Carrying a club in our pockets around the world

Protesters gather at the statue of Alexander the Great in Cairo to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. Source: SMH (AFP)

We've never created a club that's half a billion people strong and growing faster than ever, a club with room in it for literally any point of view. And we've certainly never carried that club in our pockets, around the world.

Taylor (CNN 2011)

In the above quote, Chris Taylor (a Mashable reporter) offers an interesting metaphor to describe the virtual power of Facebook, and more broadly, social media in the Egyptian revolution earlier this year. This club (be it a symbol of violence as a weapon of war or a casual reference to a community group) possesses powerful qualities that can be derived from Taylor's sentiments:

• it's popular and rapidly expanding
• it has a global reach
• it's non-discriminatory
• and it's incredibly portable.

With a list like this, social media and revolution seem to complement each other nicely. In fact, social media has been largely attributed as a crucial tool in the Arab Spring, which has seen the fall of dictators through a series of popular uprisings in the Middle East. Firstly Tunisia, then Egypt, Libya, and now Syria and Yemen. 

Where did you get your news/information on the events during the civil movements?

Source: Dubai School of Governance

This graph shows that Egyptians relied predominantly on social media sources for their news during the revolution.

The events that led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak's 30 year-long dictatorship tell an interesting tale-- war, power, corruption. They also tell an important story about the power of social media and its connection with democracy.

In our feature, we hope to chart through the murky waters of the Egyptian revolution that took place in January and February this year and examine not only how social media was used as a primary tool for driving protests, but also to what extent social media can be a crucial tool for democracy.

Here's a clip from CNN to get started. It covers a range of social media usage during the Egyptian uprising:



References
Salem, Fadi, et al (2011) “Arab Social Media Report Issue 2”, Dubai School of Governance, June 2011 <http://www.dsg.ae/NEWSANDEVENTS/UpcomingEvents/ASMROverview2.aspx> [Accessed:18th August 2011]

Taylor, Chris (2011) “Why not call it a Facebook revolution?” CNN, 24 February 2011 <http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-24/tech/facebook.revolution_1_facebook-wael-ghonim-social-media?_s=PM:TECH> [Accessed: 19th August 2011]