NGOS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT IN RECENT ARAB UPRISINGS

Mustafa Abbasoglu107604024

A Quick Walkthrough

• What is a Non-governmental Organization?• NGOs are big, but how big are they?• Challenges for NGOs• Opportunities for NGOs in social media• NGOs in social media• Discussion: Social media in Tunisian and

Egyptian Uprisings

What is a Non-Governmental Organization?

• human rights, women rights, indigenous rights, freedom and peace

• delivers human services • promotes grass-roots economic development • prevents environmental degradation and pursue a thousand other objectives formerly unattended or left to the state.

NGOs are big, but how big are they?

According to The World Fact Book - 2010 GDP(PPP) estimates:227 Countries• 76 less than 10 billion $– Includes Liectenstein, Andorra, San Marino,

Monaco• 27 less than 1 billion $

NGOS are big, but how big are they?

Forbes, 2005 WorldVision, 2011

NGOs are big, but how big are they?

• BRAC– 120.000 Employees

• The Art of Living– 300 m volunteers, 151 countries

• Globally • 40.000 International • 277.000 Russia, 3.3 m India • OECD: %15-%20 overseas aid through NGOs (2008)

Challenges for NGOs• Resembles characteristics of a business enterprise

o Generate incomeo Accountability

o Pay tax

o Employeeso Hire Consultancy?!

• Main Challenges– Fluctuating budgets, no long-term planning – Dependency on Donors

• Autonomy under threat– Bureaucracy, struggle for leadership– Prioritization issues: Focus on administrative concerns– Uncontrolled growth– Human Resources– Visibility– Communication

Challenges for NGOs: Communication

Consumer behaviour evolves as society and technology dofrom • Emails• Telemarketers• Street volunteers• Call for actiontowards• Ladder of Engagement -Beth Kanter • Organic relations with followers• donor-get-donor

NGOs and Social Media

• Overcome basic challenges – Deliver your message– Raise fund– Create public awareness

• With social media– Visibility– Share instantly– Interact– Budget-friendly– Copy infinitely

NGOs @ Social Networks

• Wyclef Jean's Haiti Relief Tweets Raise $1 Million – 24 hours– 200.000 donations

Grassroots @ Social Networks

• Social movements, i.e. grassroot organizations gain momentum

• Political self-expression• Internetime Dokunma• Arab Uprisings of 2011

15 Feb Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, tweets: “Egypt: people plus technology-what an amazing force

for good”

Do Social Networks deserved the credit they are given?

Tunisia: What happened?

• old protectorate of France till 1956• autocratic one-party state• By December, 2010 unrest vs. police violence• Tragic death of Mohamed Bouazizi• Incidents for 9 days• Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali resigned, 14th Jan • a caretaker government – No former members

• Tunisian elections have been called by the interim government for 24th july.

Tunisia: What happened?• Intense censorship• Government controlled broadcast

• Facebook– Rated non-political by authorities– Opposition leader pages censored– Bloggers #1 platform

• Bouazizi pictures • Wounded guy and iphone In the absence of media, people effectively became the media.

Egypt: What happened?

• Old protectorate, under political influence of UK until 1953.• Incidents Jan 25 «millions march»• Mubarak (since 1981) resigned Feb 12 • the Supreme Council of Egyption Armed Forces,

– guaranteed to call elections within six months – Protests continued and on 3 March, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq

resigned from Office.– Armed Forces proposed US-trained transport minister Essam

Sharaf to form a new government. – Actions that the interim government has taken:

• Economic relief• parliamentary elections for June, and a presidential election in August

Egypt: What happened?

• pro-revolutionary purposes were easily being detected and intimidated – Ahmed Mohsen, blogger captured April 2009 for

"exploiting the democratic climate to overthrow the government".

• Unrest ongoing, 6th April movement, 2008: general strike, started life on Facebook, 64.000 members

• Wael Abbas, blogger, shared content• the police beating up

protesters• torturing detainees and

rigging vote counts

Egypt: What happened?

• Jan 25 March– same day as Police day – in memoir of Khaled Said, beaten to death by policemen, Summer 2010– Protestors organized on networks– Inspired by Tunisian revolt– Opposition leader Ayman Nour – 6th April movement– Numbers rose from 50.000 to 1 m people in 6 days

• Regime attempt to block Internet & GSM– More people flocked to streets «backfire»– Facebook and Twitter apps – Tahrir square photos inspired other cities

Discussion: Would it be possible 10 years ago?

• Rafat Ali, a social media expert : Facebook to organize, Twitter to inform – Instantly spread– Organize gatherings– Citizen journalism

• Moral support– Share stories– Feel being part of a massWael Ghonim, Google marketing manager: «I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg some day and thank him personally»Egyptian family named their newborn Facebook

Discussion: Would it be possible 10 years ago?

• Evgeny Morozov, a well-reputed author and scholar in USA – «The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of the Internet Freedom” – Cyber-utopians, internet’s cheerleaders

• Underrate networks of grassroots activists • Exagerate social media, mere tools

– Facebook and Twitter: the service provider of the revolution? – Oppressors use it as well.

• two activists in Iran for spreading video content on “Twitter revolution” in Iran of 2009.

• Gwynne Dyer, an independent journalist, London– conditions in the Arab world has not been changing for a long period

• People were always poor• regimes were never less harsh nor less corrupt.

– Self-immolation is no real excuse to explain happenings in Middle East – Social Media not what brought them “out at last”. – United States, military out off the zone by the end of 2011.

• Martin Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO– "It would be extremely arrogant for any specific technology company to claim credit. "– "People are now having the opportunity to communicate, that's not a Facebook thing. That's an

Internet thing."