The internet boom of the late nineties saw many winners and losers. Some of the big winners were companies such as Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay and Google. These exemplified the changing technology and the new ways it allowed those businesses to not only reach customers, but to allow other customers, to reach their customers. This is the many-to-many economic model. It would not be possible without the rise of the decentralised data network, the http protocol, and the internet web browser. The market success of this economic model has ramifications for representative democracy.
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Several of the ozplogistan heavyweights have weighed in on the Getup email campaign on Senate accountability. The mass media is also a-buzz with Liberal and National Senators having trouble dealing with the volume of mail from Getup in a meaningful manner. In particular Senator Robb having a whinge to the mass media. I have called these groups flash-mobs in the past. These mobs gather around a single popular issue - in this case keeping Coalition Senators accountable - harnessing the sheer numbers of the long tail into a fervent and meaningful group. Getup will be just the first of these kinds of activist groups in Australia. Senators and Members of Parliament should get used to it.
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