Uppity Wisconsin

Since I'm nominally in the business, none of this is surprising, but it's a little overwhelming to see it in one place.

It has been an amazing week in Iran, and you are no doubt seeing images that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago. For most of us, Iran has been a country about which we know very little…which, obviously, makes it tough to put the limited news we’re getting into a proper context.

The goal of today’s conversation is to give you a bit more of an “insider look” at today’s news; and to do that we’ll describe some of the risks Iranian bloggers face as they go about their business, we’ll meet a blogging Iranian cleric, we’ll address the issue of what tools the Iranians use for Internet censorship and the companies that could potentially be helping it along, and then we’ll examine Internet traffic patterns into and out of Iran.

Finally, a few words about, of all things, how certain computer games might be useful as tools of revolution.

The first task for today…let’s talk about blogging:

It turns out that bloggers in Iran risk running afoul of the Press Law of 1986, which, in addition to requiring the licensing of media outlets, reads in part:

Article 6: The print media are permitted to publish news items except in cases when they violate Islamic principles and codes and public rights as outlined in this chapter…

…5.

It is by now an accepted fact of life that the Internet is having some sort of impact upon the political process...after all, if it wasn’t, would we even be here?

But we’ve all wondered exactly how much impact; and now the good folks at the Pew Research Center have taken the time and trouble to do some survey work that seeks to answer that very question

The logical approach would be to "walk through" the data (which is, frankly, good news for Obama) and see what they have to say about it...but let’s take a different approach today.

Let’s instead look at the data and ask ourselves: who aren’t we reaching, why, and what implications might those answers have going forward—and downticket?
fake consultant's diary :: :: 

First things first: we’ll be evaluating data obtained from Pew’s "The Internet and the 2008 Election" report (part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project)...and if you don’t regularly visit the Pew sites, you should. They are a fantastic resource for those interested in reality-based reality—and in this election season, reality will matter.

It’s possible to summarize the report’s findings in a paragraph or two, and let’s use that as a jumping off point:

For those of you who don't buy the "left-wing media" argument, there's some bright news- GoLeft TV is now on the air,and will bring multiple different video news feeds to the Internet, with a lefty viewpoint. I'm working out some issues with the GoLeft people at the moment, but for the time being, here's a preview of a some of what will be showing: (click on read more to see the video).  What do you think?  Want to see more here?