The Arab Spring : rebellion, revolution and a new world order, edited by Toby Manhire, is the printed version of a chronological collection of online reporting that happened as countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East experienced citizen uprisings that began in Tunisia in mid-December 2010.
I was only vaguely aware of a lot of these events happening across the world, as I was living in Christchurch during much of the time that these events took place, and my focus was much more on localised events that impacted on me personally. So it is only now that I have been able to look back at these other events that were kicking off globally.
One thing that fascinated me was the actual publication of the book in the first place. It is a finite collection of live online reporting and commentary. This book collates and shares a variety of voices, captured through tweets, blogs and online articles, and brings them all together in one place, something that might not be so easy to curate and collate in an infinite online space. Creating a book to share the chronological unfolding of the revolution online is an easier way to read about the revolution than trying to individually seek out the information across a variety of sources on the internet.
This book presents an interesting historical analysis of how the use of social technology (Facebook, Twitter, blogs) facilitated the sharing and dissemination of information about the events across the region. There is a great essay about how the technology didn't start the revolution, but it did play in important part in disseminating the information when it did kick off.
If you want to get a sense of how and why the Arab Spring started, when the first tweets and online reporting began, as well as read stories from across the region (Syria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen) and gain an insight about what it means now for the citizens across North Africa and the Middle East, I'd recommend setting aside some time and reading as much as you can in one sitting (I finished it over a weekend). It'll draw you into a world of political protest, and then you'll remember that this was only the beginning of the revolution.
