via Charlie Todd

via Very Short List

Last week I received a distressing email from the powers-that-be at Netflix announcing that they would be terminating the "Profiles" feature of their DVD rental service. This feature allows customers to maintain independent rental queues under a single account (i.e. I keep one list of rentals, and my girlfriend keeps another; when I return one of my movies, I get the next title on my list and when she returns one of her movies she gets the next one on her list). I'm an avid and loyal Netflix user, and a fan of this useful bonus feature. Needless to say, I was more than disappointed that Netflix no longer felt that Profiles were worth keeping around.

Today, however, they've reversed course. They wrote on their blog:

We were persuaded by the well-reasoned, sincere responses of loyal members who very much value this feature...Because of an ongoing desire to make our website easier to use, we believed taking a feature away that is only used by a very small minority would help us improve the site for everyone. Listening to our members, we realized that users of this feature often describe it as an essential part of their Netflix experience.

Even though only a small minority of Netflix subscribers used the Profiles feature, they were able to make enough noise online to force Netflix to reverse their position.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama is dealing with a similar - albeit much more serious - uprising on his campaign's own social network. On Friday, two supporters started a group on my.barackobama.com called "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right" to protest Obama's reluctance to oppose the passage of the flawed update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (background here). Four days later that group has already grown to 6,900 members and is the 4th most popular group in the network.

At a conservative estimate of an average donation of only $50 per member of this group, it represents $345,000 in campaign donations. At a more probable estimate of $150 per member, the group represents $1,035,000. And at a maximum contribution per member of $2,300, the group represents the potential of $15,870,000 in campaign contributions. They say in politics, money is power. Well, that's a lot of power, huh?

For all the talk of what mobilized majorities can accomplish, it's fascinating to see the emerging role that vocal minorities can play in bringing about change.

via NewTeeVee

"The wonderfully nerdy fruits of the writers guild strike are starting to ripen. Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon started writing a three-part musical Internet series during the strike with his brothers and the result, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, is coming to soon to a computer near you. The teaser trailer just “leaked” yesterday and is full of fanboy fodder."