2012: The Year That Movements Go Mainstream?
avc.com
avc.com
My dad and his fellow surgeons were able to bend their private health-insurer over a barrel with large CC'd email. The insurer kept claiming that other surgeons they worked with were lowering their prices so one surgeon just emailed all the others and a movement was started. Every time the insurer tried to pressure one surgeon into buckling he would email the encounter to the list and instantly receive messages of support (The south-east is strong! - Scotland will not let the side down etc..). None of these surgeons are particularly computer-literate or internet-aware and yet they found a really convenient and powerful way to self-organise and beat a profit-focussed insurer. Win.
This is really exciting.
Well, it's a win for rich surgeons. It's a loss for customers who will be paying a higher price for insurance.
Sign of the times, I guess.
My interpretation was that the insurance company was making progress individually, but once all the surgeons started communicating freely, they realized that it would be in their best interest (more profit) if they colluded.
As the State and its guilds scheme to reduce supply, which dantheman noted, the State also increases demand. This, of course, also raises costs.
For one, the Occupy movement is going to rise back up in some form in the spring and will be an interesting juxtaposition to the campaign fever in the U.S. I don't know if the social network idea is going to catch fire, but something on the internet interesting is going to happen in this regard.
Also, the Reddit/SOPA idea is an interesting one (Paul Ryan is great choice). A lot of people have learned from the GoDaddy fiasco that boycotts organized on the internet can work. This year we've also seen people moving their money to credit unions and now a boycott of Comcast.
Next year there may also be a conclusion to the Assange case that may jump off another round of hacktivism and let's see how far the Stratfor hack goes.
Overall I'd say 2012 is the year that the internet really becomes more than talking to your friends, email and buying and consuming crap. Two generations of people that grew up on the 'net will overwhelm the rest that don't understand it.
Occupy will be dead as soon as jobs kick back up or whenever the government actually puts up a fight to these camp-outs. I don't think anyone needs another social network; a forum perhaps, but Facebook/Twitter works just as well for organizing Occupy crap.
I don't know why GoDaddy got into this in the first place but it's obvious they didn't have much to gain at all which is why they bailed. Try getting a music company or a police fraternity to bail on SOPA by protest, see how far it gets you. SOPA will live on.
The Stratfor hack is complete and utter bullshit, it's a goddamn news wire service. Nothing will come from it.
The only thing you can say with certainty is America will be full of excess [political] bullshit until November 2012, and then it'll be business as usual.
(Also, you know the OP's post is a troll when he suggests Ron Paul could win)
As the articles state, the Occupy movement is making another social network because Facebook and Twitter don't work nearly efficient enough for "organizing Occupy crap". Nor have any major government attacks on Occupy Boston (for example) managed to stop the movement.
If they had a clue they'd pick a) someone already pretty wobbly, b) someone who won't be automatically riding the coattails of dissatisfaction with the current president, and c) someone they can take credit for bumping if they actually manage to pull it off.