Activists are no longer people on the societal fringe. Activists today just might be next door neighbors with 15 inch monitors & over-sized keyboards.

Normal people wanting to make change happen in 2008 turned to the web for inspiration and community. The barriers to self-organization and activism continued to drop significantly as community tools like Facebook and Meetup made it incredibly easy for like minded individuals to connect. Across the year, digital activism played a big role in helping people to stand up for social, environmental and political causes. Obama was elected President partially driven by his savvy use of online advocacy tools…people digitally rallied around Fouad Mourtada, a 26-year old Moroccan engineer who was sentenced by a Casablanca court to three years in prison for creating a fake profile of the king’s brother on Facebook. Indeed, the social web continued to make it easy for “GOOD” ideas to be amplified and supported all over the world.

What will 2009 bring?

Sites that push digital activism: Check out these sites that are forging the conversation around digital activism.

Digiactive I love Digiactive’s Global digital activism map.

Global Voice