It is taken for granted that technology is changing every aspect of our lives but the speed at which things are changing is remarkable. According to a new report by Pew Research, from 2008 to the 2012 the number of political activities online has exploded. It found 39 percent of American engaged in some form of political activity on a social media site in 2012. By comparison, in 2008 only 26 percent of Americans even used social media.

We have entered an age of protest. Social media tools allow new ways to mobilize activists into public and private spaces and also provide new avenues for amplifying their actions. The Internet, when used properly, can drive activists to an action — or a worldwide coalition of actions — and then make sure thousands more people see and hear about them after. Using simple tools like hashtags, we can monitor the response to actions in real time in a way never possible before.

There is still the real possibility that Mitt Romney will win this election, but there is no doubt which candidate has the more dominant campaign infrastructure. By basically every metric the Obama campaign does significantly more than the Romney campaign across the entire spectrum. It has advertised more, reach out more and set up a big field operation.

I read this piece and was fascinated by the apparent agita out there over what people see/respond to on social media when it comes to discussing politics.

When I sat down to read Friends, Followers and the Future by Rory O’Connor, I thought I knew what to expect. This is how I earn my living- by advising others on how best to integrate social media into their lives and work. The world that is social media is at best a microcosm of the world at large and at worst a poor substitute for the offline world, and I figured that it would be easy to read this book, digest it into manageable pieces and write this intro for today’s book salon.

I was wrong.

Gil Scott Heron said it best; we cannot rely on so called journalists in the Mainstream Media to share our stories. Fortunately we don’t have to rely on the Media, because blogging and social media have given the individual the power to create his/her own media. Blogging allows for the instant publication of your story according to you, and with social media you can spread that information to millions of people instantaneously. Tonight’s panel can help you do that. Sign up here.

Tonight at 8pm eastern, Occupy Supply will be hosting a free, online discussion titled, “Beyond Signs & Flyers: Media and Marketing for the Occupy Movement.” Guest presenters include Andrew Boyd, Adam Lansky and Morgan Burke-Beyers. You can register for tonight’s free session here.

A congressional committee hearing is being held today on the Homeland Security Department’s (DHS) monitoring of social media. The meeting, being convened by the House Subcommittee of Counterterrorism and Intelligence, chaired by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), is being held as a result of documents on DHS monitoring that were exposed through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public research center that focuses attention on emerging issues of privacy and other civil liberties issues.

There will be a billion pixels spilt on these stories that you can read elsewhere by scholars, experts and journalists. What I’m most interested in is what works/worked for the media activists out there.

If you’ve been listening to the newscasters and pundits, they’re working that false meme of #OccupyWallStreet lacking focus and clear goals. You may be incredibly frustrated by this, and that’s probably what inspired you to read this post and many other contributions about #OccupyWallStreet by bloggers and citizen journalists.

It’s no wonder why #OccupyWallStreet is getting such bad press. A media that fawns at the feet of advertising Mammon will quickly sell out the truth.