How Twitter engineers outwitted Mubarak in one weekend | Technology

/twitter-speak-tweet-mubarak-networker

  • How #Twitter engineers outwitted Mubarak in one weekend | Technology | The Observer
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/06/twitter-speak-tweet-mubarak-networker

    For hardcore #geeks, the #WikiLeaks saga should serve as a stimulant to a new wave of innovation which will lead to a new generation of distributed, secure technologies (like the TOR networking system used by WikiLeaks) which will enable people to support movements and campaigns that are deemed subversive by authoritarian powers. A really good example of this kind of technological innovation was provided last week by #Google engineers, who in a few days built a system that enabled protesters in Egypt to send tweets even though the internet in their country had been shut down. “Like many people”, they blogged, “we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we can do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service – the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.”