The answers to these questions lie within Momentum, a book that offers a fresh, dynamic way of thinking about and organizing social change work. Today's digital tools?including e-mail, the Web, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even iPods?promote interactivity and connectedness. As Momentum shows, these new social media tools are important not just for their technological wizardry but because they connect us to one another in inexpensive, accessible, and massively scalable ways.

Momentum reveals how democratizing access to information, leveraging existing social networks, and "powering the edges" can transform social change efforts.

Learn why it is so revolutionary that emails don't wear skirts and why learning about a zoning board hearing through emails from your friends is critically important to social change efforts. And discover ways that we can close our enormous communication deficit to create authentic conversations between professionals and volunteers.

Momentum celebrates the courage and tenacity of activists, within and outside of organizations, who persevere despite enormous frustrations and challenges simply because they continue to pursue their desire to make the world a better place. Upbeat and with a wry wit, Fine rejects the blame game. Instead, she offers activists and their supporters constructive new routes to more powerful, fulfilling, and successful approaches to social change.

Thoughtful and thought provoking, which addresses technology strategies, relationships, and organizational change within the nonprofit sector. Far from a technical manual, it raises compelling issues that deserve consideration by all nonprofit organizations. (Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 05/01/2008)

Fine (founder, Innovation Network, Inc.), a New York social entrepreneur, writes on the way new social media-the Internet, cell phones, digital tools-allow activists to create new groupings of self-directed and self-responsible progressives. She believes that in this new connected era of the Internet, activist networks trump hierarchy, and she touches on how social media have already facilitated progressive actions. She points out the need for activists and progressive organizations to harness the new technologies while genuinely listening to those engaged in the new social media. She also ponders the future of activism in a connected age. This work contains some practical-and even inspiring-advice but is really a meditation on the interaction between technology and traditional activism. Most useful in academic and large public libraries. (Library Journal, November 15, 2006)

Fine outlines strategies for "connected activism" in this idealistic, lucidly written account about using the Internet to build up networks among activists who can pool information and other resources to help create lasting solutions that address the roots of social problems. Citing organizations such as the advocacy group MoveOn.org and MeetUp.com, which promotes off-line gatherings like those that propelled the Dean for President campaign, Fine emphasizes a mind-set of self-determination among citizens and two-way rather than top-down communication from organizations. She takes a cue from the 1999 "Cluetrain Manifesto," aimed at corporations that were out of touch with consumers, translating its promotion of digital communication to the activist sphere. Some of her rhetoric seems hyperbolic, as when she suggests that online activism provides a neutral playing field in which women can advance their causes without getting dismissed because of their gender, and she pushes hard on the readiness of "plugged-in" Generation Y to change the world. On the whole, though, she provides activists with effective guidelines for streamlining the pursuit of social change through instant messaging, blogs, chat rooms and Blackberries. (PublishersWeekly.com, October 23, 2006)

"Momentumis a bold, engaging volume with Fine's unique and insightful approach to using 21st-century tools to organize and connect people. This easy-to-read guide offers fresh faces, new voices and cool tools for building strong, effective, and enduring social change networks."

—Diana Aviv, president and CEO, Independent Sector

"Momentumis a clear, timely roadmap for activists and funders.? Never has the need to change how we think about our work been greater. Momentum is a must-read for doers and funders serious about social change work."

—Pablo Eisenberg, senior fellow, Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University

"Those of us engaged in social change work know that change is coming fast, but changing how we work is happening slowly. We need to work differently and better, and Fine shows us how in fun and inspiring ways. If you are an activist, a funder, a volunteer, or a board member, or just plain care about your community and democracy, Momentumis the book for you!"

—Paul Shoemaker, director, Social Venture Partners, Seattle

"Momentumprovides donors with a clear understanding of how to succeed in the new Connected Age. What felt like a blur of digital tools to me before now makes good sense, thanks to Fine's lively lexicon and funny stories. I've been waiting for a book like this, and here it is at last!"

—Michael Hirschhorn, president, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation

Acknowledgments.

Preface: The Promise of Connected Activism.

Introduction.

Part I: Connectedness in Action.

1. Celebrating Self-Determination: Developing a Mind-Set of Powerfulness.

2. Becoming a Connected Activist: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Media.

3. Beyond Bowling Alone: Leveraging Social Networks for Social Change.

4. All Aboard! Embracing the Leveling Effect of Social Media.

5. Embracing Authentic Conversations: Overcoming the Listening Deficit.

6. Powering the Edges: Shifting Power from the Inside Out.

7. Encouraging Individual Activism: Working Together to Optimize Your Efforts.

Part II: The Future of Social Change.

8. Peeking into the Digital Future: Balancing the Opportunities Ahead.

9. My Diet Starts NextTuesday: Embracing a Recipe for Success Now.

10. Are We There Yet? Measuring Progress in New Ways.

11. The Future of Funding: Rethinking Philanthropy and Fundraising Using Social Media.

Conclusion: Moving Forward as a Connected Activist.

Resource A: Free Schuylkill River Uses CitizenSpeak to Expand Its Coalition (Jo Lee).

Resource B: The Cluetrain Manifesto (Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Rick Levine).

Notes.

The Author.

Index.