I was trying to articulate something similar the other day in regards to the Digital Britain Final Report.

A lot of energy has gone into thinking about infrastructure, but – as far as I can tell – this is understood simply in terms of pipes and access: what about the systems that provide our new social infrastructures?

When Twitter goes down it can have a profound effect: as shown in the Iran example, but also on a very mundane everyday level. My social life, for example, now relies on Twitter – in much the same way as many people’s now rely on mobile companies – and when it fails I am suddenly cut off from my supportive community.

Government needs to understand the importance of supporting these new systems and ensuring they’re not undermined by commercial imperatives, as much the technology that underpins them.

On green avatars:

Someone told me that turning our avatars green is stupid and pointless because it doesn’t have any impact. In the time it took him to say that he could have turned his green: it took me five seconds and two clicks of a mouse. Subsequently a number of people asked why my avatar was green, and when I explained they changed theirs too.

Because it’s difficult to measure, it’s easy to say that this has no useful effect; but whether raising awareness has a profound impact on the situation or not, it can’t do any harm: and if it doesn’t do any harm and takes no time or effort then it’s worth doing just in case.

I was unsure what exactly was being supported on twitter. If it was the right of people to protest against an electoral system that they view as unfair and unjust then that right is undeniable. It is also an undeniable right to be able to protest without the fear of being beaten by state police.

However, if it was to support Mousavi then this is where I got a bit lost. Despite attempts at finding out exactly what Mousavi’s policies are, I found very little in terms of information both on “mainstream” media & other sources including twitter.

Also in terms of “social media levelling the media playing field”, with regards to Iran those demonstrating were from a particular social, economic and professional background and were quite clearly able to get and use computers, mobile phones etc.

I’m not sure whether the poor and rural communities of Iran had the same access and if they had would there have been a different agenda and opinion?

I don’t know enough about Iranian politics and the diverse groups of people that occupy differing opinions and political movements and the fact that twitter and other social media tools was unable to give that information perhaps is indicative of the socio-economic background of the users.

I wear a red ribbon to show my support for the campaign to combat AIDS, I wear a green avatar to show my support for democracy. If I didn’t do these things, nothing much would change. If 100 hundred of us didn’t, then ditto. But if none of us did them, then maybe there would be still more AIDS in the world and more opportunity for oppressive regimes to stifle their people.

As long as twitter is populated by politicians, celebrities and journalists – I can’t think of an easier way of me telling the world how strongly I feel about some issues.