Recent news from Iran is intriguing and the most interesting aspect about this global topic is how social media services like Twitter and YouTube are helping to fuel a revolution.

Over the weekend, a major election in Iran between hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Moussavi erupted with claims of voter fraud.

The election was Friday, but there really wasn’t too much online about the event until Sunday. That’s when I thought about turning on the television to feed my curiosity, but instead of switching on the tube, I decided to explore what people were saying on Twitter.

Twitter is a fascinating new Internet micro-blogging service that has caught my interest over the past several weeks and almost immediately I could see a firestorm brewing. In particular, Twitter users were criticizing CNN for lack of coverage about this important historical event.

User were posting short-messages using what is called a “hash-tag” method and writing comments with the phrase “#CNNfail” to complain about the lack of coverage. A search of this tag revealed thousands of protests.

Most people who question Twitter’s relevance wonder why anyone would use this service to inform others about breakfast, but it’s much more important than that because Twitter is reshaping the Internet with “real time searching.”

Twitter’s unique distinction is the ability to look up any subject and see what’s being said right now and by using the phrase “#CNNfail” before online comments, users probably influenced CNN’s coverage because the rest of the night was spent in features and debate about the situation.

When you sign up for a Twitter account, the home page has a Top 10 index of topics that are being discussed on Twitter. In a glance, you can see what the “Twitterverse” is talking about and right now, the buzz is all about Iran.

When using Twitter, you can only publish 140 characters of commentary, but that’s enough, because Twitter is an incredibly efficient channel for the ground war in this torn country. Students, protesters and reformers from Tehran are publishing messages via Twitter that point to cell phone photos, blogs, videos and all kinds of information from the inside out.

It only takes a few seconds for hundreds of new Twitter comments to pile in on your browser. As you refresh the screen new details are keeping the major media sites tuned in as photos of club-toting vigilantes on motorcycles beat citizens and even journalists lives are at risks as they attempt to cover this revolution.

Below are a couple of the recent street videos and be warned, these are both gripping and unsettling.

The government in Iran has made every attempt to shut down all reports revoking visas and shutting down sites like Friendster, Facebook and others. Their attempts to darken this breaking news story is futile though because the streets are in control of the media now and the regime will have a hard time keeping this one under cover.

It’s hard to keep up with all the information via Twitter, but the service provides a deluge of information to explore and it’s obvious the media giants are watching this channel with the rest of the world. Furthermore, CNN, Wired Magazine and New York Times all agree that Twitter has played a influential role in this current wave of political activism. See the links below, or visit Twitter today and click on the search topic #Iranelection to view what’s happening…right now.

Twitter’s growth has been in an meteoric upward graph for the past several months.

They were hoping to take a break last night to run some maintenance for about 90 minutes. However, Twitter users convinced the service to delay their scheduled downtime to ensure that citizens in Iran had a window to voice the events taking place in their country. It was a good move and brought on by users who suggested the extension using the hashtag “#nomaintenance” throughout the day on Monday.

The downside of the real-time functions of Twitter is accuracy and filters. Breaking stories, images and comments coming from cell phones are hardly reputable in many cases and you never know what’s going to show up next - even spammers are learning ways to infiltrate this popular audience. However, it does give us an avalanche of detail and the media is consumed with this efficient method of street level reporting and thankfully, the debate and conversations are helping a country make an important transition.

There’s no doubt these new tools are powerful channels for swaying popular thought too.

A colleague of mind reminds me that revolutionaries use whatever weapons they can to report atrocities in this global age. And yes, it wasn’t that long ago fax machines and satellite phones communicated around the world.

What makes this event different is the realty that we all have a front row seat to this raw coverage. Twitter is simple to use and available for free to anyone with a computer. With your account you have access to a tsunami of real time information as change comes to the desert in the Middle East and it’s reshaping how news arrives to the social conscious.

It’s hard to tell how this will play out over the next few days, but it’s certain we’ve never seen anything quite like this and social media tools are only going to become more powerful as we move forward giving everyone a platform to promote a cause in The Digital Age. For the people in Iran, we can only hope the phrase “people lead – governments follow” has a chance to come true in this part of the world.

