If only they had cell phones at Tiananmen

With all of the hype surrounding the iPhone this week, I figured it would be appropriate to blog about how cell phones are being used for a political purpose on the other side of the globe.

Protesters in Xiamen, China used text messages to coordinate a protest against the construction of a chemical plant in their city. Circumventing the censoring capabilities of the government, environmentalists sent text message blasts to town residents warning them of the dangers of a chemical plant, and coordinated a protest on June 1 and 2, turning out 8,000 and 10,000 people respectively.

Even more impressive was the way journalists used their phones to cover the event:

'Citizen journalists carrying cellphones sent text messages about the action to bloggers in Guangzhou and other cities, who then posted real-time reports for the entire country to see.

'The second police defense line has been dispersed,' Wen Yunchao, one such witness, typed to a friend in Guangzhou. 'There is pushing and shoving. The police wall has broken down.'

Just goes to show how technology can empower the people. The possibilities for democracy are endless. I couldn't help but to think about how a movement like this could ultimately be used to start a revolution in a countries like Iran, where young people are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the way their government is treating them. As the people of Xiamen have shown, where information flows, democracy follows.