Tom Watson’s book CauseWired is about the rise of online social activism. I was informed by Johnnie that advance copies were being distro’d free to bloggers to generate some online buzz, and seeing as this sounded right up my alley, I signed on up. Not too long after a proof copy turned up in the post. Neat! Thanks, Wiley!
CauseWired is the name Watson gives to social causes that leverage online tools, particularly social networks. It’s the name of his supporting blog as well. It’s also the first mark against this book for me. It’s a clear case of buzzword-creation, trying to add a new phrase to the lexicon like “tipping point” and “long tail” came along in recent years. That’s no great sin in itself, but “CauseWired” is an ugly, ugly ohrase, complete with the oh-so-00s capitalisation in the middle of the compound word. It’s a name that looks horribly dated already and the book isn’t even out yet.
And that, in a nutshell, is my problem with the book as well. Tom Watson is clearly a very switched-on guy and he’s explored social activism in great detail, but the book left me feeling underwhelmed and convinced that it will date rapidly.
CauseWired consists of ten chapters describing a number of online tools and projects, like Facebook Causes, Kiva, Razoo, DonorsChoose, Change.org and MyBo. It discusses key people behind the scenes and relevant anecdotes to represent the power of the new models. The message is very clear that these online tools lower the barriers of entry and enhance organizational capacity so that it is fairly easy to build and communicate with a network, and that makes some radically new infrastructures possible for philanthropy and political organization.
It is something of an exhilirating tour, and more than slightly humbling when I note that 90% of the people leading these projects are younger than me. However, its a tour without a thesis. Watson isn’t arguing any case, or projecting any particular future as likely, or saying anything more than “this is a thing that’s going on, and right now it looks like this”. There seems to be an unwarranted confidence in the power of the new platform; the massive success of the Obama and Hillary primary campaigns was certainly enhanced by online tools and distributed yet tightly-managed structures, but it was probably more important that it was a clash of potent identity-politics to anoint a challenger to eight years of the most toxic rule in American history. This is a perfect storm of conditions and probably doesn’t indicate how any future effort will work out.
In the final chapter Watson gives more than token acknowledgement to some of the real problems with online tools, such as saturation, which will inevitably become a huge issue as online cause platforms multiply and fight for sunlight. However, Watson doesn’t do much more than acknowledge the problem, then move on to other issues. It is trivial to see that online social activism sites and tools cannot expand infinitely, but what the consequences of their growth might be is not given much consideration.
Ultimately, I think the problems I have with CauseWired are because I wanted Tom Watson to ask himself harder questions. Instead it feels to me like he’s played safe and contents himself with giving a tour and quoting extensively from others. To give credit where its due, it is a very good tour of the online cause state of play in early 2008, but I can’t see this book retaining much value beyond 2010 or so. In that sense, it isn’t really for me. It’s something to give to, say, a charity director who is wondering what is possible online, or someone who hasn’t previously considered the ramifications of “web 2.0” – the stories and examples here will get them up to speed very quickly. But it doesn’t seem to have much to say to those already involved in social activism, or whose experience of the net is already two-way.
So by that measure I guess I can’t recommend this book to most of the readers of this blog. It may be I’m being rather too hard on it, and asking far more from it than I really should do. To that end perhaps I’ll embrace the Web 2.0-ness of it all and invite questions and queries from readers. Are you intrigued by this book’s premise? Ask me in comments about whatever interests you and I’ll do my best to shed some light. There might be a whole constituency for the book that I’m just not seeing.
4 thoughts on “CauseWired review”
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Matt’s review agrees with yours in many places.
The underlying problem with books like these is that, well, they are books. Books about the internet.
Ultimately, knowingly or not, it will be aimed at introducing people to parts of the interweb – or even the interweb as a concept itself. So they become tour guides rather than an actual analytical thesis. There is lots of analysing of the internet going on – but it occurs on the internet, not off it.
Hey there, you make some excellent points about the book.
Just to fill out the premise a bit – it’s my belief that online social activism is fast becoming a sector unto itself, a permanent addition to the landscape of philanthropy, politics, and activism. And that’s something I set out to document at this time and around this place.
Sure, we’re guilty of the buzzword title – I consciously wanted to let as many people know that this amazing development was taking place online, using new tools to be sure, but also leveraging new ideas about how people connect – and why so many of them are doing it to try and change something. A short punchy oh-so-00s title was the way to go.
I’m a journalist, so it’s a journalist’s book – not a sociologist’s or an academic’s. And I struggled with some of the very points you raise, ultimately having to decide whether to write it or a smaller audience of folks who really know this stuff, or a wider audience of people who SHOULD know this stuff. We opted for the latter, partly as a way of encouraging and validating the incredible work people are doing in this new sector.
Thanks for the review and opportunity to discuss the book – I mean that sincerely. And who knows, the next one may be right up your alley!
Tom – that all makes good sense to me. Thank you for coming to comment here, and for experimenting with blogs as a way of spreading the word. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the CauseWired log from now on.