User:Birgit bachler/readings2/jenkins revolution

Gladwell is trying to compare movements (civil rights movement) and platforms (facebook).
We do not live on a platform we live across platforms, we choose the tools.

Ramesh Srinivasan:

The success of Algiers' resistance network was its horizontal structure; no point of centrality leaves no point for attack.
Organization and decentralization need not to be mutually exclusive.
One cannot compare social media use (passive, little commitment, weak ties) with successful revolutions (require commitment and organization).
Elements of social media can be utilized to generate and cement ties, spreading awareness via weak ties.
In the case of Kyrgyzstan Twitter was as a medium serving the purpose of refining a message and philosophy and connecting small but influential groups of activists. (the strong ties made the difference through the medium)

Kevin Driscoll:

Gladwell's argumentation suffers lacks in technology and history.
Twitter is a non-prescriptive communication platform.
The 140 character limit makes it compatible to even old cellphones.
Twitter enabled thousands of people with internet access to spend days fixated on a geographically-remote street protest in Tehran.

Amin Vafa:

Emigrated Iranians could follow the protests and provided small bridges between Iran and the English-speaking world.
Twitter enabled people to act and exercise strong ties (Iranian family, friends) on a transnational scale.

Gladwell describes the civil rights movement as "disciplined", "precise", "strategic".

Steven Classen:

Our cultural memory of the civil-rights era is incomplete, the "high-risk" activist movements leave little traces, gaps and discrepancies make research on social movements difficult.
"High-risk" and "Low-risk" activism can differ based on geographic, cultural and religious values.
Non-hierachical, network solutions: "Frown Power", Stetson Kennedy or "It Gets Better", Dan Savage effect a slow quiet change rather than large-scale revolution.
"Real" world activism depends on the tactical selection of social media technologies.