The guy who took the iconic picture of the Iranian protests, Amir, is now on friendfeed. His site has now been banned in Iran. More: - http://tehranlive.org/2009...
Amir's friendfeed account is http://friendfeed.com/amirpix -- his photography reminds me of one quote I remember from my photojournalism classes at San Jose State University: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." That quote was from Robert Capa, here's an article in Time Magazine about Capa: http://www.time.com/time...
- Robert Scoble
from Bookmarklet
This image is iconic. I've looked at thousands of images from Saturday. It is the best one out of all the images of the Iranian elections and if it doesn't win the Pulitzer Prize it'll be a damn injustice.
- Robert Scoble
I don't remember being able to talk to the photographer who has made a historic image within hours of the image being made. Another small way our world has changed.
- Robert Scoble
Pretty incredible how fast it changes and how fast it all works
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
makes the news far more real watching it unfold in real time
- Roger Oldham
He shot quite a bit of video too, which is on his friendfeed account. I hope that he eventually can tell us more about the context of this image. What was going through his mind as he pressed the shutter.
- Robert Scoble
I can't wait until his image joins these other Pulitzer Prize winners: http://www.newseum.org/exhibit... -- if you ever are in Washington DC, this is a must-visit exhibit at the Newseum, by the way. They have every Pulitzer-prize winning photos with the stories from the photographers of how the images were made.
- Robert Scoble
So awesome we're able to get this kind of coverage and intimate ambiency with news & newsmakers. Never would get this the traditional way.
- phil baumann
I just hope he's safe with all the eyes that are on him. They blocked his site, but he has unblocked our sight of what is happening there.
- Californian
it's re-sensitizing for a world which had become numb to the impact of dramatic news breaking
- Roger Oldham
I hope Amir comes out of this OK. Iran has banned his site, and the government there isn't friendly to those who do real journalism. I hope someday to meet Amir and go on a photowalk with him. He does great work.
- Robert Scoble
For kids studying journalism in college, right now must be an exciting time.
- phil baumann
I like the image and its a strong representation of the moment but I wouldn't be too hasty in giving it iconic status. This story is still playing out and no one knows where it'll end and Amir and others covering this on the ground might well come out with Iran's "Tank Man" or "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" before its over. I hate to play devil's advocate but I felt it was too early to be calling this. I just hope he stays safe whilst covering this story
- Jon Dillon
it's amazing how powerful a single photo can be.
- Chris Pugh
Jon: sorry, but you're wrong. This is an image akin to the guy standing in front of the tanks in Tianenmen Square (which also won a Pulitzer). I knew immediately when I first saw that image that it would be the one that history remembers from that day. This is the image that history will remember from Saturday. If there's another image that's better, well, then two Pulitzers should be handed out.
- Robert Scoble
@Jon - I'd respectfully disagree. Even if you take this photo out of context (if you don't know the situation), this is one, lone woman, raising a flag against a host of riot police descending on her. That alone is an amazingly powerful moment, quite possibly iconic.
- Jennifer Dittrich
All the photos on the blog post of his are fascinating ... talk about live news coverage
- Violet Bliss Dietz
But none of Boston.com's examples come close to the power of Amir's photo, although several are gripping and several deserve Pulitzer status as well.
- Robert Scoble
I was also rather surprised hearing Kaddafi during his visit to Italy say "Women are like a piece of furniture you can change when you want and nobody will ever question why you did so". (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world...) I think we are seeing history in the making.
- Michele Costabile
Are you sure she's alone and not just standing out it front? I'm watching images stream in live on the AFP photo wire and there's a ton of very strong shots from Saturday that also define the moment. I didn't want to be seen to be putting this shot down its just when I think of iconic images its usually an image that represents the event not just a facet of an event. Personally I don't think this one is in the same league as Tank Man but time could prove me wrong.
- Jon Dillon
These pictures are unbelievable - thanks for sharing Robert!
- Ryan Kelly
Michele: Iran's treatment of women is why Amir's image has even more power than most of those on Boston.com's site and other places. It combines women's struggles with those of the struggles to get a democracy. Ryan: thanks, it is an incredible story and we're lucky that so many great photographers were there to make images. It's an interesting time in our lives, too, when technology helps us not just see history but have conversations with those who are both making it and capturing it.
