Social Media's Role in Recent Events in the Middle East

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/8/4/0/6/event_22173798.jpegThe Washington ICT4D Meetup is excited to announce our return from hiatus with a timely discussion on the role of technology in the recent events of the Middle East.

From Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain to Libya - and with simmering unrest elsewhere - technology has played a role in augmenting and defining the narrative of protest and revolution. Please join us while we discuss the extent of the influence of ICTs, debunk the myths of a social media revolution, and talk about what happens next.

March ICT4D Meetup is co-hosted by Johns Hopkins University's Communication Program (http://communication.jhu.edu) and Appropriate IT (http://www.appropriateit.org).

When: Monday March 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Where: Johns Hopkins University, 1717 Massachusettes Ave., NW, Washington, DC

Agenda
6:00 – 6:30 pm: Meet, Greet, and Network
6:30 – 7:30 pm: Panel Discussion

Panelists

Jeffrey Ghannam is a lawyer and veteran journalist specialized in media and development in the MENA region. He is the author of Social Media in the Arab World: Leading up to the Uprisings of 2011 (http://cima.ned.org/publications/social-media-arab-world-leading-uprisings-2011-0), a report from the National Endowment for Democracy's Center for International Media Assistance. He has spoken widely on the subject and recently contributed to The Washington Post on the role of social media in the revolutions, and to the Economist.com on social media's potential for democratic change in the region. Amira Maaty is a program officer on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team of the National Endowment for Democracy where she focuses on Egypt and Libya. Prior to joining the NED, she served as a senior program officer at IREX overseeing international training and education programs. She has also held positions at Internews Network coordinating journalism training programs in the MENA region. Katherine Maher is a Program Officer for information and communication technology and civil society at the National Democratic Institute. Her work emphasizes communication in closed regimes, with a particular focus on the Middle East. She writes frequently on technology and development. Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) meetup (http://intlrel.meetup.com/76/) is a learning network of and for practitioners to share knowledge, information, experiences, and projects in this field.