Microblogging: Learn it!

Being almost an illiterate myself when it comes to the myriad of new internet and social networking tools, I would like to draw people's attention to a fascinating post by socialist journalist and activist Hossam al-Hamalawy, about Microblogging and the spread of information. Using these tools, Hossam did a great job spreading the word about the kidnapping of Philip Rizk during Friday evening, as well as in the last few days - despite the fact that the popular blog he is running has been disabled since last week. Thanks to him and other bloggers, Al-Jazeera was reporting that a group of activists marching on Gaza had been detained within hours after it happened, even before Philip was kidnapped. I'm even more convinced now that these and other techniques will become an ever more important tool for all sorts of human rights campaigners, political activists, and journalists in the future - so go ahead and learn everybody.