In Class Writing - M. Owens Simpson

"Wachovia = Fail"

When Heather Lynn's credit card was charged an extra .30 cents for donating to a Haiti relief fund, she channelled her anger and disappointment into a "group activity" in protest against Wachovia bank. Just as the author Shirky would say, Heather's group activity evolved in three stages to achieve its peak effect. She  shared (stage 1) her frustrations with the world by creating a facebook group called "Wachovia = Fail" detailing what happened and what she thought about it. Heather then, of course, sent out friend requests, in order to rally people around the cause and educate them on the matter. As her friends and peers accepted the friend requests, and forwarded the group page to even MORE friends (cooperation, stage 2), knowledge about Wachovia's extra fees and Heather's cause grew. Wall posts and comments added in the cooperation for expanding the group and creating a group focus. Finally (stage 3 - collective action) the focus was born, which was that Wachovia should get rid of this fee when people are merely donating to a relief fund. Eventually, Wachovia could not ignore the growing protest, and the story was picked up by other online sites and news organizations. All of this combined, forced Wachovia to change its policy, after the three stages of Shirky's group activities was successful.