Intellectual Property Law

Google Maps Track Iran Protests

By Kim Zetter

As the protests in Iran continue for the second week, a Google user named Xárene Eskandar is following the activity on a Google Maps page, logging the events each day as they’re reported.

The latest map from Wednesday tracks events by the hour and shows the movement of special forces vans and military helicopters as they close in on protesters, as well as the location where protesters have reported seeing or hearing gunshots.

The maps are similar to ones created last year to crowdsource information from citizen journalists about violence in Kenya following a disputed election. In the Kenya case, an activist developed software called Ushahidi (”testimony” in Swahili) that allowed anyone to contribute information by e-mail and text messages. That info could be coordinated by an administrator who sent out instant alerts to protesters and other citizen journalists and posted data to Google Maps. The software is available online for anyone to use.

With regard to the protests in Iran, although they began as dissension against the election results, they appear to have quickly evolved into a mass movement for civil rights reform, marked by iconic images of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman who was slain by a government sniper on Saturday while watching the protest in the street.

Soltan’s gruesome last moments before death were caught on video by two camera phones and have quickly spread around the internet. A separate video, shown below, shows Soltan next to a man identified as her music teacher (in the striped shirt), moments before she was shot. According to news reports, they’d been trapped in their hot car in a traffic jam and stepped out for a few moments to get some cool air and watch the protest.

Soltan’s death has launched what some are saying is now an unstoppable movement. Her face has popped up on posters around Tehran, and protesters donning green wrist bands chant “We are Neda!” and “Sleep well, Neda, because we will get your vote back,” according to the Daily Mail. She has even inspired songs.

Full post as published by Threat Level on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).