Was social media the driving force behind the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? Commentators in the West are divided. Some insist that Hosni Mubarak would never have fallen without Facebook and Twitter. To which others respond that these tools promote only weak forms of organization and were incidental to the protests gaining momentum. The question… Read More »
In all the hoo-ha about the Arab Revolutions some interesting WikiLeaks cables seem to be slipping through the net. Like this one from 2008 about Estonia’s view of the cyberattack on Georgia. Estonia had learned some tough lessons from Russia’s cyberattack on its defenses the previous year, so was quick to send cyber-defense experts to… Read More »
By Jeremy Wagstaff (This is a copy of my weekly syndicated column) You really don’t need to thank me, but I think you should know that for the past 10 years I’ve been fighting a lonely battle on your behalf. I’ve been taking on mighty corporations to rid the world of spam. Not the spam… Read More »
By Jeremy Wagstaff (this is a column I wrote back in November. I’m repeating it here because of connections to astroturing in the HBGary/Anonymous case.) Just how social is social media? By which I mean: Can we trust it as a measure of what people think, what they may buy, how they may vote? Or… Read More »
The BBC World Service Business Daily version of my piece on the relationship between communications and political change . (The Business Daily podcast is here.) Loose Wireless 110216 To listen to Business Daily on the radio, tune into BBC World Service at the following times, or click here. Australasia: Mon-Fri 0141*, 0741 East Asia: Mon-Fri 0041, 1441 South… Read More »