http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/jan/03/the-internet-best-dissent-start/print
"Zuckerman's argument is this: while YouTube, Twitter, Facebook (and other popular social services) aren't good at protecting dissidents, they are nevertheless the best place for this sort of activity to start, for several reasons.
First, because when YouTube is taken off your nation's internet, everyone notices, not just dissidents. So if a state shuts down a site dedicated to exposing official brutality, only the people who care about that sort of thing already are likely to notice.
But when YouTube goes dark, all the people who want to look at cute cats discover that their favourite site is gone, and they start to ask their neighbours why, and they come to learn that there exists video evidence of official brutality so heinous and awful that the government has shut out all of YouTube in case the people see it."
This is a thought-provoking article about what tools are useful for dissidents with oppressive governments. Basically, it's what's been used so far; Twitter, Facebook, etc. These sites are difficult to attack because of their size. They reach the most people. And they are stable. That's not to dismiss the arguments against these sites, it's just to explain that there's really nothing better. A useful read.
Internet Collective Action is people organizing in a nonhierarchical manner to accomplish a particular goal. The reward is in the doing, and how much or how little anyone participates is completely voluntary, depending on their abilities and commitment to the goal. By this process amazing things can be accomplished. ICA will grow so long as the Internet is free. http://www.lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm is an example of ICA.
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