Facebook & Twitter labeled as 'Revolution'

Now, previously we've talked about Facebook and Twitter as a source of free flow of information, a platform for building relationships, an avenue of work and leisure and whatnot. Today, Facebook and Twitter are being categorized with another function altogether - a revolutionary hotspot.

Now, let's understand what this term means:

An overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. - Dictionary.com

According to Evgeny Morozov's 'Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go', I feel in some ways it is written in such a way that provokes cynicism and anger. I do have to give the man some credits for being to able to defend his stand that revolutions happened due to these social platforms.

Let's summarize the 3 main points of Morozov: 1) A spontaneous uprising because of Facebook, 2) Facebook helps to spread democracy & 3) Unbalanced view of the protest leaders (Wael Ghonim to be specific).


To be precise, what I've gotten from the author is that these social platforms are the cause of revolutions and it's not because it's coincidental, but rather it does contribute to the main purpose of revolutions. In his words, "emphasizing the liberating role of the tools and downplaying the role of human agency". Also, he claims that democracy and the intention of revolution started off by these social media as well. It is through Facebook and Twitter that he claims gathered an army of lobbyists for protests. Finally, he felt that leaders of such protests are the ones who are exaggerating the technology role to the public pertinent to the uprisings around the world.

What's your take?


Well, these are some of the people's view:

New technologies are not the cause of the recent revolutions. Of course, they are, as you say, tools. But 20 years ago an uprising like Egypt's could have been quarantined and quashed by the regime in days, and the rulers would have been free to dictate the story to the press after the event. As Mubarak found, this is impossible to do when you have thousands of phones, cameras and laptops on the ground beaming every detail to the wider world. - OZKT29B

Mass communication tools will of course facilitate any kind of movement, be it pro- or anti-establishment. - R042

If revolutions are based on Facebook or Twitter then I doubt many will succeed. What they do provide is instant communication: they are the pamphlets of their time. Certainly without the printing press and pamphleteers, I doubt revolutions would have been possible in the past. But what revolutions need most is people power, oh and as Libya is demonstrating, gun power. - Ray Noble

Now these are just some about the point of views of others whom I agree on. To say that these social functions are to be blamed for all the protests and rallies in the world - Arab Spring for instance - is not entirely true. Here's what I think, the social tools are merely social + tools. A communicative channel and outsource of the people. A place where people go, not to create a ruckus of revolutionary ideas, but a place where people gather as one and express themselves out. And with that and that only.


Think of it this way, the message and the medium are two different things. The message is conjured by a group of brave, bold individuals which then plan out their moves and then spread out to people who are affected by a particular issue and wish to voice out. The message is spread out through these social platforms. That's why I reflect that Facebook and Twitter is not the main cause of revolutions but it is the communication role of a revolution protest. (I still feel that 'revolution' is such a heavy word.)

As we've learnt in Week 9's reading that if one is not into politics, then he would still not be into politics despite it being brought online as a trend. So when it comes to revolutions, I feel that if only you're interested and would like to take some action, then you'll join the herd. But if you're disinterested, then you'll just walk away. This goes to the point that revolutions are successful because of the man power, the united citizens. And again, to stress the point that Facebook and Twitter are just the communication channels.


Do I make sense? I hope I really do because this is quite a tricky but simple issue. 

Put it in another way, remember when Mr. Faizal asked us, "What do you think? Do you think Bersih 2.0 would happen if there's no Facebook or Twitter?" Well, not sure if this was his exact words but somewhere along the lines, I suppose. I remember clearly answering, "Of course, they do play a role. The rally would still go on without Facebook or Twitter, only that it will be in a smaller scale." Small scale VS Big scale. The talks is all about the amount of awareness among people. It's about whether an idea was well spread among the mass public.


I feel as if am going round and round in circles! Yikes! To recap, Facebook and Twitter, IMHO, is merely a communicative tool. 


I feel so spirited typing this out! Hope my points were clear enough! 


What do you think? Are Facebook and Twitter the culprits? Share a feedback! (;   

To transparency. To truth. To hacking.

