A “Twitter revolution” in Moldova?
Written by Aron Kirschner on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Filed under Network technology, Networks in action, News
Long before Oprah’s first tweet, WorkingWikily has been covering the Twitter phenomenon.
In previous posts we described how Congress is using Twitter and how TweetsGiving raised a substantial amount of money for charity. Recently, Twitter was featured prominently in international news after it was reportedly used to bring together a “smart mob” of protestors in Moldova. More than 10,000 protestors were brought together using Twitter in combination with other social network tools such as Facebook (see our earlier post on Facebook’s use in Egypt) and Live Journal.
A key quote from the article:
The protesters created their own searchable tag on Twitter, rallying Moldovans to join and propelling events in this small former Soviet state onto a Twitter list of newly popular topics, so people around the world could keep track.
However, weeks after the event, some felt that Twitter’s role was trumped up and that there were actually larger forces at play, with only a few of the core protestors using Twitter. Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post argues:
It is becoming clear that there was no Twitter Revolution in Moldova, and not merely because there are only a handful of registered Twitter users in the country… The unexpectedly large demonstration was not a spontaneous product of technical advance… The Moldovan opposition isn’t well organized or popular enough to inspire a movement like that, with or without Twitter. More to the point, some of the most violent demonstrators were immediately identified… as members of the Moldovan security services
Ethan Zuckerman believes that Twitter’s role may have had more to do with getting journalist attention than bringing people together. And Tech President has a survey of many experts who make a similar claim.
Regardless of the result in Moldova, non-profit leaders will only continue to hear about this hot new technology. We hope to write more about Twitter in the future and will attempt extract deeper meaning out of the hype that surrounds it. Two great places to begin learning about Twitter include this post from Beth Kanter and a new Twitter activism guide from DigiActive. For non-profits, the motivation to learn about and utilize Twitter will become even more important as the platform develops a larger user base and as its users learn more about the tool’s power to organize.
Does Twitter have the potential to help you in achieving your organization’s goals?
How are you using Twitter to promote your cause or inspire your followers?
