Digital Revolution

The eve of the launch of the Digital Britain report heralded a revolution.  Not a revolution in the way we use technology, or in the way broadcasting is funded in this country, but a ground-up revolution, of the kind not seen since the Paris riots of ’63, this time enacted on the streets of Tehran.

The events unfolding in Iran, as Kirsty Wark of Newsnight so aptly put it, could be the first digital revolution of our generation.

Whilst not advocating either the marches, or the crackdown that ensued, the use of technology by those believing the electoral system in that country to be flawed, has shown the power of digital life outside of commerce and organising a night out with friends.

It has also highlighted the flaws that could, in the theatre in which this story is currently unfolding, prove to cost someone their life.

The most obvious, and talked about, example is the use of Twitter by demonstrators to organise events and publicise their aftermath to a world not often accustomed to seeing the goings on in what is still a closed state.

Blogging has also been prolific in allowing information about the uprising to spread, both inside the country and outside, by commentators and subject matter experts.

That the national government of Iran have cracked down on both, demonstrates the significant power social networking and digital communications and potential it has to effect change.  And both Twitter users and bloggers have provided foreign journalists with material otherwise unobtainable, and that without which, the world would be non the wiser.

What is demonstrated most profoundly is the democratising effect that the digital age brings to people world-wide.