Anyone with a pulse and and internet connection these past couple of weeks has no doubt read the hype-upon-hype about how Twitter is some sort of neocon-fantastical superhero swooping into Iran to deliver our western democratic ideals to the otherwise deprived Iranians. This is all well and good, but the 140 character public-message service is receiving far more credit than it deserves.

It seems to me that we've injected a bit too much technological determinism into this story. Sure, Twitter has been a fascinating window for those of us on the outside and at times a critical tool for some of those on the inside. I certainly won't try to deny this, but I have to ask: if - like most start-ups who show only casual interest in generating revenue - Twitter had folded months ago, would the protesters in Iran be somehow muzzled or in any way hindered?

To say so is nothing less than patronizing. Outward and inward communiques would surely have found another path. If anything, the story is with user-generated media, broadly defined. The impressions we will take away after observing from afar will not be of the front page of the New York Times, but of grainy blog-aggregated videos and pictures taken by the protesters themselves.

Posted by Nathan at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York Times seems to have picked up on my thinking about dead blogs and as someone who now operates a near-moribund property, I applaud their effort. As to why it's in the fashion section, that remains unclear. Blogs haven't been fashionable since '05 at least.

Something that does appear to be fashionable, however, is Sweden's Pirate Party.

I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of the instigators of Sweden's piratic polity over the past few years and they're good folks who are earnest in their efforts. Also - from what I can tell - I seem to agree with their stance on many issues, copyright reform most of all. So it's good that they've won themselves a seat in the European Parliament, right?

My enthusiasm for the victory of some like-minded souls is perhaps not as great as one might expect, for two main reasons:

- The Pirate Party is too limited in scope to be an effective negotiator in the EP.
This election in Sweden has been a great form of protest for many who realize the flaws in global copyright schemes. That said, supporters may have been able to further their cause more effectively by casting their votes for the a more mainstream party like the Greens. With bigger numbers comes bigger influence, and there would not be much sacrifice on the issues in a switch to the Greens from the Pirate Party.
- The European Parliament elections also saw the arrival of the BNP.
While we're off celebrating the election of an internet-savvy MEP (however little such celebration means here in the US), the British are off lamenting the election of two MEPs from the unapologetically racist British National Party. Perhaps I'm not as in tune with European politics as I should be, but ultimately if one were to describe a theme to these elections across the board it would be one of antiestablishment sentiment. What else could describe someone from the Swedish Pirate Party and members of the BNP standing in the same room?

Ah yes, the failure of the mainstream European left.

Posted by Nathan at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As portfolios wither and funding dries up, I doubt I'm alone in wondering what the future of social networking sites is. MySpace and Facebook turn in disappointing ad revenue and with near daily reports of layoffs in Silicon Valley are there going to be enough opportunities to remedy this?

And what if the two giants of online social networking are forced to shift their offering to squeeze out some dollars - or even cease operating? Who would be in a position to take their place and what would happen to our copious data on these services?

Maybe this is the ideal time for social and politically-conscious (and thus probably low-cost/low-revenue) services to begin to compete. Something in the mold of Riseup or Indymedia with more of a user-centric perspective could probably gain some ground if things really turn for the worse with the big two.

This may be a possibility and an opportunity, but I'm not betting on it any time soon.

Posted by Nathan at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The advantage to posting on a less-than-regular basis is a reduction in spam comments. Apparently Swarming Media is less valuable to the truly bizarre, and occasionally brilliant, spam-commenters than it once was...ah, faded glory.

There's a few things that caught my attention tonight. All generally seem to have to do with evolving expectations and standards. Most notably, perhaps, is Paul Boutin's piece for Wired which explains how bloggin' ain't what it used to be. First of all he's right. Blogging isn't the thing it was when I got in this game four years ago with a Scottish travel blog. Maybe this is just a jaded perspective - it's not the same for me, but there are plenty of folks just discovering the medium who are loving the idea of pouring their collective hearts out to the beautifully obscured populace of The Internet. Really, it's simply the arrogance of those of us who have been in on this for a while who are getting sick of it. The medium isn't diminished only its uses by the tech-elite.

That said, I do agree with Boutin's ultimate point that what we consider to be the top blogs today are really nothing more than online magazines (HuffPo, Gawker Media blogs, etc). This is the result of the professionalization and initial maturation of the medium rather than a sign of its death. Sure things like Huffington Post are hardly blogs in the sense that Swarming Media is or might be, but we might see a comparison in a zine that started out with humble ambitions and readership and ends up being distributed across the country in record store. Other zines are out there and still small while some make it big.

I suppose what has faded is the novelty of blogging. It's much harder to gain attention because everyone and their mother's got one (I don't know if you have one, Mom) and people like to pay attention to what's relevant to them and their social circle. That's why the blogs I posted above are indicative of how small-time blogging is alive and thriving despite how hard it is now to attain blog-fame. Blogging isn't a get rich quick scheme anymore, nor should it be - that was always kind of wrong.

As for the other things that I found notable:

This and this are things that give me comfort in an over-crowded, over-hyped web world.

And maybe I've been out of the game too long, but critical theorists need some serious editors.

Posted by Nathan at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)