Blogs & Bullets: Social Media and the Struggle for Political Change

From Wikileaks revelations to claims of “Twitter revolutions,” the role of new media in shaping global political action is one of the most discussed but least understood phenomena confronting scholars, policymakers, advocates, and the private sector. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made “digital democracy” a cornerstone of U.S. diplomacy; grassroots organizations like Ushahidi are crowdsourcing everything from protest to disaster relief; and corporations like Cisco and Google are increasingly making news for their role in international development and commerce.

Everyone seems to agree new and social media matter. Less clear is how, when, and why.

The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding hosted, in partnership with the George Washington University and Stanford University, a Blogs & Bullets event on February 24 in Palo Alto to discuss the latest approaches to understanding the role of new media in peace and conflict.

The conference brought together a diverse array of innovators from across the public, private and academic communities to share research in progress, with a particular focus on harnessing the insights of Silicon Valley companies whose products have been key enablers of political activism from Tehran to Tunisia, Cairo to Colombia.

Speakers

• Larry Diamond
  Stanford University
• Marc Lynch
  George Washington University
• Clay Shirky
  New York University 
• Olivia Ma
  YouTube
• Sheldon Himelfarb (Moderator)
  U.S. Institute of Peace

Explore Further

• Center of Innovation: Science, Technology & Peacebuilding
• USIP Initiative: Blogs & Bullets
• Ushahidi and Crisis Mapping