Best paper award at UCT’s Conf-IRM conference

The best paper award at UCT’s International Conference on Information Resources Management was awarded to Dr Hari Harindranath (University of London), Professor Edward Bernroider (Vienna University) and Professor Sherif Kamel (American University, Cairo).

The researchers explored the use of social media by students, leading up to the collapse of the Mubarak regime during the Arab Spring in Egypt. They focused particularly on the effects of the Egyptian government’s decision to shut down the internet.

As the authors wrote, “the drastic move by the government to block the entire internet may have led people to sense that their movement was gaining ground and this in turn may have accelerated the movement.”

“If you want to liberate a country, give them the internet.”

Photo Michael Hammond.

Caption: Conference programme co-chair Dr Antonio Diaz Andrade with winner Dr Hari Harindranath (University of London), conference co-chair Prof Irwin Brown (Information Systems, UCT) and winning author Prof Sherif Hamel (American University, Cairo).