Ambient awareness or co-presence is a key part of how to make stronger solidarity connections. It may not make much sense to drop someone 'live' into the middle of a protest and ask them to do something meaningful. However, if I've experienced a 'trajectory of joy' or of daily life of key activists over the past few weeks or months then I will be more ready to join that moment of crisis. From wikipedia... "Ambient awareness is a term used by social scientists to describe a new form of peripheral social awareness. This awareness is propagated from relatively constant contact with one's friends and colleagues via social networking platforms on the Internet. Some examples of social networking websites are Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogger, delicious.com, etc. The term essentially defines the sort of omnipresent knowledge one experiences by being a regular user of these media outlets that allow a constant connection with one's social circle. According to Clive Thompson of the New York Times, ambient awareness is "very much like being physically near someone and picking up on mood through the little things; body language, sighs, stray comments..." Therefore, in effect two friends who regularly follow one another's digital information can already be aware of each other's lives without actually being physically present to have a conversation."
