One undoubtedly positive result of the explosion in online political debate through weblogs is the ability to create networks, make contacts and share ideas across borders with a previously inconceivable ease.
One result of such contact is an interview Alan Johnson of the campaigning group Labour Friends of Iraq conducted with Ali Fadhil of the newly formed Iraq Pro-Democracy Party. Ali is better known to most of us as one of the bloggers at Iraq The Model.
Blogging is helping create networks of like-minded people inside Iraq as well according to Ali:
“We didn’t know much about [blogging] at first. Not many people were actually reading it, but some people were dying for information that was not filtered. We provided a window to the world – we still couldn’t travel, and the internet was a great way to see how others think as well as express our opinions.
“Through the internet we found out that people in Iraq wanted to say what we were saying but they were either shy or afraid. We knew intuitively that not all Iraqi people are all fanatics. Through the web we have come together.
He has quite a few things to say about the current situation in Iraq as well. You can read the interview here.