‪A quote from Clay Shirky I heard in an NPR interview the other day led me an interesting talk by Ethan Zuckerman about social media web apps and activism.‬

‪The quote, which is the title of this post, ‬comes from a 2008 talk Zuckerman gave at the O'Reilly Etech conference. Zuckerman points out that the widespread usage of certain internet applications for activities like sharing cute cat photos makes it harder for governments to shut down said applications when they're used for activist activities.  ‬Says Zuckerman:

With web 2.0, we’ve embraced the idea that people are going to share pictures of their cats, and now we build sophisticated tools to make that easier to do. As a result, we’re creating a wealth of tech that’s extremely helpful for activists. There are twin revolutions going on – the ease of creating content and the ease of sharing it with local and global audiences.

Shirkey reiterates the point in his interview: social media platforms and environments that are designed to allow citizens to share anything they like are better environments for political activism than tools that are specifically designed for political activism.
‪
Zuckerman also puts forth a formula that describes the effectiveness of social media platforms: if a platform isn't being used for porn, it doesn't work, and if it isn't being used for activism, it doesn't work well.

Porn is a weak test for the success of participatory media – it’s like tapping a mike and asking, “Is it on?” If you’re not getting porn in your system, it doesn’t work. Activism is a stronger test – if activists are using your tools, it’s a pretty good indication that your tools are useful and usable.

The whole article is worth a read.‬

The Zimbabwean is a newspaper produced by a group of exiled Zimbabwean journalists. It is sold in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe but in the latter it attracts an import tax that renders the average Zimbabwean unable to afford a copy.

The newspaper and South African creative agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris have created a series of ads -- wall murals, billboards and flyers -- in Johannesburg using the Z$100 trillion dollar note. This incredible denomination is a poignant symbol of the country's world record inflation.

The campaign hopes to encourage more sales of the paper in South Africa, thereby subsidizing the cost of the paper to Zimbabweans, while simultaneously raising awareness of the dire situation in the country under the Mugabe regime.

The "Trillion Dollar Campaign" Billboard for The Zimbabwean newspaper. Check out more photos at the newspaper's Flickr photostream.

Via the Creative Review and Veer: Ideas.