Typically, I write about social capital on the individual level (micro) or the community level (meso). However, today’s news focuses heavily on social capital on the macro level. Political discourse has changed through digital social media tools, and it’s not just happening in today’s democracies. Every government and nation must accept the fact that they [...]

Recently, the Freakonomics blog pointed towards a sociologist at the University of Utrecht who conducted seven-year longitudinal study of social networks. 604 people were surveyed about their friends. Then, seven years later, the participants listed their friends again. According to the study, only 48% of original friends showed up on the second list. The study [...]

On Friday evening, over one-million Facebook users joined in on a landrush to claim their custom extension to their Facebook page. Users could now be have memorable identities that they could put on a business card. Compare these two urls: http://www.facebook.com/bill.sherman http//www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1544430393&ref=nf Now, I’ll admit, I was one of those people who logged on to [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about the impact of social network technology on the Iranian protests. It’s interesting to compare this past week’s events with other protests: Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2004-05) China’s Tianamen Square Protests (1989) Czechosolovakia’s Velvet Revolution (1989) Poland’s Solidarity Movement (1980) Would Poland’s change have occured quicker if the union members and organizers had [...]