Cascading Information and the Arab Spring
http://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/designprocess/files/2012/08/TheNational_FacebookandTwitterKeytoArabSpringUprising.pdf
http://www.ssrresourcecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Anderson-Demystifying-the-Arab-Spring.pdf
The Arab Spring is an ongoing process of revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. This series of revolutions has some very modern characteristics, such as the extensive use of social media and the Internet in disseminating information. One question which has been asked is why so many events have occurred in the span of a few years? Why did the revolutions in Libya and Syria start so close together? A very plausible answer to this question lies in analyzing information cascades.
Some have suggested that Facebook and Twitter were key to igniting the changes in the region. However, Anderson suggests otherwise, drawing a historical parallel with 1919. Then, a similar series of revolutions and changes in governments occurred in the same region, without such Internet technologies.
Information cascades are not dependent on the medium through which information is transmitted, merely on the transmission of information. In both 1919 and 2012, conditions existed such that news of uprisings could rapidly spread through the region. If coordination through Facebook or Twitter is not the root cause of the synchronized nature of the uprising, then what is? Well, one possible explanation is that after the Tunisian government was rocked by protests which eventually met with success, would-be protesters in other countries took notice and decided that it was a good time to launch protest efforts (an information network effect). Later on, after Western countries used their air forces in Libya, a direct benefit occurred: would- be revolutions in other countries benefited by learning that the West is willing to use air power to aid revolutions it deems worthy.