Resources for Today’s Discussion on the Internet’s Role in the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions

Update: New stories added 3/8/2011

As mentioned earlier, I’ll be on Digital Politics Radio at 3:30 Eastern this afternoon to discuss the role of the internet and social media in the North African revolutions. In addition to Epolitics.com’s own How Social Media Accelerated Tunisia’s Revolution: An Inside View, here are some recent news articles for background:

• Update: The Facebook Freedom Fighter: Wael Ghonim’s day job was at Google. But at night he was organizing a revolution. C.f. video of his TED presentation.
• Update: Tech Revolutionaries: The Arab Revolt shows that Google’s and Twitter’s corporate values are better than Facebook’s. But see also Middle East Uprising: Facebook’s Secret Role in Egypt, via Alan Rosenblatt.
• Update: Laugh, O Revolution: Humor in the Egyptian Uprising.
• Update: What the Egyptian Revolution Taught Al Jazeera About Digital.
• Update: Clinton fields online questions, criticism from young Egyptians.
• Update: Libya goes offline as nation’s servers flatline.
• Egypt’s New Military Rulers Launch Official Facebook Page, Attract 75,000 Fans in 24 Hours, via K Street Cafe.
• The Rise of the “Twitter Can’t Topple a Dictator” Article as a Genre. But c.f. An Upside to the “Twitter Can’t Topple Dicators” Genre?
• Curating the Revolution: Building a Real-Time News Feed About Egypt, an interview with Andy Carvin.
• Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution.
• News of Chinese Jasmine Revolution Spreads Online. Wishful thinking, or a harbinger?
• Cellphones Become the World’s Eyes and Ears on Protests, and Mobile Phones and the Middle East’s Many Million Documentarians.
• Nir Rosen tweets himself out of a job over Lara Logan’s assault.
• Clinton@State: Seriously, #NetFreedom’s a Big Deal.
• Egyptian government uses mass text messages to encourage people to end protests.
• Infographic of the Day: Egypt’s Protest Network, Mapped With Google Pagerank, via Graham Covington.
• Egypt Leaders Found ‘Off’ Switch for Internet.
• Has Andy Carvin found the future of fundraising by using his personal brand to generate donations for NPR?, via Henri Makembe.
• Movement Began With Outrage and a Facebook Page That Gave It an Outlet.
• A Tunisian-Egyptian (Online) Link That Shook Arab History.
• People, Not Things, Are The Tools Of Revolution.
• How Cyber-Pragmatism Brought Down Mubarak.
• Protests spread to Iran, org’d via social media.
• Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts.
• Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Unites States, and our ‘What if’ Moment.
• The untold story of how a comic book helped inspire Egyptian revolutionaries. For more: Martin Luther King Jr. comic book distributed in Tahrir Square.
• From the Blogosphere to the Street. Excellent details on the long-term development of a digitally organized resistance in Egypt.
• U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom — U.S. to fund “circumvention strategies.”

Thanks to Ivan Boothe, Laurie Erlam, Andy Carvin and others for passing these around in the first place. See also these pieces linked in earlier Epolitics.com Quick Hits editions:

• Digital revolutionaries change Arab region, via @alvarolins, and Social Media Networks & Opposition Politics in Egypt. Plus, Anatomy of a revolution: Meet the young Egyptian activists who started it all, Wael Ghonim, Egypt, and Viral Revolution, and Wired and Shrewd, Young Egyptians Guide Revolt.
• The Top 10 Social Tools for Starting Revolutions. C.f. Egypt: Social Media as a Life or Death Proposition and Egypt, The Age Of Disruption And The ‘Me’ In Media.
• Syria Facebook, YouTube Ban Lifted.
• Egypt Protester Holds Facebook ‘Thank You’ Sign (photo).
• Twitter Says Access to Service in Egypt Is Blocked, but Internet shut-off in Egypt doesn’t slow protests down, as Google and Twitter Set Egyptians Up to Tweet Their Voices and Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online.
• Al Jazeera urges Egyptians to send content online, as Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration.
• Block Like an Egyptian: How did the Egyptian government turn off the Internet?, but Why’d a Battle-Ready Mubarak Turn Egypt’s Internet Back On? More: Tangled Web: Authoritarian regimes, alas, know how to exploit social media, too, as U.S. warns against blocking social media, elevates Internet freedom policies
• Tunisia: The First WikiLeaks Revolution?, Who Organized Tunisia’s Revolution? and Tech and the Pooling of Tunisians’ Disgust. Plus, Tunisia’s uprising and the social media, and Social Media Plays Role in Toppling Tunisian President. Yay, internets! Finally, Tunisian blogger joins cabinet
• Can Social Media Create and Spread Revolution? and Did Twitter Make Them Do It? The battle over social-media revolutions. Starting the fight: Does Egypt need Twitter? Does the Internet need Malcolm Gladwell?
• Egypt, Tunisia: Generation TXT Comes of Age?

– cpd