Momentum : Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age

How can we move from serving soup until our elbows ache to actually solving social ills like hunger or homelessness? How can we break the disastrous cycle of low expectations that leads to chronic social failures? 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.