Journal article
Tomorrow's cyberunions: A new path to renewal and growth
Working USA, Vol.5(2), pp.82-105
22 Sep 2001
Abstract
For example, by the end of 2002 there may be more mobile devices than personal computers (PCs) accessing the Internet, so powerful appears the next "killer app," the "teleputer" (otherwise known as an advanced wireless mobile phone). Keen competition in 2002, however, is expected from Microsoft's Tablet PC, a portable, book-sized, three-pound wireless "wonder." Proponents hail it as "a revolutionary device that actually replaces the laptop in your briefcase and the PC on your desk" (Levy 2001). By 2007 as many as 59 percent of all Americans (up from 2 percent today) are expected to own a device that can access mobile data (Gunther 2001). Before too glowing an impression is given, it should be noted that Cyber Gain unions and locals have many telling weaknesses. These unions and locals commonly remain frozen in the first generation of Internet use. They are preoccupied with meeting only straightforward informational needs. Their Web site typically offers their logo and basic facts, a static display that critics dismiss as "brochure ware" or "billboards." Their messages are characteristically unidirectional, going only from top to bottom. They guard the e-mail addresses of leaders lest members attempt to finesse the hierarchy and go directly to the top. They frown on unmoderated chat rooms and bulletin boards, lest matters get "out of control" (read, the officers come under attack). At least where four areas of advancement are concerned--alliance-building, communications, organizing (internal/external), and staff development--labor would seem well on its way. That is, provided that labor remembers "high tech" computerization works best when aiding such "high touch" efforts as one-on-one organizing, "shoe leather" vote-getting, "buttonhole" lobbying for labor law reform, and so on--the humanizing dimensions of unionism that constitute its unique "value added" dimension.
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Details
- Title
- Tomorrow's cyberunions: A new path to renewal and growth
- Creators
- Arthur Shostak
- Publication Details
- Working USA, Vol.5(2), pp.82-105
- Publisher
- Brill Academic Publishers, Inc
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology; Culture and Communication [Historical]
- Identifiers
- 991020705490804721