"Power to The People" The Twitter Revolution

[softball]

(CBS)

A senior official has confirmed that the State Department asked Twitter to delay a schedule maintenance shutdown and keep the social networking site running over the past weekend when it was scheduled to shut down for maintenance.

The action was seen as a likely effort to maintain communication with users in Iran, where the contested presidential election has sparked a series of increasingly violent demonstrations and protests.

At the State Department Briefing today, spokesman Ian Kelly acknowledged that officials had been communicating with Twitter and other media sites, but refused to comment on whether those conversations were in reference to Iran.

"I know the secretary has a - wants a big push for Diplomacy in using these new social media to develop horizontally communities," he said. “And of course, twitter is another one of those social media."

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06...html?tag=stack

[Hell Puppy]

Twitter is merely a popular delivery device at the moment.

But you're right, what is really happening here is anything anyone see's can be broadcast world wide immediately. Remember the old "Google Grid" video? We're really not far from parts of that.

It really hit home for me when I was flying out of Vegas in January. While I'm waiting on boarding to start, my blackberry lit up with tweets. News of the plane the landed in the Hudson hit immediately, there was even a picture on twitter before the news channels or their websites had anything.

No one had to call a reporter or wait for a corporate entity to follow their publication process. Nope, people started banging it into their phones and some even shot photos and video....real time.

[Hell Puppy]

Now there's a potential downside to all of this...

You're empowering the masses. And that means politicians and powers that be are having to cater to the masses. On the surface, that could be a good thing. But you have to realize the average person is pretty fucking stupid.

We all know people who are of just "average" intelligence. By definition, half the world is dumber than them. Scary.

Most of the time transparency is good, other times it's bad.

Think about history, let's go back to WW II.

Until his death, FDR's paralysis was hidden from the American people. Even in those days would a man in a wheel chair have been elected? Would he be today?

Now think about D-Day. 10,000 or so casualties as they hit the beach. Imagine the press and public today with that one. No stomach for it at all. However, the allied leaders knew it was necessary, and the American people knew nothing about it until it was over the beaches were secured.