An Apt Project for a Former Cadet
As most people who know me know by now, I plan to depart the Coast Guard Academy at the conclusion of this semester to take a sample of civilian life for at least a while. I will not write about why I am leaving or what I plan to do, but I will write about something I intend to do to assist those cadets who decide to leave in the future. It is not that I want to encourage cadets to leave this institution, it is just that I feel those who do come to the decision after much thought and debate should not feel completely befuddled as to what their options are and how they should start to piece their lives back together. I know that I have experienced a lot of anxiety just thinking about all of the tasks involved in leaving because I do not know what to expect at all the different stages of the process. If cadets are more aware of options and opportunities available to them upon their departure, they are more able to find success outside of this institution and can potentially act as more impressive representatives of the Academy.
That is why I decided to try to find a web 2.0 application or a combination of applications to assist departing cadets. I decided to go through many of the gadgets we discussed and tinkered with during this semester to find which of them are best-suited for this task. The tools I considered were Twitter, Ning, Facebook, wikis, and blogs. Some of these are much easier to dismiss than others but they must all be considered before I can begin developing and implementing a system.
Twitter
Twitter is described as a micro-blogging tool for users to update their current status or activity so that other users who are following them can receive the information on a live feed. The benefit of this tool lies in its creation of a real-time connection between people who are not physically in each other’s presence. One of the main benefits of Twitter is the ability for a question and answer interaction to be broadcast to many people instead of restricted to a two-person interaction (similar to regular blog activity). Although Twitter has been established as a useful tool in organizations and in the general public, it does not seem to be a very viable option as the primary platform for the task I wish to perform. I believe that the conversations taking place will simply require too much text (and may not even occur over the internet) for Twitter to be useful. However, Twitter could be used as a supplement to post links to updates on a different platform.
Ning
Ning is a social networking tool that allows users to create their own social networks instead of joining into an existing one such as Facebook or MySpace. The benefit of using Ning over Facebook is the ability to customize the network and have more control regarding its security and specificity. I believe that Ning’s capabilities would fulfill my requirements if being able to support the task was all I was concerned about. However, I am also concerned about how likely an effective implementation could be with certain tools. In Ning’s case, it seems that implementation would prove to be a difficult task due to the very low number of cadets aware of its existence and familiar with its operations. I would have to take on the double task of coaxing cadets and former cadets into creating an account on Ning then familiarizing themselves with its design and capabilities before any benefits were even possible. At this time I do not believe that Ning will work for my purposes.
Wiki
A wiki is simply a document that allows anyone granted permission to make additions, edits, or deletions. The most famous wiki example is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. The benefits of using a wiki include the concept of the “wisdom of crowds” and the “long-tail.” The wisdom of the crowds discusses how, collectively, we are much more intelligent than we are alone. The long-tail is a graphical representation of how people are distributed in terms of their interests. There is one side of the graph where most of the data points lie (the big blockbuster movies) that quickly drops off to the side of the graph where the data points are much more sparse (nearly unknown foreign indie film). Amazon has successfully leveraged the long-tail by finding a way to make a much wider selection of books available. This is accomplished by using user reviews, suggestions based on similarity, and functioning as a medium between users doing business. Through their processes they create a business model where it is profitable to sell as few as one copy of any title each year (so long as it is not a title they are holding in bulk in inventory). Similar to Amazon’s work, Wikipedia has found a way so that even the most obscure of topics (those in the long-tail) get coverage. Since they allow so many people to contribute to their project (as in everyone), they are much more likely to cover the topics that only a few people are interested in writing and reading about. In addition to increasing the amount of information collected, the accuracy also benefits through the wiki process. If thousands of people are given the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and efforts, it is much more likely that an accurate and thorough article will result than if one intelligent person were asked (and paid) to complete the same task. Opening up the task to thousands (or millions) of people allows all of those contributors to split the one topic into a seemingly infinite number of more detailed topics that they may know more about, or may even be an expert on.
I believe that wikis could play a very significant role in assisting with the goal I have proposed. Although I would first have to convince a large number of people to buy-in to my project, they could eventually write up very detailed wikis on specific portions of the separation process. Some of these specific segments could include the process of submitting resignation or sabbatical paperwork, completing the check-out process with cadet administration, utilizing veterans’ benefits, applying to other schools, and reapplying to the Academy at the completion of a sabbatical. I would probably have to make the initial contributions on many of these wikis to convince other people to make an effort, but I believe these could eventually prove to be very useful documents. Additionally, if any of the procedural details change with time, more recent defectors could update the wikis with the most current information.
