Comments on: Let’s ditch the green avatars and really DO something for Iran

By: Bloggers Unite for a Free Iran - New Beltane | Technology applied to make the World a Better Place to Live

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:50:59 +0000

[...] Let’s ditch the green avatars and really DO something for Iran [...]

By: Mr Green

Mr Green — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:38:46 +0000

Censoring ANYONE’S freedom of speech and preventing the people from communicating freely with the outside world is a bad thing. It’s not just the Iranian government that is violating human rights in this area, most governments around the world are now implementing filtering systems and violating your human rights – YOU COULD BE NEXT.

We’re not changing our avatar green but we are giving away free VPN accounts to people in Iran so that they can bypass the internet censorship and communicate anonymously and freely on the Internet.

Information freedom & power to the people!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:10:18 +0000

It’s interesting how you diluted some good ideas, by insisting on putting people down (all us clueless people with no political experience with green avatars).

And as for changing your timezone to Tehran, does that do much more good than the color change?

Truth is, every bit counts, and the self-righteousness of “let’s really do something” is asinine.

If we really want to do something, let’s stop talking about really doing something.

By: PR, Public Relations & communications news and features

PR, Public Relations & communications news and features — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:51:22 +0000

[...] starting to pervade the sea of green Twitter avatars. Martin Bryant of Social Media Cafe Manchester wrote a great post about how concerned social media participants can make a difference. Most of the suggests are [...]

By: Esko Reinikainen

Esko Reinikainen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:29:16 +0000

I’ve already written on this subject, on 16th June I wrote this http://bit.ly/XLwEg you might recognise one of the suggestions above. Then I wrote this http://bit.ly/AFYxb on June 23rd. The later post references a lot of the resources out there.

By: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:04:01 +0000

“you missed a pretty good opportunity right here to reference them more comprehensively.”

And you missed a pretty good opportunity right here to reference them more comprehensively in your comments. Go ahead, share those links so we can update the post!

By: tilda smith

tilda smith — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:08:28 +0000

why not do both?

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:55:12 +0000

I did not at all say that we were sharing in the experience. I was simply saying that we were signaling the fact that we were bearing witness with a symbolic gesture. 19,000 people feeling that support has value. And those 19,000 can communicate to their networks of friends what they’re seeing on the internet.

I’m not pretending anything. I agreed that more concrete ways of helping are just that, more concrete. And I have done those things. But it shouldn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Both types of actions have their merits.

By: spongekill

spongekill — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:43:54 +0000

hahahahah

By: spongekill

spongekill — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:41:16 +0000

The display of sympathy is wonderful, but it bears little relevance in Iran, where there are an estimated 19,000 Twitter users out of a population of over 70 million. Not that you SHOULDN’T make your icon green, but let’s not pretend we’re somehow sharing in the experience of those who are being beaten and shot at in the streets…it’s largely a self-gratifying gesture for westerners craving involvement.