Social Networking as Grassroots Activism

I just read this article by John Fontana summarizing how social networking was used to escalate a voice for change and reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that social networking “saved New Orleans” as his title suggests (the city still needs more saving in my opinion), but the creative use of online media such as Flickr, WordPress, Google Maps and Yahoo! Groups is a fantastic example of how grassroots activism has evolved since the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

Read the article and if you’re a fan of studying socioeconomics like I am, check out these books:

The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media

Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman, Second Edition

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square

-Melissa

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Tags: flickr, Google Maps, grassroots activism, hurricane katrina, John Fontana, Network World, new orleans, social media, social networking, socioeconomics, wikipedia, wordpress, Yahoo! Groups

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