Blogs
Blogs encompass any and all electronically, self-published, written pieces. It does not matter the topic, the audience size, the audience composition, or the blogging service used, they are all blogs. The advent of blogs has created a massive influx of written material on the web and severely increased the amount of inaccurate, unprofessional, and emotionally-based material. These changes are due very simply to the decreasing difficulty and cost involved in broadcasting electronic data to the masses. Any person who feels as though he or she can help others by writing their opinion or publishing their individual research, or anyone that simply enjoys the feeling he or she receives from being able to somewhat anonymously speak to the public (or a couple people who accidentally clicked on their blog), will flock to blogging websites such as blogger or wordpress.
A blog could work very well to accomplish my goal. It can by no means achieve all of the goals but it can definitely supplement some other implementations. For instance, some of the persons who choose to leave the Academy can include a written narrative of their experiences in an already-established blog or they could create a blog specifically for this purpose. Although I myself have not updated my blog with an out-processing narrative, I do intend to write up one piece explaining the entire process and post it on my blog. I am aware that many people use their blogs in more of a journal-like manner, but I will betray that typicality and write an after-action report of sorts (I must be meant for the military).
Facebook
Facebook is a social network that people typically use to stay close to their friends, family, and classmates. Some people do use the service to contact users who are mere acquaintances or who they do not know at all, but this seems to encompass a minority of Facebook users at this time. Facebook allows users to join a geographic, occupational, or academic network and to use a “friend” function to establish special relationships with certain users which allows an increased level of visibility between the user profiles. Whereas the typical user relationship may only allow viewing of a name, a profile picture, and a network, friends may view all of each other’s photos, published notes, all contact and interest information, and “wall” postings. The wall is a public means of communication where people post bits of conversation directly onto another user’s profile. Friends and users in general may communicate through messages as well as wall posts if they desire privacy in their electronic conversation. Another function included on Facebook is the opportunity to create and join “groups.” Users can create groups on practically anything at all; including sports, literature, poetry, celebrities, politics, news, humor, or events. Although some groups provide very little value to the users who are a part of them, others are highly valuable in that they may provide information, support, pleasurable socialization, or knowledge of group-related events.
In my opinion, Facebook can very clearly serve as the primary foundation for accomplishing my task. Almost all cadets and an increasing number of alumni are already signed up on Facebook and have already created hundreds of connections to classmates. If a group were to be established that is worthwhile and easy-to-use, it could dramatically increase in popularity in a very short period of time. On this group page I could post discussion topics on specific topics related to departing the Academy as well as links to the related blogs and wikis. If there are any electronic copies of documents involved in the process then those could be posted as well.
Using the implementations discussed above, I believe I can create a very useful resource for cadets who are interested in departing or are at least curious as to how the process works. By using this resource, cadets will be able to focus more on finding post-Academy success. I do not believe that this tool will in any way encourage cadets to leave but I do believe that it will facilitate the administrative barrier to departing. Although this resource could one day include other gadgets, a Facebook group, wikis, and blogs will provide a good base for any future modifications. I have started the Facebook group and I will update my blog now that I have completed the process of leaving the Academy on a sabbatical. Soon, once the group gathers a substantial number of members, I will create and link wikis to the group.
Here is the link for the Facebook group:
Facebook Group
Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
An Attempt at Summation
So, at some point last week I reached the end of "Here Come's Everybody" and I am just now getting to the final blog entry (for the book reading).
It seems as though it should be collective in nature, a declaration of my overall learning experience. So, I will try to make it so. I'll try to make it somewhat brief as well, because I don't think what Mr. Shirky was trying to say required 300 pages.
The web has not always been around. In fact, it has been around for a very short period of time (relatively). While it has been around, it has certainly been revolutionary. Many of our daily activities and leisure activities have changed as a result. Shopping, travel planning, networking, communicating, information gathering, wasting time...many, many things have changed. Web 2.0 makes us all creators, consumers, editors, critics, and researchers. We float between the different roles effortlessly and instantaneously, many times wearing several different hats at a time. An incredible amount of responsibility has been placed upon us all since we have the ability to change what someone perceived to be true about something (through a Wikipedia article), whether someone makes a purchase or not (through Amazon reviews), or who someone votes for in the upcoming election (through political blogs and article posts). Amazingly we have all entrusted each other with these abilities. This may mostly be due to the fact that we hardly have another option, but also because we are incredibly eager and ecstatic to discover what we can all do when we allow each other to redefine our roles on the web beyond mere users.
