The Berlin Wall and me. Or, how connectivity can drive positive change

Last weekend marked the 30th anniversary of one of the major turning points of the 20th century – and my own life: the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the same year I had started my first “proper” job, as an intern at the computer firm Compaq. I’ve written previously about how much I enjoyed it there, but what I don’t think I’ve shared is how these two events really shaped my outlook and led me down the path of a career in technology and communications.

So let’s go back to November 9th, 1989 (I can hear my kids groaning from here – they might have heard this one a few times). As I was studying in Berlin, I was actually among the very first people to sit on the wall, watching East German people cross the border freely for the first time in 28 years. It was an experience I’ll never forget. People were cheering, clapping, laughing and crying – it was basically just a huge surge of emotion. One journalist described it as “the greatest street party in the history of the world”.

Thinking about it later, what really struck me about this extraordinary moment was the role that connectivity played in getting there. This can largely be attributed to one man, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

After he came to power in 1985 (stay with me if you’re mid-thirties or younger – this is not an ancient history lesson) it was his glasnost openness policy and perestroika program that started to democratize the Union. Under these reforms, government control over businesses was loosened, trade restrictions were relaxed, the media and people were granted greater freedom of expression, and the first multi-candidate elections since the Russian Revolution took place. In effect, the Soviet Union opened up.

It was the first time I really became aware that connectivity and information transparency could improve people’s lives and drive positive change. That was something I wanted to be a part of, and I started to see the possibilities that computing technology offered.

In the years since, as technology has matured it has come to play a central role in enabling connections and providing access to information and resources. And of course the real big bang there was the introduction of the internet – later given a huge boost by wireless communications and the advent of the smartphone.

Even the way the internet was developed was all about openness, with Sir Tim Berners-Lee distributing the source code so it could be improved by a global community of users. And that’s what I always come back to when I see it criticised. I think we need to remember its original intent and do everything we can to preserve that.

But that’s another story.

Coming back to what I was really writing about, technology-enabled connectivity – and particularly social media – is now an integral player in just about any social movement you can think of.

It enabled the protests that toppled governments during the Arab Spring. It sparked worldwide conversations about women’s empowerment through the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements. For more than a year now, it has helped orchestrate a worldwide string of protests against climate change. And it has ushered in a new era of citizen journalism, in which people are able to share their stories without any media filter. One deeply affecting example is a film called For Sama, which documents life under siege in Aleppo. Really, it has fundamentally altered how social change happens.

Back in 1989, as I took in what was happening around me in Berlin, I couldn’t possibly have known that all of this lay ahead. I just knew that something special had happened, and that I wanted to be involved in bringing people together somehow. Thirty years on, I’m really glad I chose the path that I did, and I’m as excited as ever about what lies ahead.

Enjoy your weekend.

Photo credit: Sunrise Communications AG (under license from PA Images)