fernandorizo.typepad.com

I love the cheerful, civic-minded emo kid in this PSA poster at Paddington Station.

iranian twitterers I'm following

There's some amazing news coming out of Iran's disputed election unrest via Twitter. It all needs be taken with a grain of salt clearly, as anyone could be posing as an Iranian on Twitter, but even still it's a unique window into this situation.

There's a few accounts I started following this weekend that I've found particularly interesting - many of the Iranian election accounts have become a swamp of re-tweets* but the following accounts have been posting links and commentary that is largely original.

• @persiankiwi - Ostensibly coming from inside Iran and producing a steady narrative seemingly day and night. The account links to a blog written in Farsi which Google is unable to translate, sadly.
• @TehranBureau - An organization of independent Iranian bloggers. Obviously new to Twitter given the awkward formatting of their posts but they are reporting whole stories and conversations via this account, amazing and compelling reads.
• @intrepditeacher - A resident of Qatar reporting from outside but a great filter who is providing an insightful Middle Eastern perspective on the crisis. Might be Persian himself.
• @Change_For_Iran - Possibly a university student. Amongst other amazing content, posted links to photos of the aftermath of a police attack on student protesters.

In addition to these, there's also the #IranElection and #IranElections hashtags, though these are so busy that they are the equivalent of drinking straight from the hose.

* If you're a Twitter novice, a re-tweet (or RT) is a repeat of a tweet that someone else made, allowing your followers (who aren't necessarily following the original writer) to see a tweet of particular significance. Example here.

I've shared this on Reader, Facebook et. al. and I'm still laughing about it, hence its appearance here.

Via Hey Okay.

an online version of my presentation from last week and also *facepalm*

If you didn't get a chance to attend the presentation Mat Morrison and I gave to the PRCA last week, the lovely Katie Goodrum of that organization was kind enough to come back over to my office where I gave my portion of the presentation again whilst staring into a webcam. The end result is that you can see a hellish distance up my nose but if you missed the presentation then here's your chance to catch it.

One more thing before you click: I listened to the presentation again just now and realized that I made an egregious mathematical error at the end in an offhand comment. I am completely horrified.

• How and When to Sell Digital to Clients: A presentation to the PRCA

i'm trying to get my blog blocked in china

"China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary" - The Guardian

You can see if I've succeeded with the China Channel Firefox extension.

(Image by Jon Bell)

depending on your point of view:

• the power of the Internet to free information

or

• schadenfreude, enabled by the Internet.

General Motors' Bankruptcy Petition