We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, August 12, 2011

Swarmwise: What Is A Swarm?

Click here to access article from Falkvinge on Infopolicy (Sweden). 
...it is a scaffolding set up by a few individuals that enable tens of thousands of people to cooperate on a common goal in their life. These tens of thousands are usually vastly diverse and come from all walks of life, but share one common goal. The scaffolding set up by one or a few individuals allow these thousands of people to form a Swarm around it and start changing the world together.
There are some very interesting ideas in this and other articles at this and other sites which suggests to me that an entirely new subculture is forming as a result of the possibilities provided by the internet and the Web. This new technology is bringing people together in large numbers from all over the world without restrictions to share information and to solve problems. This phenomenon is not only challenging capitalist ideas of "owning" intellectual property, but is threatening to undermine the entire capitalist system which allows small segments of our populations to rule over the rest of us.
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