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Myanmar shows again that communication technology trumps evil
By WDavidStephenson | September 29, 2007
In 1989, due to some amazing examples of the power of social and, at that time, primitive technological networks (remember the “fax revolution”?) I found myself in the heart of the Chinese Pro-Democracy Movement (the story’s too long to tell here — buy me a beer and I’ll tell you the whole amazing thing!) right after the Tiananmen Square protests.
The current demonstrations against the unmitigated evil of the Myanmar junta takes me back to those days.
As the Tacoma New Tribune opined Friday, those scumbags are trying to lock the technological doors after the cameraphones have already left the barn (how do you like that imagery???):
“Myanmar’s besieged dictatorship declared war Friday on the Internet and cell phones, shutting down the former and confiscating the latter. Too late.
“Images and descriptions of its suddenly murderous suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations had already reached the rest of the world in real time.”
These bozos have only two obstacles to overcome: the power of massive civil disobedience and peaceful resistance (yea!!!!) and decentralized, networked personal technologies (as the editorial concludes, “Myanmar’s democracy movement has a precious ally – instant, speed-of-light communications – that past victims of brutal dictatorships couldn’t have dreamed of.”). My bet’s on the forces of light and truth: this is smart mobs, crowd sourcing, swarm intelligence at its best!
BTW: Henry Willett (HCW Consulting) asked me to include a link to this online petition condemning the junta. Absolutely!
PS: regarding Burma, remember what Gandhi said: “I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill” (learn more about the power of non-violence).
Technorati tags: e-democracy crowd-sourcing crowdsourcing smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior networked homeland security collaboration homeland security 2.0 nonviolence cellphone cameraphone Burma Myanmar
Sphere: Related ContentTopics: technology, empowering public, collaboration, e-gov transformation, networked security | |
