Speaking of "Blink", author of that bestseller, Malcolm Gladwell, who also wrote "The Tipping Point", recently opined in the New Yorker magazine on the phenomenon of wiki-activism. The Guardian did a fine analysis, part of which summed up Gladwell's position thus:
...Gladwell drew the following conclusion: that while social networks may be useful for some communication – to alert like-minded acquaintances to social events, or to solve a specific "weak tie" problem, such as the location of a bone marrow donor – they do not promote the passionate collective engagement that causes individuals to make commitments that result in social change. Facebook "likers", he argued, are not sitters-in or nonviolent activists, they are not even marchers or candle-wavers; they may wish to associate themselves with a protest app, but the nature of their medium means they do so with negligible risk and therefore negligible effect.
Do you agree? Read the full article here.
FOOTNOTE: The Edge quotes PNB as saying, "We are not taking the government's money for the project." That threw me for a loop. If PNB are footing the entire RM5 billion bill, why was this item included in the PM's Budget announcement? Can someone please explain that to me?
