The New Information Age

This is a repost of mine from a different blog, but I wanted to share it here, too.

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I know that we had conversations awhile back about the usefulness and utility of social networking organizations like Twitter. I think more people see things my way now, that Twitter and the like will be powerful in ways that we couldn't really see at the beginning, but I just wanted to share something that's going on there for anyone who is interested.

I'm sure most of you are paying attention to Iran right now and the atrocities going on there after their recent election. But seeing the news and reading about it on Twitter are so totally different that I can't help but think that more people should be reading it on Twitter.

If you have a twitter, search #iranelection, but that was blocked in Iran last night, so you'll also have to try #tehran, #gr88 and a variety of other terms.

Some people are posting pictures of buildings that are destroyed, troops shooting at students, and the bodies of the dead. Brace yourself - it's not a very pleasant read, but it's very real and it's not as "distant" as the news is, at least not to me.

I have friends who tweet from around the world, and these people are just like everyone else. It's heartbreaking.

This link is a search of #IranElection: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23IranElection
And this twitter is from one of the students caught up in the fighting: http://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran

As of 12 minutes ago, soldiers are surrounding the university and preparing to invade. I hope I never experience something like this in my own life, but reading these posts is as close to terrified as I've been.

I just wanted to share.