Tony Blair: Social media 'tremendous instrument' for protests
SAN FRANCISCO -- The financial crisis exposed and accelerated the need for us to change, but didn't created it, according to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We live in an era of uniquely-low predictability," said Blair, speaking on the final day of the 2012 RSA Conference on Friday afternoon.
Explaning how technology has changed the way we work and live today, as well as serving as a fundamental source for economic and political change worldwide, Blair posed the question, "The 20th century belonged to us, but will the 21st century belong to someone else?"
He answered by asserting no matter how many changes there are in the world going on today, those changes do not change one thing: our way of life and our values, which he added are "still the right values to guide the 21st century."
Blair described the role of social media in political revolutions, in particular, as "absolutely fundamental."
"[Social media] creates situations that governments -- particularly governments that have been there a long time -- don't understand and don't have the capacity to cope with," Blair said. "It's a tremendous instrument for protest, but it's not an instrument of government."
More RSA 2012 coverage:
- Symantec CEO: ‘Digital natives’ will change how we do business
- Netgear’s ProSecure platform helps SMBs manage social media
- Symantec partners with VMware, Salesforce.com on new security controls
- Cisco extends firewall platform with new context-aware measures
- Cisco taking more ‘integrated and holistic’ approach to network security
- EMC unveils security, risk management services portfolio at RSA 2012
- McAfee CTO: Security on embedded devices must be a priority
- Verizon offers glimpse of its 2011 security investigations
- Most smartphone, tablet owners not concerned with locking devices: report