From Innovation to Revolution

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67325/malcolm-gladwell-and-clay-shirky/from-innovation-to-revolution

Summary: Do the tools of social media make it possible for protesters to challenge their governments? Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no evidence that they do; Clay Shirky disagrees.

 

From Innovation to Revolution -  Malcolm Gladwell states that just because innovations in communications technology happen doesn't mean that they make a real difference.  He believes that new communication technologies and social mediums only make a real difference is if they solve a problem that was actually a problem in the first place.  Malcolm isn't ignorant to the fact that some recent protests have used the tools of social media but he doesn't see where that in the absence of social media, those uprisings wouldn't have been possible.  

  Shirky responds to Gladwell's argument that the internet and social media have altered the competitive landscape.  The internet and other communication technologies have enabled insurgents and protesters to play by different rules than incumbents.  Social media has allowed insurgents to adopt new strategies and that those strategies have always been crucial.  Digital networks have eased and increased in range public speech by citizens.  Social mediums have increased the speed and scale of group coordination.     

The Political Power of Social Media

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media

Summary: Discussion of the political impact of social media has focused on the power of mass protests to topple governments. In fact, social media's real potential lies in supporting civil society and the public sphere -- which will produce change over years and decades, not weeks or months.

CLAY SHIRKY is Professor of New Media at New York University

The Political Power of Social Media - Over the last two decades the world's networked population has grown from the low millions to billions.  Social media is now an innate part of life for civil society worldwide.  Global communication is now more intimate than ever and has more participants than ever.  It is easier than ever to have your voice heard and hear the voices of others.  The immediacy and fluidity of social media allows citizens to create change in the present but its long term scope is beginning to show as well.   In 2001, Philippine President Joseph Estrada was on trial for impeachment.  Loyalists in the Philippine Congress voted to exclude key evidence against Estrada.  Just hours after the decision was announced thousands of angry Filipinos protested at a major crossroad in Manila.  The protest was arranged by a forwarded text message reading, "Go 2 EDSA.  Wear blk."  In the end over a million people arrived and the public's ability to coordinate such a rapid and massive response forced the country's legislators to allow the critical evidence to be presented.  Estrada was impeached just days later.  This protest marked the first time that social media helped force out a national leader but as we've seen recently it wasn't the last.  Social media has given people more opportunities to engage in public speech and undertake collective action.  Social media has increased our ability to coordinate public demand change.