Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
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The answers to these questions lie within Momentum, a fresh, zestful way of thinking about and organizing social change work. Today's digital tools—including but not limited to e-mail, the Web, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), even iPods—promote interactivity and connectedness. But as Momentum shows, these new social media tools are important not for their wizardry but because they connect us to one another in inexpensive, accessible, and massively scalable ways.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Review
Thoughtful and thought provoking, which addresses technology strategies, relationships, and organizational change within the nonprofit sector. Far from a technical manual, it raises compelling issues that deserve consideration by all nonprofit organizations. (Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 05/01/2008)
Fine (founder, Innovation Network, Inc.), a New York social entrepreneur, writes on the way new social media-the Internet, cell phones, digital tools-allow activists to create new groupings of self-directed and self-responsible progressives. She believes that in this new connected era of the Internet, activist networks trump hierarchy, and she touches on how social media have already facilitated progressive actions. She points out the need for activists and progressive organizations to harness the new technologies while genuinely listening to those engaged in the new social media. She also ponders the future of activism in a connected age. This work contains some practical-and even inspiring-advice but is really a meditation on the interaction between technology and traditional activism. Most useful in academic and large public libraries. (Library Journal, November 15, 2006)
Fine outlines strategies for "connected activism" in this idealistic, lucidly written account about using the Internet to build up networks among activists who can pool information and other resources to help create lasting solutions that address the roots of social problems. Citing organizations such as the advocacy group MoveOn.org and MeetUp.com, which promotes off-line gatherings like those that propelled the Dean for President campaign, Fine emphasizes a mind-set of self-determination among citizens and two-way rather than top-down communication from organizations. She takes a cue from the 1999 "Cluetrain Manifesto," aimed at corporations that were out of touch with consumers, translating its promotion of digital communication to the activist sphere. Some of her rhetoric seems hyperbolic, as when she suggests that online activism provides a neutral playing field in which women can advance their causes without getting dismissed because of their gender, and she pushes hard on the readiness of "plugged-in" Generation Y to change the world. On the whole, though, she provides activists with effective guidelines for streamlining the pursuit of social change through instant messaging, blogs, chat rooms and Blackberries. (PublishersWeekly.com, October 23, 2006)
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Review
—Diana Aviv, president and CEO, Independent Sector
"Momentum is a clear, timely roadmap for activists and funders.? Never has the need to change how we think about our work been greater. Momentum is a must-read for doers and funders serious about social change work."
—Pablo Eisenberg, senior fellow, Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University
"Those of us engaged in social change work know that change is coming fast, but changing how we work is happening slowly. We need to work differently and better, and Fine shows us how in fun and inspiring ways. If you are an activist, a funder, a volunteer, or a board member, or just plain care about your community and democracy, Momentum is the book for you!"
—Paul Shoemaker, director, Social Venture Partners, Seattle
"Momentum provides donors with a clear understanding of how to succeed in the new Connected Age. What felt like a blur of digital tools to me before now makes good sense, thanks to Fine's lively lexicon and funny stories. I've been waiting for a book like this, and here it is at last!"
—Michael Hirschhorn, president, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation
From the Inside Flap
The answers to these questions lie within Momentum, a book that offers a fresh, dynamic way of thinking about and organizing social change work. Today's digital tools?including e-mail, the Web, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even iPods?promote interactivity and connectedness. As Momentum shows, these new social media tools are important not just for their technological wizardry but because they connect us to one another in inexpensive, accessible, and massively scalable ways.
Momentum reveals how democratizing access to information, leveraging existing social networks, and "powering the edges" can transform social change efforts.
Learn why it is so revolutionary that emails don't wear skirts and why learning about a zoning board hearing through emails from your friends is critically important to social change efforts. And discover ways that we can close our enormous communication deficit to create authentic conversations between professionals and volunteers.
Momentum celebrates the courage and tenacity of activists, within and outside of organizations, who persevere despite enormous frustrations and challenges simply because they continue to pursue their desire to make the world a better place. Upbeat and with a wry wit, Fine rejects the blame game. Instead, she offers activists and their supporters constructive new routes to more powerful, fulfilling, and successful approaches to social change.
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.From the Back Cover
"Momentum is a bold, engaging volume with Fine's unique and insightful approach to using 21st-century tools to organize and connect people. This easy-to-read guide offers fresh faces, new voices and cool tools for building strong, effective, and enduring social change networks."
—Diana Aviv, president and CEO, Independent Sector
"Momentum is a clear, timely roadmap for activists and funders.? Never has the need to change how we think about our work been greater. Momentum is a must-read for doers and funders serious about social change work."
—Pablo Eisenberg, senior fellow, Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University
"Those of us engaged in social change work know that change is coming fast, but changing how we work is happening slowly. We need to work differently and better, and Fine shows us how in fun and inspiring ways. If you are an activist, a funder, a volunteer, or a board member, or just plain care about your community and democracy, Momentum is the book for you!"
—Paul Shoemaker, director, Social Venture Partners, Seattle
"Momentum provides donors with a clear understanding of how to succeed in the new Connected Age. What felt like a blur of digital tools to me before now makes good sense, thanks to Fine's lively lexicon and funny stories. I've been waiting for a book like this, and here it is at last!"
—Michael Hirschhorn, president, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B000VHZ6S8
- Publisher : Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (December 10, 2007)
- Publication date : December 10, 2007
- Language : English
- File size : 1724 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 240 pages
- Lending : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,583,687 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Sprinkled with wry humor, this informative and well-written book was a pleasure to read. It is even more than a problem-solving roadmap embracing a new paradigm for the way activists can organize, communicate and define and reach goals; it is also an actual toolkit chock full of ideas on how to use what Ms. Fine terms "social media" (email, the web, wireless handhelds, etc.) to effect change. Even more concrete, Momentum includes websites that even a non-techie and would-be activist like me can use to start anything from an email petition campaign to a website where my kids' teachers can solicit funds for special projects.
While reading this book I had no less than 5 "aha" moments where I thought: "I could use that" in order to bring about change in various areas of my civic life. In fact, in a couple of cases, the information in the book spurred me to think about change in areas I had not thought of before.
I give Momentum my highest recommendation and kudos to Allison H. Fine for writing this timely book...