Reaction to Gladwell

After reading Malcolm Gladwell's article, "Small Change" I agree with some of the contexts he points out as being important. The tweeter accounts in Iran may have been significant towards creating a support for the community, but I do not believe it was the make or break in response to peoples actions. People would have acted or responded the same with or without tweets.
In the article "From Innovation to Revolution", Clay Shirky brings an excellent point up when he talks about identifying the right subject for the question. "So I would break Gladwell's question of whether social media solved a problem that actually needed solving into two parts: Do social media allow insurgents to adopt new strategies? And have those strategies ever been crucial?" In both questions I would answer yes. The power of the internet is sharing and exchanging knowledge, and some of this knowledge may be strategies for new methods of leadership or lifestyles. By offering the opportunity or option to internet users it allows for websites, servers to attract more traffic. If the website or server is informative and reliable then users can gain valuable strategies that in the correct context are crucial or necessary for success.

No Internet in Egypt

Within the past week or so, the country of Egypt decided it would be best to cut off communication and use with the Internet. From reports, different international media outlets reporting on the situation are also being cut off from communication. This seems to be an overreaction on the governments part to flex who can do what versus the Egyptian community. The problem is that by cutting off communication, the government now has made it a worldwide spectacle and are communicating on it from other means. The act of turning off the internet has only diminished the Egyptian government (looking scared) and raised this national situation into a problem viewed by not just the Egyptian community but by the entire world. Whose going to win?