http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13168276
"These are the two layers of the movement - the people on the ground who organise day-to-day events at a local level; and the online community which helps give the protests a sense of cohesion on a national level.
'Those of us online are not actually organising the demonstrations, but helping people on the ground to stay connected,' said one cyber activist in Damascus, speaking to the BBC on Skype. He asked to not to be named for safety reasons.
'We help the people in Deraa, for example, to know that they're not alone in their demonstrations,' he added."
This article explains how the people on the ground and the people online work together.
"'[The protest movement] started online and on Facebook, but now Facebook is really just 1% of the movement,' said Mr Nakhle, chain smoking in a Beirut cafe, his blue eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep."
So it is possible that ICA can be a small but still significant portion of a movement.
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.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
An examination of how the Egyptian revolution started
http://www.slate.com/id/2298948/pagenum/all/#p2
"I would like to take you through the years preceding Egypt's revolution to demonstrate how years of technological innovation and social networking—online and off—laid the groundwork for Tahrir Square. The very genesis of online activism started in 2004 with the emergence of the Kefaya ('Enough') movement, followed by the emergence of oppositional activists in the Egyptian blogosphere."
This is a nice article that shows how ICA fits into a growing action.
"I would like to take you through the years preceding Egypt's revolution to demonstrate how years of technological innovation and social networking—online and off—laid the groundwork for Tahrir Square. The very genesis of online activism started in 2004 with the emergence of the Kefaya ('Enough') movement, followed by the emergence of oppositional activists in the Egyptian blogosphere."
This is a nice article that shows how ICA fits into a growing action.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Shirky likes Chaos
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2011/07/we-need-the-new-news-environment-to-be-chaotic/
"Having one kind of institution do most of the reporting for most communities in the US seemed like a great idea right up until it seemed like a single point of failure. As that failure spreads, the news ecosystem isn’t just getting more chaotic, we need it to be more chaotic, because we need multiple competing approaches. It isn’t newspapers we should be worrying about, but news, and there are many more ways of getting and reporting the news that we haven’t tried than that we have."
When the god of Internet Understanding speaks, I listen. I agree with Shirky that chaos is not a bad thing. It's what comes with the territory in a lot of useful internet actions, like ICA. When a group is leaderless, you should expect a bit of chaos. When the status quo breaks down, you should expect a bit of chaos as people try to fill the vacuum with something better. Anonymous, that leaderless, almost-not-group, considers heated arguing a necessity before action. So everybody gives their input, calls each other names, people get butthurt, then a course of action takes place.
Chaos is scary to many people. Lots of hierarchical groups seek to avoid chaos. But in some cases it's just a by-product that must be accepted.
"Having one kind of institution do most of the reporting for most communities in the US seemed like a great idea right up until it seemed like a single point of failure. As that failure spreads, the news ecosystem isn’t just getting more chaotic, we need it to be more chaotic, because we need multiple competing approaches. It isn’t newspapers we should be worrying about, but news, and there are many more ways of getting and reporting the news that we haven’t tried than that we have."
When the god of Internet Understanding speaks, I listen. I agree with Shirky that chaos is not a bad thing. It's what comes with the territory in a lot of useful internet actions, like ICA. When a group is leaderless, you should expect a bit of chaos. When the status quo breaks down, you should expect a bit of chaos as people try to fill the vacuum with something better. Anonymous, that leaderless, almost-not-group, considers heated arguing a necessity before action. So everybody gives their input, calls each other names, people get butthurt, then a course of action takes place.
Chaos is scary to many people. Lots of hierarchical groups seek to avoid chaos. But in some cases it's just a by-product that must be accepted.
Another reminder not to oversell ICA; Egyptian protesters fight claims of responsibility
http://thenextweb.com/me/2011/07/10/why-egypt-wasnt-waiting-for-wikileaks-to-ignite-a-revolution/
"The reality of the uprising in Tunisia is that it was sparked by a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, who lit himself on fire, because that was the only form of protest he had left to use. The reality of the uprising in Egypt is that it was sparked by a young man, Khaled Said, who was brutally beaten to death in an alleyway, while people watched, helpless as he begged for his life.
So with that in mind, it’s no surprise that the Wikileaks parody ad that seemed to be taking a bit of credit for the Egyptian revolution has sparked outrage among Egyptian activists."
