[LINK] Tea Parties

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Well, this is one form of e-Democracy ..

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Tax Day Becomes Protest Day

How the tea parties could change American politics.

By G.H. REYNOLDS, The Wall Steet Journal, April 15 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975867505519363.html


Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will 
hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-
of-control government spending. 

There is no political party behind these rallies and no grand right-wing 
conspiracy.

So who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the 
power of the Internet to organize. 

For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing "flash crowds"- 
groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a 
particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights 
that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month. 

This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed "Smart Mobs" by Howard 
Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern 
communications and social-networking technologies allow quick 
coordination among large numbers of people who don't know each other.

In the old days, organizing large groups of people required, well, an 
organization: a political party, a labor union, a church or some other 
sort of structure. Now people can coordinate themselves..

More info: http://www.memeorandum.com/090415/h1230

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Cheers,
Stephen