Re: Gladwell, Google, Twitter & Egypt: Social Media's Revolutionary Mystery [telecom]

There have been conflicting news reports on the impact modern technologies have had on the Egyptian revolution. Some reports credit the technologies. But other news reports say only a minority of people have access to modern devices and techniques because the country overall is very poor.

iMHO, we'll have to wait for the 'dust to settle' to get a better feel on the impact and involvement of the new technologies (and many other questions, too.) It seems to me much of the reporting has been based on isolated interviews with various participants, which is not necessarily representative of the full group of protesters or the rest of the country. Also, just because someone grants an interview does not mean he/she knows the full story or is even giving accurate information.

Despite instantaneous communications, some information still takes time to get properly communicated, especially in violatile situations like this. For example, Instant TV and the Internet allows us to immediately see a person throw a rock at another person. Such images are extremely dramatic. But that immediacy and intimacy does not really tell us anything---we really don't know who the assailent or victim are, and more importantly, whether that assault is an isolated incident or truly representative of a larger engagement.

As we've seen in elections, sometimes "instant' predictions made on very little data can turn out to be wrong.

While I agree the jury is still out, don't forget that the government did shut down these kinds of services; obviously viewing them as a serious threat.

ET

Ah, increase the pay of government employees to help maintain the status quo.

Sounds like California.