Follow me on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/davidcate

Other related stories;

CNN’s Coverage of Iran Protests Criticized - NYTimes.com

Tear gas and Twitter: Iranians take their protests online - CNN.com

FriendFeed Blocked In Iran, The Service’s Most Active Region

Taking to the Streets — and Tweets — in Tehran | Danger Room | Wired.com

Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime | Danger Room | Wired.com

Iran election: state moves to end ‘Facebook revolution’ - Times Online

Twitter Reschedules Maintenance To Allow Iranian Protests To Continue

It’s been really busy the past few weeks as we begin to roll out several new websites we’ve been working on at GoTriCities. Our staff have completed some of their best work all year long this past week and we have received a lot of attention for the work.

Last week, we were proud to launch the new Kingsport Chamber of Commerce website which included lots of fan fare including an appearance on the Kingsport ChamberZone business television show with Bob Feagins and Laura Steel, a couple of presentations and a feature in the newspaper this past week with Chamber president Miles Burdine.

The new Chamber website is a exciting new improvement from their old site and features a ultra-intuitive distinction that makes it super easy to navigate. There are plenty of pages that promote their programs from Fun Fest to Keep Kingsport Beautiful and lots of events, promotions and videos throughout the website. The site features a complete directory of all Chamber members, a daily update for available jobs in the region and more.

Early traffic numbers show a two-fold increase in their traffic patterns so far and we’re excited about working with area businesses to promote their brands on the site in the coming months. We’re working with Accuforce to telemarket Kingsport businesses to extend new marketing opportunities on the site.

I’m very proud of some of the new commercials we have been producing with our creative staff at GoTriCities. Here are a couple of new projects we moved out of the studios last week.

The first one is a new commercial for IShopTheTri.com - a new regional Internet directory based out of Johnson City. The commercial focuses on the depth and variety of the listings in this useful Internet application and has a chic music bed to support the tech framework.

IShopTheTri Video Commercial from David Cate on Vimeo.

The second video supports a new mobile application we just launched for Town and Country Realty. Brad Smith did a great job as talent on the spot and Elaine Rinder was a pleasureable voiceover for both of these new videos.

Town and Country Mobile Video from David Cate on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Speaking to an audience has gotten easier for me in the past several years. With 24 years of experience in sales, you get to the point where the butterflies subside, especially after you make a mountain of mistakes along the way.

There’s still a bit of anxiety though and these opportunities are always learning experiences because mastering the art of presentation is a key to business success and I had chance to speak a three gatherings recently.

We’re getting ready to launch the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce website this week. Prior to the launch, I spoke to their Board of Directors for a sneak preview at their offices in Kingsport on May 20th. A group of 50 or so people were in the room that day and I had 10 minutes to deliver the quick tour.

On Thursday, May 16th, I was invited to speak to the Tri-Cities Metro Advertising Federation in Johnson City on the subject of Social Media. Mary Ellen Miller was also speaking that day and we had a chance to present several new ideas to the area’s advertising and marketing professionals.

This was a small group, but it was a significant gathering of peers at the Bank of Tennessee Financial offices in Johnson City. This swanky conference room overlooks State of Franklin road and the board room there has some of the coolest presentation tech that I’ve seen lately.

With windows all around, I lowered the screens in the circular office and presented a 15 minute presentation before about 35 agency reps, banks, hospitals, public relations professionals and small businesses.

My presentation was a collection of social media tools from our newspaper network, a review of the tools reshaping the media landscape and review of some of the ideas our clients are implementing using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other tools.

My main theme was the fact that social media isn’t all that new, citing our human desire for interaction and authenticity in conversations, but the the tools have certainly changed and we reviewed those ideas together.

Some of the interesting points of conversations from the session included how to effectively separate personal and professional identities using social media and how to ensure productivity in the workplace with these tools proliferating our lives.

Mary Ellen Miller did a great job introducing a lively collection of social media public relations examples and has been very successful re-branding herself after experience in television news, magazines and leading a PR firm at a local tech company. Her discussions on Social Media will continue on WJHL over the next several weeks.