- Robert Scoble
This is the new Democracy! using social media to get the opinion of the masses
- Constantine Nicolaou
@Jon - I'm pretty sure she is standing in front of other people, but part of the power of the photograph is in isolating her, without anyone else in the frame. That speaks a lot to the skill of the photographer as much as the moment being captured.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Countries think if they shut off access the problem will go away, when actuality it highlights it. Amir's pictures remind me of Capra too. He absolutely knew how to frame a story.
- Janet Fouts
@jennifer - I totally agree, I've been in the news photo biz for many a year and had the pleasure of witnessing many an event unfold through photos in real time. My only issue was whether now was the time to call iconic status on an event unfolding.
- Jon Dillon
Jon: I think history will judge this image to be the iconic one. Yes, I do think we can say that when the events are unfolding. We did that with the tank image from Tianenmen.
- Robert Scoble
Wow there are a lot of iconic images on that page
- Chris Saad
German TV News has a TV special about Twitter/Social Networks and Iran right now
- Frank Koehntopp
@Robert - As I said we'll see and always happy to be proved wrong. Although Tank Man didn't hit the wires until June 5th yet the Tiananmen protests began in mid-April. During the seven weeks there was many an image that seemed to define the protests "goddess of democracy", "students feeding soldiers trapped in the crowds" today everyone remembers Tank Man.
- Jon Dillon
"King Taco was founded in 1974 by Raul Martínez, who operated a mobile lunch wagon out of a converted ice cream truck. Within six months, he opened the first of the chain's restaurants. He opened the second King Taco on 3rd Street in Boyle Heights, which at 4,000 square feet is the flagship restaurant. Other locations soon followed, opening every other year in Commerce, Baldwin Park, El Monte and other East Los Angeles sites.[1] By 1995, he had established fourteen restaurants grossing over $21 million.[2] In 2008, the company operated 20 restaurants throughout Los Angeles County, including a restaurant in Old Town Pasadena, the first outside a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood. The company has contributed to urban revitalization through the retrofitting of vacant commercial buildings for its restaurants."
- Derrick
from Bookmarklet
NOOOOOOOO I can't condone this. This place is like, "Would you like some meat flavored salt?" But I had no idea there was one in Old Town. Learn something new everyday.
- Anika
Anika, I'm so hungry, I'm delirious. I'm working way too hard right now. Is it the best? No. Will I eat my burrito like I just got out of prison? Yes.
- Derrick
We need one of these places in Boston SOOOOO BADDDDLLLYYYY
- John Flynn
I used to go to King Taco in Pasadena all the time because it was right by my work. Dang..now I'm craving it. Might have to go there tonight...
- Anna Lynn M.
I wonder if the slowdown in terms of tweets posting from Twitter to FriendFeed is evidence of this or if it's unrelated or based on something else entirely.
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas. Purely anecdotal but there are times when it updates within 1 minute and sometimes over half an hour. Could it have something to do with volume or server calls? 'x' number of users times the amount of tweets would equal a lot. Does Twitter prefer to push them all out at once? Does FriendFeed only call Twitter twice an hour? Either way, it sucks lemons...
- Johnny
Either way, friendfeed is still, for me, the most reliable way of seeing all of someone's tweets. Entires from people I follow randomly don't show up for me on twitter, I've submitted a ticket about it over six months ago with many examples and never gotten a response.
- Richard Lawler
Johnny you're right. It could be anything really. But I suppose in a spirit of transparency it would be interesting for us to know what's going on here exactly. I've too noticed that sometimes it's lightening fast. Other times not as much.
- Thomas Hawk
If Twitter just wants to be an update service, then no. If Twitter thinks it's a conversation and discovery platform then yes - FriendFeed is a competitor and Twitter should be afraid, very afraid.
- AJ Kohn
Friendfeed is the vastly superior platform of course. I'd just hate to see Twitter trying to do something to disrupt the FriendFeed experience based on their view that FriendFeed is too dangerous a competitor. In an era when user portability is super important I'd hate to see something like that happen for selfish business reasons.
- Thomas Hawk
Cause I see both feeds, I see what some people have tweeted and then sit here hitting refresh until it show up in their FF feed to comment (I prefer FF as a Twitter client) :)
- Johnny
FF has been upgrading their back-end. Maybe that has something to do with it?
