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Twitterbilityof TheDevelopingWorld
A
case
study
on
the
effect
of
Twitter
on
the
inaugural
TEDx
Nairobi
event
which
took
place
in
August
2009
By: Soud Hyder
shyder(at)ubitmo.com
2009
DECEMBER
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Soud
Hyder
|
shyder(at)ubitmo.com
|@majiwater
Nairobi
and
TEDx
Nairobi
Nairobi
lies
just
about
100
miles
south
of
the
Equator
in
East
Africa.
It
serves
as
the
capital
city
of
Kenya
and
pretty
much
the
financial
hub
and
presently
the
technology
hub
of
East
and
Central
Africa.
Like
much
of
Sub
‐
Saharan
Africa,
general
proliferation
of
the
internet
is
much
lower
than
other
parts
of
the
world,
however
the
striking
statistic
is
the
opportunity
and
phenomenal
growth
of
mobile
communication
technology
which
has
led
to
explosive
growth
of
mobile
web
consumption.
The
mobile
web
is
expected
to
outgrow
the
traditional
web
in
most
parts
of
sub
‐
Saharan
Africa.
TEDx
Nairobi
is
an
independently
organised
event
operated
under
license
from
TED
under
the
TEDx
programme.
Its
seeks
to
recreate
TED
like
environments
and
incubate
the
spread
of
ideas.
This
is
not
a
typical
case
study
as
it
tries
to
blend
in
little
bits
of
theory.
These
theoretical
underpinnings
give
a
lot
of
insight
into
what
happens
or
happened.
On
the
other
had
in
order
not
to
lean
too
much
on
the
technical
side
there
is
a
much
heavier
dose
of
what
actually
transpired
reported
in
a
language
that
makes
sense
to
the
masses.
Self
Organisation,
Social
Circles,
Cliques,
Synergy
and
Social
Capital
A
couple
of
TED
fellows
were
serendipitously
in
Nairobi
around
Apr
‐
May
2009,
one
thing
led
to
another
and
a
TED
screening
was
organised
and
attended
by
about
20
people
all
within
a
time
‐
frame
of
4
‐
6
hours.
This
is
what
is
commonly
referred
to
as
a
‘tweetup’
whereby
a
meeting
is
organised
on
Twitter,
people
share
the
information
amongst
their
networks
and
people
eventually
meet
physically
and
share
ideas.
Twitter
inherently
is
a
self
‐
organising
emergent
system.
People
form
new
cliques
and
or
social
circles
over
their
interests.
They
choose
to
maintain
or
disassociate
themselves
from
certain
cliques
as
well
as
form
other
new
cliques
and
social
circles.
This
is
akin
to
local
and
global
equilibria
and
the
desire
for
the
system
to
stabilise
into
a
balanced
state
i.e.
equilibrium
.
A
tightly
knit
group
implies
the
emergence
of
a
clique
,
while
weak
bonds
within
a
social
network
imply
the
emergence
of
a
social
circle
.
The
initial
TED
Nairobi
screening
‘
meetup’
brought
together
several
like
minded
people
and
a
group
of
these
further
went
on
to
act
as
initiators
,
They
further
self
organised
into
a
small
group
that
brought
TEDx
Nairobi
into
fruition.
The
usual
properties
exhibited
in
group
dynamics
were
present;
leaders,
followers,
gurus
(experts)
,
connectors,
super
connectors,
doers,
thinkers,
bonders/lubricators
and
the
like.
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Soud
Hyder
|
shyder(at)ubitmo.com
|@majiwater
Figure
1:
Visual
depiction
of
a
typical
social
network
Like
any
other
organisational
structure,
TEDx
Nairobi
was
structured
alongside
its
seed
social
capital.
This
capital
pretty
much
consisted
of
the
initiators
.
Mathematically
speaking
this
social
capital
would
take
the
shape
of
a
graph
between
the
different
initiators
and
the
form
it
takes
as
a
result
of
the
different
inter
‐
connections.
From
an
organisational
and
social
point
of
view,
social
capital
is
a
significant
reflection
of
the
attitude,
spirit
and
willingness
of
people
to
engage
1
,
thus
there
are
immense
opportunities
for
value
to
be
added
or
destroyed
by
either
choosing
the
right
social
capital
or
wrong
social
capital.
Social
capital
can
also
refer
to
the
resources
available
in
and
through
personal
and
business
networks
2
.
Having
the
right
amount
and
type
of
social
capital
will
influence
the
direction
any
undertaking
takes.
It
is
important
to
note
that
social
capital
can
take
the
form
of
anything
from
goodwill,
cooperation,
trust,
emotional
support
to
financial
capital.
No
two
people
think
exactly
alike
and
what
brings
people
to
work
together
is
synergy.
Economically
speaking
synergy
would
be
the
value
derived
from
a
particular
undertaking
or
the
anticipated
reward
to
be
obtained
after
a
particular
undertaking.
i.e.
the
two
actors/players
would
derive
value
1
EnVision
Canada
‐
http://www.envision.ca/templates/profile.asp?ID=56#soccap
2
Wayne
Baker
–
Achieving
Success
Through
Social
Captial:
Tapping
the
Hidden
Resources
Your
Personal
and
Business
Networks
‐
http://www.humaxnetworks.com/BakerChap1.pdf
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