Social Change Is at Our Fingertips

The power of technology to enact social change is turning everyone into an actor, not a spectator, in policy making.

Abraham Lincoln first saw a telegraph in Pekin, Illinois, just three years prior to running for president of the United States. Although the telegraph had existed for almost 20 years, no one had thought of using it for political purposes.

When Lincoln started his administration, a telegraph office opened next to the White House, in the War Department. Once he knew about the tele