Egypt: Assessing Facebook, Twitter, social networks
It's clear to all readers of Twitter and the MSM that Facebook and Twitter played a role in the Egyptian movement that toppled Mubarak. But how much of a role? More generally, how much were social networks involved? There's so much speculation, that I really don't want more. BUT I would appreciate systematic evidence -- be it ethnographic, online analyses, or survey based -- even though it may be early for that to appear. I am thinking of the work that Joe Feagin did on 1968's ghetto riots; the ongoing work of Doug McAdam over the years. I wonder if anyone interviewed the folks in Tahrir Square (besides the secret police), just as Feagin interviewed folks in Detroit jails, and would love to read some personal accounts. In hope that things turn out well in Egypt! Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
There's some good anecdotal accounts that have been published online on New York Times, Wired, etc. I know it's not quite the same, but it's a start. You may want to follow @LiberationTech on Twitter, which shares many of these, including first hand accounts from Google exec and organizer @Ghonim, who's writing a book called Revolution 2.0. On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
It's clear to all readers of Twitter and the MSM that Facebook and Twitter played a role in the Egyptian movement that toppled Mubarak.
But how much of a role? More generally, how much were social networks involved?
There's so much speculation, that I really don't want more. BUT I would appreciate systematic evidence -- be it ethnographic, online analyses, or survey based -- even though it may be early for that to appear. I am thinking of the work that Joe Feagin did on 1968's ghetto riots; the ongoing work of Doug McAdam over the years.
I wonder if anyone interviewed the folks in Tahrir Square (besides the secret police), just as Feagin interviewed folks in Detroit jails, and would love to read some personal accounts.
In hope that things turn out well in Egypt!
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
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Hi tehre, I am also looking at this.. More particularly am interested in the use of mobile phones and SMS during the protests (if any one has any data / writings).. Thank you kushchu On 15 Feb 2011, at 23:50, Barry Wellman wrote:
It's clear to all readers of Twitter and the MSM that Facebook and Twitter played a role in the Egyptian movement that toppled Mubarak.
But how much of a role? More generally, how much were social networks involved?
There's so much speculation, that I really don't want more. BUT I would appreciate systematic evidence -- be it ethnographic, online analyses, or survey based -- even though it may be early for that to appear. I am thinking of the work that Joe Feagin did on 1968's ghetto riots; the ongoing work of Doug McAdam over the years.
I wonder if anyone interviewed the folks in Tahrir Square (besides the secret police), just as Feagin interviewed folks in Detroit jails, and would love to read some personal accounts.
In hope that things turn out well in Egypt!
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
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------ IBRAHIM KUSHCHU, MBA, MSC., PHD Associate Professor and Founding Director, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK http://www.mgovernment.org ik@mgovernment.org +44 1273 327876 - Visit mLife Conferences http://www.m4life.org
Dan McQuillan at Goldsmiths has an interesting, initial take: http://www.internetartizans.co.uk/socnets_with_old_tech_egypt www.simoncollister.com | http://twitter.com/simoncollister
From: ik@mgovernment.org Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:55:06 +0100 To: wellman@chass.utoronto.ca CC: justine.abigail@gmail.com; citasa@list.citasa.org; lrainie@pewinternet.org; air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Egypt: Assessing Facebook, Twitter, social networks
Hi tehre,
I am also looking at this.. More particularly am interested in the use of mobile phones and SMS during the protests (if any one has any data / writings)..
Thank you kushchu
On 15 Feb 2011, at 23:50, Barry Wellman wrote:
It's clear to all readers of Twitter and the MSM that Facebook and Twitter played a role in the Egyptian movement that toppled Mubarak.
But how much of a role? More generally, how much were social networks involved?
There's so much speculation, that I really don't want more. BUT I would appreciate systematic evidence -- be it ethnographic, online analyses, or survey based -- even though it may be early for that to appear. I am thinking of the work that Joe Feagin did on 1968's ghetto riots; the ongoing work of Doug McAdam over the years.
I wonder if anyone interviewed the folks in Tahrir Square (besides the secret police), just as Feagin interviewed folks in Detroit jails, and would love to read some personal accounts.
In hope that things turn out well in Egypt!
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
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------ IBRAHIM KUSHCHU, MBA, MSC., PHD Associate Professor and Founding Director, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK http://www.mgovernment.org ik@mgovernment.org +44 1273 327876
- Visit mLife Conferences http://www.m4life.org
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I can't answer the question directly, as its profoundly difficult to say with certainty in any direction (as we all know), but I do have a bunch of data on the subject so far. Hopefully someone can find use from it for publication or general research on this question, as I'm busy with a few other projects right now. The timing was less than ideal (I was busy with life and neglected to put the term into our collector), but over a variety of words, we have 4.5 million tweets containing terms like #jan25, #mubarak, #egypt, Mubarak, and Egypt. The data is currently being compiled as one full dataset, but individual sets are available at 140kit now. Included on our site is some automatically generated cursory analysis. The full dataset (which is still being compiled) will range from Jan 27-Feb 10 approximately. Earlier data would be nice, but it requires someone throwing in the term on our site. http://140kit.com/Devin/collections/2454 On the page, there are links to raw dumps of data. If anyone is interested, I will let you know when the full range is complete. Devin Gaffney On Feb 15, 2011, at 3:29 PM, simon collister wrote:
Dan McQuillan at Goldsmiths has an interesting, initial take: http://www.internetartizans.co.uk/socnets_with_old_tech_egypt
www.simoncollister.com | http://twitter.com/simoncollister
From: ik@mgovernment.org Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:55:06 +0100 To: wellman@chass.utoronto.ca CC: justine.abigail@gmail.com; citasa@list.citasa.org; lrainie@pewinternet.org; air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Egypt: Assessing Facebook, Twitter, social networks
Hi tehre,
I am also looking at this.. More particularly am interested in the use of mobile phones and SMS during the protests (if any one has any data / writings)..
Thank you kushchu
On 15 Feb 2011, at 23:50, Barry Wellman wrote:
It's clear to all readers of Twitter and the MSM that Facebook and Twitter played a role in the Egyptian movement that toppled Mubarak.
But how much of a role? More generally, how much were social networks involved?
There's so much speculation, that I really don't want more. BUT I would appreciate systematic evidence -- be it ethnographic, online analyses, or survey based -- even though it may be early for that to appear. I am thinking of the work that Joe Feagin did on 1968's ghetto riots; the ongoing work of Doug McAdam over the years.
I wonder if anyone interviewed the folks in Tahrir Square (besides the secret police), just as Feagin interviewed folks in Detroit jails, and would love to read some personal accounts.
In hope that things turn out well in Egypt!
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
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Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
------ IBRAHIM KUSHCHU, MBA, MSC., PHD Associate Professor and Founding Director, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK http://www.mgovernment.org ik@mgovernment.org +44 1273 327876
- Visit mLife Conferences http://www.m4life.org
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
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participants (5)
-
Barry Wellman -
Devin Gaffney -
Prof. I Kushchu -
simon collister -
Yosem Companys