Computing and Activism
http://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_fulton_you_are_the_future_of_philanthropy.html
Apropos this, I’ve been thinking about Loeb’s “Soul of a Citizen” (http://www.paulloeb.org/soul.html), and computing:
How does social computing diminish AND exacerbate impediments to individual entry/magnitude into/of activism? (and Fulton’s pair of 5-point frameworks gives us a initial language to talk about it)
Can intelligent computing allow for the hearing of all voices (how much injustice is traceable to human inability to deal with complexity)?
When Fulton talks about about acting our way into new ways of thinking, she is speaking both descriptively and prescriptively, I think, and the prescription isn’t wrong, its just that it requires a great deal of THOUGHT .. There is nothing to be proud of per se with being an integral part of a transformative technology, if you are clueless about the societal and environmental changes it will bring about beyond a short-term horizon. If you are clueless, or if you “know” but are very wrong and/or shortsighted, then you are just along for the ride, regardless of your perception (IMNSHO 
. The tension between “Fast” and “Connected” (for example), also requires thought. Again, Fulton’s two 5-point frameworks offer a good initial language for thinking, not so much a contrast between right and wrong.
I’m a believer in “Just Do It” BTW — Habitat for Humanity, Alternative Spring Break, Engineers without Borders, Computational Sustainability, … if anything, I think that we need to start thinking about whether social computing will diminish the Just-Do-It’ness and in what ways, as well as increase it. For goodness sake, when it comes to transformational technology, start thinking your brains out even as you are doing, at least if you are worried about 100+ years out.