Internet and Democracy Project

The Berkman Center recently announced their newest project, Internet and Democracy. The project will focus on the Middle East and include both research and the development of Internet tools for democratic activists in these areas. A graduate student and researcher for the project contacted me a little while back about the project to get some input and tips on the blogging situation in Iran. I'm interested in seeing what they come up with.


In the press release Jon Zittrain, a co-founder of the Berkman Center, noted one of the primary goals: "We want to help develop and test simple, lightweight tools for civic engagement online – tools that facilitate coordination among people who share a common cause, and good faith dialogue among people who disagree." Of course, I have my own ideas about what sort of projects they could create. Clearly, the main factors inhibiting free speech and democratic use of the Internet in Iran are censorship and accessibility. While its a difficult task to try an find solutions to these issues, there are a couple of areas where one could make headway. For instance, one of the first things that could be done with regards to censorship would be to compile and maintain a categorized list of censored websites, blogs, etc. This has been done on an informal level (Derakhshan's now defunct stop.censoring.us is one example), but could definitely be expanded upon and deepened. Of especial concern is the task of making this information available to netizens in Iran. Thinking about this problem from the angle of decentralized networks (think P2P filesharing) could provide solutions, as this is one of the potential strengths of blogging communities.

Another, perhaps more far-fetched approach to the question of accessibility would be to utilize the State Departments' Iranian democracy promoting budget to improve Internet access through remote servers. Is it out of the question to attempt some sort of remote Internet broadcasting into Iran, much as was done with satellite in the 90's? I'd argue if successful it would be more effective than spending that money on broadcasting propaganda tv as we are now.

Englisi sohbat mikoni?

When I began thinking about moving from my old home to a new one, I considered using it to practice my Persian, which I took up about a year ago. That plan fell by the wayside, in part because my formal studies ended with my graduation. Running across this site however has once again piqued my interest in attempting to create my own multi-language blog.

My discovery of this blog also reminded me of importance language plays in the networking and social dynamics of the internet. I often forget the inherent anglophone (or at least Latin script) bias present in cyberspace. Knowing the Latin script is practically a requisite for using the internet. While for much of the world this isn't so much of a problem (thanks to colonization), it is still quite prohibitive to many populations, both in regions where other scripts are primary and of course to the vast numbers of illiterate people. These points are obvious, but also vital to any study of the socio-political implications of the internet. I think they should also play a more direct role in the campaigns of cyber-activists who promote the internet as means of promoting democracy.

Back to multi-language blogs, I think this is provides a wonderful opportunity for world citizens to establish dialogue. Perhaps blogs should be required in language courses? As far as the use of English as the langua franca of the internet, there are both negative and positive aspects to this. I guess it is natural for people to find a medium of communication through which they can achieve greater exposure. On the other hand, all the questions of Ameri/Eurocentrism come into play. For the internet to be truly populist, it seems a constant tug of war is necessary. Then again, perhaps this is where the importance of bridgeblogs come into play.

I'll try to be more coherent in the future.