Democracy - Springs and Jasmines
Labels:
Anne Driscoll,
Mashable,
Social Good
·
The Arab spring will remain firmly etched in my mind as the most defining moment of my life. In the 24 years or so of my existence, 15 of which were steeped in deep cynicism, I have always yearned for an idea that would capture the imagination of the masses. Something that would help me be relevant, and not in the make a fool out of yourself reality TV type of a way. All the clever witticisms, comments, videos and photos that seem to find their way to twitter and facebook are just attempts at scratching the surface of meaning and to an extent - an approval junkie. All this while I was thinking of how exactly it would make sense for this latent need to translate into something positive. That was when i found Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp is the author of "From dictatorship to Democracy". I had no idea about it till I found a lightweight PDF courtesy of a question I missed on a quiz. His work, backed by over 60 years of research in non violent movements was a watershed moment for me. It helped me understand the machinations of the jasmine revolution, and soon after all of the Arab spring. With the youth on the streets egging on a 74 year old man to do what countless regimes have failed to stamp out, I was hooked onto the idea of a peaceful revolution.
After understanding this (or most of it), I wanted to know if there was a greater good that could come out of all of it. My english teacher once asked me - "why cant people be addicted to apples, and fruits instead of alcohol and cigarettes?" Almost as if on cue, I found out some of the most amazing material on social good online. Credits to Mashable, the Social Good summit and Anne Driscoll for a message of living good. Read more about it here
Gene Sharp is the author of "From dictatorship to Democracy". I had no idea about it till I found a lightweight PDF courtesy of a question I missed on a quiz. His work, backed by over 60 years of research in non violent movements was a watershed moment for me. It helped me understand the machinations of the jasmine revolution, and soon after all of the Arab spring. With the youth on the streets egging on a 74 year old man to do what countless regimes have failed to stamp out, I was hooked onto the idea of a peaceful revolution.
After understanding this (or most of it), I wanted to know if there was a greater good that could come out of all of it. My english teacher once asked me - "why cant people be addicted to apples, and fruits instead of alcohol and cigarettes?" Almost as if on cue, I found out some of the most amazing material on social good online. Credits to Mashable, the Social Good summit and Anne Driscoll for a message of living good. Read more about it here
Me, myself and IRENE
Labels:
irene,
social media,
Ushahidi
·
I find that over the years, media can work out either as a savant for the geographically removed or it can work as the boy who cried wolf, only amplified many times over. Take the case of the hurricane Irene. While reading business insider is an exercise in facing up to the worst that the world has to offer in terms of news and is a soothsayer of doom, digg expects you to be entertained in a manner that cracked.com lost its charm to the mainstream (hot soap actors and galleries). So which one you pick is strictly your decision.
The tweetboard up on businessinsider is a sign of how influential social media truly is. The countdown may be a bit of an overkill given that the hurricane has been downgraded to a category 1. I personally thought that with NY, the metropolitan icon of the World in the limelight, this would be a great attempt to pilot something like Ushahidi. Earlier in Haiti and Chile, Ushahidi was a postscript to a disaster - NY being just that, NY, there was ample scope for something more, something innovative that made lives easier - after all, isnt that what technology is all about anyway?
Read more about Ushahidi here
The Ushahidi blog here
The tweetboard up on businessinsider is a sign of how influential social media truly is. The countdown may be a bit of an overkill given that the hurricane has been downgraded to a category 1. I personally thought that with NY, the metropolitan icon of the World in the limelight, this would be a great attempt to pilot something like Ushahidi. Earlier in Haiti and Chile, Ushahidi was a postscript to a disaster - NY being just that, NY, there was ample scope for something more, something innovative that made lives easier - after all, isnt that what technology is all about anyway?
Read more about Ushahidi here
The Ushahidi blog here
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