Letters of the Revolution

I know, this is going to be an odd post to fall under change management, but if you think about it… what is going on in the Middle East and North Africa is really an interesting exercise in that… but odd thoughts aside. It occurred to me while chatting with my brother this morning that the most interesting thing about the way that social media, and more to the point, citizen journalism and life-blogging have been used in the current conflicts isn’t the organizing or the reporting of large events and movements. It has been in the way that it has opened up the little things about these conflict areas and allowed the world to see the smaller stories out of which these events emerged. In the past, the letters of soldiers and dissidents would have been found in later years and depending on who came out on top of the conflict, they would be used as proof for the actions that were taken or buried for all time as dirty secrets. Now, social media has put many of those little stories out for the world to see on their own. Not through the filtered lens of the embedded journalist or the official line of the government, but the raw ideas pouring out from those who are able to find a connection to the service of their choice. It will be interesting in a few years time to see what both scholars and laypeople alike say happened for the civilians, the combatants and those forced to be in that middle zone. The governments had their secrets spill out in the open with Wikileaks, it would seem to me that this might be the first time that history might have to acknowledge “secrets” as well as letters and notes from all manner of individuals are released and archived for the world to see and interpret.