Sleepless in Magnolia: Web 2.0 and Self-Help

We have an ambivalent relationship to self-help. We celebrate it as civic engagement, but we are afraid of lynch-mobs and the tyranny of the majority.

The Seattle PI has an interesting story about how the people of Magnolia, a Seattle suburb are collecting and aggregating data, empathizing, and strategizing to deal with a string of burglaries in their neighborhood, by setting up a social network (sleepless-in-magnolia) on the social network meta-platform Ning.

Clearly, we will be confronted with interesting questions about all kinds of new forms of public action.

About Philipp

Philipp Müller works in the IT industry and is academic dean of the SMBS. Author of "Machiavelli.net". Proud father of three amazing children. The views expressed in this blog are his own.

25. January 2008 by Philipp
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