Iran

How Geeks (and Non-Geeks) Can Help Iranians Online By CYRUS FARIVAR in Oakland | 17 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] In the past few weeks, I’ve seen a surprising number of my non-Iranian friends utterly captivated by news coming out of Iran. It’s easy to understand why — the power struggle in Iran’s post-election aftermath is dramatic, to say the least. Indeed, some of the best English-language blogging about Iran has come from non-Iranians, including The New York Times, The Atlantic…

I had the honor of speaking on PBS’ new online program, called 5Across. It’s a program hosted and produced by PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser. This conversation was taped in San Francisco on July 6, 2009. In a crisis, governments will often curtail freedom of the press, censoring or shutting broadcasts and newspapers. But blocking websites, slowing the Internet or cutting off SMS messaging can be harder to do. Stopping the flow of information online can be a difficult task, as…

خدا با ماست / او را هم فیلتر میکنید؟ God is with us / Are you filtering him too? Geeks Around the Globe Rally to Help Iranians Online By CYRUS FARIVAR in San Francisco | 8 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] In his converted loft apartment in the semi-sketchy-meets-startup SoMa neighborhood, Austin Heap, 25, spends most of his time in front of his computer — a PC tower that he built himself and hacked to run Mac OS X. Heap didn’t…

PEN American Center, The New York Review of Books and 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center present: Iran: A Conversation About the Elections, Protest and the Future With Shaul Bakhash, Roger Cohen, Haleh Esfandiari, and Karim Sadjadpour [Note: Karim Sadjadpour is my cousin!] Wednesday, July 15, 2009 New York City—Only one month following the start of Iran’s civilian uprising, PEN American Center joins forces with The New York Review of Books and 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center for New…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Haystack and the Dutch Parliament’s new technological support for Iran is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

Dare I say it, “green hat” hacker extraordinaire Austin Heap (See SF Chron a few weeks ago) and a group of domestic and foreign techie folks wanting to help Iran have announced the upcoming release of Haystack. Heap writes on his blog that it’s a “new program to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. A software package for Windows, Mac and Unix systems, called Haystack, will specifically target the Iranian government’s web filtering mechanisms.” I’ll be reporting…

While at the salsa bar at Cactus with Rebekah today: C: How do you say ‘Here, take this,’ in Persian? R: بفرماید (Befarmaeed.) [Go ahead ; By all means ; Be my guest ; Please, have some] C: Really? R: Really. C: Doesn’t that seem overly formal? R: You’ve been Persian for how long?

I first heard about it from Omid Habibinia. Confirmed on Balatarian (“Highest”), as shown below. Click image for the Google Translated English version:

I had the honor of being interviewed (again!) by Jesse Brown on his TVO show, “Search Engine“, to provide an update on the Iranian post-election situation. Update: Audio is here.

Friends, This op-ed (my first!) ran in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Please disseminate widely! -C Silicon Valley should step up, help Iranians Op-Ed by Cyrus Farivar Tuesday, June 30, 2009 The San Francisco Chronicle Until Iran’s election and ensuing political crisis, many Silicon Valley companies had ignored Persian-language services almost entirely. It’s easy to understand why. First, there’s an American embargo against Iran, which forbids American companies from doing business with that country. Second, there is a perception that the…