"Power to The People" The Twitter Revolution

[softball]

Twitter streams break Iran news dam
By Glenn Chapman – 20 hours ago
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Protestors in Iran used Twitter for battle cries and to spread the word about clashes with police and hardline supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Messages posted on the micro-blogging service, some with links to pictures, streamed from Iran despite reported efforts by authorities there to block news of protests over Ahmadinejad's claim of having been fairly re-elected.
Pictures of wounded or dead people that senders claim were Iranian protestors ricocheted about Twitter and wound up posted at online photo-sharing websites such as Flickr as well as on YouTube.
A protestor was reportedly shot dead during clashes in Tehran as massive crowds of people defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad.
The trouble flared after Ahmadinejad's defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered protests and rioting.
"Iranelection" was the top Twitter trend of the day, and a message thread led by "Persiankiwi" appeared to be orchestrating hacker attacks on official Iran websites while firing off updates on developments in the streets.
"We are also moving location -- too long here -- is dangerous," Persiankiwi tweeted mid-day Monday.
A subsequent Persiankiwi tweet read: "Attacked in streets by mob on motorbikes with batons -- firing guns into air -- street fires all over town -- roads closed."
Twitter users were also slamming mainstream media outlets for not covering the Iranian election aftermath more intensely.
A "CNNfail" thread at US-based Twitter critiqued the cable news network's coverage throughout the weekend.
"This is all seriously power to the people, in more ways than one," a Twitter member using the screen name "kianarama" tweeted.
Twitter was being used as an international command center by people intent on keeping news from Iran flowing at online social-networking services.
Users shared lists of proxy computer servers that could be used to sidestep Internet traffic blocks in Iran.
Twitter has delayed plans to temporarily shut down the service late Monday for "critical" maintenance, saying its role in sharing news from Iran is too important to interrupt.
"Our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight," Twitter founder Biz Stone said Monday in a message to users.
"However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran."
Taking Twitter offline for an hour for maintenance was postponed until Tuesday afternoon, according to Stone.
"In the end, as long as there is a way to communicate at all there is always a way to make messages move and get them out to the broader world," said Erik Hersman, who co-founded "crowd-sourcing" mobile telephone platform Ushadidi in Kenya last year.
"There is always a way to make messages move and get them out to the broader world. Of all the mediums, SMS is just the lowest barrier to entry and the easiest to propagate."
Twitter users can text messages of no more than 140 characters to unlimited numbers of mobile telephones. Tweets can also be read online at Twitter.com.
"Nonviolent resistance movements are typically driven by students, young people who are increasingly born digital natives," Ushadidi board member Patrick Meier wrote in a presentation posted online at iRevolution.
"Resistance movements are likely to make even more use of new communication technology and digital media in the future. At the same time, however, the likelihood and consequences of getting caught are high."
Meier explained ways that Internet-age technology-prone revolutionaries can reduce risks of exposure in a presentation titled "How To Communicate Securely in Repressive Environments."
"Organizational hierarchies are being broken down as youth adopt new technologies," Meier said.
"Political activists need to realize that their regimes are becoming smarter and more effective, not dumber and hardly clueless."








http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...6Qi0-N7E-0qe-Q

[gonzo]

And some people still say Twitter is worthless....

[RawAlex]

Important part of twitter is "twit".

Facebook laid off 30% of their staff today. Power to the people indeed.

[Hell Puppy]

No value in twitter.

Move along, nothing to see here.

[AdorableAudrey]

I think this is pretty cool. It's just another way to communicate, I don't get overhyping of twitter or the reactions against it saying tweeters are all self-centered idiots but whatever. It's pretty awesome to see more ways like this that technology is helping overcome censorship though, good for the Iranian tweeters!

[softball]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Important part of twitter is "twit".

Facebook laid off 30% of their staff today. Power to the people indeed.

Its the recession, there are daily casualties. This Iranian situation is interesting because the government is dealing with a movement in a traditional hard line crackdown and are being cold cocked by technology. When CNN first came on the scene, it changed everything. Politicos could go live. Wars were seen immediately. They were cutting edge. Now CNN (among others) is looking old school because they can't keep up with the speed of the dissemination of information. Its more than revolutionary. It will change the way governments deal with their population in the future. It might not be Twitter. It will probably be something we haven't even thought of yet. You can't look at everything as just a marketing opportunity. That is not the value of this kind of technology.

[softball]

(CBS)

A senior official has confirmed that the State Department asked Twitter to delay a schedule maintenance shutdown and keep the social networking site running over the past weekend when it was scheduled to shut down for maintenance.

The action was seen as a likely effort to maintain communication with users in Iran, where the contested presidential election has sparked a series of increasingly violent demonstrations and protests.

At the State Department Briefing today, spokesman Ian Kelly acknowledged that officials had been communicating with Twitter and other media sites, but refused to comment on whether those conversations were in reference to Iran.

"I know the secretary has a - wants a big push for Diplomacy in using these new social media to develop horizontally communities," he said. “And of course, twitter is another one of those social media."

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06...html?tag=stack

[Hell Puppy]

Twitter is merely a popular delivery device at the moment.

But you're right, what is really happening here is anything anyone see's can be broadcast world wide immediately. Remember the old "Google Grid" video? We're really not far from parts of that.

It really hit home for me when I was flying out of Vegas in January. While I'm waiting on boarding to start, my blackberry lit up with tweets. News of the plane the landed in the Hudson hit immediately, there was even a picture on twitter before the news channels or their websites had anything.

No one had to call a reporter or wait for a corporate entity to follow their publication process. Nope, people started banging it into their phones and some even shot photos and video....real time.

[Hell Puppy]

Now there's a potential downside to all of this...

You're empowering the masses. And that means politicians and powers that be are having to cater to the masses. On the surface, that could be a good thing. But you have to realize the average person is pretty fucking stupid.

We all know people who are of just "average" intelligence. By definition, half the world is dumber than them. Scary.

Most of the time transparency is good, other times it's bad.

Think about history, let's go back to WW II.

Until his death, FDR's paralysis was hidden from the American people. Even in those days would a man in a wheel chair have been elected? Would he be today?

Now think about D-Day. 10,000 or so casualties as they hit the beach. Imagine the press and public today with that one. No stomach for it at all. However, the allied leaders knew it was necessary, and the American people knew nothing about it until it was over the beaches were secured.

[softball]

Most people really need someone to curate their news. You see a plane crash on your Blackberry is pretty interesting, but why did it happen. Go to any wreck and ask 7 people what happened and you will get five or six different stories. No big deal in a plane crash across the country, but it could be if it was in your city and it was terrorist action. A rush to judgement is usually the result and someone gets killed. Two sides to this coin.
Perhaps the US Government should sell GM and buy Twitter.

[MikeSouth]

Twitter is a blight on humanity

[TheEnforcer]

Originally Posted by MikeSouth

Twitter is a blight on humanity

Well.. for the most part I wouldn't argue with you on that.... except in a case like this with Iran, where it is needed for legitimate news...