Jeremy Wagstaff posts in his loose wire blog about a myth in the offing, that Burma's uprising was a tipping point for citizen journalism:

I would love to think it was and will be different. I would love to think that technology could somehow pry open a regime whether it pulls the plug or not. But Burma has, in recent weeks and in recent years, actually shown the opposite: that it's quite possible to seal a country off and to commit whatever atrocities you like and no amount of technology can prevent it.

While I agree that the belief of some that outrage about the imposed Internet and news blackout will effect political change is naive, I certainly hope the world will not eventually forget this and move on. 

There are similarities and differences between 1988 and 2007: then, amidst a news blackout, journalists and concerned individuals were smuggling out tapes, photos and videos to a watchful world.  Today images and videos are smuggled out but made available to a comparatively larger audience through the influence and penetration of the Internet.  In addition there is a new generation out there today that was barely old enough to walk back in 1988, let alone comprehend the issues. Keeping the memory (and the outrage) alive is what will eventually bring about change.  It helps that there is persistence of content.  I doubt if I can retrieve many news stories and images about the 1988 uprising from my PC (unless I have a subscription to a news archive service), but I bet 19 years from now people will still be able to retrieve most if not all of the news, images and videos posted on the Internet today about the 2007 uprising.

Alex Bookbinder, the Canadian university student who started the Facebook action group, will go back to school and move on, but the conversations and actions he and countless other individuals started will persist. Our decision is: what will we do with this information?  The least we can do is keep it alive. 

Joining a Facebook group, wearing red, participating in protest actions, etc. may not bring about the downfall of the military junta, but change comes from action, action comes from thought, and thought is influenced by knowledge that is stored as memories.  And the Internet, among many things, is the collective memory of the online world, a collection of communities that is growing exponentially.

Every June 4 evening, in Hong Kong's Victoria Park, there is a candlelight vigil.  Many people scoff and say the world has moved on, but through the organizing efforts of a few individuals that have refused to accept that, between 27,000 (police's estimate) to 55,000 (organizers' estimate) showed up on 4 June 2007, 18 years after the Tiananmen Square incident.  That number has remained consistent over the years.  In a territory notorious for its citizenry's political passivity, this is remarkable.

Change will come in Burma; the question is when, and how it is brought about.  Tipping point or no, the Internet will surely play a role.