People often ask me, and maybe you yourself have even wondered, what is the purpose of Twitter.  With Internet Revolution 2.0 in full swing sometimes even the most savvy of individuals has found it quite hard to keep up.  However, over the course of the last few weeks we’ve seen the modern technology of microblogging and social networking applications begin to answer those questions many have been asking as they begin to take their place as an important tool in the news process.

The Iranian Revolution 2.0

Who would have thought back in 2006 when Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone founded microblogging site, Twitter that their service would be at the front lines of political unrest in the Middle East nevermind being suppressed by the Iranian government.  But that became their reality several weeks ago following the controversial Iranian elections.  Hundreds of thousands of supporters of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi took to the streets in protest.  However with the incumbant administration easily able to suppress public displays with force and media censorship, tech savvy Iranians looked to Twitter to report in real time from ground zero, the streets.

But what exactly makes Twitter the a viable news outlet? It’s free can be transmitted via mobile phone, its very personal and can be updated instantly. Unlike a private message, Tweets are promiscuous and shared over the internet and those monitoring your updates via SMS (text messages.)  It’s an even more efficient viral service than YouTube.  But perhaps the most key viral ingredient of the platform are notes called hashtags.  Hashtags (which look #somthinglikethis) enable Twitterers or Tweeters (even the terminology has yet to have officially been dubbed) to classify their “tweets”, so that they can categorized and easily searched by others interested in a similar topic.  Updates deemed interesting or breaking news can be easily forwarded or retweeted (RT) which accelerates the viral process.

This makes Twitter practically ideal for a mass protest movement, both very easy for the average citizen to use and very hard for tyrannical governments to control.  Any protest movement from the silly like #unfollowdiddy to the more world impactful, #Iranelection can take shape right before our eyes and we can become active participants with just a few key strokes (140 to be exact.)

Facebook and Micheal Jackson

Across the Globe we’re still mourning the loss of music’s biggest icon ever, Michael Jackson.  But no where is the chatter surrounding his death more buzzing than on Facebook.  Even during his final hours, avid Facebookers were constantly sharing updates from Twitter, TMZ and CNN with others.  After his death was confirmed millions took to the service to offer their condolences, pay tribute and hold technological vigil.  The very application friendly social networking platform saw and influx of pro-Jackson apps sprout which were shared virally among friends in support.  Videos posted, Notes tagged, pictures posted all in a matter of hours.  In less than a blink of an eye Facebook was transformed from the very its very eclectic profile to a worldwide unison display of support for the king of pop and the folks at Facebook had no part in it, it was all user generated.

Don’t get it twisted, I’m not here to say that CNN is going out of business…quite the opposite.  However, these tech advancements are forcing them to change they way they do business and report.  News that otherwise was ignored due to a lack of resources now makes headlines.  Everyday Joe’s can become impromptu eyewitness correspondence to breaking news with a camera phone and a txt message.  The best part is the web 2.0 movement is still in its infancy.  We’ve only scratched the surface of the implications of Social Networking and Microblogging.  5 years from now it’ll be a whole different story.