[liberationtech] Jantar Mantar Vs Tahrir Square

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Prashant,

I would start by looking at all the "offline" differences - social, cultural, political, economic, historical, geopolitical, linguistic and religious - between Egypt and India. Given the myriad and vast differences between the two countries in all of these respects, it makes sense that successful online and offline political strategies for bringing about change in India versus Egypt would be similarly different.

Best,
Rebecca

On Apr 12, 2011, at 5:50 AM, prashant singh wrote:

> Hi Friends 
> 
> First Off My apologies in advance if this email is off topic for the group . 
> 
>  I am Prashant . A software guy  from India.  I am a silent member of this group but i do read most of  the discussions over here . As most of you already know that sometime back we had a series of protest against rampant corruption in India . these protest and hunger strike were lead by  Mr.Anna Hazzare .He was fasting at  Jantar Mantar ( a building near parliament ). I do respect him for his courage , intent and conviction . but in spite of all that i must say that we didn't really managed to have our "Tahrir Square" moment. whole thing eventually fizzled out and many amongst us believe that this won't bring any substantial change in the way things are done . Establishment has succeed in gaming the whole dynamics and  trick us in to believing that we have won. but I know thats not the case . Though I was not involved in protest first hand  ( call me slacktivist ) but still  I am sad .  
> 
> I want to understand from you guys what were the structural variable which were missing because of which Jantar Mantar coubn't turn in to a Tahrir Square . how can someone ensure that unrest once started reaches a critical mass and attain some tangible outcome . what I as a technology guy and my friends in Independent Media ( bloggers . Twitter )   can contribute to ensure that this doesen't happen again . 
> 
> 
> 
> thanks 
> -- 
> Prashant Singh
> Product Manager, Spice Labs.
> Blog : http://blog.spicelabs.in
> "If someone's using a PC to demo the Next Big Thing... then it's not the next big thing."~Russell Beattie
> _______________________________________________
> liberationtech mailing list
> liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> 
> Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"
> 
> You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders.
> 
> Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator.
> 
> Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20110412/8c361ca6/attachment.html>