Hoder (Hossein Derakhshan) is leading a session right now on how to build a blogosphere. (Despite his new Canadian citizenship, he had a hard time trying to fly to the U.S.)
Hossein is responsible for the growing influence of blogs in Iran.
If you read Iranian blogs, he says, you'll see why "the idea of reform" is stronger than the desire for revolution in Iran. Iranian bloggers will help you understand the dynamic between social change and politics in a way you won't get from reading straight news reports.
Blogs, he says, reflect new values of Iran's new generation who desire self-expression, tolerance, and individualsm. Iran's young people want free access to information.
He points out he's mainly talking about educated middle-class Iranians, who are the ones online, but still this is a huge group. Iran has a presidential election coming up. Amazingly, campaign staffers for the reformist presidential candidate, Mostafa Moeen, have been reaching out to and meeting with Iranian bloggers as a way to get the candidate's message out and build information networks. Moeen himself has a blog in Persian. Iranian bloggers also exposed the fact that another candidate was paying journalists to write about him.
He says the blogs "are creating a new space for debate, out of the government's control, that is completely unique."
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