http://www.shirky.com/weblog/
Mr. Shirky is one of the foremost thinkers on how Internet Collective Action impacts our society. His book Here Comes Everybody is particularly clear on just what ICA is and how it changes things. Shirky is amazing for seeing things at a different angle that then makes you think "oh yeah, that's obvious" but nobody else thought of it. For instance, he describes Wikipedia as "a bureaucracy mainly given over to arguing. The articles are the residue of the argument...” (Here Comes Everybody, p. 279)
An especially useful aspect of ICA that Shirky points out is the ladder of participation. Participation online can be as simple as sharing, which is the first rung. This is the easiest. Cooperation, the next rung, involves working together on a simple task, such as an ebay transaction. Collective Action involves several people who must define the task, collaborate on how to accomplish the task, and decide who will do what.
I highly recommend Shirky's writings. He's also on twitter, #cshirky.
Internet Collective Action is people organizing in a nonhierarchical manner to accomplish a particular goal. The reward is in the doing, and how much or how little anyone participates is completely voluntary, depending on their abilities and commitment to the goal. By this process amazing things can be accomplished. ICA will grow so long as the Internet is free. http://www.lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm is an example of ICA.
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