Predicting a revolution based on internet penetration
Is there a tipping point of internet penetration which provides a critical mass for social revolution in a country with a non-democratic or repressive government?
It's a thought that's been bugging me ever since I read about the Wikileaks Factor in the Tunisian revolution which ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. For this to be a factor plenty of Tunisians would have had to access the Wikileaks documents which details the scandelous affairs of this crooked president.
Social networks have also been given plenty of credit for the revolution unfolding in Egypt.
So I went and had a look at the numbers over on www.internetworldstats.com to see what they could tell us about these two scenarios. Well, fascinatingly, both Egypt and Tunisia have seen a massive growth in internet users and internet penetration over the last 10 years.
Both have now got internet penetration of over 20% and in Tunisia's case it was as high as 34%.
Africa’s mobile map and the questions it raises
This is an interesting visualisation showing numbers of mobile phone subscribers in each country.
You can see how South Africa performs way above the norm for Africa and, in fact, challenges plenty of other more developed markets. What is also interesting is how South Africa's mobile penetration is almost double that of Egypt - yet when it comes to internet access per capita Egypt far outstrips South Africa.
My chirps
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@GarlicNaan payback is always preferable... ideally served cold.... 6 days ago
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@simaxis I agree with you. Democracy is meaningless with a growing culture of secrecy 3 weeks ago
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@gilliananstey yep... English version not up yet.... Wassup? Is jy nie tweetalig nie? :) 4 weeks ago
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Traffic fines ... An inconvenient truth ... http://t.co/1Exf5w1z 4 weeks ago
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@simaxis We've done the tail off and on over the last year or so. Why do you ask?>>>Who is tailing Shabir???? 4 weeks ago
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@charlpolo Thanks for the idea! 4 weeks ago
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@simaxis Nice idea. will check it out. 4 weeks ago
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RT @LiquideepSA: Anyone in Botswana with a #Guitar ? #AIRBotswana left @SunnyboySA's #Fender in #JHB and our gig is in 3hrs time. cc@bak ... 1 month ago
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@rayjoe thanks for the link. Lots of nice stuff there 1 month ago
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Ideas are bullet-proof. V. 1 month ago
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