assumption of web practitioners today. Isn't this the reason we are all online? What else would they write about, I suppose. Surely no one needs a handbook on how to use facebook to connect with friends of your grandparents. Or how to embarrass grade school bullies using youtube. Actually, wait. That last one sounds pretty useful. I am trying to make a point that the worth of social networking is defined, by those who are pioneers in the field, almost entirely as a tool for political action. Much of the guidance and orientation material on social networking assumes those using social media sites have such an agenda. But enough on that. It’s actually a great read. Highly informative, and generally useful.

The essays that make-up the book are all written by subject matter experts. Some provide lessons in the form of case-studies, such as the examination of the environmental movement’s mobilization of allies. Others provide specific guidance on tactical approaches to online mobilization such as the use of email campaigns. Some of the contributions conceptualize a project challenge, others seek to address user considerations. Some are high-level, some are very focused. Amazingly, all of these contributions do not overlap in terms of their take-away value and all of the writings reinforce the top ten tactics outlined at the book’s opening. Those tactics, serve as bell-weather indicators for social networking organizers. As diverse as they are, the books subsequent chapters demonstrate how important those “commandments” are.

Its worth noting, as DrDigipol does, that some of this guidance was used by some of the internet’s earliest, albeit unsavory, pioneers, the white supremacist movement. His blog analyzing the early manifesto for online mobilization by Milton Kleim is informative, if not slightly harrowing. Kleim’s guidance to North American white supremacists is, in fact, a level-headed view of the potential and challenges to using the internet to mobilize. Relatively invective-free, the writing outlines many of the same tips and guidance Ms. Barko provides; make it simple, trust but verify and so on. It appears these rules for effective online collaboration hold true for anyone using the web to advance an idea or a cause. The nature of that cause matters little.