"Through it all, no one seemed to wonder why people trying to coordinate protests in Iran would be writing in any language other than Farsi."
A very simple observation, but so true, and so common-sense that you would almost overlook it.
A very simple observation, but so true, and so common-sense that you would almost overlook it.
We did pay attention to language issues. None of us were experts in any arabic languages, but we did make efforts to search for specific keywords in Farsi.
Another huge problem, was that so many people on Twitter changed their location in attempts to 'protect' people on the ground there. I was unconvinced from day 1 of the efficacy of this attempt, but it certainly did make data analysis on a geographic basis rather hard.
I'm sad that in the end there really was little to no effect on things in Iran. The election was rigged and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Complete revolution wasn't an option and the international community couldn't do anything either without just overthrowing the country and additionally destabilizing the area.
The outcome was never really unexpected, but I think there were positives in the whole thing to be taken away. Like the idea that it;s hard for a government to cover up their actions from the rest of the world any more. Or that not even attempts to block Twitter were wholly successful.
That's unfortunately no practical use to the protesters in Iran - but it's a positive start! And I can't help wondering if the first real tech generation, as they grow, will provide a "real life" power base to actually bring online action into real world results.
Especially if we're actually looking for something different, like a raison d'être for social media in politics.