Source: Welt-Online (http://www.welt.de/)
Global corporations and powerful politicians cannot ignore the Net any more. Through Social Networks Internet users are getting a powerful voice. They are no longer dependent on conventional media. One expert predicts the re-politicization of society.
The old reasoning, that an idea has to look for a network, is getting more and more obsolete. The Internet has already set new rules of power, to with economy and politics needs to adjust. There is no going back.
Decision-makers however often react quite helplessly to eruptions of the Web. This was true in the case of the „Kit Kat“ campaign.
Often only a small trigger is needed to cause a wave on the Internet.
„The Internet is politicizing the world beyond the parties,“ Kruse says. Thus it modifies the balance of powers by strengthening the confidence of the whole society.
Kruse describes the development of the social web in three phases. After fascination based access boom in the late 90’s (Boris Becker, 1999 for the Internet service provider AOL: „I am in“) and the usability boom of the late 00-years, with the rapid spread of social networks, now follows a wave, in which Internet users connect in powerful movements. They set the political agenda, without recourse to the established structures and the established mass media, Kruse said. Anyone who wants to achieve political change today, joins a network.
„The Social Software of Web 2.0 is an attack on the established rules of power and enforces a fundamental rethinking,“ the professor said. His advice to politicians or managers: Get out of expert committees. Get into the networks. „The social Web is an avalanche that is already thundering down into the valley“, so his warning.
The full article can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/325qtb8