Egypt's Facebook revolution.

• Author: Radwan, Abeer Bassiouny

Throughout more than seven thousand years Egyptian history has marked key milestones during the development of western civilization. Once more, following long decades of dormancy, Egypt plays a central role - this time in the history of the information revolution, by preparing the cradle of the first successful political revolution based on the social media.

It is important in this context to look back to the great revolutions that have marked world history, the first and most widespread being the agricultural revolution. Egypt's greatest gift to the ancient world was the transformation of human life from nomadic insecurity into settled productivity by creating irrigation systems to harness the nurturing potential of the Nile. This was by its nature a popular revolution, with rights and duties clearly delineated: the rulers secured the water for the farmers, and the farmers in turn produced food and dependent products.

After several centuries of building on the agriculture revolution, Europe gave birth to the Industrial revolution. This revolution, passing through several developments and variations, has complicated features. The main difference between the agriculture and industrial revolutions has been the extent to which the benefits of the former reached greater numbers than the latter, which is the reason there have been counter-revolutions to the industrial revolution. This brings us to the competing ideologies of Capitalism and Marxism as a proposed solution to benefit workers in society. This debate has emphasized the role of class as a basic unit of analysis.

Ultimately industrial development required the trade revolution to profitably sell its increasing products. With the great advancement of transportation, trade became the slogan of economics globalization (e.g. "Trade not Aid" for the development of countries, etc). The trade revolution reached its peak by successfully establishing--after half a century of consistent failure--the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

However, this revolution, like its predecessor, has no popular support. It also emphasized "new" classes, this time composed of mega-businessmen and multinational corporations. Thus, the impact on different groups of unequal distribution of wealth has been exacerbated heavily. The negative effects of this revolution have given voice to supporters of workers' rights and environmental protection.

The next revolution is the current one of "information...