"A 'Silent Wave' travelling around the world"

One week on, Twitter user, Lissnup, writes this exclusive guest article about organising last week's 'silent wave':

“In memory of Neda and all victims of post-election violence

I've been following the #IranElection hashtag on Twitter since early June, and have seen it grow in strength as the Iranian Regime responded to peaceful protests with violence and arrests.

The global day of solidarity with Iran on Saturday 25th July was an inspiring event. It must have taken thousands of hours of planning, organising and preparing. Especially striking were the green fabric scrolls sent to Paris from Iranian communities all over the world, each one bearing signatures attesting that 'Ahmedinejad is NOT my president'.

The following day everyone began to look ahead and there were tweets about the upcoming 40th day anniversary of the death of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose death became a symbol for the Iranian people's struggle for freedom and democracy when she was shot dead in the street on June 20th, a day of heavy protests in Tehran. Muslims observe mourning 3, 7 and 40 days after the passing of a loved one so Thursday 30th July was to be a significant event for many people.

It was just 5 days away, but I hoped we might be able to capitalise on the tremendous support for the previous day's events and do something simple but meaningful to mark this important day. Mindful that there are no funds available, I thought that observing two minute's silence would be an accessible and respectful way to mark the occasion.

I sent messages to some of the more prominent users on Twitter hoping to rally support for the idea but when I got no immediate response I decided to go ahead and try to gather support for the idea myself as there was so little time.

I have no real experience in this kind of thing but the entire short history of the 'Sea of Green' movement has been one of spontaneity and everyone banding together with great displays of unity and mutual support.

To begin with there were some conversations back and forth about what to call it, when to hold it etc. I had noticed that the Global Day of Action had considerable advantage from events in different timezones following each other.

That is why I thought that a 'Silent Wave' travelling around the world through each timezone would give everyone the greatest opportunity to take part and create some longevity. The majority of supporters are US based and on a very different clock to Iran, but there are people in every country following these events and one thing we all have in common is our desire to 'do something' and make our presence known to people in Iran.

The times were set at 11:00am which is a time traditionally selected to pay tribute to fallen heroes, and 6:30pm which is the approximate time Neda Agha Soltan was shot. Using two times also doubled the opportunities for participation, which I thought was important for a spontaneous event put together at such short notice.

Fortunately, fellow twitter user @greenthumbnails, the brains behind the massively successful http://www.greenthumbnails.com site people use to change their avatar to green or add a green ribbon, quickly got on board. With the help of a few others we soon had a load of tweets going around and a website carrying details of events: http://www.silentwave.org. A friend created a group on Facebook with an event for the Thursday. By Tuesday all these efforts seemed to come together and we sensed support growing for the Silent Wave idea.

On the day itself I received messages of support almost every hour, starting with Japan and continuing around the clock and I just kept re-tweeting them. With a little persistence, the event also drew some media attention. When organisers from Disneyland, Vienna, London, New York, San Francisco, etc started posting photos it was immensely gratifying. On the whole Silent Wave was a very effective and positive way to connect with others via Twitter and Facebook.

I would definitely help organise another event, although I would prefer a lot more notice and a little more help! Fortunately, http://silentwave.org is still there, an ideal venue for event information and a head start for any upcoming activity.

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