Twitter Revolution?

Iran's Twitter Revolution? Maybe Not Yet is the title of a Business Week piece that acts as a counter balance to the recent hurrah about Twitter.

Now to thinking about that, however; it seems there's an upshot to services like that: rapid updates--like New Media's version of Old Media's "Breaking News": which is exactly for what Old Media has been using Tweets! Who would have guessed the new system and center of New Media narcissim, as so many have fretted about, would also be a very game-changing piece of technology: it is almost too simple, why'd people miss it?

It's not quite like other New Media, such as blogs, etc., due to the nature of Twitter: short, instant, messages: no pressure for a lot of text or long analysis, such that those needing to provide quick, vital information--such as Iranians in order to notify the world of significant developments, are able to do just that.

As Business Week's article indicates, the majority of protesters and protests may not have been organized around Twitter messages; however they have been a boon to ensuring the world knows. That's quite an interesting development.

It has taken outside help, though: some guy in the U.S. was attacked for providing proxies to Iranians so they could circumvent government efforts to block access to the outside.

There's something else to consider, however, from this: other repressive governments, not just Iran's, are probably taking notes to preemptively work at ensuring their own populations don't use tech in this way. That's the bad part. One can bet China is, that the Republics and Democracies only-in-name are, and so on.