Futurist Mark Pesce gave a fascinating speech at the Personal Democracy Forum last month. He explained how two different kinds of power structures (autopoietic, or self-generating, and hierarchical) will increasingly come into conflict because of their radically contrasting operating procedures. Using the recent battle between the church of Scientology and Wikipedia as an example, Pesce describes how hyperconnected, power-sharing, hyperintelligent (where shared knowledge increases the intelligence of all participants) groups chip away at the classic, top-down hierarchies of the state and other such power structures.
He explains:
In order to avoid catastrophe, the state – and any institution which attempts to [...]

While media attention on Iran has dwindled as popular protests have been suppressed, social media has continued to maintain a picture into what is happening in the country. The Iran Rooftop Project blog posts videos every night of the protests that continue from the roof tops of homes in Tehran.
In reaction to the recent election results, every night people shout and scream Allah-o-Akbar which literally means ‘god is great’ but also is the recognized cry for freedom.

The site explains its motivations:
One of the most compelling elements of the continued uprising in Iran has been when each night under the [...]

A young female student was shot on a protest march in Tehran last Saturday. In a civil movement without any real leadership, this photo and one of her face covered in blood and video of her death has spread across the web as iconic imagery that symbolizes young Iranians’ struggles.
Here is the saddening video of her death on Karekar Avenue:
 
 
Side note: As we researched the imagery for this post, we noticed how during the Iran Crisis, Flickr seems to be being used as a blogging platform and not just an image sharing service. Iranians are uploading images with extensive commentary [...]

Although it’s not really PSFK’s place to discuss whether a bunch of students (and technology) could or should create massive regime change in Iran, the crisis situation provides another example of how news gathering is changing to a scenario where local news content can be accessed directly by readers and publishers in near real-time.
While the authorities in Iran are trying to hamper news and information dissemination (by even blocking SMS and even a satellite!), digital social media is providing opportunities both for people at the protests in Tehran to share their reports and for people around the world to share, [...]