Dear AoIRists, Some of you may have seen today's AP story in the *Washington Post* about the US attempt to create a Twitter like messaging system, ZunZeneo, to foment a "Cuban Spring" in Cuba (link below). While this reminds us of how communication technologies have always been at the forefront of serving "imperialist" projects, I am afraid this leaked story bolsters fears and suspicions of conspiracy and fair-minded folks alike about the "organic"/indigenous nature of the "Arab Spring." What does it say about our research into social media and activism in developing nations AND those of us who engage in this type of research? I would appreciate hearing some of your views on the ethics of such project, its implications on new media activism, and scholars'/researchers' analyses of "new" media enabled social change in developing nations. The full WP story is available here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-secretly-created-cuban-twitter-to-... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aziz Douai, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Faculty of Social Science and Humanities University of Ontario Institute of Technology 55 Bond Street East Oshawa, ON L1G 0A5, Canada Tel: 905.721.8668, ext. 3790 Fax: 905.721.3372 E-mail: aziz.douai@uoit.ca Web: http://socialscienceandhumanities.uoit.ca/research/researcher-profiles/dr.-a... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both." James Madison, 1822 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------