Twitter and social responsibility

There probably isn’t a single person who actively uses Twitter who hasn’t had the “so what’s the big deal about Twitter” anyway conversation. It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain, either you get it or you don’t.

I always ask locals (since I mostly have this conversation with people who live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area) if they remember when the 35W bridge collapsed. It’s one of those things that Minnesotans instantly remember where they were when it happened, plus they remember the worry and fear in those hours after the collapse wondering where their loved ones were. Then I tell them how with one simple tweet, I let a whole lot of people know I was okay. At the same time I learned a lot of my friends were okay in the same manner.

Now history has given us a bigger, better, more important example of why Twitter is important and a big deal. Violent protests have broken out in Iran in the wake of their disputed election. And as Andrew Sullivan has so succinctly reported, the revolution is being live-tweeted.

It seems Twitter is the only way to get news out of Iran as the government tries to limit Internet access and communications out of the country and threatens foreign media correspondents with arrest.

What’s so great, and where the social responsibility comes in, is that Twitter and their network partners had scheduled a critical network upgrade yesterday but they postponed it because they realize what a vital tool Twitter is for Iranians and reporters right now.

And that’s just another reason to point to when someone asks “what’s the big deal about Twitter?”

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