This is a good article about corporations and journalists trying to give some credit for the successful Egyptian revolution when they deserve little or none. It behooves us to listen to the actual activists for the real history of what caused the uprising.
That being said, ICA was still a popular and useful tool for the revolution. Whether the revolution would have succeeded without it, is probably an unknown. the people were ready so I suppose they would have used whatever tools were available, whether it was ICA or human couriers or whatever.
"The reality of the uprising in Tunisia is that it was sparked by a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, who lit himself on fire, because that was the only form of protest he had left to use. The reality of the uprising in Egypt is that it was sparked by a young man, Khaled Said, who was brutally beaten to death in an alleyway, while people watched, helpless as he begged for his life.
So with that in mind, it’s no surprise that the Wikileaks parody ad that seemed to be taking a bit of credit for the Egyptian revolution has sparked outrage among Egyptian activists."
This is a good article about corporations and journalists trying to give some credit for the successful Egyptian revolution when they deserve little or none. It behooves us to listen to the actual activists for the real history of what caused the uprising.
That being said, ICA was still a popular and useful tool for the revolution. Whether the revolution would have succeeded without it, is probably an unknown. the people were ready so I suppose they would have used whatever tools were available, whether it was ICA or human couriers or whatever.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Infographic on Aononymous
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/07/hacker-family-tree-anonymous-lulzsec-history/39751/
"It's mostly helpful in seeing how the different groups are connected to each other and where they branch off on special projects. There's even some color coding and visual cues to show who's friends with whom and what those relationships begat in the recent history of hacking. There's not, however, much explanation about the projects or the groups. We've done our best to itemize and explain everything with a handy hacker glossary."
If you've ever been confused about how all the "Anonymous" related actions connect, here's a handy attempt at explaining.
"It's mostly helpful in seeing how the different groups are connected to each other and where they branch off on special projects. There's even some color coding and visual cues to show who's friends with whom and what those relationships begat in the recent history of hacking. There's not, however, much explanation about the projects or the groups. We've done our best to itemize and explain everything with a handy hacker glossary."
If you've ever been confused about how all the "Anonymous" related actions connect, here's a handy attempt at explaining.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Serious research on 4chan, where Anonymous began
http://www.slate.com/id/2297492
"The researchers captured two weeks of activity on /b/ last summer: 5,576,096 posts in 482,559 threads. As you can gather, the pace is furious. The median life of a thread was 3.9 minutes. The shortest-lived thread disappeared in 28 seconds; the longest survived for 6 hours and 12 minutes."
I would guess this means the researchers are in possession of questionably illegal content, but nevertheless, it's good research that shows the value(?) of anonymity on a message board. The question they were asking is, how can such a chaotic, wild-west web site produce so many popular internet memes? The answer; it's a chaotic, wild-west web site.
"The researchers captured two weeks of activity on /b/ last summer: 5,576,096 posts in 482,559 threads. As you can gather, the pace is furious. The median life of a thread was 3.9 minutes. The shortest-lived thread disappeared in 28 seconds; the longest survived for 6 hours and 12 minutes."
I would guess this means the researchers are in possession of questionably illegal content, but nevertheless, it's good research that shows the value(?) of anonymity on a message board. The question they were asking is, how can such a chaotic, wild-west web site produce so many popular internet memes? The answer; it's a chaotic, wild-west web site.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Is ICA good for revolution, but not governing? Hell yes.
http://profoundheterogeneity.com/2011/06/the-critical-question/comment-page-1/#comment-79
"While generally I am a cautious optimist when it comes to the question of does social media enable people to resist and coordinate against oppressive regimes (more on the side of Shirky on this, less on the side of Morozov), I am far more skeptical on the question of whether or not social media powered revolutions yield stability. They might be really good in the short term, but the attributes which make social media powerful in the short term, might also be a hindrance in the long term, not so good at long lasting stability."
I posted a response to this article:
I think you missed a couple of important points. First, the soul of democracy is that people have a voice, where they can expound on their views and opinions. This means there is a cacophany of ideas all around. but as Kevin Kelly shows, we do not need to fear chaos so much as we think. I learned this studying the group Anonymous. They shun anyone who would consider themselves a leader of Anonymous, yet the efficiently and creatively built a movement against the Church of Scientology. Argument and fighting are just considered a part of their process, not something to be avoided, because out of that arguing and fighting comes action. Your article almost sounds like you fear too many people having a voice.
