Intersting case study of mobilization

A fellow photojournalist that pretty much despises Facebook sent the link from the NY Times Magazine. It's a pretty long read about how Egyptians were able to use Facebook to organize in a very restrictive environment.

The fact that tens of thousands of disaffected young Egyptians unhappy with their government meet online to debate and plan events is remarkable, given the context of political repression in which it is occurring.

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By organizing online, the April 6 movement avoids some of the pitfalls of party politics in Egypt — censorship, bureaucracy, compromise with the regime. But whenever the movement’s members try to migrate offline, they find they are still playing by Egypt’s rules. They almost never meet in real life, certainly not in large groups, and when they do, the police often show up.

It is very interesting to read how increased access to the Internet was a government program, allowing these groups to organize and mobilize to an extent, yet the government also infiltrated the groups online in order to try and quell the uprise. It 's a very interesting read and depiction of social groups using technology to try and change the establishment.