Look where you are look at the events in Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks, it is clear that both protest movements were the result of a new social climate, new conditions that existed months or even weeks, before the blast. What happened? What has to be put into operation in such a short period mechanisms that would otherwise have taken years, even decades, to cause the type of social reactions we've seen in the Arab world in recent weeks? Has been realized simply and perhaps as never before, the trite slogan that says that information is power.
More yet, in recent weeks we have seen how the notion of information that we in the twentieth century? Hierarchical, unidirectional and asynchronous? has given way to a new contemporary version much more explosive: bidirectional, synchronous and, most importantly, in Red Three new features that change everything.
From how the power structure at the top of the state to articulate how the social unrest in the streets. How to explain, if not, that the Chinese government's first reaction to the symptoms of infection from Tunisia to Egypt has been censoring Internet information related to the protests.
Or, tell us that the Egyptian government's first reaction when street demonstrations were widespread, cutting off access, Twitter first and then the whole network? Or, if these examples were not enough, what we are told that one of the first requirements imposed by Obama's Hosni Mubarak has been to restore access to communication networks? "Twitter revolutions? "Facebook as the new catalyst mass and the Internet as an agent of liberation of the oppressed? Not exactly.
The reality is more complex. The seed of discontent and indignation of citizens is and will remain on the street, oppression and incompetence of governments. Network, and an ability never before seen organization have given the city a wonderful new tool that necessarily takes away power to the State.
She takes control capacity and eroding their monopoly on certain types of information. Ubiquitous and decentralized nature of the network, multiple nodes? That almost always end up finding a way to circumvent censorship "and its ability to establish connections between millions of people in real time, are creating new mechanisms to subvert state power to time to give the city of new channels for citizenship.
The role of traditional media, threatened in Tunisia, remember, the straw that broke the camel were revelations of State Department cables leaked by Wikileaks that exposed the corrupt frames of President Ben Ali. And in Egypt, only took seeing on television that was enough to take to the streets to overthrow a corrupt regime and longevity, to imitate their example and ask the head of Mubarak.
The role of traditional media is also threatened in this new ecosystem of information. Hierarchies broken and smashed the backbone of the broadcast model vertical information for centuries, traditional media are now being forced to choose: either break their tacit agreements with the power or the new channels have taken away their legitimacy to report.
The key difference in the new model is the democratization of the issue coupled with the speed made possible by new tools. The public square is accelerated and smooth at the same time. It is the power, in other words, granting access to appropriate information at the right time. No matter if the platform is Facebook, Twitter or Al Jazeera, is the set of the network and synergies resulting from which emanates from this new form of power.
A new power, no doubt, also poses challenges concern: how demanding accountability without head movements that emerged from the chaos and improvisation that characterize the Web? What happens once you get the goal set? "It becomes a political force, is allied to an already established group or simply disappear? Difficult questions which, for one, Tunisia and Egypt will have to find answers.
The lessons, of course, go far beyond the Arab world. SMS the organization after the 11-M, Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, the impact of various leaks from Wikileaks and now, Tunisia and Egypt ... part of the same trend in which the power of networks has begun to undermine and shake the most entrenched political certainties. 
More yet, in recent weeks we have seen how the notion of information that we in the twentieth century? Hierarchical, unidirectional and asynchronous? has given way to a new contemporary version much more explosive: bidirectional, synchronous and, most importantly, in Red Three new features that change everything.
From how the power structure at the top of the state to articulate how the social unrest in the streets. How to explain, if not, that the Chinese government's first reaction to the symptoms of infection from Tunisia to Egypt has been censoring Internet information related to the protests.
Or, tell us that the Egyptian government's first reaction when street demonstrations were widespread, cutting off access, Twitter first and then the whole network? Or, if these examples were not enough, what we are told that one of the first requirements imposed by Obama's Hosni Mubarak has been to restore access to communication networks? "Twitter revolutions? "Facebook as the new catalyst mass and the Internet as an agent of liberation of the oppressed? Not exactly.
The reality is more complex. The seed of discontent and indignation of citizens is and will remain on the street, oppression and incompetence of governments. Network, and an ability never before seen organization have given the city a wonderful new tool that necessarily takes away power to the State.
She takes control capacity and eroding their monopoly on certain types of information. Ubiquitous and decentralized nature of the network, multiple nodes? That almost always end up finding a way to circumvent censorship "and its ability to establish connections between millions of people in real time, are creating new mechanisms to subvert state power to time to give the city of new channels for citizenship.
The role of traditional media, threatened in Tunisia, remember, the straw that broke the camel were revelations of State Department cables leaked by Wikileaks that exposed the corrupt frames of President Ben Ali. And in Egypt, only took seeing on television that was enough to take to the streets to overthrow a corrupt regime and longevity, to imitate their example and ask the head of Mubarak.
The role of traditional media is also threatened in this new ecosystem of information. Hierarchies broken and smashed the backbone of the broadcast model vertical information for centuries, traditional media are now being forced to choose: either break their tacit agreements with the power or the new channels have taken away their legitimacy to report.
The key difference in the new model is the democratization of the issue coupled with the speed made possible by new tools. The public square is accelerated and smooth at the same time. It is the power, in other words, granting access to appropriate information at the right time. No matter if the platform is Facebook, Twitter or Al Jazeera, is the set of the network and synergies resulting from which emanates from this new form of power.
A new power, no doubt, also poses challenges concern: how demanding accountability without head movements that emerged from the chaos and improvisation that characterize the Web? What happens once you get the goal set? "It becomes a political force, is allied to an already established group or simply disappear? Difficult questions which, for one, Tunisia and Egypt will have to find answers.
The lessons, of course, go far beyond the Arab world. SMS the organization after the 11-M, Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, the impact of various leaks from Wikileaks and now, Tunisia and Egypt ... part of the same trend in which the power of networks has begun to undermine and shake the most entrenched political certainties.
No comments:
Post a Comment