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I recently spoke at a panel on “Online Activism Around the World” with Nancy Scola, Ralf Bendrath and Jon Pincus at the Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009 Conference.

Although I was supposed to speak about Vote Report India and digital activism in India, I ended up speaking about how social technologies are value-agnostic.

At each of the four levels of Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence, social technologies can lead to both good and bad outcomes.

User generated content can be used to break news or spread propaganda. Collective action can be used to organize protests against a totalitarian regime or perpetrate violence against its detractors. Online communities can create cosmopolitan open societies or cult-like closed ones. Collective intelligence can be used to benefit consumers and citizens or profile them for surveillance or commercial exploitation.

Some highlights from the talks and the panel –

- Why real political change will not be brought about by online activism, but by using online engagement to build real world institutions.

- Why digital technologies don’t necessarily distribute power by default, but can also be used to centralize power.  Read More

I was interviewed recently by Homeland Security Today for a article on the use of social media and mobile technologies in crisis situations.

I talked about how technology is agnostic and can be used by both good guys and bad guys. We specifically talked about how both victims and terrorists were using mobile phones during the Mumbai terrorist attack.

I also pointed out that, often, the difference between the good guys (activists) and the bad guys (troublemakers) isn’t obvious. So, governments should assume that terrorists and dissidents will use these technologies, but refrain from trying to control, block or monitor these technologies too broadly.

Here is the full text of the article –

Social Media Opens Communications for Terrorists, Victims
by Mickey McCarter
Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Experts relate how terrorists, victims have been using Twitter and text messaging in crisis situations
The general public has very recently embraced the use of new social media applications like Twitter. Oprah Winfrey, for example, turned her fanbase onto the Web site last month. Traditional newspapers have lit up with stories about how blogs and tweets are changing the world.  Read More