Sunday, February 10, 2008

Mobile Technology in Past Uprisings

Reading through this chapter really made me think about how different past uprisings would have been. Being in an area like the Philippines, were there isn’t a lot of money and not too many freedoms, mobile technology can be put to great use to organize smart mobs. I did some investigating into past uprisings that could have used mobile technology. During the holocaust, thousands of Jews were sent to the Warsaw ghettos where they were to be massacred. A young man named Mordecai Anielewicz organized a group called the Z.O.B which would build resistance to German fighters. They succeeded in small victories throughout the ghettos, but how much more successful would they have been if they had mobile technology? For starters, it would have been pretty tough to smuggle mobile phones into the ghetto, but if they managed to get a cache of weapons in there I can only imagine that they could get phones there too. Could mobile technology have shortened the length and the destruction that was caused during this time? I know this is off topic and that there is no real answer, but I could not help but think how different the course of history would have been had mobile technology been introduced years before it had.

2 comments:

neeman said...

That is a very interesting subject you bring up. You asked, "Could mobile technology have shortened the length and the destruction that was caused during this time?" Sadly, I think not. You have to think about the time and place of the Holocaust. They had no freedom. Today in America we have freedom. We are allowed to protest and if we go to far we are put in jail for what 24 hours. Back then they were shot without even a second of remorse. Yes they could have organized resistances more carefully and larger, but with the power the Nazis had, I doubt cell phones could have made a difference.

PaleFire said...

Also, though this is an interesting point, do you think the Nazi's would have even allowed cell phone transmissions? I mean, I am sure the cell towers would have been jammed! :)