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May 31, 2009, 10:19 a.m.

Online on the streets of San Francisco

First it was the alpha geeks, the creators. Then the early adopters. Not so long ago, the Soccer Moms and the rest of the middle class jumped with both feet into a daily reliance on the internet. And now?

“You don’t need a TV. You don’t need a radio. You don’t even need a newspaper,” says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. “But you need the Internet.”

homeless

This weekend, The Wall Street Journal has this fascinating — if highly anecdotal — account of how the digital life has become a necessity, not a luxury, for some of San Francisco’s homeless.

POSTED     May 31, 2009, 10:19 a.m.
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The media becomes an activist for democracy
“We cannot be neutral about this, by definition. A free press that doesn’t agitate for democracy is an oxymoron.”
Embracing influencers as allies
“News organizations will increasingly rely on digital creators not just as amplifiers but as integral partners in storytelling.”
Action over analysis
“We’ve overindexed on problem articulation, to the point of problem admiring. The risk is that we are analyzing ourselves into inaction and irrelevance.”