Neda Agha-Soltan: My thoughts on the digital movement

Neda Agha-Soltan (how Web 2.0 moves fast)

I try to keep everything upbeat on this blog and try to keep things witty, but I felt it was necessary to comment on this story.

I watched the video of the young Iranian woman that was shot and killed. It was one of the most shocking videos ever, because we watched her die. I’m usually a jaded guy and there aren’t many things that move me. But this clip did. I was got angry and I wanted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to step down.

(Here's that video. Keep in mind there is a lot of blood.)

Neda has become the face of the new movement in Iran.

Despite there being a ban on News coverage of the protesting, her name has been released and spread across the Internet. And, on the Internet everything moves at lightening speed. Her name and image started to show up on Facebook and Youtube.

I remember watching the video and wondering what was her name. Then, I thought, we’ll get some information on her, I’m sure in the coming days.

And now she had a full wiki page. I'm certain it is being updated fairly quickly. It seems Wiki is usually on top of current events. Wiki gets a lot of flack for things, but it certainly is current.

In this new age of cameras and social networking, it is hard for any government or organization to keep a lid on anything anymore. Never before have bloggers, Twitter, Youtube and others been more important to getting the word out for this incident. I’ve never been a fan of Twitter, but even I have to give them credit for their part in the digital portion of the movement.

For every Perez or Chris Crocker video, we do get something important like this. We’re going to see more of this, as everything shifts toward the Internet media. It’s time that the old school news companies start taking notice of this new wave of information, and stop disregarding bloggers and Vloggers.

Side Note: Make sure to read this good post about everything going on the story unfolding in Iran.