Anyone with a pulse and and internet connection these past couple of weeks has no doubt read the hype-upon-hype about how Twitter is some sort of neocon-fantastical superhero swooping into Iran to deliver our western democratic ideals to the otherwise deprived Iranians. This is all well and good, but the 140 character public-message service is receiving far more credit than it deserves.

It seems to me that we've injected a bit too much technological determinism into this story. Sure, Twitter has been a fascinating window for those of us on the outside and at times a critical tool for some of those on the inside. I certainly won't try to deny this, but I have to ask: if - like most start-ups who show only casual interest in generating revenue - Twitter had folded months ago, would the protesters in Iran be somehow muzzled or in any way hindered?

To say so is nothing less than patronizing. Outward and inward communiques would surely have found another path. If anything, the story is with user-generated media, broadly defined. The impressions we will take away after observing from afar will not be of the front page of the New York Times, but of grainy blog-aggregated videos and pictures taken by the protesters themselves.

Posted by Nathan at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York Times seems to have picked up on my thinking about dead blogs and as someone who now operates a near-moribund property, I applaud their effort. As to why it's in the fashion section, that remains unclear. Blogs haven't been fashionable since '05 at least.

Something that does appear to be fashionable, however, is Sweden's Pirate Party.

I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of the instigators of Sweden's piratic polity over the past few years and they're good folks who are earnest in their efforts. Also - from what I can tell - I seem to agree with their stance on many issues, copyright reform most of all. So it's good that they've won themselves a seat in the European Parliament, right?

My enthusiasm for the victory of some like-minded souls is perhaps not as great as one might expect, for two main reasons:

- The Pirate Party is too limited in scope to be an effective negotiator in the EP.
This election in Sweden has been a great form of protest for many who realize the flaws in global copyright schemes. That said, supporters may have been able to further their cause more effectively by casting their votes for the a more mainstream party like the Greens. With bigger numbers comes bigger influence, and there would not be much sacrifice on the issues in a switch to the Greens from the Pirate Party.
- The European Parliament elections also saw the arrival of the BNP.
While we're off celebrating the election of an internet-savvy MEP (however little such celebration means here in the US), the British are off lamenting the election of two MEPs from the unapologetically racist British National Party. Perhaps I'm not as in tune with European politics as I should be, but ultimately if one were to describe a theme to these elections across the board it would be one of antiestablishment sentiment. What else could describe someone from the Swedish Pirate Party and members of the BNP standing in the same room?

Ah yes, the failure of the mainstream European left.

Posted by Nathan at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)