- coldbrew
I still see the two services as doing two different things. I have conversations on twitter more often than on FF. I suspect that is because on FF I just feel it is comment overload. I like Twitter for it's mobile aspect and why I use it much more often. FF is for me a service to see a 'bigger' picture. I follow someone and get to see more than just status updates. Both coexist for me nicely.
- Sidney
coldbrew, you could totally be right. It could have nothing to do with Twitter at all. It does worry me though and it might be nice to get a clearer idea exactly what's going on with all this.
- Thomas Hawk
Is FF using the Twitter API to bring in Tweets? Assuming they are on the whitelist which from documentation says "Users and IPs on the whitelist are allowed a maximum of 20,000 requests per hour." So, 5.5 requests per second. Perhaps some throttling is happening to conform?
- AJ Kohn
I do think Scoble's point about he and Leo being left off of the Twitter suggested list is an interesting one. Both he and Leo are much more popular and had more followers than some of the other names that Twitter chose to highlight. It does make you wonder if the fact that those two are the two most popular on FF might have something to do with that.
- Thomas Hawk
Friendfeed needs twitter, and so twitter holds the power but if twitter were to block friendfeed I feel that friendfeed users would find an alternative or friendfeed would develop their own status system. That's when twitter should be scared.
- Wesley Robin Guerrero
Dude, FriendFeed does NOT need Twitter. Why do people think this? FriendFeed already has the ability to post directly and imports statuses from a slew of services besides Twitter. Many people don't even bother importing their Twitter and many others explicitly hide it because of how much "noise" it causes.
- Rah-PM 2012
FriendFeed emphatically does not need Twitter. I hide all Twitter posts on FF, and am much happier for it. Twitter posts are very high on the noise meter.
- Brian Sullivan
no, FriendFeed does not *need* twitter. But certainly the interaction between the two sites makes FriendFeed more interesting for Twitter users (who are much more voluminous at this point). Twitter is a natural place for FriendFeed to be recruiting users from.
- Thomas Hawk
none of them are making money off of their users. they should both be worried about themselves..
- Terry O'Fee
Not yet, they both offer different shizz, and both have huge growth atm, as to Scoble, he can Rage Against the Twitter Machine, but it's borrowed A LOT of money lately and typically (though not in this market climate) that has to be payed back. I see twitter, with it's new suggested follow option, as becoming wider social network, spreading it's baby bird wings, getting ready to fly...tweet
- The Real sofarsoShawn
okay maybe friendfeed doesnt need twitter but some of its features are completely unique and provide a new dimension to socail networking via mobile tweets. if it wasnt innovative we would all be updating our statuses on myspace or facebook... but were not. Me being a relatively new user to friendfeed, i highly value twitter.
- Wesley Robin Guerrero
It's okay Wesley, I've been on FF for awhile and I still value Twitter too. People seem to think there needs to be an us vs them debate constantly. Coexistance is completely possible in my eyes. It seems to be working fine right now.
- Sidney
"Facebook has responded to criticism over the way it handles user data by handing over control to its users. Members of the social network will have comment and voting rights over the firm's future policies regarding how the site is governed."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
Excellent!! I'm so happy to see this, we somewhat won! And this will make it easier for them too. Great decision.
- Zu from AOD
Yeah, right. Just another example of corporate deception by the yellow, running dog, imperialist lackeys of our dictatorial Fascist overlords! How do you now they're not really implementing the original plan? YOU DON"T!! "All warfare begins with deception" Sun Tzu- Art Of War
- Russell Wagner
Definite improvements: California law applies, license is restricted to privacy settings. But it might also create liability for third-party developers, whom users may be able to sue to enforce Facebook's terms: http://is.gd/l0Vw
- Maxwell Kennerly
Rusell can you add any more adjectives to that last comment :) good one I especially liked the "Fascist overlords! " I have to remember that and use it sometime. I will give you full copyrights
- Gabriella Sannino
"Diddit, a new site launching today to the public, is looking to help you check off all the things you’ve done with your life, and discover new things that you’d like to do. The site allows users to browse through thousands of activities in categories ranging from the bars you’ve visited to “Bizarre Retro Candies” you’ve eaten at one time or another. To coincide with the launch, Ludic Labs, the company behind Diddt, has also announced that it has closed a $5 million funding round led by Accel Partners with KPG Ventures also participating."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet