Mike Butcher’s piece on London Riots and tech is the best I’ve seen
It’s a crazy world when Mike Butcher is putting together some of the best analysis on the use of technology during the London Riots. This Techcrunch piece feels like the in-depth stuff the Sunday newspapers used to be known for.
And one cannot blame the technology. The underlying causes of the riots and looting could be many. Boredom, unemployment, a bad economy, a consumerist culture that puts value in possessions – take your pick of underlying causes. In the north London borough of Haringey youth clubs were shut after the youth services budget was slashed by 75%. Gang experts, MPs and sector workers warned on 29th July that the lack of youth services would feed a growing gang culture, which been described as “a community beyond the communityâ€
Whatever the case, this community now has a powerful, enterprise grade, network.
Wonderful piece, Mike.
That is a great piece, thank you for linking.
Did you read Doctorow’s Little Brother by chance? I know it’s fiction and YA fiction at that, but I still found it a fascinating look at the resourcefulness of people and technology.
I have yes (here’s the link for everyone else to the CC version of the text), and the follow up, For the Winner, is just as powerful and prescient in some ways
One thing the riots here have taught me, it’s that I have absolutely NO idea how to use my BlackBerry and I’m clearly missing out on something. ;)
I knew I liked you.
I loved FTW. I watch all the talk of the social media / tech bubble and all I can think about are the gold farming and investment schemes based on nothing more than ones and zeros.
See you in LA?