The Open Internet and Blogs – Social, Economic, and Political Revolutions
Blogging, Grassroots Internet, and Political Revolutions
I work as a researcher and consultant studying the means by which new media technologies catalyze political and social movements worldwide. This has involved studies of networked digital democracies in India, blogging and open societies in Kyrgyzstan, and social media technologies that have impacted economic decision-making, rural empowerment projects, and e-governance initiatives worldwide. A few photos are included here that relate to my work particularly in Kyrgyzstan, with one included paper that was published in 2009 on the potential of the deregulated internet to contribute to social and political change in the former Soviet Union.
Together, these projects attempt to speak to the possibility of an internet that is built around grassroots uses, citizen journalism, and strategic uses of new media technologies. They attempt to isolate the conditions around which diffusion occurs, sustainable movements are formed, and social networks are effectively bridged to enable viral collective action.
