Web 2.0 and Change

Interesting post from David Brooks of the New York Times on the appeal that Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has generated among young people. Brooks describes Obama 's approach to change as a grassroots movement bubbling up from the bottom that compares favorably to the type of change young people have grown accustomed to and have embraced - Facebook, YouTube, and open source software. All powerful, landscaping-changing movements that have been driven by a large decentralized network of users.

Has Web 2.0 empowered kids to think they can make a difference?

Read more at A Defining Moment:

Obama sketched out a different theory of social change than the one Clinton had implied earlier in the evening. Instead of relying on a president who fights for those who feel invisible, Obama, in the climactic passage of his speech, described how change bubbles from the bottom-up: “And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world!”

For people raised on Jane Jacobs, who emphasized how a spontaneous dynamic order could emerge from thousands of individual decisions, this is a persuasive way of seeing the world. For young people who have grown up on Facebook, YouTube, open-source software and an array of decentralized networks, this is a compelling theory of how change happens.