[Air-l] Re: How anti-Iraq war protesters employed technology

[Michel J. Menou]

alrao> Message: 4
alrao> Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 08:45:48 -0600
alrao> To: air-l at aoir.org
alrao> From: Steve Jones <sjones at uic.edu>
alrao> Subject: Re: [Air-l] FC: How anti-Iraq war protesters employed technology,
alrao>  from NYT
alrao> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org

snip
alrao> before it in this regard: One is the internet's relative
alrao> instantaneity, another its reach to so many people, and another is 
alrao> the inherent "copy-ability" of internet communication (e.g., the ease 
alrao> of forwarding, posting). Which of these matters most, or are they all 
alrao> equal? And what I'd like to know more than that: Is there something 
alrao> else, something about the internet as a medium, that makes it more 
alrao> than a faster/broader medium in comparison to what has come before it?

It seems to me that reach is unprecedented, together with
instantaneity, or at least fastness, in that we have a worldwide (at
least at major cities level) communication.

Another aspect is that even if the security agencies do monitor, the
traffic is, when it occurs, relatively safe for the actors, compared
with the level of control, cut and counter-action that was exposed in
using previous tools. I remember a time when the only outside link in
an African country in situations of "crisis" was telex and all tlex
messages were passing through a special office of the Ministry of
interior.

No single aspect is imo decisive, it is the combination of all of them
that makes the difference.

But may be one may add another key factor, blue sky (when it is still
blue) hypothesis: the sense of a worldwide community created in part
by the other formal characteristics, and also by an emotional sense of
belonging to a cybercommunity, which is, delete as appropriate, new,
different, promising, etc.

Michel