The Revolution will not be Televised... But it will be Tweeted.

Following the current revolution and riots in Iran has been an intriguing study in the true impact of the Internet in the 21st century.

When this strange, intangible phenomenon became mainstream in the mid 90's, capturing everything in sight (or "in site" as it were) and prefacing the world with the now-familiar "www," I don't think anyone really anticipated the impact it could have.

In a little over a decade it has gone from a time killer used largely for pornographic delight and illegal downloading to a viable source of information.

And truth.

The exposure of the Iranian predicament is evident of that shift. The Internet has become far more sophisticated, evolving impressively along with its most popular "children." The most benignly intended websites such as Twitter and Facebook are now vessels of information we would probably not know otherwise.

I remember last year when riots broke out in Athens over the accidental killing of a teenage boy by an armed police officer. This was a front page staple for many weeks on major news sites. However, it did not receive the same degree of coverage as the economy or the election fallout. I had it on good authority from a friend living in Athens that what we were seeing in the states was merely a fraction of what was going on.

Fast forward a little over six months later. As mentioned in a prior post, Twitter has taken off at a lightning-fast pace, and Facebook has sought to keep up with the site's novel approach to sharing information. Now in light of Iran's recent presidential election and what is being termed as "The Green Revolution," images and video of the protests are being circulated against the will of the Iranian government.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government requested Twitter suspend scheduled network maintenance so as not to impede the flow of information.

This is incredible on so many levels. It's almost as though the Internet itself has become the answer to Orwell's hypothetical "Big Brother." It may not be that far off... it's often been said that you can try and delete a site, an image, a video from the web. But if it's been posted somewhere online, it will always have a life.

And an audience.

The technological revolution has broken ground on a global scale by spreading infectious truth about an actual revolution. We have come full circle; I believe for the better.

Now that is how you bring about change.