Sunday, February 06, 2011

Revolution 3.0: Sandmonkey on Egypt, the Internet and the Connected Fight

Egyptians hold shoes up high following Mubarak's speech on February 1. Showing the sole of your shoe is "a grave insult in Arab Muslim countries," sayeth MSNBC. Weird, no Kenneth Coles in sight.
The revolution will be retweeted.* We’ve brought you a very special show this week. Renegade freedom blogger Mahmoud Salem (on Twitter as @sandmonkey), takes a good hour out of his revolution schedule to give us the skinny on what’s going on in Egypt (which is here, not here).
Salem was thrown into prison last Thursday for carrying medical equipment to injured protesters at Tahrir Square in Egypt. That same morning, he'd published this incendiary piece of blogging magic, and his blog was consequently shut down most of that day. After a hefty beating and the destruction of his goods (including his car), he was released when the police failed to put two and two together identity-wise.
As he says in the interview, “Every generation has a moment.” To that point, we dive deep, past Elliot Spitzer’s CNN segment on him to where this all started.

The skinny on the other things we covered:
  • An overview of what's happening in Egypt now (here's the latest, with decryption, as of Saturday)
  • Social media's role in igniting the people (you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll Poke with pride)
  • How people who are social by nature manipulate technology to meet ends unintended by authorities or enterprises
  • How the internet becomes your outlet
  • The regime’s “attack enemy communications” philosophy - and how that all went horribly wrong for them
  • Communications between the people versus from the media, the regime and overseas
  • Why a seething Egyptian secularist youth movement needs batteries (hint: it involves Dance Dance Revolution!)
  • How Egyptians feel about ElBaradei (@Elbaradei) ... here's a glimpse
  • What happens next? ...and at least one winning solution
  • Why the Danish education system rocks better than yours, ours and everybody’s
...and that’s just the hot tip of the torch.
More linkage:
- Angela's manifesto on Egypt, technology and why this is our fight
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*Also, the revolution won’t be Skyped unless they get their act together and provide a more stable platform. ’Twas not the best of times in connecting with Mahmoud, as we have tried to minimize the drops in the conversation for you.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

May God protect sandmonkey. He is a true hero

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