I think Mr. Shirky should have spoken more extensively about how this revolution fits into many other revolutions that have taken place.
The American Revolution set the world up for an end to imperialism, the internal combustion engine changed travel forever, as did the invention of flight, the phone revolutionized communications (as the internet later would), and many other inventions and happenings changed the way things are perceived and accomplished forever. So, while I believe the internet (specifically web 2.0) has made incredible changed to our society that are at once fascinating and somewhat frightening, I believe that many more wonderful and mind-blowing inventions are to come in the near future. Maybe somewhere along the way someone will really figure out economics as well, but probably not.
It seems as though it should be collective in nature, a declaration of my overall learning experience. So, I will try to make it so. I'll try to make it somewhat brief as well, because I don't think what Mr. Shirky was trying to say required 300 pages.
The web has not always been around. In fact, it has been around for a very short period of time (relatively). While it has been around, it has certainly been revolutionary. Many of our daily activities and leisure activities have changed as a result. Shopping, travel planning, networking, communicating, information gathering, wasting time...many, many things have changed. Web 2.0 makes us all creators, consumers, editors, critics, and researchers. We float between the different roles effortlessly and instantaneously, many times wearing several different hats at a time. An incredible amount of responsibility has been placed upon us all since we have the ability to change what someone perceived to be true about something (through a Wikipedia article), whether someone makes a purchase or not (through Amazon reviews), or who someone votes for in the upcoming election (through political blogs and article posts). Amazingly we have all entrusted each other with these abilities. This may mostly be due to the fact that we hardly have another option, but also because we are incredibly eager and ecstatic to discover what we can all do when we allow each other to redefine our roles on the web beyond mere users.
I think Mr. Shirky should have spoken more extensively about how this revolution fits into many other revolutions that have taken place.
The American Revolution set the world up for an end to imperialism, the internal combustion engine changed travel forever, as did the invention of flight, the phone revolutionized communications (as the internet later would), and many other inventions and happenings changed the way things are perceived and accomplished forever. So, while I believe the internet (specifically web 2.0) has made incredible changed to our society that are at once fascinating and somewhat frightening, I believe that many more wonderful and mind-blowing inventions are to come in the near future. Maybe somewhere along the way someone will really figure out economics as well, but probably not.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Home Stretch
So, I am almost done with Mr. Shirky's book. Once again, I will focus on one idea that really drew my attention. I don't want to write a summary of the pages, because that is not very interesting.
So, around page 230 or so, Mr. Shirky was still on the topic of Meetup.com and why it is so amazing. I agree that it is a pretty great service that certainly has a group of people who would be much more lonely without it.
During this particular section, Mr. Shirky's emphasis was on the success of specific groups on meetup and what characteristics the successful groups shared. He realized that a successful group must be one that is well-balanced between specificity and generality. A group that consisted of males from Boston, MA would not be all that interesting. Some of the members would certainly feel a connection to some of the other members (for reasons other than their mutual residence), but the vast majority of members would feel hardly any connection at all to the other members.
This is because being a resident of Boston does not make people feel as if they share something special. Bostonians may be very proud of their city, but they cannot relate beyond the usual, "oh you are from Boston, too?" conversation. They may both know about a construction project going on (Big Dig) or legislation being passed (gay marriage) but even then, they could run into anyone on the street or in the bar and discuss those topics. Those topics and conversations will not be exclusively generated through a website dedicated to Boston males.
It would also be pointless to create a group for "22 year old white, jewish, males who graduated from Rutgers in 2006 and now live in New London, CT." That would be a group of one, or so. The chance that a group like that would find more than one person in a city the size of New London is too little to justify its creation.
Now, if we shave off a couple of the traits or look to shared interests or hobbies instead of ages, genders, and alma maters, we may find some more useful groups. Groups like the local stay at home moms group are very effective at generating social interaction between people that share common ground able to make them feel specially bonded. They have more to talk about than the town library having a flood or the local school getting new books (although those things may come up). They can share advice, they can provide support, they can discuss their problems, and they can call upon each other for favors. Most importantly, they can be well on their way to finding friends in a group like this. You can certainly find friends in the "Bostonian male" meetup group, but your chances are no greater than if you went to the local bar or walked around the streets.
