Renjie Butalid

Changing the way we communicate in a digital world

I was about to go to bed after a long day when I decided to check out what was happening on Twitter. I did notice that there was some discussions taking place around the Iranian elections earlier today. However tonight, even as I write this, the discussion on the Twittersphere seems to have exploded – I currently have 316 tweets in queue on Twitterfall where I am following the hashtags #iran and #cnnfail This is what my Safari web browser currently looks like:

Andrew Sullivan has a great blog post highlighting how Twitter is becoming the communication tool of choice in conveying information to the rest of the world about what is happening in Iran right now, after the government seemingly cut all internet and mobile networks in the country.

Mock not. As the regime shut down other forms of communication, Twitter survived. With some remarkable results. Those rooftop chants that were becoming deafening in Tehran? A few hours ago, this concept of resistance was spread by a twitter message. Here’s the Twitter from a Moussavi supporter:

ALL internet & mobile networks are cut. We ask everyone in Tehran to go onto their rooftops and shout ALAHO AKBAR in protest #IranElection

That a new information technology could be improvised for this purpose so swiftly is a sign of the times. It reveals in Iran what the Obama campaign revealed in the United States. You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer. They can bypass your established media; they can broadcast to one another; they can organize as never before.

In fact, although I have been reading Andrew Sullivan’s blog for quite sometime (I enjoyed his political commentary, especially during the US Presidential elections last year), I was led to this particular blog post after someone had tweeted it on Twitter. Other news and resources that came to my attention via Twitter are noted below (for those of you unfamiliar with Twitter and how to ‘follow’ conversations around a particular topic, this is what I would suggest: go to http://search.twitter.com/ or http://www.twitterfall.com and search for the hashtags #iran #iranelections) 

And a tweet that I completely agree with, via @johnderosa

(NB. By the time I finished writing this blog post, I had 926 Tweets on queue on Twitterfall) (Further NB. It also took me approximately 10 minutes to write up this blog post, where it only takes me on average 15-20 seconds to come up with, and write up a Tweet)

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