Special thanks to Sarah Clevinger with The Bank of Tennessee and Jessica Bland with The Corporate Image for organizing this event. It helped me to sharpen my Keynote skills and I enjoyed sharing the new ideas about Social Media.

I’ll continue that discussion with clients over the next several weeks including a presentation to the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce tomorrow - June 1.

My last presentation was caught on video and that gives me a chance to critique the work.

The Kingsport Chamber of Commerce sponsors a Fourth Friday Breakfast every month at MeadowView Resort and Convention Center and they had me on the agenda for their session on May 22nd.

This morning meeting is open to all Chamber members to discuss business and encourage networking opportunities (plus a free breakfast) and it was up to me to open up the new Chamber website and give another peek before an audience of 250 local business people.

We had a good session and although I felt like my presentation was 20 minutes, it turned out to be only 9 minutes and that’s good. Most resources say people have at most a 30 to 60 second attention span and considering the early meeting time it would be very easy to fall asleep.

I had a good time speaking to all of these groups and look forward to other opportunities in the future.

Here’s the video from the Chamber of Commerce presentation.

Kingsport Chamber of Commerce Web Presentation from David Cate on Vimeo.

It was another busy week at work and we launched a new website for the Tennessee Constables Association.

This is an excellent design from our group and features several aspects of the constables in our state. Constables perform many legal services including, Evictions, Home Security Checks, Subpeonas, Deliver of Legal Documents, Summons, Security Escorts and much more.

The new website’s key function is the useful search where visitors can find their constable by zip code by the online database. The site also explains the services provided by these government workers and publishes handy links to other programs supported by their group.

Earlier in the week, we wrapped up a detailed user seminar for them to update every aspect of the website and we look forward to providing them greater services in the future.

Click here to visit The Tennessee Constables Association @ http://www.tnconstables.com

Summer’s here and with all the rain this season, the East Tennessee landscape is lush. Seems like there are more soggy days than sunny ones, but that’s not a bad thing is it?

Regular showers keep things fresh and fertile in the mountains and the smell of honeysuckle and wildflowers are hard to ignore driving the back roads.

The road to the Marker 2 Grill leads past Tri-Cities airport back into farm land before it ends at the banks of Boone Lake. It’s here I joined a small crowd recently to here Jamen Denton and Wise Old River. Jamen is an extraordinary local songwriter cultured here in the mountains of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

When it comes to being a good songwriter or poet, some say you’ve got to weather the storms of life. It’s a rite of passage and during these times many artists find their most creative verse.

It wasn’t long ago, Jamen and his band Virginia Ground were one of the most talked about acts on the local scene.

Together with his brother, Justin, they were appearing before large rowdy crowds all over the region. Country Music Television had featured their act on a documentary and it seemed they were on the verge of something great.

All of a sudden, the wheels seemed to get caught in the mud and rumors of disagreements, girlfriends, over-indulgence, relocation, frustration, false starts and other gossip seemed to indicate the band was finished.

At the heart of Virginia Ground was the voice and verse of Jamen Denton and although the band is history, I’ve stayed in touch with him on Myspace - hoping to see him resurface – because he’s got much more to give.

Recently, he sent me an invitation to join him with his parents in their new trio - Wise Old River.

His father James and mother Jeanie moved South several years ago and have always been great supporters of their son’s artistry. They currently live in Tazewell, VA and are working with their son as he returns to the music scene. They had rented a room at the La Quinta for the weekend and had scheduled two performances stating at The Acoustic Coffeehouse in Johnson City and also appearing near my home at Marker 2 Grill on Boone Lake.

It was overcast and a bit damp when I arrived at this lakeside venue in Blountville. Jamen was walking toward the water during a break and I sat down at the bar for a basket of boiled shrimp and a Fat Tire.

Sitting across from the stage, I waited for the band to start the next set – hiding out in the shadows. As they began to play, you could tell there were fans out tonight despite the small crowd because they called out the songs one after another and sang along with the choruses.

I made my way to the front of the stage with cameras in hand and sat down to listen to Jamen as he played ‘Back for You’ - my favorite Virginia Ground song that highlights his distinctive soulful style.

