Max Gladwell

CauseWired is a book about what we do. It is the nexus of social media and social good. It is a new term for the Max Gladwell nomenclature.

One way to express the measure of a book for us can be the ratio of total pages to those we’ve flagged with the venerable dog ear. These are the pages that have a memorable line or a profound thought that we’d like to reference or revisit at a later time. These are the essence. Which is to say, one could read only the dog-eared pages and get a pretty good feel for that given book. Of CauseWired‘s modest 200-some pages, we marked 22 as having these exceptional qualities. At about one in five, it’s quite possibly a record.

CauseWired by Tom Watson tells the story of activism, politics, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurism in the 21st century. It is the brief history of the past eight years, but these years mark profound changes in how the causes of this new century are pursued and prosecuted. And it comes down to two things: technology and demography.

Social media is changing the world. It is leveling the playing fields of influence and communications in ways we’re just beginning to understand. CauseWired details this technological and cultural revolution, which has been compared to “the Italian Renaissance or the rise of Athenian democracy”, through compelling anecdotes and case studies of social media in action. We previewed CauseWired in Down With the Cause. In the following, we excerpt from those dog-eared pages.

The title of the book is not only intended to describe the movement toward networked social and political action, but like The Long Tail, Groundswell, and Tipping Point, it’s predisposed for buzzword status. Which is to say it’s potentially a term that transcends the book itself and becomes a part of the language we use, where the entire meaning of the book can be conveyed in a single word: CauseWired.

This term, first employed in this book, is important for anyone interested in the public consciousness to understand. For consumer marketers, causes are a vital path to successful brands. Never before have consumers cared more about the ethical righteousness of companies. For employers, it is also a vital concept: Studies show that talented young people want to work only for companies and organizations they believe contribute to the public good. For nonprofit organizations and the philanthropists who support them, a grasp of the coming influence of social networks in causes will be, frankly, key to survival in a world where your grandfather’s style of check-writing charity no longer applies. For government and anyone involved in politics, the hopes and dreams of the “Facebook generation” and their older, early-adopter counterparts are crucial aspects of winning electoral support in elections ranging from national presidential contests to the vote for local council seats.

Watson defines causes as “situations that motivate people to try to change some part of the status quo; causes are, by definition, progressive.” And wired “means the people on the vast network of networks. Never before have we all been so wired–that is to say, so closely related.”

The technology of Web 2.0 is meeting with the demography of Generation Y, with each acting as an accelerant for the other. “At no point since the 1960s have young people worn their causes so openly–but this time around, the Facebook Generation is not fighting the establishment. They own it. For today’s superwired, always-on, live-life-in-public young Americans, the causes you support define who you are. Societal aspirations have so permeated the ‘net-native’ population that causes have become like musical tastes, style choices, and ‘blog bling’.”

More than just the attitudes and technological inclinations, the sheer size of the Millennial Generation is staggering. It is “estimated at 80 million Americans. Indeed, there are twice as many millennials as Gen-Xers and already a million more millennials alive than Baby Boomers.”

Combine that with the following proclivities: “While only 26% said they voted regularly (a number bound to change after the supercharged election of 2008), 36% have volunteered within the last year. And here is a number that the nation’s consumer marketers should consider tattooing on some portion of their bodies: 30% told researchers they have boycotted a product in the last year ‘because of the conditions under which it was made or the values of the company that made it.’” Another report found that “61% of Americans born between 1979 and 2001 ‘feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world,’ and that 74% said they are more likely to ‘pay attention to a company’s overall messages when they see that the company has a deep commitment to a cause.’”

Watson uses the pioneering, peer-to-peer giving platforms of DonorsChoose and Kiva as case studies for Philanthropy 2.0. He recounts the fall of Virginia Senator George Allen (the macaca guy) and the rise of Obama mania, with references to both Dean and Kerry, in demonstrating the new age of Politics 2.0. He coins the term “flash causes” in recounting several success stories of citizen activism at home and abroad aka Activism 2.0. And he sets the stage with the enduring online reaction to Katrina, which hit the same year as the launch of YouTube and Yahoo’s acquisition of Flickr. In this sense, the colorful history of the CauseWired movement is highly focused on these past three years.

In sum, this is a must-read for anyone in this burgeoning social-media-for-social-change space. It is recommended reading for anyone who wants to better understand what’s taking place on the social web in general. We’re officially adding it to our sidebar of recommended reading. According to Amazon, CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World will be released on November 10th, but you can pre-order today.

And we look forward to hearing about your reactions to CauseWired…and which pages you were compelled to dog-ear for future reference.

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• Social Media Currency: A Workshop, Part II
• Social Media Currency: A Workshop, Part I