I wasn’t planning on posting this slide-show presentation about the recent surge of mass movements around the world, since I prepared it for a consulting gig in Mexico, not for the Meta-Activism Project.  But when I saw that the New York Times covered the exact same story on the front page… two weeks later, I [...]

There are two important causal questions for digital activism researchers: what causes digital activism and what does digital activism cause?  The former is easier to answer.  The latter is more difficult but also more interesting. These two questions can be visualized in linear time where the causes of digital activism (from macro contextual factors like [...]

In the Middle East, activists have used digital tools to bring about  dramatic political change under repressive regimes, so why has digital activism had such a lackluster effect in a democracy like the US? The Global Digital Activism Data Set (below) shows that the US has more instances of digital activism than any other country, [...]

Meta-Activism Project founder Mary Joyce will be a panelist at a half-day conference tomorrow at looking about the effects of social media on conflict around the world.  The event, which will focus on data analysis, also features panelists such as MAP advisor Clay Shirky, Alec Ross of the State Department, Jillian York of the Electronic [...]

Purist arguments of cyber-optimism and cyber-pessimism are becoming increasingly irrelevant as evidence of digital technology’s ability to both empower and repress accumulates.  However, what is the basis of this argument beyond anecdotalism of a slightly broader scope? I would argue that in the past five year we have witnessed a pendulum swing from activist advantage [...]