Topic 1: Digital Humanitarianism
This week you also watched How Mobile Phones Power Disaster Reliefby Paul Conneally.
https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_conneally_digital_humanitarianism
Discussion:
Conneally mentioned that the humanitarian model has barely changed since the early 20th century and that its origins are firmly rooted in the analog age.
Question #1:
Do you see a major shift from analog to digital in the humanitarian model? If so, what are the driving forces behind this shift?
Topic 2: Cognitive Surplus
This week you also watched two Ted Talks given by Clay Shirky: How Cognitive Surplus will change the world, and How Social Media can make history.
https://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world
Discussion:
Clay Shirky argues that the history of the modern world could be rendered as the history of the ways of arguing where changes in media change what sorts of arguments are possible.
While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
Question #1: Please discuss ONEtopic of either Ted Talk that stood out to you.
Minimum Topic Response: Word Count = 70 (per topic). Your response is required to be AT LEAST 70 WORDS long.