brycedotvc:

In the wake of this week’s online surge to combat SOPA and PIPA, the New York Times found Chris Dodd, the current head of The Motion Picture Association of America, in a particularly reflective mood yesterday.

Looking back on his decades as a beltway insider, he posited that this recent wave of online activism was unlike any he’d encountered. From the article:

But the startlingly speedy collapse of the antipiracy campaign by some of Washington’s savviest players — not just the motion picture association, but also the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Recording Industry Association of America — signaled deep changes in antipiracy lobbying in the future. By Mr. Dodd’s account, no Washington player can safely assume that a well-wired, heavily financed legislative program is safe from a sudden burst of Web-driven populism.

Mr. Dodd said that the entire industry was surprised by the intensity of the objections that arose in the last couple of weeks. “This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,” he said. “This thing was considered by many to be a slam dunk.”

“This is altogether a new effect.” He could not remember seeing “an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically” in the last four decades, he added.

Mr. Dodd is right, this is an altogether new effect- in Washington.

But, as with most overnight sensations, these network effects aren’t all that new to those of us who’ve been deeply engaged in their development. 

We, as a community, have been making lurching, halting and, occasionally, spectacular progress in developing our understanding of these networks. At times, we’ve channeled that understanding into the silly, the stupid, the surreal, and, occasionally we’ve channeled them into the spectacular.

WIth any new tool, it takes time and practice to develop the understanding and skill necessary to wield it for maximum impact. I believe we’re finally hitting that critical inflection point of understanding and empowerment.

And that, I believe, is the new effect that Mr. Dodd has noted.