H15607
Headlines : Human Rights'Open-Source Politics' Taps Facebook for Burma Protests
Can the silent majority become freedom fighters through Facebook?
In less than two weeks, the Facebook group, Support the Monks’ protest in Burma has grown to over 345,000 members, sometimes at a rate faster than one new member per second.
A lot of people have had it with powerlessness; Facebook has brought them together. Saturday’s protests will tell if this can be turned into visuals good enough to make the “real news” that, filtered through CNN and the BBC, may reach the attention of the junta leaders in Naypyitaw and possibly even the Burmese themselves. Meantime, it is time to explore ‘open-source politics.’
[Posted By Beagle17]Republished from Wired
Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets around the world Saturday in Facebook-fueled marches protesting Myanmar’s recent crackdown on monks’ pro-democracy demonstrations.
The marches, organized at a lightning pace by volunteers using Facebook, show the increasing power and reach of a social-networking site originally designed to help college students find drinking buddies. Facebook members in dozens of cities worldwide have planned demonstrations for Saturday.
Amateur activists and big-league political nonprofit groups find Facebook an easy way to connect citizens around the globe and help them push their collective concerns to the top of politicians’ agendas, a development that marks the beginnings of what might be called “open-source politics….
Posted by Beagle17
"RSS here": http://feeds.feedburner.com/GnnBeagle17 Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted...
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Posted by Beagle17 on Sunday, September 30th 2007
I went out in the “super typhoon” that was hitting Taipei. Maybe a few of the 150 or so people went because of seeing it on Facebook. Most were there through the work of the local AI group, the Burmese community and a Buddhist group or two.
Quite a few videos and reports of rallies” have been posted to the Facebook group.
“Maybe a few of the 150 or so people went because of seeing it on Facebook.”
Cite plz.
Cite me. I posted it to FB and talked to people who went. What’s your prob?
What a stupid handle. Hope you get banned. They like to ban ‘round here you know.
And it made it into the international news.
I tried to tell people the typhoon was a positive, but most of my friends bailed due to the weather. Personally, I found it exhilarating to be out in the typhoon.
Why would you require someone to cite a supposition?