Iran

Iranian-British recording artist Mams Taylor collaborated with some of Iran's most well-known entertainers in producing and writing "United for Neda," a song advocating for political freedom in the country.

One of the most notable aspects of the video (below) is the filming method (or lack thereof). The video was shot only on cell phones, an important development given the tribute to Iranian protestors and the fact that nothing like it has ever been done before, especially with the notoriety of the artists participating.

Taylor sang on the track with artists named Dariush, Sattar and Morteza, who are the most famous/iconic singers in Iran’s history. Others appearing in the video included Iranian super stars Shila Vosough (Actress), Shoreh Aghdashloo (Oscar nominated actress from House of Sand and Fog), Kamy R (Singer from Black Cats – most popular singing group in Iran), Sussan Deyhim (Singer), Parviz Sayyad (Actor/Poet), Kamyar and Payam Jaffari (Rappers).

The video itself has gotten lots of play, specifically on CNN and Rock the Vote.com.

Proceeds from both the song and the video will benefit those Iranians fighting for freedom, so go check it out.

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The following is a guest post by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais. Winograd and Hais are fellows of NDN and the New Policy Institute and co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics (Rutgers University Press: 2008), named one of the 10 favorite books by the New York Times in 2008. --Mike

Seventy percent of Iranians are under thirty. These young people have twice the presence in the population of that country as America’s largest generation, Millennials (born 1982-2003), has in ours.

In the immediate aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election, text messages became the tool for organizing post-election protests. Hundreds of thousands of tweets provided more, if not clearer, information about what was happening each day than traditional media. Opposition and government Facebook pages poured out dueling messages on the Internet. It suddenly seemed as if not only had American democratic values erupted on the barren landscape of a theocratic society, but also that young people’s technological capabilities might produce a regime change that no one anticipated. Clay Shirky announced, “This is it. This is the big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media.” And the notion that this was a “Twitter Revolution” quickly became the meme for the entire series of post-election events.

But then the entrenched establishment fought back using the very same Internet- enabled technologies to isolate, spy on, and ultimately shut down the resistance. Thanks to new capabilities recently acquired from two European telecom companies—Nokia and Siemens—as part of their country’s upgrade of its mobile networks, the Iranian government was able to monitor the flow of online data in and out of sites like Twitter and Facebook, from one central location. The Iranians deployed a technology called deep packet inspection, first created to put a firewall around President Clinton’s emails in 1993, to deconstruct digitized packets of information flowing through the government’s telecom monopoly that might contain what they considered to be seditious information before reconstructing and sending it on to destinations they were also able to track and monitor. The result was a 90% degradation in the speed of Internet communications in Iran at the height of the unrest, and a previously unseen capability to determine who the government’s enemies were down to the individual IP address level.

Once again the world learned that technology does not arrive with a built-in set of values that makes it work either for good or evil. Even though Internet technology has many virtues, it is not inherently liberating or enslaving. Instead how it is used is determined by the values of those who access it. Libertarians celebrate the individual empowerment that the Internet makes possible. But even though Ron Paul supporters used the technology to take on the Republican establishment in 2008, the end result that year was the election of a group-oriented, civic-minded candidate, Barack Obama, whose campaign used the very same technology to guide millions of people to undertake a collective agenda of change that Libertarians certainly did not “believe in.”

The difference between what libertarians wanted and what Obama achieved came from the generational attitudes and beliefs of Millennials, Obama’s key supporters, not from the technology that generation was so adept at using.

One of the founders of generational theory, Neil Howe, points out that the under-30 population of Iran grew up during a religious awakening in the Islamic world that came later than America’s “cultural revolution” of the 1960s. As a result, Iranian youth resembles Generation X, Americans now in their 30s and 40s. Like our own Gen X, these young Iranians are “pragmatic, individualistic, commercial, and anti-ideological (which is why they hate Ahmadinejad so much).”

Those values make them anti-establishment in the current crisis. We are fortunate that they feel deeply enough about the potential of democracy to risk their lives to “tear down that power structure,” to paraphrase what President Ronald Reagan, Generation X’s political hero, said in a different context. But now the central task of our government must be to translate that democratic impulse into a deeper belief in Millennial generation values, such as the power of consensus, the peaceful resolution of differences and the need to find win-win solutions to our problems.

That is why the President Obama's recent Cairo speech should be the bedrock on which America continues to engage large young Muslim populations throughout the world, including Iran:

“No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy."

This statement has the potential to become a governing creed for a new generation of young Muslims. If they come to have, as President Obama does, “an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose,” then the power of 21st century technologies will be used to advance the cause of freedom in Iran, rather than suppressing it. But tweeting those words won’t make it happen. Believing in them will.

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Bill Maher's recent comment that "Twitter didn't save Iran. Iran saved Twitter" has sparked some debate about the use of social media and its relevance to important issues and events.

Personally, I don't think Maher's comment hits the mark. Twitter wasn't a service that needed saving, nor is it alone responsible for helping promote Iranian protests. It would be more accurate to say that Iran helped the general public realize Twitter's potential, and that Twitter is one component of a new media toolset that is enabling activists in oppressive regimes to communicate where state-run media dominates.

The situation in Iran shows the world that the communications game has changed. It isn't Twitter or Facebook specifically, but the general principle of online and mobile communication.

Mashable created a social media timeline of the Iran Election crisis. It shows how a wide range of online tools have played a role in getting the stories of Iranian protesters to the outside world. These tools range from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to Flickr and even Wikipedia.

The essence of the matter is that previously if a country expelled all foreign journalists and had a state-run media, the world would have no way of knowing what was happening within its borders. The emergence of online and mobile technology has turned every person with a camera, cell phone, or computer into an amateur journalist; on location and with unfiltered access journalists have never truly enjoyed.

While it may be a while before these new media tools can change the game everywhere (Africa is still largely left behind, and they could use it the most), the Iran election protests have shown the world what online organizers have known for some time now: social media has fundamentally advanced the way we communicate and coordinate.

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We haven't said anything much (see Craig's post here) here about the Iranian election, and the use of Twitter to organize protests and evade government censorship of what is happening in Iran. That's our bad, because there is definitely a generational component to this. Millennials in Iran (if there is such a thing, maybe better to say our Iranian contemporaries or peers), are a big part of the opposition, and university dormitories are being stormed by state militia. The political actions and the tactics of Iranian youth are well within the scope of this blog.

That said, I don't know that I could say anything that hasn't already been written - and written well - by others. So here's a reading list of some of the best reporting and information resources I've located on the topic:

• Jon Taplin has a great, short post outlining how this differs from other student uprisings in Iran during the past decade.
• Via Boing Boing, I found this fantastic compilation of traditional and social media resources covering the protests.
• Today's New York Times has the latest, and best, traditional media update on the situation.
• Mashable! has a great primer on how to follow developments in Iran on social media.
• Deanna Zandt talks about the significance of Twitter influencing mainstream media coverage of the Iranian election.
• Alison Fine recognizes the power of Twitter, but also cautions about its limits.
• Nancy Scola at Tech President has done invaluable work looking at the role of Twitter in the Iranian elections, writing about everything from State Department intervention in a Twitter maintenance update, to the role of geolocation for tracking sources and cracking down on opposition bloggers.

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