The Tweet Divide
Brian Lawlor of Legal Services of Northern California sent Matthew and me an interesting blog post, Tweets Per Capita, about where Twitter is and isn't being used.
Not surprisingly, the countries where people are tweeting most are also typically countries where a majority of the population has access to the Internet.
But, more interestingly, the slides point to several cases where Twitter use increased rapidly after a difficult situation or catastrophic event in countries where most people don't have access to the Internet. For example:
- Iranian Presidential Election, where Twitter was used to protest the results
- Haiti Earthquake, where Twitter was used distribute information and fundraise
- Chile Earthquake, where Twitter was again used to distribute information
Dom Sagolla, who created the post and slides, says that in these situations, Twitter fostered communities and then provided them with a voice. To me, this seems like what social media and social networks are especially good at. They provide a voice to communities, especially when few other communication avenues are available. - K
