Here’s an article on the San Francisco activist community’s use of Twitter in the antiwar protests last March. Interesting to read when you have the time…
San Francisco anti-war protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq are using the micro-blogging service Twitter to coordinate their movements throughout the day.
The group, called Direct Action to Stop the War, has planned protests and staged events at strategic locations around the city, such as AT&T’s facilities on Folsom, where whistle blower and retired AT&T technician Mark Klein says the company has installed equipment to snoop on Americans’ internet communications. They’re using Twitter to text people’s cellphones to get them to come to support the protest and to lend it critical mass at opportune times.
David Taylor, a DASW volunteer and veteran political protest organizer, says that Twitter has been a useful and cost-effective way to keep participants updated at strategic moments on their cellphones.“What’s new in the last four years is the addition of the text messaging,” says Taylor. “In the past, (street protest organizers) have had walkie-talkies out there and a bullhorn, but the people with the radios would always get arrested by the police.”
So, once again, I hope as many of you would get on twitter. I’m curious by the way: Does anyone how popular (if at all) Twitter is in the rest of the Arab World and in Iran? Is it only popular among the Egyptian dissidents or do activists elsewhere in the region use it too?