Social Media and the Arab Spring

This is a good overview (or as the author says, a primer) of social media.  This is something that all of us older "digital immigrants" (as opposed to our younger children who are now "digital natives") should study, get to know, and understand if we are going to be at all relevant in the future.  The concepts of Discuss, Show, Connect, and Inform are on the one hand seemingly common sense, the tools or platforms that are used for them illustrate that digital immigrants need to get on board.  The same goes for the "three dimensions:" Personal, Digital, and Global.  We need to better understand these relationships.  Probably most important is this quote from COL (Ret) Killebrew (who appears to have done a good job immigrating to the digital world and perhaps has fully assimilated and speaks the new language with near fluency – something to which the rest of immigrants should aspire!!):

Colonel Robert Killebrew (US Army, retired) now a senior fellow for the Center for New American Security, once wrote, “The story you’re trying to tell in future conflicts is the strategy by which (the conflict) will be fought.”

V/R

Dave

Social Media and the Arab Spring

by TJ Waters

Journal Article | November 14, 2012 - 5:30am

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/social-media-and-the-arab-spring

When the average American thinks about Brazil one of two images comes to mind, Carnival or soccer.  But in May 2006 some very different images of life in South America’s largest country were splashed across living rooms nationwide.  A prison gang called the First Command of the Capital, known by its Portuguese acronym PCC, orchestrated a nationwide revolt, seizing hostages in several prisons and setting off bombs throughout Sao Paulo.

In Europe that same summer, images of trash piling up everywhere made the evening news broadcasts worldwide.  The Camorra crime syndicate, a powerful criminal organization in Naples, Italy was forcing concessions on the local government by arranging for trash pick up to be inexplicably ‘delayed’ for days at a time. Naples’ pristine vistas were marred by garbage piled several feet high in the streets, blocking vehicles and pedestrians, until the local government complied with Camorra’s wishes.

Finally, and more horrifically, in 2009 Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) ran a coordinated series of attacks by sending young, inexperienced militants ashore in small craft to India’s largest city, Mumbai.  These neophyte commandos set off bombs, fired automatic weapons, and set fire to the famed Taj Mahal hotel.  All but one of the militants were eventually killed, but not until over 160 people had died.

What ties these three otherwise disparate events together?  All were planned and executed using basic cellular telephones.  Prisoners in Brazil, crime lords in Italy, and Pakistan-based terrorists used commercially available cellular phones to achieve military-style command and control. 

While the purposes behind the three attacks vary greatly, the main tool being leveraged was the same – FEAR.  Manipulating public perceptions by creating doubt the government is capable of protecting and serving the population helped all three organizations achieve their objectives. 

(Continued at the link above)