Virtual policial communities and new forms of social capital: Zeke Speir and the facilitation of socialmovements; Obama and political organizingonline

First, read "the radicalization of Zeke Speir" under course documents. Zeke (his real name) became radicalized by his experience with the police when he attempted to engage in political activism. The story here is positive and optimistic: the Internet facilitates democracy and creates new forms of social capital (defined as the degree of engagement with others to achieve social goals that add value to society). Be sure to read the counterargument, summarized on p. 103, that the Internet leads to the decline of social capital and therefore undercuts democracy. Some things to consider:

What does the author mean by "new forms of social capital?" What are these new forms? How do they differ from creating social capital the old fashioned way, i.e., face to face?

This article recounts activities from 1999-2000. What can you find out about social movements, political activism and the Internet today?

Barack Obama became president on the strength at least in part on his clever use of the Internet both to raise money and to create a "social movement" around his candidacy.

1. How does this constitute a "new form of social capital"?
2. How his web site organized to maximize the potential for social networking?

Here is my page on MyBarackObama.com http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/private

and here is the signup page. For fun, you might want to sign up and create a page for yourself. You can always cancel it once the conversation is concluded.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/







The posting period is from Monday June 15 through Thursday June 18.