Meetup helps people find friends with common interests that would otherwise have incredibly low chances of running into one another, but it hardly helps anyone out that wants to find someone exactly like them or someone that doesn't care what kind of person they find.
So, around page 230 or so, Mr. Shirky was still on the topic of Meetup.com and why it is so amazing. I agree that it is a pretty great service that certainly has a group of people who would be much more lonely without it.
During this particular section, Mr. Shirky's emphasis was on the success of specific groups on meetup and what characteristics the successful groups shared. He realized that a successful group must be one that is well-balanced between specificity and generality. A group that consisted of males from Boston, MA would not be all that interesting. Some of the members would certainly feel a connection to some of the other members (for reasons other than their mutual residence), but the vast majority of members would feel hardly any connection at all to the other members.
This is because being a resident of Boston does not make people feel as if they share something special. Bostonians may be very proud of their city, but they cannot relate beyond the usual, "oh you are from Boston, too?" conversation. They may both know about a construction project going on (Big Dig) or legislation being passed (gay marriage) but even then, they could run into anyone on the street or in the bar and discuss those topics. Those topics and conversations will not be exclusively generated through a website dedicated to Boston males.
It would also be pointless to create a group for "22 year old white, jewish, males who graduated from Rutgers in 2006 and now live in New London, CT." That would be a group of one, or so. The chance that a group like that would find more than one person in a city the size of New London is too little to justify its creation.
Now, if we shave off a couple of the traits or look to shared interests or hobbies instead of ages, genders, and alma maters, we may find some more useful groups. Groups like the local stay at home moms group are very effective at generating social interaction between people that share common ground able to make them feel specially bonded. They have more to talk about than the town library having a flood or the local school getting new books (although those things may come up). They can share advice, they can provide support, they can discuss their problems, and they can call upon each other for favors. Most importantly, they can be well on their way to finding friends in a group like this. You can certainly find friends in the "Bostonian male" meetup group, but your chances are no greater than if you went to the local bar or walked around the streets.
Meetup helps people find friends with common interests that would otherwise have incredibly low chances of running into one another, but it hardly helps anyone out that wants to find someone exactly like them or someone that doesn't care what kind of person they find.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Why the Popular Can't Organize
So, Mr. Shirky mentioned Meetup.com in the last 50 pages. I considered his description of this web 2.0 application to be the most interesting reading in those pages.
Meetup (this was discussed in class early on) is a social networking site that is meant to be used for physical meeting arrangements. Facebook is meant to just serve as a way of electronically communicating with "friends," but Meetup, they want you to actually see these "friends." I'm somewhat surprised Facebook didn't just create a subsection of their site devoted to arrange meet ups. But, in actuality, they did. Well, not specifically, but you can certainly create a physical event and invite others to join in.
So, something is different. It might be that this capability stretches beyond what facebook users want to accompish during their time on the site. Or maybe meetup.com is just more user-friendly. Or maybe facebook is just too mainstream. Their typical users don't need an electronically generated event to meet up with people they associate with. This is, as Mr. Shirky elaborates, not the case for Xena (warrior princess) fans or the rare witches of the world.
Some groups are much less populated than others and these groups are the ones that need the help of the computer to gather their few members together. Many popular groups don't have to make very specific plans to meet up with their fellow members, or they may not even feel that their common characteristic is rare enough to enjoy sharing it with the other members. Either way, a quick glance at meetup.com shows that the majority of groups communicating through this medium are groups of people we hardly ever just "come across." Frankly, I am happy for all of them.
Meetup (this was discussed in class early on) is a social networking site that is meant to be used for physical meeting arrangements. Facebook is meant to just serve as a way of electronically communicating with "friends," but Meetup, they want you to actually see these "friends." I'm somewhat surprised Facebook didn't just create a subsection of their site devoted to arrange meet ups. But, in actuality, they did. Well, not specifically, but you can certainly create a physical event and invite others to join in.
So, something is different. It might be that this capability stretches beyond what facebook users want to accompish during their time on the site. Or maybe meetup.com is just more user-friendly. Or maybe facebook is just too mainstream. Their typical users don't need an electronically generated event to meet up with people they associate with. This is, as Mr. Shirky elaborates, not the case for Xena (warrior princess) fans or the rare witches of the world.
