PrintMapping Priority Conflict Blogospheres
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Blogs & Bullets: The Power of Online Media in Preventing or Igniting Violent Conflict
As a first step in the Mapping Priority Conflict Blogospheres project, the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding hosted a panel at USIP’s Passing the Baton event on this topic entitled “Blogs & Bullets: The Power of Online Media in Preventing or Igniting Violent Conflict.”
The panel, organized in conjunction with the Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict, and Peacebuilding, examined how online discourse and digital communities are being used to promote violent conflict in some circumstances and to prevent conflict in others. The panel was chaired by Sheldon Himelfarb and featured John Kelly (Founder, Morningside Analytics), Ivan Sigal (Executive Director, Global Voices Online), Duncan MacInnes (Deputy Coordinator, Bureau of International Information Programs, US Department of State), and Linton Wells (Force Transformation Chair, National Defense University).
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Working Session on Online Content and Conflict Analysis
The Center held a closed experts working session on online content and conflict analysis. The group convened on June 10, 2009, and included members from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. The groups discussed ways to utilize the Berkman Center’s quantitative and analytical tools to map online discourse and content in USIP’s priority conflict areas. The group included Marc Lynch, Henry Farrell, John Sides, Sean Aday, (George Washington University), Ethan Zuckerman (Harvard University), Joel Whitaker, Sheldon Himelfarb, and Theo Dolan (USIP).
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Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths
The Center co-hosted a public event on Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths. Conducted in collaboration with Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the event presented findings from an unprecedented, comprehensive mapping of the Arabic-language blogosphere. Researchers from the Berkman Center unveiled for the first time a new report on the Arabic-language blogosphere mapping analysis to more than 35,000 blogs from 18 countries. The panel of discussants included bloggers, activists, peacebuilders, and regional experts. The event engaged an international audience with live streaming video and discussion via online chat and Twitter, including commentary from an online panel of Arab bloggers. More than 150 online participants tuned in from 26 countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Brazil, India and Pakistan. The event also garnered press attention from BBC Online and the Washington Post.
- Find a summary of the Online Discourse in the Arab World event here
- Watch archived video of the event
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This is a sample of the kind of visual blogosphere mapping that John Kelly is generating at Morningside Analytics (image courtesy John Kelly):
