Jujitsu and the Technologies of the Groundswell

This chapter is focused on telling the managers of companies how to thrive in a world that is becoming a groundswell.  The groundswell is weakening their control over what is being said about products and services that they are manufacturing, however, once they understand the groundswell they can use it to their benefit.

The chapter outline various technologies (blogs, social networks, wikis, forums and widgets).  It then evaluates, how they work, explains participation, how they enable relationships, how they threaten institutional power, how you (business managers) can use them.

The next step is when evaluating a new technology, one should ask the following questions:

1. Does it enable people to connect with each other in a new way?
2. Is it effortless to sign up for?
3. Does it shift power from institutions from institutions to people?
4. Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself?
5. Is it an open platform that invites partnership?

The groundswell has two key ingredients: technology and people.