Those of us in the tech space like to talk about the revolutionary uses of technology. Well, that's all well and good, but there are also actual revolutions.
I got back a couple of weeks ago from a trip that included a trip to the Conciergerie in Paris. Per Wikipedia...
The Conciergerie...had an unpleasant reputation before it became internationally famous as the "antechamber to the guillotine" during the Reign of Terror, the bloodiest phase of the French Revolution. It housed the Revolutionary Tribunal as well as up to 1,200 male and female prisoners at a time. The Tribunal sat in the Great Hall between 2 April 1793 and 31 May 1795 and sent nearly 2,600 prisoners to the guillotine. Its rules were simple. Only two outcomes existed — a declaration of innocence or a death sentence — and in most cases the latter was chosen. The most famous prisoners (and victims) included Queen Marie Antoinette, the poet André Chénier, Charlotte Corday, Madame Élisabeth, Madame du Barryand the Girondins, who were condemned by Georges Danton, who was in turn condemned by Robespierre, who was himself condemned and executed in a final bout of bloodletting. En route to the tumbrils, the victims walked through the Salle Saint-Louis, (Saint Louis Room), which acquired the nickname of the Salle des Perdus, the "Room of the Doomed".
So perhaps this question of revolutions was on my mind as the events of this week unfolded -- and as it became clear the role that social technologies have played in those events.
As I look at the torrent of tweets under the hashtags #jan25 and #egypt, a couple of observations come to mind.
- The effort to track those protesting on-line through GPS and through their IP addresses gives me pause to think more seriously about all those privacy compromises we make every day in the name of expediency. I was recently using the beautiful new Washington Post iPAD application. Great app; they might even have the business terms right when it moves from the free trial to actual payment next month. But when I go to tweet an article from the Post app or post it on Facebook, I encounter what seem to be an overly aggressive set of conditions exposing my data. My data. And to do something that is not in my interest, but the Post's. I think I'm going to think twice.
- The attempt to shut down the internet and cellular access by the government reminds me that it is not a bad idea to continue to be skeptical about attempts by any government to interject itself into the internet. No matter how well intentioned the reasons may be. No matter how useful a "unique internet identity" might be.
- The traffic that has continued to flow despite everything the government has done to shut it off reminds me that decentralized systems will find a way. The Huffington Post did a great graph visualizing the Egyptian internet blackout. The chart shows the traffic essenially falling off a cliff as of 5 PM on the 27th. And yet despite all of this, a quick look at either the #jan25 or #egypt hashtags continues to flow out at 100+ tweets per minute. Remarkable.
Wow.
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