ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. In the 1990s, leading experts, politicians, public officials, business leaders and journalists predicted that the internet would transform the world. In brief, the internet would change society permanently and irrevocably, like the invention of print and gunpowder. The internet was supposedly engendering a shift from passive consumption to active participation; causing markets to fragment and rendering society more open and egalitarian. The 2011 popular uprisings in the Middle East immediately hailed as the Twitter Revolutions' seemed to offer final confirmation that the internet was a transformative force. As Steve Jobs asserted in 1996, the internet is an incredible democratiser', since a small company can look as large as a big company and be accessible'. However, international coordination has happened on an extensive basis before with more limited communication technology a point illustrated by a successful campaign at the dawn of the mass internet.
