[Air-L] Colombia march against terrorism: social impact of a fecebook call against FARC and ELN/EPL

[Cristian Berrio Zapata]

Dear friends:

 

Yesterday an impressive movement against violence ,terrorism and kidnapping
occurred in Colombia and 163 different places in the planet. The initiative
was coordinated via Facebook and moved about 10 million people around the
world, Colombians and other nationalities. Being our country subject of a
heavy digital divide, it is quite interesting how face-to-face information
systems had integrated with ICTs to produce such impact. The march was
extremely organized and peaceful, abandoning some earlier attempts to use it
with political intentions. We shall evaluate fore coming results but seems
this act may produce a visible signal for international supporters of FARC
(i.e. president Chavez from Venezuela or some NGOs in Europe; even Nederland
youngsters had been found within their camps), so the real extend of their
actions is understood, not as a political project but a criminal
organization.

 

Community Informatic practitioners and researchers may find this phenomenon
quite interesting from the academic point of view but most important,
academic communities must take a step foreword to use their knowledge into
making visible the success elements of these events and let them be tools to
produce social and political changes in search of a better world.

 

 

Cristian Berrío Zapata

Profesor Auxiliar

Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales

Universidad de San Buenaventura (Bogotá)