Indeed, the best practical reason to think that social media can help bring political change is that both dissidents and governments think they can. All over the world, activists believe in the utility of these tools and take steps to use them accordingly. And the governments they contend with think social media tools are powerful, too, and are willing to harass, arrest, exile, or kill users in response.

Our social life is literally primal, in the sense that chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest relatives among the primates, are also social.

When you make the claim that something on the Internet is going to be good for democracy, you often [hear], 'Are you talking about the thing with the singing cats?'

Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.

A Wikipedia article is a process, not a product.

What you need for a participatory system to work: "a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain."

We use the word 'organization' to mean both the state of being organized and the groups that do the organizing.