Even though their music was often described in the style of Americana artists and most noticeably The Old Crow Medicine Show, I always appreciated Jamen’s songs because of the intensity of the lyric and the soulful/bluesy quality of his music.

“Back for You” is more in the spirit Sam Cooke and John Mayer than the typical country flavored songs you hear in most original venues in the Tri-Cities and it was sure a favorite of the small audience that gathered here tonight.

Jamen Denton performs at Marker 2 Grill from David Cate on Vimeo.

Jamen’s father played a Greek guitar called a bouzouki and a slide guitar which added a rich tone to his music and his mother Jeanie sang silky backup harmonies as the night’s set progressed.

This acoustic set of original Virgina Ground songs worked well tonight for this small crowd. The songs are naturally elegant and even though I miss the rowdiness of the full band - it’s still a treat to hear a great songwriter perform these songs with such passion and intimacy. Jamen seemed unmoved by the room too as he closed his eyes and sang with an intensity that was augmented by the sweat gushing from his brow and leaving a ring around his shirt in the humid night air.

There were a few cover songs that pleased the audience including a Stevie Ray standard, Ben Harper and most notably a version of Ryan Adam’s ‘My Winding Wheel” where Jamen proves his ability to turn his own inflection on another artist’s material.

It was clear through the night there were several new songs that have surfaced in Denton’s set list since I had seen him list. A library of new songs about love, despair and words about mountain life including the one of my new favorites ‘Down in the Valley of Crows.”

Jamen’s songs are supported by a natural pulse on an acoustic guitar, but his talent was best summed up by Sunny who runs Marker 2 Grill. She mentioned to me after the performance that Denton was “definitely possessed by the music” and I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“It’s been a real good year,” Jamen shared with me after the show.

He evidently had recently come through a mutual divorce, but lit up with a broad smile as he showed me a picture of his young son Noah.

Tonight, they were wrapping up their last show and heading back to Tazewell and although the crowd wasn’t what most musicians would be satisfied with– Jamen said he didn’t care - “he loves it and glad to play anytime and anywhere.”

Wise Old River is a new outlet for Jamen’s music and the comfort of his immediate family adds a reinforcement to his talent as he reconstructs his sound with new material and a new spirit. It’s hard to say where he’ll wind up next, but he’s got plenty of fans like me who will continue to support him and enjoy his poetry.

As one fan stated as they were packing their gear from tonight’s show - “as long as you keep playin‘ – we’ll keep coming back.”

I can live with too and I’m certain we’ve yet to hear the best from Jamen Denton.

We end the month at GoTriCities with a slew of great websites ready to come out of the hangar. Our guys have been working on several projects this year and we’re finally ready to launch some wonderful new destinations and we’re proud to show them off.

Last week, we were excited to reveal a new non-profit organization that helps the homeless in our community.

Hope Haven Ministries, Inc. is a Christian, interdenominational, non-profit ministry that reaches out to homeless men, women and children who may be impoverished economically, educationally, emotionally and/or spiritually. We offer emergency shelter – safe, clean, temporary housing for those in distress. You have the opportunity here for a new start on life and a place to experience God’s love. Hope Haven is a step along the path of recovery, not a destination.’

The new website has a great new design that replaces their old one and includes an intuitive donation path that allows visitors and volunteers to commit resources and time to this important cause for our city.

Their slogan says it all ‘helping the homeless help themselves’ and so far they have helped hundreds of people in our city and we look forward to locking arms and helping them with their mission even more. Our guys did a great job with the site which features a custom content-management software which enables their staff to create regular updates and more.

Visit their new website at http://www.hopehavenkpt.org and find out more about Hope Haven Ministries in Kingsport.

My new friend Shelly Van Wye came across this wonderful quote by ‘On The Road’ author Jack Keroauc and it’s made my week!

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…”

Jack Kerouac.

The Kingsport Times-News was awarded with several distinct honors at the 2009 Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors Awards held in Nashville this past weekend.

