Here is Clayton Shirky on the subject in a debate in Foreign Affairs:

It would be impossible to tell the story of Philippine President Joseph Estrada’s 2000 downfall without talking about how texting allowed Filipinos to coordinate at a speed and on a scale not available with other media. Similarly, the supporters of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero used text messaging to coordinate the 2004 ouster of the People’s Party in four days; anticommunist Moldovans used social media in 2009 to turn out 20,000 protesters in just 36 hours; the South Koreans who rallied against beef imports in 2008 took their grievances directly to the public, sharing text, photos, and video online, without needing permission from the state or help from professional media. Chinese anticorruption protesters use the instant-messaging service QQ the same way today. All these actions relied on the power of social media to synchronize the behavior of groups quickly, cheaply, and publicly, in ways that were unavailable as recently as a decade ago.

Here’s indi.ca in Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader:

Another characteristic of modern revolutions is that they are efficiently coordinated via social networks like Twitter and Facebook and cellular technology like SMS. While aging dictators have been adept at censoring mainstream media and obstructing public assembly, they have been slow to crack down on social media. By the time they do, like Egypt shutting off the Internet, it is often too late. Social networks by themselves cannot ignite revolutions, but they do seem able to catalyze the street protests that ultimately do.

We have been thinking/talking about the larger problem of ICTs and their relation to liberation/coercion for some time including issues in Kashmir, Iran, Jaffna, and Myanmar.

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India, others work on region’s first disaster management policy
The Hindu, August 22, 2006
New Delhi, Aug 22. (PTI): India and seven other South Asian countries, which bore the brunt of nature’s fury in an unimaginable proportion in the recent past, came together here on Monday to work on a first-ever policy on disaster management and identify gaps in the existing infrastructure.

The two-day ‘South Asia Policy Dialogue’, organised the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) in collaboration with UNDP, comes in the backdrop of the havoc caused by earthquakes and tsunamis that struck the nations in the region.

Inaugurating the conference, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said, “Now, things are beginning to change fast. There is a paradigm shift from the past, where relief and rehabilitation were prominent, to a holistic approach which includes prevention, mitigation, relief and rehabilitaiton.”

“The role of the Government is fast changing from just providing exgratia to the survivors to a concerted effort to prevent the disaster,” he said.

Higlighting the need for a comprehensive disaster risk reduction system, Patil said India was losing two per cent of the GDP every year due to natural disasters “When the country was not able to spend so much money for public health”.

He said the challenge faced by the South Asian nations will be to fetch “desired results” from the disaster management related policies.

Besides India, Government officials and NGOs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are particiapting in the conference.

Delivering the keynote address, TERI Director General R K Pachauri said the region faces an enhanced risk of natural diasters due to increasing population and climatic changes.

The region should play an active role in the mitigation of green house emissions and called for a collaborative research by the South Asian countries on climatic changes, he said.

The conference will be deliberating on the current status and future possibilities of community-based disaster risk mitigation practices.

It is also expected to prepare a roadmap for risk reduction, NIDM Executive Director P G Dhar Chakrabarti said.

In December 2004, the Asian tsunami had hit Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Indonesia and Thailand causing immense devastation and killing thousands.

A devastating earthquake in October 2005 had rocked Pakistan and India, killing at least 75,000 people and rendering three million homeless in the Kashmir region alone.

Troops in Kashmir master new weapon: cell phones
Reuters
By Sheikh MushtaqSun May 21, 1:53 AM ET

Minutes after a bomb exploded recently in Kashmir and wounded Indian soldiers, a senior member of an Islamist rebel group called local newspaper offices to claim responsibility for the blast.

A few hours later, troops smashed the door of his hideout and arrested the militant “commander” after a brief gun battle.

Indian intelligence officers credited the bust in south Kashmir to the tracking of his mobile phone.

Until a few years ago, intelligence officials resisted attempts by the federal government to lift a ban on cell phone services in the region, fearing mobile phones would aid militants in planning attacks.

Now they know better and security officials say troops have eliminated many militants by tracking their mobile phones and tapping conservations, citing the example in south Kashmir.

“Such a quick strike operation was just impossible three years ago,” a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

“We tracked the calls made from his mobile to local newspapers which led to his arrest and that of some other suspects.”

India has been battling a 16-year Muslim separatist revolt in its part of Kashmir. Tens of thousands of people have died in shootings, bombings and other violence.

In 2003, New Delhi allowed mobile services, eight years after the rest of India, now the world’s fastest-growing market for cellular services.

At that time, India said it was a move to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris, weary and alienated after years of conflict in India’s only Muslim-majority state which is also claimed by neighbor Pakistan.

After three years, there are now more than 850,000 mobile phone users in a state of 10 million people. And the spin-off for anti-insurgency operations has enthused security officials.

“So far, we have arrested or eliminated dozens of them (militants) including many senior commanders through mobile-tracking,” the intelligence officer said.

“It is easier to track them if they use mobile phones.”

BOON OR BANE?

Elsewhere across some trouble spots around South Asia, mobile phone services are still seen as a bane.

In Sri Lanka, which is teetering on the brink of a return to civil war, Tamil Tiger rebels do not allow mobile phone services in areas held by them.

“We do not allow mobile telephones because of security concerns,” said rebel media coordinator Daya Master. The Tigers fear they could be tracked and targeted through mobile signals. So they use satellite phones instead.

In Nepal, the ousted royalist government of King Gyanendra resorted to shutting down mobile services when the monarch’s opponents planned big rallies against his rule to foil the protests.

Indian security officials admit their initial resistance to mobile phones in Kashmir was misplaced.

“Earlier, we thought it would help terrorists in their communications and help their subversive activities,” army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel V.K. Batra said.

“But it is proving counterproductive to them.”

Militants also use satellite phones from their forest hideouts. But security forces say they are able to intercept or jam such communication.

Police in Kashmir say mobile phones have also saved the lives of hundreds of people trapped in buildings stormed by suicide attackers.

Hostages have often communicated with the police through mobiles and managed to guide security forces to rescue them amid gunfire, said K. Rajindra Kumar, a top police officer.

“This is the success story of mobile phones in anti-militancy operations,” Kumar told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner in COLOMBO)