From Mansfield (an early CC sneak peek):

But it is also about something more —the potential to use technology to change things in America. Quite simply the march on Jena would not have happened (or certainly would have been much, much smaller than the 30,000 Blacks and Whites that came from all parts of the country, in addition to the marches that were held in literally hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S.) if not for the Internet. I personally received dozens of emails in the months and weeks leading up to the march, and if I had not been previously committed to attending a critical meeting with a client of my consulting business, I would have at least covered the march as a journalist, if I didn’t put down my writing pad and tape recorder, donned a black shirt, and marched right along. This could very well be the dawning of a new Internet-driven civil rights era in America…

CoolCleveland.com - Straight Outta Mansfield The Power Of The Net

You’ll have to click thru for his graphic, but here’s the buildup:

One idea that I’ve been pondering for quite some time now is the idea of collective individualism as a major driver of social media. Social media is having the unprecedented effect of bringing diverse groups of people together around common interests. People who would have (pre social media), kept their interests to themselves now have a way to connect with like-minded individuals, share their passion and build upon it.

Here is how I am visualizing this…

Techno//Marketer: The power of collective individualism

Noticing a letter from Valdis Krebs re: a column by ERC’s Pat Perry in Inside Business Magazine.

From Valdis Krebs:

How long will Honda, Nissan, GM and Ford put up with unreliable supply networks in Mexico? Not long. Their just-in-time manufacturing processes will just hasten their alarm and planning. When you compare unreliable supplies and increased security costs to UAW wages all of a sudden that unionized Michigan and Ohio auto plant makes more $en$e.

As the auto plants move back north, more jobs in the US will become available, yet the US-Mexico border will feel even more pressure as more Mexican workers want to cross. A complex interconnected system is always full of such good news/bad news scenarios — a push here results in a pull there…

Network Weaving: Network Resiliency

Got friends requests from Eliza Wing and Denise Polverine today. While I’d consider Denise a friend, I think I’ve exchanged two, maybe three sentences with Eliza. It’s a good example of why I’ve burned out on social networking sites.