Tonycurzonprice's Favorite Links on participation from Diigo

How business can save the world - The Boston Globe

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:42:37 -0000

There is also the possibility that companies can drive bad social changes, according to Charles Derber, a sociologist at Boston College and author of "The Wilding of America: Money, Mayhem, and the New American Dream" (2006). Empowerment at work may lead to engagement in society, but employees who feel that their company pays mere lip service to participatory management are likely to become cynical about participation in civic life as well. In large corporations, where participatory management may be no more than a flurry of buzzwords and employee participation is diluted due to the sheer size of the company, the results may be detrimental.

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

In a 2005 debate in Reason magazine, Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey articulated his vision of virtuous, socially responsible business.

"Human nature isn't just about self-interest," Mackey wrote, paraphrasing Adam Smith. "It also includes sympathy, empathy, friendship, love, and the desire for social approval. As motives for human behavior, these are at least as important as self-interest. For many people, they are more important."

In July of last year it was revealed that Mackey used a pseudonym in numerous online posts critical of Whole Foods' competitor Wild Oats, a chain of natural supermarkets Mackey was in the midst of trying to acquire.

Encouraging employees to practice virtue in factory and community is one thing; getting CEOs to do the same may be a challenge of a different order.

Tags: democracy participation

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

Web Politics Poll Glance

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:11:04 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

OVERALL: 35 percent in this country say they look to the Internet for political news _ a number that rises to 43 percent among likely voters. Online political browsers are most likely to go to news sites such as those operated by the newspapers, networks and newsmagazine _ with almost nine in 10 saying they check such sites. More than one-third go to candidates' sites and almost half go to political sites.

Tags: demographics od participation politics web

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

Participation Inequality: Lurkers vs. Contributors in Internet Communities (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:13:04 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:

90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.

Tags: communities forums participation

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

No 2, 2005

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:30:51 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Professors Bruno Frey and Alois Stutzer showed that the more extensive the political participation rights of citizens, the more satisfied they were with their lives. Their research, published in the Economic Journal, used data from 6,000 residents of Switzerland to show that people are happier the greater the local level of democracy. What is more, this increased happiness stems more from actual participation in the democratic process than from the outcome of the process itself.

Tags: democracy participation

Posted by: tonycurzonprice