From the Twitter files:
The big news this week was the Iranian election and almost all of the news was via social media, as the broadcast media were shown to be powerless against the Iranian state, but not the people:
“This feels like Tiananmen. They fight for democracy, we watch, they die, we change the channel;” via @rhh
Rob Paterson picked up on this theme and asked “Is empowerment a point of view avoided by mainstream media? ;” I added, “and is empowerment a point of view that is embraced by social media?” via @robpatrob
“This is change of media: German main news show uses YouTube and Twitter for their report of Iran election.” via @hnauheimer
“University’s security & personnel evacuated by police, there are only us students in here right now” [frightening post from a student in Iran] via @Change_for_Iran
and of course many of us turned our avatars green in support of free elections in Iran
The Real ROI of Social Media: “But maybe we’re looking at the wrong ROI to start with – instead of return on investment, perhaps we should be more worried about the Risk of Ignoring.” via @fdomon
Skepticism about the whole “Net Generation” concept via @jclarey and a link to @markbullen and his Net Gen Skeptic blog
“Is it time to get rid of the Foreign Service designation?” This is a classic example of Tribal versus Network culture, and I’d wager that our foreign service needs a network culture in order to be effective today.
A Twitter-like policy on Twitter: “Our Twitter policy: Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can’t control it once you hit “update.”“, via @kanter
I said that I’ve noticed Twitter is replacing comments and thus opening my blog posts up to a wider audience. “Is Twitter replacing blog comments? Possibly, says @judymartin8 and Twitter is driving my traffic up & more people are connecting inter-personally, not on blog.”
Excellent Friday viewing, YouTube video on educational reform, “Goodbye Butts in Chairs” via @jaycross
Well, wordy types like me will always drop in to comment.
This is a well-done compilation, though, which is one of the things I always expect to find from you, in whichever channel we meet.
Thanks, Dave. Since twitter doesn’t keep long-term archives, this is my way of creating a knowledge repository. It’s not very elegant, but it works.