Susannah Vila

Lessons Learned from the Arab Spring

At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX last week, I spoke about lessons learned for activists from the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Here’s an excerpt from my write up of the talk, posted at Movements.org:

SXSW Interactive is over, and I’m happy to report that while the topic of technology’s role in social movements was was a popular one, I never once heard the question “Was it a Twitter/Facebook Revolution?” asked in earnest. 

One of the benefits of events, like this one, which bring together different organizations in the same field is that it allows everyone talking and writing about similar topics to come to consensus. That consensus was the final takedown of the cyber-optimist versus cyber-pessimist debate in favor of a more practical and nuanced understanding.

In another great recap at the National Democratic Institute’s technology blog, my co-panelist Katherine Maher notes that: 

…Jen Preston and Brian Stelter of the NY Times leading the #socialfuel conversation to a full house as a continuation and expansion of the discussion of our panel - addressing the role of the press, risk to journalists and sources, and the creeping spectre of bias.

Indeed it was great to see the discussion continue beyond our talk on the first day, culminating in a panel on human rights within online platforms. Some other cool blog coverage of the panel can be found here and here.

1 year ago
  1. susannahvila posted this