Secondly, you should see getting rid of Mubarak as one action. Once that was done, that process closed, and the next action – organizing political parties and holding an election – is the next step. They are two different things that require completely different organizing. While the protests were essentially leaderless, you can’t really have a leaderless government, by definition. So I don’t think you should bemoan one process because it’s not like another process.
"While generally I am a cautious optimist when it comes to the question of does social media enable people to resist and coordinate against oppressive regimes (more on the side of Shirky on this, less on the side of Morozov), I am far more skeptical on the question of whether or not social media powered revolutions yield stability. They might be really good in the short term, but the attributes which make social media powerful in the short term, might also be a hindrance in the long term, not so good at long lasting stability."
I posted a response to this article:
I think you missed a couple of important points. First, the soul of democracy is that people have a voice, where they can expound on their views and opinions. This means there is a cacophany of ideas all around. but as Kevin Kelly shows, we do not need to fear chaos so much as we think. I learned this studying the group Anonymous. They shun anyone who would consider themselves a leader of Anonymous, yet the efficiently and creatively built a movement against the Church of Scientology. Argument and fighting are just considered a part of their process, not something to be avoided, because out of that arguing and fighting comes action. Your article almost sounds like you fear too many people having a voice.
Secondly, you should see getting rid of Mubarak as one action. Once that was done, that process closed, and the next action – organizing political parties and holding an election – is the next step. They are two different things that require completely different organizing. While the protests were essentially leaderless, you can’t really have a leaderless government, by definition. So I don’t think you should bemoan one process because it’s not like another process.
Anybody in Washington, DC? Good discussion upcoming in July
http://www.meetup.com/intlrel-76/events/23103221/
Online Activism after #ArabSpring : What's Next?
When: Thursday, July 14th 5:30 PM
Where: IREX 2121 K St NW # 700, Washington D.C
Agenda
Online Activism after #ArabSpring : What's Next?
When: Thursday, July 14th 5:30 PM
Where: IREX 2121 K St NW # 700, Washington D.C
Agenda
- Gathering, Networking: 5:30-5:45
- Panel discussion 5:45-6:30 (about 5-7 minutes per speaker)
- Questions: 6:30-7
- Optional happy hour at Circle Bistro: 7-9
Tripoli protesters slowed down, not stopped, by Internet stoppage
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE75M0TJ20110624?sp=true
Opponents of Gaddafi in the Libyan capital say they have had to revert to the kind of methods of communication used by dissidents and revolutionaries before the age of social media.
Unable to build networks on Facebook and Twitter, they have had to feel their way around slowly, the "old-fashioned way", to make contact with like-minded people in other neighbourhoods.
"It is difficult to reach other groups," said an activist who gave his name as Salim.
"There is a lot of fear and people don't trust each other."
* * *
This article shows one of the main advantages of ICA; speed. What could take minutes online takes hours using other methods. I suppose this also speaks to the strong-ties vs. weak-ties of social networking. To me, strong ties are less necessary online. It's possible to be more anonymous online and still work together, which makes trust less of an issue. Now that I think about it, that's probably the biggest difference between strong and weak ties, the amount of trust established. If a group can work together while spending less time having to check each other out, that's a time-saver right there.
Opponents of Gaddafi in the Libyan capital say they have had to revert to the kind of methods of communication used by dissidents and revolutionaries before the age of social media.
Unable to build networks on Facebook and Twitter, they have had to feel their way around slowly, the "old-fashioned way", to make contact with like-minded people in other neighbourhoods.
"It is difficult to reach other groups," said an activist who gave his name as Salim.
"There is a lot of fear and people don't trust each other."
* * *
This article shows one of the main advantages of ICA; speed. What could take minutes online takes hours using other methods. I suppose this also speaks to the strong-ties vs. weak-ties of social networking. To me, strong ties are less necessary online. It's possible to be more anonymous online and still work together, which makes trust less of an issue. Now that I think about it, that's probably the biggest difference between strong and weak ties, the amount of trust established. If a group can work together while spending less time having to check each other out, that's a time-saver right there.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
video talk on social media speeding up actions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2011/jun/22/hillary-clinton-adviser-internet-dictators-video?CMP=twt_gu
Nice short talk by Alec Ross, senior advisor on innovation to Hillary Clinton.
Nice short talk by Alec Ross, senior advisor on innovation to Hillary Clinton.
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