Some groups are much less populated than others and these groups are the ones that need the help of the computer to gather their few members together. Many popular groups don't have to make very specific plans to meet up with their fellow members, or they may not even feel that their common characteristic is rare enough to enjoy sharing it with the other members. Either way, a quick glance at meetup.com shows that the majority of groups communicating through this medium are groups of people we hardly ever just "come across." Frankly, I am happy for all of them.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Church and the Web
I'm currently about 150 pages in. The book is starting to be a bit redundant. He seems to tell a story, then give his only little bit about how revolutionary web 2.0 is, then get into another story, then rearrange his own words to reiterate how revolutionary web 2.0 is. The stories are interesting, though.
Apparently the web is what finally caused the pedophilia of several catholic priests to be exposed on a large scale. There have been several instances of priests (particularly in the Boston area...hmm) molesting many young boys over a large period of time. Before the web was available as an effective collaborative tool, parishioners would only find out about these issues from a local newspaper, if they even covered it. People can share newspaper clippings, but this involves physically delivering the clipping or mailing the clipping. But that is only if the original person doesn't want to keep a copy for themselves. If they do, they must take the additional step of making a copy of the clipping then sharing it. Each person that wishes to share the clipping must take similar steps.
With the web, someone will get an email of the news story from a local or a national paper, then all they must do to exponentially increase the awareness of the event is forward this message to a group of people. Then all of those people forward the message to another group of people. News obviously spreads much more effectively this way. So, whereas before, the story would start to expand out from its origin (Boston) but reach a limit where people no longer wanted to take the time to make a copy and bring it to their friends, now the web lets the message expand out infinitely to people all over the country and all over the globe.
People need to know about things to change them. I believe that the web is one of the reasons this presidential election is so incredibly exciting. Everyone knows almost everything. Even people who have almost no interest in politics (or previously felt without access) are hearing how strangely attractive Gov. Palin is. They know that John McCain was a POW during Vietnam. They know that Barack Obama can play a pretty good game of basketball. I'm not all that certian if this is all that great of a thing. From my political viewpoints it is beneficial, since more young people will (hopefully) get out there to vote, and most likely vote the way younger people tend to vote. I guess we will find out come November. That is all for now.
Apparently the web is what finally caused the pedophilia of several catholic priests to be exposed on a large scale. There have been several instances of priests (particularly in the Boston area...hmm) molesting many young boys over a large period of time. Before the web was available as an effective collaborative tool, parishioners would only find out about these issues from a local newspaper, if they even covered it. People can share newspaper clippings, but this involves physically delivering the clipping or mailing the clipping. But that is only if the original person doesn't want to keep a copy for themselves. If they do, they must take the additional step of making a copy of the clipping then sharing it. Each person that wishes to share the clipping must take similar steps.
With the web, someone will get an email of the news story from a local or a national paper, then all they must do to exponentially increase the awareness of the event is forward this message to a group of people. Then all of those people forward the message to another group of people. News obviously spreads much more effectively this way. So, whereas before, the story would start to expand out from its origin (Boston) but reach a limit where people no longer wanted to take the time to make a copy and bring it to their friends, now the web lets the message expand out infinitely to people all over the country and all over the globe.
People need to know about things to change them. I believe that the web is one of the reasons this presidential election is so incredibly exciting. Everyone knows almost everything. Even people who have almost no interest in politics (or previously felt without access) are hearing how strangely attractive Gov. Palin is. They know that John McCain was a POW during Vietnam. They know that Barack Obama can play a pretty good game of basketball. I'm not all that certian if this is all that great of a thing. From my political viewpoints it is beneficial, since more young people will (hopefully) get out there to vote, and most likely vote the way younger people tend to vote. I guess we will find out come November. That is all for now.
Monday, September 8, 2008
To Be Famous
I have reached page 100 or so. So far it is a reasonably enjoyable book. I think it rambles and dives around a bit, but there are some really solid points that Mr. Shirky makes. I don't think they are all that profound but it provides for a reasonably strong argument why we should not be so worried about the vast changes occurring in our social worlds, and why we certainly should not try to fight the beast.
