It’s Iran. It’s a country of 70 million people, about half of whom are under 25 and eager to share their thoughts and general displeasure with their government. The Internet allows them to voice their opinions and they are doing it en masse: Iran currently has about 100,000 active bloggers.
I’m half-Iranian. The lovely young woman you see pictured here is my dear aunt when she was young. She lives in Connecticut now, but I still have family in Iran. They are big fans of instant messenger services and we often connect that way. And while Iran can’t police the entire Internet, they do restrict some sites. I have not found an easy way to share photos, for example, as sites like Shutterfly are banned.
Marketing is, at its core, about communication. How we communicate ideas and to whom we communicate them. So I’ve always found that marketing and politics are close cousins but I’ve generally resisted blogging about that intersection. (Oh boy, was it tempting this year!) Still, I couldn’t resist this time because I was floored to find out how many bloggers there are over there. Imagine the social network they are developing. Now think about how much influence bloggers are having here in the States. Who knows where this could lead?