VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

I've been following what is happening in Libya these days, and I am not sure why this uprising has not been hailed as a Social Media or "facebook revolution". Although this sort of tagging is mostly planted by mainstream media, I am sure that in the aftermath of the middle-east happenings there will be a lot of analysis and even research on how the Internet played a part. In one of my past posts, I wrote on " The Internet and Social Media in #Egypt, how It really matters ". Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , the son of Muammar al-Gaddafi , on a recent speech to the Libyan people (February 20th) referred to some people that want to drag Libya into: "what happened in Tunisia and in Egypt and it started by facebook, emails and twitter and in their media campaign". In an article " Libyan dictator warns against use of Facebook " Emil Protalinski confirms what Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said. So, not only citizens know how Social Media impact t...

In my Last Blog post " Papandreou talks about the role of Social Media in Government " I promised to write on how New and Social Media impact public diplomacy. I have been rather busy lately (haven't Blogged as much as I would like), however, in this post I want to draw your attention to a recent Facebook DC Live Event: Social Media and the World Stage , which was hosted by Facebook Washington DC. In this Video Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Senior Innovation Adviser Alec Ross and Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer talk about how people around the world have been empowered by social media. Watch live streaming video from facebookdclive at livestream.com I remembered Eric Schwartzman saying that there are no secrets any more, only information, that is not yet known. So, in the age of the Internet, do you believe that the " Chatham House Rule " can be applied in New and Social Public Diplomacy? Also, let me draw you attention ...

In a recent speech to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Athens, the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou referenced Social and New Media and their role in Government. You can watch what Papandreou said here: Some excellent points there. I also recommend watching the speech in its entirety; a starting point in understanding Greece in current affairs. P.S. I write this post, having Blogged on " The Internet and Social Media in #Egypt, how It really matters ". There is so many information, great examples and ideas that I want to share, on how Social and New Media can play a role in not only public communications, but innovative governance and public diplomacy; I promise to write an extensive post in the near future.

I've been reading on how social media has ignited the social developments in Egypt, and also how this argument is silly, since most people in Egypt do not have access to facebook and twitter so as to organize and utilize these new media. I do not want to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle, but there is a point to be made. During the past few days I've been watching live on  Al Jazeera  and reading on Blogs and twitter in trying to keep informed, I also read a very interesting article by Eric Schwartzman on " Thoughts on Social Media and Revolutions ". He references Steve Coll in the  New Yorker in writing: …youthful populations, high unemployment, grotesque inequality, abusive police, reviled leaders and authoritarian systems” are to blame. So let’s give credit where credit’s due. It’s bad government that led to the situation at hand. Social media just made it impossible to ignore. Well, it's not really easy to disagree with the above stateme...