Social networking

The NCVO ICT Foresight report which prompted development of this site is due out at the end of March, as Megan Griffith reports here. Megan writes:

For many VCOs, online ‘social’ networks have the potential to be disruptive; that is, they have the power to change the model of organising upon which many VCOs, and particularly membership bodies, are based. The connections that ICT facilitates suggest that some organisations may increasingly be bypassed and that power may shift away from top-down hierarchical organisations and towards more fluid and participative networks where there is less need for a centralised ‘bricks and mortar’ coordinating organisation.

A I wrote here, I'm hearing similar points made on a number of fronts, including some about "open source politics" from Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne:

Top down politics is no longer sustainable in a bottom-up age.
There are some who say that blogs and on-line petitions merely give a platform to the angry activist - what you Matthew (Taylor) have called the voices of "shrill outrage".
Here, I disagree with you.
Of course it provides another channel for the activist, shrill-voiced or otherwise. But it's also opening up politics to people who would never ordinarily engage with politicians or mainstream political parties.

... and from Matthew Taylor, the new chief executive of the RSA

While Web 1.0 may have simply reinforced 'us and them' political discourse, Web 2.0 offers huge scope for new forms of ‘us and us’ engagement. The wiki has huge potential as a policy deliberation tool but we need good applications (the RSA is working to develop one for our Fellows).

I think something is in the air.