It has been an interesting few weeks in the UK as we have seen pressure groups utilising the Internet to great effect. The UK public has often been accused of apathy. The real issue is that our lives have become so much busier that we can't or are not willing to find the time to address many of the issues which would have had our parents marching the streets.
 
Check out this article from The Independent, one of the UK's national broad sheets.
 
Essentially the Internet has provided a source of information and a vehicle of communication for people with concerns over a particular issue, bringing them together, so they can take action to achieve their common goal. The Internet has been doing that for ages, so what is different now? Well in a word volume. Using the Internet for political or consumer action has gone mainstream - no longer the preserve of the fanatical activist, or geeky nerd, everyday people are using the Internet to tackle issues important to them, and people are listening. Change has been effected as a result which will fuel its popularity even more.
 
Let’s look at a couple of the areas highlighted in the article in a bit more detail.
 
Banks, for years have been overcharging customers for exceeding overdraft limits or rubber cheques. Go 3 pence over your limit and you get a letter in the post notifying you of a £30 'administration' fee. Now it transpires that legally an administration fee can only cover costs. Basically banks are not allowed to charge a penalty fee, they are only allowed to cover any costs that they incur as a result, so for years the banks have been applying unlawful charges to their customers. Now we have all known this for years but the Internet has enabled us to do something about it - Providing us with the information, to act to reclaim our money.

Moneysavingexpert.com offers a step by step guide, including template letters and a video, to claiming back 6 years worth of unlawful charges from your bank.  Thousands of people are doing just that, in addition thousands more are complaining to the Financial Ombudsman to complain about over charging prompting potential government action. The banks are paying out rather that going to court as they know they would lose, and they don't want the courts to set a precedent.
 
Road pricing is also a huge story here in the UK, essentially the government was planning on introducing variable road pricing across the UK. This would mean a GPS tracker in every car so that the government can track where you travel and charge accordingly (you see technology can be used for evil as well as good).
This created an outcry on 2 levels, firstly around the privacy issues of government tracking our movements, and secondly on the additional tax on drivers, who are already over taxed with fuel duty, road tax, congestion charging, parking and speeding tickets.

Tony Blair had set up a vehicle for people to partake in online petitions on his own Number 10 website. So a petition asking the government to not move forward with road pricing proposals was placed there and was signed online by a staggering 1.8 million people.

So what was the result? Well, despite one cabinet minister saying moving forward in the face of such over whelming opposition would be political suicide; the government is doing just that.
Imagine a company opening an area on their website for customer feed back. and 1.8 million customers respond telling them that their plans for a product are completely wrong, and the company sending those 1.8 million people an email saying thanks for their input but they (the customers) are wrong. Effectively that is what the government here has done and I am sure it is a contributing factor to their recent plummets in the polls and, despite government moving the plans forward they will not be able to introduce them against such huge opposition in their current form, or we will see similar demonstrations to the poll tax riots 15 years ago.
 
So what does all this mean? Well, when people get together they are pretty powerful, and get enough of them together and they are more powerful than any corporation or political party. If enough of us get together over something we can effect real change, from serious issues such as banking, climate change, and government policy, to really important stuff like the price of premiership football tickets. The Internet facilitates this, and the conversation in the market that companies need to work to their advantage if they are to succeed, is also something that entire industry sectors and even governments are starting to hear, and will need to react to if they want to survive.