Touching on the topic hacking always reminds me of Steig Larsson's saga - Millennium trilogy - where Lisbeth Salander, the main character, is an extreme genius hacker which slips into the laptops of prominent political figures to determine truth. 


She's looks like a teenage punk, weak and vulnerable; truth is, she is nowhere near that at all. She's smart, she's dangerous and she can any info she wants at all. What's worse, she's got an international network of anonymous hackers who does the same thing too. And a terrific journalist, Blomkvist to top it off.


Okay, I probably should stop my narration about the books, but through the books, hacking showed me a whole new light, it's not necessarily the bad guys (hackers) versus the good guys, but nowadays, it's the good guys (hackers) versus the bad guys. Similarly, the books sort of reflects to the case of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Hence, this week's reflection would be on Raffi Khatchadourian's 'No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency'.

"WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices." - http://wikileaks.org/

With that said, who really is the mastermind behind WikiLeaks? The answer, is the tall mysterious Australian man, Julian Paul Assange. His mop of silvery white hair does remind me of Anderson Cooper, right? Point is, Julian and his team has shaken the world with their discovery on truth. On hard, raw truth of prominent parties, figures and organizations. Truth we didn't know but needed to.


Freedom of Information Act is no longer to be taken lightly when WikiLeaks, with bravado stood up and broadcast and expose to the world on dark evil things done behind everyone's back by the big boys. Of course I'm talking about the infamous case, 'Collateral Murder'. Take a look at the documentary done by WikiLeaks in publishing the truth about what happened in Iraq.





What do you think?
I think if it wasn't for this, I would be kept in the dark from things that I should know, from the things the society should know. If criminals were put to court and then pleaded guilty to jail, why shouldn't others as well who has done something wrong? Despite any statuses, what is wrong is wrong. There ought to be no secrets, the conclusion is just. 

WikiLeaks receives about 30 submission a day and only posts the ones that is the most credible in its raw and unedited state. Imagine this, 30 submissions a day, from all over the world. This goes to say that, 'Collateral Murder' is merely the beginning, there are still a lot of behind the scenes that we're not aware of. 
Hacking. Hacking was the only tool that made all of these possible. So have you changed your judgement towards hacking? Hacking doesn't necessarily means damaging or taking control of someone's computer and the information. Hacking can be just going into the system, extracting valuable information and then going back out without harming anything. At times these good hackers might just leave you a house visit gift by upgrading your system. 
What do you guys think of WikiLeaks? Is it a breach of privacy? Think about the private and confidential information, is it really ethical to expose them? But think again, if these information are clouded with dark intentions and selfish purposes that concerns people, will it be more ethical to expose them? Which one is the real sin?
Well, we certainly do know what Julian Assange's pick is. But what about yours?  Do you know what's behind the real scenes?
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My take is that what really concerns the benefit and welfare of people really should be taken into account for. Why let someone who has done wrong remain in the shadows and continue to exploit more and more? If a criminal gets caught for an offense, why must it be different for other wrong doers as well, albeit any status and class? An eye for an eye.
Alas, if these pricks aren't caught, ah well, Karma will do its work and come back and do its magic. (:

Cereal not with milk, but with Twitter

Isn't this all too familiar? Gadgets have sort of become our newspaper in a way. In the sense that we normally flip the newspaper to get breaking news first thing in the morning, accompanied by our waffles and hot coffee. But instead, what we can see now is people swiping over their iPads and smartphones at breakfast. Yes, we do read the newspaper with our gadgets but since convergence has made everything possible, we multi-task as well. And that's where you get massive Tweets.

Now, I don't know much about the culture of Tweeting b/c I don't have a personal Twitter account. Like the author of the reading this week, Steven Johnson, I was skeptical and doubtful of this 140-character innovation. Despite many talented figures - Yasmin Ahmad - having an account, my impression was that this wasn't a necessity. But 'How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live' proved me otherwise. I mean really, how can one be so detailed yet summarized in a 140-character space? Hats off to you awesome Twitterers.

