Gaurav Mishra is the 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet at Georgetown University. As the Yahoo! Fellow, Gaurav is leading research on how social media is being used in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Gaurav is also teaching a graduate course at Georgetown University on Social Media in Business, Development and Government.
Latest posts by Gaurav Mishra
The Irony of Iran's ‘Twitter Revolution’
When the dust settles down on the Iran election crisis, we will see that Twitter was more useful as a media tool and not as an organizing tool.
Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India's Splintered Society
I have written before about Shiv Sena's militant approach towards Orkut communities critical of the party, its leader Bal Thakeray, or its Hindutva ideology. Caste-based communities on Orkut are another disturbing example of online communities mirroring the splintered nature of Indian society.
Case Study: The Report Card on Vote Report India Version 1.0
The 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections have come to an end and so has version 1.0 of Vote Report India. We have had our successes and failures and I have...
Digital Activism & the 4Cs Social Media Framework
The 4Cs form a hierarchy of what is possible with social media. As we move from Content to Collaboration to Community to Collective Intelligence, it becomes increasingly difficult to both observe these layers and activate them. Although I designed the 4Cs framework to explain how I see social media, I have also found it to be a useful tools to evaluate specific social media initiatives.
Build Your Own Alltop For Advocacy With WordPress and OneNews
Now, you can build your own Alltop-like dashboard for your advocacy project, using Wordpress and OneNews. While I won't encourage you to make a dashboard just because you can, I can see many applications for such dashboards.
The Perils of Facebook Activism: Nisha Susan Locked Out of Pink Chaddi Campaign's Facebook Group
The Pink Chaddi Facebook Group has been getting hacked throughout last month, and, instead of dealing with the hackers, Facebook suspended both the group and Nisha's account last week. In an open letter to Facebook, Nisha wondered if the first rule of Facebook activism is to not use Facebook.
The Story Behind Vote Report India: Citizen-Powered Election Monitoring
Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-powered election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections.
Shiv Sena's Orkut Campaign: The Limits to Freedom of Expression in an Intolerant India
The Indian blogosphere is abuzz with discussions on freedom of expression after the Supreme Court refused to throw out Shiv Sena's defamation case against 19 year old computer science student Ajith D (TOI). However, the Indian blogosphere's reactions to the controversy are mostly based on reports on the incident in Indian media and the quality of this reporting has been very mediocre, with few details and little background information.
