On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:22 PM, Rich Kulawiec <[email protected]> wrote: > Sixth, and let me encapsulate it as a principle: > > If you need a GUI to overthrow your government... > you're probably not going to overthrow your government. > > That's harsh, condescending, snarky...but I think it's probably true.
Not really (and I disagree with nearly everything else you wrote). Communication is a critical component (some say the most critical) of any military operation, and there is no reason why it would be less critical for e.g. a successful civil uprising. Cellphones today provide the most viable mobile duplex communication channel for civilians, and any third-world government will be most reluctant to shut down cellphone communication, since it will cause major disruptions for its own military, which heavily relies on using cellphones instead of unreliable radios. Risks, including traffic analysis, can be mitigated or simply accepted, and even government's ability to shutdown the cellular network in case of force majeure is not a given, if there is (like usual) some first-world country or multinational extremist organization behind / supporting the grassroots uprising that can supply the necessary equipment on the ground. Your post is condescending for the wrong reasons — Twitter drama queens cannot make a revolution with or without smartphones, but it does not mean that smartphones, and their relevant applications, are not the most suitable communication channel for people on the ground who actually do things (good or bad). -- Maxim Kammerer Liberté Linux: http://dee.su/liberte -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected] or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