Some of the key points!

Ambient awareness 

You get a quick peak at people's daily life through Tweets without even asking!

A jury-rigged system

Twitter has created an improvisation. It's no longer what Twitter is doing to us, but what we Twitterzens are doing to it.

The Open Conversation

Hop right into the bandwagon by inserting the oh-so-famous hashtag #. There's a bunch of popular hastags like:

Here's where a larger pool of audience join in together to contribute to a bigger picture of an issue! The more the merrier! The more opinion and feedbacks we get, the more solid a discussion is. Through Twitter, with the collective hastags, a private exchange is now open for anyone and everyone. All these Tweets will come together to build a bridge of pebbles.

The Super-Fresh Web

In class, we have learnt that the super-fresh web operates on being the first in line, scalable and have a short feedback loop. How Twitter is these is that it always gives us the fresh and valuable of a slice of life or a big event. Need assistance of an example?

Those who were confined at home (by our parents) glued themselves to Twitter to get the lives updates of the Bersih 2.0 Rally. The current progression, the acid attacks and the people involved information were received in mere seconds.

It's true that Twitter is a super-fresh web because it possess a short feedback loops, meaning to say that I wouldn't need to wait for weeks for a reply like the snail mail method. In fact, when there's new Tweets or a reply, a notification will appear. You can already see the trace of this element in FB and even from before, in Friendster and MySpace.

Need anything that's urban and relevant? Head on to Twitter then! With just a search box, what you search is what you get. In fact sooner or later, every major channel of communication will be Twitterfied! Why?

• News & Opinions

I like to think that with Twitter, comes your own personalized newspaper. See, you only follow the people that you want to, it's your own account, you're entitled to who you would want to follow. Naturally, we'd follow the accounts of people whom share the similar interests or we follow celebrities or politicians that we worships. Meaning to say, we get what we only like. Hence, a customized newspaper that would go just nice with your bagels.

Searching

We've already understand that Twitter provides valuable extended field of information - attachments of link, articles, pictures etc. If we are in need of any information regarding the Harry Potter casts' lives after the finale, we can just head on over to Emma Watson's Twitter to get a sneak preview. Because we are already an avid fan of Harry Potter and we follow the characters' Tweets, getting information pertinent to Harry Potter would be easier!

Advertising

Yes, you saw that right. Twitter is linked to Advertising is because firstly, take a look at all the big shot companies, they all have a Twitter or Facebook account. Why? Because it's a trend, it's people's daily bible. In doing so, there would be a new language of interaction between the company and the customers when early discount or limited edition products are offered to those followers and also it provides a hip and engaging banter between the two.

End-User Innovation

Why is it labelled as an innovation? It's because a new medium of communication has arrived in the form of Tweeting. Everyone Tweets an island and these islands would cross section with even more islands from around the world, differing in social classes and backgrounds. 

End-users have been creative enough to try to figure a way beyond the 140-characters. There's roadblocks but there's also a way around it. Twitterzens modify the tool and out comes blessed innovations that allow us to search, to #, to advertise and so on! This innovation is such due to the fact Twitterzens know how to modify Twitter and adapt it into their own daily life.

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How is Twitter related to citizen journalism is that Twitter provides a platform for collective intelligence and participatory culture. From my understanding, when you follow several common interest Twitterzens, you get a wider prospect of information. You get to see different views and thinking, and then to come to your own decision. 

That being, you too become a citizen journalist when you take the information, do some research and then share it along to YOUR own followers. Collective intelligence then continues. We also use this modern media platform to publish news unfiltered to be enjoyed by mass audience. We participate to contribute to the collectivism of information in networks.

It's just you, me, everyone, Twitter. And also, yes, our cereals.

Tweeting an island yet? Maybe I should start doing so.


But one thing always keeps me wondering, will all the mass irrelevant and nonsense Tweets cause useless information avalanche? Or simply, is this just another mind-your-own-business-these-are-my-Tweets case?