Arik - The Man Behind The “Greenification” Of Twitter

If you noticed shade of green take over your Twitter stream, do not worry - it is not your eyes. It is a result of a mini movement called Help Iran Election, which grew rapidly from 0 to 20K users using the service to spread awareness of the cause #iranelection in just 12 hours.

Coincidentally, the man behind this great idea happened to be a partner of Mr. Tweet, so needless to say, we grabbed him for an interview for YOU. ;)

I thought it was Greenpeace!

I thought it was Greenpeace!

Before we start, I think everyone wants to know more about YOU. Can you give us a bit more about your background?

Me? I guess the best way to describe me is a friendly geek and entrepreneur. I’ve been a developer for a large corporation here in Israel for few years. Did fun stuff there but for the last two years I reduced my position there to part time to finish my cs degree and to do more innovative stuff on the web.

1 user to 20K users in 12 hours. This is probably one of the most coolest ideas I have seen in a long time. How did you come out with the idea?

Well, I saw people changing their avatars manually and I realized it most be a hard process for most common users. I knew it’s possible to update the avatar via the API, so I thought why not help people make it simple and spread the word? :) The funny thing is the 12 hours ago it was still in development, I gave the link to one person to see how the sites looks like and she clicked on the join link. 30 minutes later I saw 300 people already discovered it and 12 hours later over 20K people joined the cause and more are coming and coming.

Have you been surprised by the response?

I thought it will catch but didnt believe that SO fast. The web these days is truly amazing.

How do you think the Iranian election saga will pan out?

I have no idea. I really try to be optimistic about this, because it seems that the people’s movement in Iran is really strong. And I’m not sure the military will be able to control the situation for much longer, because after all the soldiers are people too and probably have family among the people demonstrating.

As outsiders, what do you we can do? Afterall, awareness is one thing, being actually able to help is another.

I’m not sure what we can do in the “real world” but there are a lot of things we can do in the Internet to help the Iranians spread the word and show what really happens. There seems to be a good guide on Boing Boing for that - link

As an Israeli, you obviously have far more interest in this elections than the most of us. What is the feeling in the Israel about this?

Well, I don’t believe Mousavi is far better than Ahmadinejad for Israel or the world, but the people’s movement that started there because of the elections is the important thing. It really gives hope for a dialogue.

Indeed. And I guess dialogue is the one thing that Twitter is really good at facilitating. What do you think is the real potential of Twitter for the purpose of facilitating social change?

As the platform matures, we see more and more uses of Twitter to faciliate change. What I’ve done is very small compared to the reports of the real pepole in Iran about what’s going on. The fact they have a simple tool to do that is very powerful.

Besides this, you were also one of the co-founders behind Topify, a pretty awesome app for Twitter. What made you put so much faith in Twitter?

I don’t know. Twitter today is like the Facebook platform a year ago - it’s the wild west of the web, waiting for us to be explored. Lots of interesting opportunities and concepts can be tested on it.

Thanks Arik! And remember to turn green to show your support ya?

Category: Twitter RoundUp, Uncategorized

  • Simon
    I hardly consider this a great idea. It's ugly to look at and doing absolutely nothing to "support Iran."
  • If people from Iran see this, they know we care.
  • Guest
    Don't they have better things to do now then to tweet?
  • SM
    Actually, that is a way they can communicate to the outside world right now, with millions listening and caring. To each his own but sometimes "If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all".
  • Roni Taylor
    Don't underestimate the power of solidarity. Those Iranians brave enough to actively protest are going up against their own government. It would be easy to feel outnumbered. People are not at their best when they feel cornered.
    It's vital the Iranians stay calm and protest peacefully. Widespread civil unrest = call in the army = forceful suppression = Military Dictatorship.
    Calmly and rationally exerting your democratic rights, knowing the whole world is watching, is far more productive. The green shows global solidarity, helps them know we're watching and helps them stay calm and focussed.

    Don't dismiss the value of tweeting, either. The government has attempted to suppress dissent. The people have said 'stuff you, I'm gonna tweet anyway' - that's a people actively resisting, and that's a pretty big deal.
    Think about it.
    Would YOU tweet if your government told you not to?
  • Simon
    I'm not saying I don't care, but there are far better things you can do to show your support. Simply changing your avatar to something (usually a disgusting neon) green seems rather apathetic or jumping on a bandwagon because it's a trending twitter topic. "Oh look... I changed my avatar," and then you (the global you, not you specifically) stop there.

    Something far more proactive would show greater support and would be of much greater use than taking 10 seconds out of one day to change an avatar. Me? I've opted to spend my free time volunteering at local Mosques and Middle Eastern Community Centers.

    Just my opinion.
  • Roni Taylor
    Simon, I agree with your principles. People rarely make a personal commitment to the causes they pretend to stand for. It is shallow and apathetic. Nothing would ever be addressed without people like you prepared to make a genuine effort.

    However, I disagree that this attitude applies to #iranelection. Iran is no third world country attempting to overthrow a regime. They've done that already and this now is their democracy.
    We can rely on the Iranians to know their own system and the practical threats that system faces. They have expressed a lack of faith in the electoral process and are demanding the kind of electoral transparency and accountability most of us take for granted.

