The Digital Revolution

In the last chapter, I described a 1995 settlement negotiated between a powerful corporation (an insurance company) and relatively powerless homeowners. In this classic David vs. Goliath scenario, against all odds, the homeowners emerged victorious. Digital technologies, data, and information, anchored by sustained community activism influenced settlement negotiations. In this chapter, I propose that the roots of this particular type of digitally mediated community advocacy were established a long time ago – in the late 1960s in fact. In this chapter, I trace the history of the digital revolution that occurred in parallel with the more prominent civil rights revolution in the United States.