The anti-FARC protests on February 4 involved millions of people throughout Columbia and around the world ... and were organized in about one month, starting on Facebook. Oscar Morales Guevara's group Un Millon De Voces Contra La FARC (A Million Voices Against FARC) now has over 300,000 members; Felipe and Daniel Echeverri created a “Un Millon” Facebook application to supplement the effort.
CFP's been discussing the power of the internet to change the world for eighteen years, and this is one of the largest-scale examples yet. And in a situation where governments are considering regulation of social networks (see CDT's overview of pending US legislation), the implications for technology policy are huge.
This would be a great topic for a panel in its own right, or a segment in a panel on social networks, hacktivism, or the influence of Facebook. Jennifer Woodard Maderazo's Facebook Becomes Catalyst for Causes, Colombian FARC Protest gives some broader context.
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CFP2008 is being held in New Haven, Connecticut, on May 20-23. Back in 2000 Elizabeth Weise called it "the most important computer conference you've never heard of"; Lorrie Faith Cranor's
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