    Just my opinion: the worst thing that could happen to Iranian democracy right now is violent revolt. Iranian protesters need to effect changes to their system from *within* that system; they need to stay calm.
    I believe 'taking 10 seconds out of one day to change an avatar' - if thousands of people around the world are doing it, with protesters, Iranian officials and our own governments watching us - can help them do that.
  • Nazanin
    THANK YOU for helping us iranien in this very hard time!
    everyone who helps with demonstrating against this *s*election, is one more in the world.

    ADAMHAYE IRAN SHIR HASTAND!
  • Why the heck did you pick green? It turned me off right away b/c I just assumed it was another "go green" thing, and quite frankly, I'm sick of that!

    Why why why?

    :)
  • Green is one of the colors of the Iranian flag and is the color that the Reform Candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi chose as his campaign color.

    It wasn't a fashion choice.
  • Mousavi didn't choose green, though he certainly would have given the choice, as green is very significant and positive in Islamic culture (and that's why the color is in Iran's flag to begin with). He received green by random selection. A very lucky draw, if you will.
  • Justin
    Green is the official color of the opposition party. Twitter and FaceBook are the only ways the protestors are able to communicate with each other and the outside world as foreign media outlets have been banned in Iran.
  • noutlander
    Thanks,

    You made it easier for more people to support right to be heard.
  • Dillon
    Dear Mr. Tweet:

    Thank you for caring, you have started something big, I too have changed my avartar to green. One voice, one mind can make change.

    God Bless you sir!
  • twitter.com/djtek
    We are hiphop supporting the Tahran movement!
  • I am so happy to be a small part of such an important cause. Each time someone sends me a tweet asking why my avatar has a green band running across it, I'm given an opportunity to educate them on what is happening in Iran. Knowledge is power, and social media makes knowledge available in real time to so many. What a great tool. Thank you, Arik for promoting this wonderful fellowship.
  • Speaking to Mr. Tweet *and* Arik...

    I'm all for solidarity and support in whatever way it can be given, and this is a great example. I'm also all for "green," by whatever significance, be it religious (as in this case) or environmental.

    However, let's keep it real. You didn't start this green avatar idea. You might be catalyzing the effort forward with this little "mini movement" campaign, but the idea certainly didn't start with you.

    Before the day of election was announced I saw people use solid green square avatars to show their side of support (most likely Iranian tweeters), and immediately after elections were announced I saw people changing their avatar backgrounds, not using filter overlays (e.g., http://twitter.com/reidstott).

    Sure, I know the twitterverse is a big, growing place, and you can't know what everybody is doing, but a little humility wouldn't be a bad thing.

    As for this interview, it's nothing but self-celebratory knob polishing with no informative value. At the very least you could have explained the significance of the green color (though admittedly that might have taken a little research on your part), rather than leaving commentees to take shots in the dark about it (and all failing). Obviously a little research would have been good for everyone here. A wasted opportunity.

    And your perspective about who this primarily concerns is shocking:

    "As an Israeli, you obviously have far more interest in this elections than the most of us."

    I applaud your bravery at revealing your naivety to the world. Don't quit your day jobs.
  • Rose
    For the record; he doesn't claim to have started the "greenification", only to have made it easier. To quote the interview "Well, I saw people changing their avatars manually and I realized it most be a hard process for most common users."

    Hope you don't have a day job that requires attention to detail.
  • bparker001
    If you are following #IranElection and see a request to Re-Tweet please omit the username if they originate in Iran. Also, if you are linking a video or website shrink the URL and also use common sense as to its authenticity. Try to not be duped into RT'ing misleading information. If something in print or on a webpage is in Farsi you can translate it with Google Translate http://translate.google.com/?sl=fa&tl=en# This isn't perfect but it gets most of the meaning across. Thanks to everyone who is taking an interest in what's going on.
  • Simon
    It's kind of hard to know who's actually in Iran and who isn't. So many people have switched their location and timezone to Tehran and +3:30 respectively.
  • Reza
    As an Iranian thank you for your creativity for the green movement.
  • Good work!
  • Simon (unregistered) wrote, in response to bparker001:

    It's kind of hard to know who's actually in Iran and who isn't. So many people have switched their location and timezone to Tehran and +3:30 respectively.

    I believe that's the idea, to throw the "bad men off" ... America is the greatest country ever, because we forgive and forget. We don't judge a whole culture on a few bad apples. That is just my opinion!
  • Simon
    Everything you wrote after "I believe that's the idea, to throw the 'bad men off'" makes absolutely no sense. It has absolutely nothing to do with anything I wrote.

    That said... yes, the idea is to throw off the Iranian Security Forces, making it more difficult to find people in Iran reporting via twitter. It also makes it much more difficult for people on the outside to sift through the real and the fake news as well as who we may potentially be "outing" by re-tweeting information. I suppose it's a double-edged sword, of sorts.
  • michaelmkones
    That is the way you will want to make yours. Form the vines and the flowers into a bundle, then american flag wallpaper wire the bundle to the wreath base.
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