...nodes, memes, code and viruses... the language of the network is familiar to many but the world is only now waking up to its potential to radically transform the ways in which we communicate, coordinate, deliberate and organise. Sceptics, previously inclined to dismiss the revolutionary nature of online coordination and the birth of open source politics as over-hyped have been back-peddling fast in light of recent events. In the UK, the student and anti-cuts movements have demonstrated the power of networks to facilitate activism, dissent and resistance on a large scale and in radically new forms. Elsewhere events in North Africa and the Middle East have decisively illustrated that online networks have a crucial role to play in bringing about genuine political change.

Yet, while around 460K people are joining Twitter every day, our ability to reflect and evaluate on such 'revolutionary' change is struggling to keep pace with the technology itself. The OurKingdom debate on the networked society aims to have a place at the forefront of this struggle, with a particular focus on Britain.

The debate will launch with an article by Joss Hands, author of "@ is for Activism".

Edited by Aaron Peters

Networked Society

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