First, Get a Worthwhile Cause; Then Get Wired

This is what I call the cause-wired phenomenon, and it includes online social activism, nonprofit fund raising, wired social entrepreneurship, and political organizing. It overlaps the larger worlds of organized charity and nonprofit groups, of politics and policy organizing, of consumer brands and marketing — even as it changes them. It rides the demographic trends of a younger, super-wired group of active citizens. So far millions of people and groups, big and small, have used social networks to raise money, to push for votes, or to bring attention to some cause that will make the world a better place.