The #IranElection Groundswell

I’ve been following the #IranElection Twitter Stream ever since the protests started. It’s not unlike trying to drink from a fire hose. Social media hubs all over the web have lit up like fireworks and the citizen journalism is amazing. And the Iranians are not alone. People all over the globe are coming to their aid and amplifying the already deafening roar of the protest. Thousands of photos have been posted to Flickr, hundreds of blog posts and new blogs have gone up and literally hundreds of thousands of status posts have hit Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed from citizens reporting on events happening on the ground in Iran and all over the world long before popular media. CNN can’t even keep up.

The Iranian government have done their best to silence the virtual protest – they shut down popular sites like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook…and the crowd found work arounds, organized themselves quickly, got the word out and the cracks in the government’s dams  broke and the flood continued. Millions of mobile phones and computers have replaced guns as the weapon of the revolution…and the crowd is winning.

As I’m writing this, people are live-tweeting Mousavi’s address to the crowd, asking the world to participate in a sea of green in all capital cities. It’s being Retweeted at an astonishing clip.

I’ve put together a list of some of the best coverage to links and resources to the event as possible below, some of it from mass media and some from citizens and organizations. The Flickr photo sets, as well as the “Anonymous Iran” site, citizen videos and live streaming are particularly noteworthy. I find this stuff incredible. If this had all happened a few years ago, the technology wouldn’t have been there to support this kind of global movement, but it is and the groundswell is ongoing and doesn’t look like it will let up. On the ground in Iran the situation is terrible, but the movement against the cause is marvelous and beautiful. It’s the first time we’ve ever seen global cooperation and information sharing at this scale – millions of Easterners and Westerners are visibly and publicly united with a common goal. Truly amazing.

Links to Resources & Media Coverage on Iran’s Protests:

• Iran 101: Understanding The Unrest (CNN)
• Iranian-Americans fed by online updates (CNN)
• Officials: Social networking providing crucial info (CNN)
• Iran’s Wired Generation Challenges Ahmadinejad (Wired)
  
• Resource: Anonymous Iran - A Full Website of links to information resources and forums for Iranians – put up by Pirate Bay (How-to surf securely and avoid censorship, protest advice, remaining anonymous on the ground, photo sets and news items)
• Resource: WorldWide Protest Planning
• Iran Activists Get Assist from ‘Anonymous,’ Pirate Bay (Wired)
• Activits Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime
  
• Web Attacks Expand in Iran’s Cyber Battle (Wired)
• Taking It To the Streets – And Tweets – In Tehran
  
• Iran Protests: Twitter, the Medium of the Movement (Time)
• The Iran Election: Twitter’s Big Movement (Time)
• Time’s Coverage of Iran’s 1978 Islamic Revolution (Time)
• Robert Scoble’s Collection of Iran Protest Related “Likes” In FriendfeedThe Cyber War In Iran (GANB)
• Top Blog In Tehran with Many Resources Posted by Iranians – TehranBureau.com
  

Photo sets of Iran’s Protests:

• Mousavi1388’s Flickr photostream
• http://www.life.com/image/88491336/in-gallery/28312/iran-protests-most-violent-photos
• The Turbulent Aftermath of Iran’s Election (Time)
• CNN Photo Gallery Of Iran’s Election Protests (CNN)
• Steve Rhodes’s Flickr Set – Iran Protests In Union Square San Francisco, CA
  

Videos & LiveStreaming

• Youtube Video with US Defense Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen talking about “the importance of utilizing Twitter, Facebook and other on-line social networking media to communicate information of national importance.”
• Iranelection.blogspot.com – A Livestream from An apartment Overlooking The Protests
• Anonymous Iran Video Forum- Collections of Hundreds of Citizen Videos on YouTube and other sites (WARNING: Some of these are NOT for the squeamish).
• Young Voters Hold Sway In the Iranian Election
  
• Police and Crowd Iran Hand in Hand – A CRUCIAL MOMENT
• Tweeting A Revolution In Iran (embedding disabled on YouTube – World News Cast Showing News Coverage Of Social Media Usage in Iran including evidence that the current president and leaders of Iran are using Facebook and Twitter to COUNTER the protest with propoganda)