First sentence of t his Howard Rheingold article (from October 2003) says it all: "It has taken 10 years of talk about “new media” for a critical mass to understand that every computer desktop, and now every pocket, is a worldwide printing press, broadcasting station, place of assembly, and organizing tool - and to learn how to use that infrastructure to affect change." Convergence is small-er-ing journalism, reviving the town square, and producing political miniparties.
And yet, as Rheingold wrote even earlier, the critical mass and new media aren't cure-alls. "There is no market for solving social problems", and "Throwing technology at problems can be helpful, but the fundamental problems are political and economic and rooted in human nature. ... A tool is not the task".
