Link: http://weblog.tomgraves.org/index.php/2011/04/28/fact-propaganda-war-socialmedia/
Right now I should be writing a formal paper on enterprise-architecture and social-media. Instead I’ve been tracking one small yet deeply fascinating (literally…) aspect of the rebellion in Libya: the social-media ‘war’ that’s happening on the LiveBlog pages (e.g. April 27, April 28) of the Al Jazeera English-language website.
I’m a complete outsider, of course, relative to the (again literally 
) bloody mess that is happening at present in Libya. Yet it’s important to me because it’s an all too real example of what I see as the fundamental shift that’s needed for our future survival: from possession (represented in all of its extremes by Colonel Gaddafi) to responsibility (represented by at least the hopes and aspirations of the rebels, freedom-fighters or whatever you want to call them).
After two months, the conflict has all but vanished from most of the mainstream media – but the conflict itself continues, as bloodily as ever. Given that it’s very much an Arab conflict, Al Jazeera is one the few media-outlets that continues to keep track – though even that is a lot thinner than it was even a week or two. Instead, as in this quote, it seems the real reporting is happening in the Comments sections of those daily LiveBlogs:
This blog is the most up-to-date source of information on Libya, and it has been for several days.According to the BBC maps, there is still a stalemate.According to the other organizations, Libya has fallen off the top of the page.And according to Al Jazeera, the stalemate has rapidly recededand has given way to an electrically charged prophase of victory.You would only know that if you had been paying attention to Al Jazeera.We aren’t there yet – and this is no time for complacency or for turning our backs,but Daffyland is in the swirling vortex of history,and Free Libya is emerging into the sun, in dignity:bloodied, but unbowed.
At present there are well over 6000 comments each day on those LiveBlogs. Almost all of them come from people with strong opinions, of course. Nothing is certain; one of the few things that does seem certain is that quite a few people there are not what they claim. Yet between them the commenters do seem to have a surprising range of skills, experience and information. For example, one of them, ‘Gerhard Heinz’, does appear to have near-real-time access to a satellite-feed, because much of his information, if opinionated, is precise, specific, and usually subsequently proven as fact:
[27April] my update for this morning
daffis troops are spotterd over the country and most in defensive positions.
what kind of aktion they do?
firing from distance and waiting to be destroyed.
some useless infanterie attacks in outskirts of misrata area with toyotas
in the west daffi lost position after position just shelling towns or try to hide inside towns.
the new satelites show that most of the troops have poor suply-lines,they get their last amu 4 days ago in the west.
diesel-suply is very short most of his diesel burning vehicels have left only the containment .
troops in the west start to give up now.
brega
most of daffis troops there are not good trained fighting troops .only the 200-300 are from the first push left.
the rest are from the supley lines to sirte and not realy fighting troops.
you hear not much from nato airstrikes this night becouse the targets are most on his supley [28April] daffis troops in the east recive a ultimatum to surrender from somebudy who dominate the sky.
we will see how they react.
round misrata
daffis troops have not only to look into the sky ,they also have to look arround ,becouse more and more ff-groops are aktiv by night.
nato tornados are aktive tonight with a target-list of 26 targets
we count 167 clashes tonight.
tripoli
clashes between ff-groops and daffi -merc. increase tonight.ff control large areas of tripoli by night
western
daffis troops trey to hold positions ,but without supley they can only surrender .
3 armed suply convois wiped out this night ,also a reinforcment convoy for western mountains.
diesel supley from algeria burning still now 170 km from border.
It usually takes two or three days, if at all, for any of this information to turn up in the mainstream media.
Another commenter, ‘Glen Parry’, keeps up a running commentary on aerial activity, from listening in to air-traffic control:
[27April] USAF, by the sound of it, Shadow 61, just cleared by Luqa ATC, Sigonella. Sounds like things could be getting started for the night. Not gone tactical yet, so might actually be returning to base.
Another flight’s just gone tactical, cleared to to the east (won’t say where for OPs reasons). They could be Canadians by the accent).
Another sortie, Dagger 31, cleared to Libyan destination going tactical.
Fourth flight is being held until airspace clears; no destination given.
French appear to be up at the moment as well.
Other commenters bring information from other sources, such as Twitter, other websites and even, it seems, direct phone-calls:
[‘beardyk’, 27April] hlk01: RT @ChangeInLibya: Misrata BREAKING: A big group of Gaddafi soldiers is surrounded in Kirzaz after they tried to sneak in and fell into a rebel ambush #libya [‘hisham’, 27April] zintan has been liberated, mercs force puched back, then defeated….after trying to surround the town…
Then there are the ‘trolls’ – commenters such as ‘AntiNaziGuy’ or ‘DefiantFighter’, often very active, pushing a pro-Gadaffi theme. Unfortunately for them, many of the other commenters are very skilled at fact-checking, such as this example in respense to a purported video of pro-Gaddafi supporters marching in Benghazi and being shot at by the rebels:
[‘Rod_Hagen’, 27April] Well spotted! That really is laughable, Bart!
The couple of hundred marchers shown are clearly entering Tripoli’s “green square” from Mizran St. The video at http://www.youtube.com/all_com… has nothing to do with Benghazi, and doesn’t show anyone shooting at anyone. There is no “depth” to the crowd, (see the car headlights behind the marchers).
If all Gadaffi & his pals can come up with is fake videos of a couple of hundred army age men marching to a? major tourist site in Tripoli, but pretending to be in Benghazi, he can’t have very long left at all!
And there are heartfelt pieces from those who are personally involved. This comment, for example, also shines light on the difference between an extreme possession-based societal context and a responsibility-based one:
[‘LibyaInAbsentia’, 27April] Living in Benghazi before the revolution was hard. Every day was covered by a cloud of oppression and a shadow of suspicion that someone could be watching and listening. People became tired and frustrated living like this and were less kind toward each other. Often people had little patience or compassion.When the revolution began it was terrifying. We couldn’t sleep at night listening to the gunfire and tanks, hoping that in the morning we would not hear that loved ones had been killed. So many died and were hurt and everyone had a connection somehow. We didn’t know what was happening in other cities because the phones and internet were cut.
Then Benghazi was free! It was like the sun had finally come out of the clouds after so many years. Benghazi felt lighter and brighter than it ever has. Everyone has the same goal. Men and women, elderly and children, all the citizens of Benghazi stand together for freedom. Everyone has hope for the future and pride in their city. Young men and boys volunteer to direct traffic and clean streets. Women cook and distribute food to the fighters. Patience and compassion have returned to the city and oppression and suspicion have left.
As communication has been restored in Benghazi, we have learned that all the other cities, towns and villlages in Libya are fighting for the same freedom. As the people of Benghazi are untied in support of their city, they are untied in support of their brothers and sisters in all the other cities, towns and villages of Libya. We want the sunshine of freedom to break through the clouds of oppression and shine on all of united Libya.
So in effect this is a real-time social-media community, coming together in a classic emergent form. The only controls here are the ‘Like’ and ‘Reply’ buttons, and the ‘Flag to moderator’ link. The ‘Like’ button enables the comment to be promoted in the ‘Popular now’ and ‘Best rating’ sorts of the list (there is no matching ‘Dislike’-button to demote posts). The ‘Flag’ link reports a post to the moderators for breach of conditions-of-use, such as repetition, abuse and ’shouting’ (excessive all-caps) – the ‘trolls’ being the most common offenders here, which results in many of their posts being deleted.
All in all, a lot of interesting lessons and examples here for anyone involved in social-media – and, given the drivers of the overall ‘enterprise’ in this context, for enterprise-architectures too.
