Daily Digest | Iran Election Protesters Take Fight to the Web
BY Editors | Monday, June 15 2009
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Engaging in Iran: The Contested Election, Twitter, and the Response Inside and Out In the last couple days, the reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supposed re-election as president of Iran with an alleged 62.9% of the vote has been swelling inside Iran and out. We've seen street protests in Tehran, violence there, and a veritable tsunami of information online detailing the facts, figures, and passions surrounding an election that taps into the very heart of how Iranians view the future of their republic. But as we saw in Moldova, the idea of a "Twitter Revolution" isn't always borne out by the facts. Read some particularly striking threads of discussion.
- Bringing Down Iran's State-Run Media In light of the abundant Twittering and Facebooking happening in response to Iran's contested presidential election, an obvious question that has come up has to do with where and how the many engaged observers outside Iran can otherwise channel their considerable energies and interest. One answer might involve a bit of cyber aggression aimed at the Iranian government. Like bringing down the website of the state-run media.
- The Revolution Will NOT Be Twittered "Mock not," pleaded blogger Andrew Sullivan as he posted an instaclassic of hyperbole, "The Revolution Will Be Twittered" in praise of Iranian supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi who took the streets and -- in some cases -- used the short-form blogging services to post about the scene in Tehran. Mock on, says Tom Watson.
- What the White House is Thinking About How to Architect for Openness Nancy is taking a close look at the White House, writing that it's not difficult to see that they're fairly quickly shifting focus from the "Why?" aspect of open government -- that is, making the case for why a more participatory, collaborative, and transparent democracy is a positive, progressive development -- to a "So, how exactly do we go about doing this open government thing?" phase. Read her trio of insights into what the Obama Administration is thinking and doing.
- Democratizing Data, Food Edition The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 has ambitions of fundamentally changing how data about the U.S. food supply is tracked from points of production all the way to our tummies. The act would, if passed as written, be a considerable shift in how the U.S. handles food. But what's of particular interest to us data-minded eaters in these parts is what the bill has to say about applying a modern open-data governing approach to the nearly opaque process by which food today travels from farms to our forks.
- The Forensics on Deeds' "Google Surge" ClickZ's Kate Kaye talks to the Democratic firm behind the ad buy in Creigh Deeds' remarkable primary win in Virginia, and finds that the campaign spent half of its overall online budget on the 28-hour surge -- sending out nearly nine million ad impressions over the course of little more than a day. The glowing Washington Post endorsement also might have been the perfect Google ad message.
- Obama's Weekly Address: "The Status Quo is Unsustainable" President Barack Obama used his weekly video address this week to argue the fierce urgency of health care reform, making the case that the current costs of U.S. health care are unsustainable and that reducing them is a step without which our economic ship simply won't be righted. Watch it now.