I only want to bring up one thing I specifically enjoyed at a time so I can write somewhat in depth reflective material. Around page 90 he started talking about fame and how the concept of fame applied to an online broadcast medium, such as a blog. His main point is that, so long as someone becomes famous on the internet, the internet stops being an interactive medium and starts becoming a one to many medium where any sort of reciprocal communication cannot occur.
These people that become "famous" bloggers are the ones most like the published writers we are familiar with in the print world. Almost all of the other bloggers are participating in a content creation activity that is not necessarily meant for the masses. They are creating their material for their friends and family to read and comment on. It just so happens that anyone in the world can, if they decide to, read the material. But this does not mean it is a typical broadcast such as the ones to be found on the radio or the television. I thought this distinction was a very important one to make that was not necessarily all that intutive. Many of us have difficulty believing anyone would choose to use a blog as a means of personally discussing topics that one would discuss with someone in person in a very informal fashion.
Good stuff.
I only want to bring up one thing I specifically enjoyed at a time so I can write somewhat in depth reflective material. Around page 90 he started talking about fame and how the concept of fame applied to an online broadcast medium, such as a blog. His main point is that, so long as someone becomes famous on the internet, the internet stops being an interactive medium and starts becoming a one to many medium where any sort of reciprocal communication cannot occur.
These people that become "famous" bloggers are the ones most like the published writers we are familiar with in the print world. Almost all of the other bloggers are participating in a content creation activity that is not necessarily meant for the masses. They are creating their material for their friends and family to read and comment on. It just so happens that anyone in the world can, if they decide to, read the material. But this does not mean it is a typical broadcast such as the ones to be found on the radio or the television. I thought this distinction was a very important one to make that was not necessarily all that intutive. Many of us have difficulty believing anyone would choose to use a blog as a means of personally discussing topics that one would discuss with someone in person in a very informal fashion.
Good stuff.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Initial Thoughts on Reading
So, I started reading "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky. I don't know why, exactly, I chose this book instead of the others available. I just enjoyed the Amazon synopsis, I suppose. The cover is fun as well.
So, I think I have read about 40 pages or so. Mr. Shirky has so far just discussed different social theories and how amazing their implications are for our society. He set aside a solid 30 pages for a story about this woman who lost her cell phone in a NYC taxi cab. She relayed the misfortune to her friend, who happened to have a rather popular blog. This friend advertised a reward for information leading to the recovery of the phone (the phone had a lot of information for the owner's upcoming wedding).
Soon the ad hoc sleuths discovered who had the phone by accessing the phone's photos (the new owner had already taken a bunch of photos) and email address via the cell phone service's website. After this discovery, the owners friend asked to have the phone back only to be threatened with violence and given a false address. He then alerted all of his blog's viewers to the identity of the new owner (who had received the phone from her brother) and told them the story. Soon the story had thousands of followers all across the country and helped the owner file a theft report with the NYPD. Soon the police resolved the incident by retrieving the phone and arresting the girl who had refused to return it.
This story simply goes to show how powerful of a tool the web is. A regular man was able to gather support from thousands of people all across the nation and even in different countries by simply putting his story out on an available medium (for free). Even five years ago something such as this would be impossible unless the story found its way to a national newspaper (which it actually did, due to its extreme publicity on the web).
That's all for now.
So, I think I have read about 40 pages or so. Mr. Shirky has so far just discussed different social theories and how amazing their implications are for our society. He set aside a solid 30 pages for a story about this woman who lost her cell phone in a NYC taxi cab. She relayed the misfortune to her friend, who happened to have a rather popular blog. This friend advertised a reward for information leading to the recovery of the phone (the phone had a lot of information for the owner's upcoming wedding).
Soon the ad hoc sleuths discovered who had the phone by accessing the phone's photos (the new owner had already taken a bunch of photos) and email address via the cell phone service's website. After this discovery, the owners friend asked to have the phone back only to be threatened with violence and given a false address. He then alerted all of his blog's viewers to the identity of the new owner (who had received the phone from her brother) and told them the story. Soon the story had thousands of followers all across the country and helped the owner file a theft report with the NYPD. Soon the police resolved the incident by retrieving the phone and arresting the girl who had refused to return it.
This story simply goes to show how powerful of a tool the web is. A regular man was able to gather support from thousands of people all across the nation and even in different countries by simply putting his story out on an available medium (for free). Even five years ago something such as this would be impossible unless the story found its way to a national newspaper (which it actually did, due to its extreme publicity on the web).
That's all for now.
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