Recognized along with other newspapers by The Associated Press in the state of Tennessee, the Times-News received ten awards in their TAPME Division II class including Best Website, Best Photograph, Best Editorial and awards from other categories recognizing journalism excellence in business reporting and video production.

Congratulations to entire staff for this effort. It’s a good feeling to work with passionate professionals who seek to do their very best in a most unusual time for media.

It’s especially gratifying to receive the best website award in the state for our class too.

The Kingsport Times-News beat out The Jackson Sun and Leaf Chronicle - both newspapers owned by media giant Gannett. These newspapers like many of the other large papers in the state employ online strategies that utilize corporate software templates. I’m sure their staff was recognized by their content more than their structure because they all have the same style and layout and a good one at that.

In contrast, our two-man home-grown programming and design team held their own this year and it’s quite an honor. Kind of makes all those nights and weekends pay off - a little.

Beyond the tools and the visuals, our newspaper website owes a lot of its magnetism to New Media Editor Don Fenley who has a fierce journalist appetite for breaking news and he knows how to spin a headline.

In addition to the website recognition, our photographers swept the Photographer Awards for first, second and third.

Everyone at the Times-News recognizes the extraordinary talent of newcomer photographer Erica Yoon and she took first place in the state with Chief Photo Editor David Grace right behind her with a second and third. Erica and Ned Jilton also placed second and third in Feature and Sports Photography categories.

Stan Whitlock took first place honors for Best Editorial in the state and Sharon Caskey Hayes placed second in Business News journalism.

In addition to the traditional awards, Rain Smith was awarded with a Video Journalism award for a video he produced about a Rogersville man who built an electric car.

This was a great effort by the entire staff and although we appreciate the recognition, we still have plenty of work to do. The awards are well-deserved, but our desire to push the limits even further are rarely satisfied by any contest.

Thank you Associated Press and congratulations to everyone on our staff who helped to earn this extraordinary recognition by our peers.

For a complete list of 2009 TAPME Awards across the state of Tennessee, click here.

Funnel Clouds Form on Interstate 1-81 from David Cate on Vimeo.

Friday night was kind of dull. It had been raining most of the week and I had settled into cleaning the house after the evening news - that was until the news alerts started to go across the screen.

There was a “tornado warning” out last night. That means a tornado had been spotted and the local news channel was flashing radar shots, talking high winds, hail and rightfully doing their job warning people about the fast approaching storm moving up from Greeneville.

There’s no way I could convince anyone that I have any skills as a storm-chaser, but I love a thunderstorm and the more lightening the better. Must be the wild way Nature pushes life to the limit and you might say I’m a thrill-seeker.

My father lives in Fall Branch and I called to make sure he was Ok. Our conversation was short because he was afraid lightning would run in on the telephone as the rains started to fail heavy outside his window.

The sky in Colonial Heights had an eerie golden color when I jumped into the Jeep with my Nikon camera and Flip video camera. The wind was picking up too and I could hear the thunder in the distance.

According to the radar images, my best bet to watch this storm was to drive south on I-81 toward Exit 50 near Fall Branch.

Sure enough, as soon as I got the Tri-Cities crossing exit, the rain had slowed the Interstate traffic to a crawl and my windshield wipers could barely keep up with the downpour.

Slowing down, I grabbed the small video camera and held it up to the sky as I paid attention to the road. I was surprised in just a few moments to catch what looked like a funnel cloud forming near the Fordtown/Harmony area.

It was hard to believe at first and the moment of panic gave way to thrill, but after watching the rotation of the clouds and the behavior of this fast moving wall cloud, it was clearly something news-worthy.

Throughout the night, pictures started showing up all across the web showing these strange funnel clouds and that’s just something we don’t witness too often here in East Tennessee.

Nevertheless, here’s my amateur attempt to capture this wild disturbance on Friday night, May 8th at 8.20pm around milemarker 54 on Interstate 81.

My friend Alan Sieg had some good advice after he learned of my first attempt. “1st rule of chasing tornados; stay behind them. Approach them from the West or the South. Don’t get in front and NEVER get under.

Thanks Alan. I’ll keep that in mind, but this was a thrilling Friday night drive and I’m glad noone was hurt.