Middle East, Information Technology, and Change

The column by Thomas Friedman, "Winds of Change?" -http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14friedman.html, tells an encouraging story about the change occurring in the Middle East. One of the four forces he discusses is technology. The Internet and applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs have enabled the horizontal flow of information that is necessary (but not sufficient) for awareness, freedon, and democracy. As AT&T's optical communications business unit president in the 1990's, I testified to a US congressional committee on export controls of high technology equipment. The line of testimony that I used was that communications technology opened up societies and made governments more accountable to their citizens. And, therefore, the risk of military use of communications technology against the US was less that the risk of an aware and connected populace within an oppressive regime. So, I am pleased to hear Friedman say information technology is playing a role in opening up the Middle East.