Swarmwise

"Swarmwise is the story of how one man managed to create a global phenomenon for political change. It is also a tactical manual to how you can tap into the power of the swarm and channel its force toward your goals. This applies equally whether the game you want to change is business, political, or social, and is especially relevant when you have no money and less time at your disposal"--Page 4 of cover.

The application of emerging multimedia innovations can significantly benefit organizations across different sectors. These tools aid in increasing competitive advantage and optimizing knowledge management. Evaluating Media Richness in Organizational Learning is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the application of computational tools for knowledge management frameworks and strategies in organizations. Featuring a broad range of coverage on topics and perspectives such as web semantics, product innovation, and knowledge sharing, this book is ideally designed for researchers, consultants, practitioners, professionals, and upper-level students seeking current information on ways to facilitate business innovation and achieve competitive advantage.

For decades, Fithian's work as an advocate for civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. She offers strategies and actions to promote justice and incite change in any community.

Legalized file sharing, shorter protection times for the commercial copyright monopoly, free sampling, and a ban on DRM. These are the main points of the proposal for copyright reform that the Pirate Party is advocating. This is a constructive alternative to the controversial ACTA agreement, and to the criminalization of the entire young generation.

Felix Stalder’s extended essay, Digital Solidarity, responds to the wave of new forms of networked organisation emerging from and colliding with the global economic crisis of 2008. Across the globe, voluntary association, participatory decision-making and the sharing of resources, all widely adopted online, are being translated into new forms of social space. This movement operates in the breach between accelerating technical innovation, on the one hand, and the crises of institutions which organise, or increasingly restrain society on the other. Through an inventory of social forms – commons, assemblies, swarms and weak networks – the essay outlines how far we have already left McLuhan’s ‘Gutenberg Galaxy’ behind. In his cautiously optimistic account, Stalder reminds us that the struggles over where we will arrive are only just beginning.

A Left-wing populist insurgency exploded across the West in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis After decades of retreat, the last decade saw a left resurgence from the US to Western Europe and the Mediterranean. This revival of anti-establishment left-wing candidates was not only left but also populist. Though in most cases these movements ran out of steam before effectively being in a position wield state power, many of the parties and figures associated with this wave of left populism have entered government and others are still contesting high office. Providing a blow-by-blow history of the rise and defeat of left electoral movements in the West, Boriello and Jaeger guide us through the conditions that shaped this wave of insurgencies. These include extreme and rising inequality, the collapse of civic life, and a lack of trust in traditional institutions. In this context, Boriello and Jaeger argue that some or another form of populism was all but inevitable. And, despite defeats, left offensives of present and future will be populist in nature. This is because the conditions that shaped the first left populist wave are still very much with us.

This book analyzes how mainstream and new parties are building their digital platforms and transitioning from traditional (offline) organizations into the digital world. The authors present an innovative empirical exploration of the democratic consequences and technical challenges of the digitalization of party organizations from a comparative perspective. They provide an original account of how party digital platforms are regulated and used, and a crucial discussion of the main technological and democratic issues that political parties face in their digital transition. Further, the authors assess the consequences of these digitalization processes for political participation and party membership, as well as the impact on party organizational models and electoral campaign potential. The book looks into one of the less-studied aspects of digital democracy, also presenting empirical evidence and case studies. It presents different parties and their adoption of digital participation platforms, from the Pirate Parties in Northern Europe to Podemos in Spain, La France Insoumise in France, the Five Stars Movement in Italy, or the German Greens. Therefore, the book is a must-read for scholars of political science, policy-makers, and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of the transition of political parties into the digital world.