For those of that are fans of SXSW I’m hoping you’ll follow my work colleague, Emily Reeves, as she hangs out with all of the interesting folks in Austin. She’ll be blogging and on Twitter. Michel Gondry, Quentin Tarantino, Elvis Mitchell and a stellar interactive line-up. This is one festival that won’t suck.
UPDATE: Ms. Reeves talks to KTHV Channel 11 via Skype about what’s happening at the festival.
Internet access in Finland is now a legal right. According to CNN:
Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.
Mark Pfeifle, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, pens an op-ed in which he advocates the Nobel Peace Prize for Twitter and its creators. Mr. Pfeifle’s no slouch. From 2007 to 2009 he was the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and global outreach.
In his piece he argues,
Neda became the voice of a movement; Twitter became the megaphone. Twitter is a free social-messaging utility. It drove people around the world to pictures, videos, sound bites, and blogs in a true reality show of life, dreams, and death. Last month’s marches for freedom and the violent crackdowns were not only documented but personalized into a story of mythic tragedy.
When traditional journalists were forced to leave the country, Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror. It became the assignment desk, the reporter, and the producer. And, because of this, Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.
K. Ryan James elaborates on his own blog,
Without Twitter and other social media, the world would have never known anything more that one candidate accusing another cadidate of election shenanigans. Without Twitter, we would have likely never had the opportunity to know about this YouTube video. Because of this, I agree with Mr. Pfeifle – Twitter is deserving of consideration.
When I was at Personal Democracy Forum 2009 last week in New York I sat in on a panel discussing the impact that social media had in Iran. The impact is real, although Frank Rich of The New York Times, also appearing at PDF, was a bit annoyed at the obsession with social media. There are some 80,000 bloggers in Iran and social media – from blogs to Facebook to Flickr – are influential tools in reaching the elite sectors of Iranian society. It also allowed for participation. People could do everything from identify proxy servers to change their profile pictures.
Previously, fellow blogger, Ms. Adverthinker, and I discussed the role that social media was playing in the immediate aftermath of the elections in Iran.
I just wrapped up day two of Personal Democracy Forum 2009. You can check out my Twitter feed for a play-by-play about what happened throughout the day.
I participated in a discussion about the role of online community hubs and the impact they have on state and local politics with The Uptake and E-Democracy. Check out these organizations and what they’re up to. Very cool stuff.
Hopefully I will have video of the panel by the time I return. Until then . . .
It was only a matter of time . . . Word is spreading across the Internet today that the Scott Rudin – Aaron Sorkin project, “The Social Network,” about the founding of Facebook, is getting closer to reality. New York Magazine is reporting that David Fincher, who’s done some genius work (“Fight Club,” “Zodiac”), but who recently brought us the unwatchable film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Brummett Button,” is in line to direct.
It’s based on the book, “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” by Ben Mezrich, which will be released on July 14.
Okay, @ghidotti has made Lance Turner’s year. Or maybe @LT has made Natalie Ghidotti’s year. Either way, someone’s organized a Tweetup in Little Rock. Yes, all Twitter enthusiasts in central Arkansas are invited to Sticky Fingerz in the River Market at 5:30 p.m. to do what exactly I don’t know. But The Think Tank will be there.
More from Mr. Turner of Lance Turner’s Blog and David Kinkade of The Arkansas Project.
UPDATE: Lance Turner has pictures, updates and more on his blog. Below, me, David Kinkade of The Arkansas Project (@davidkinkade) and John Anderson of the ARCCA blog (@ARCCAblog).
