29 May,2011 11:43 AM IST | | Sowmya Rajaram
Does it count as a book, if it is mostly written in snippets of 140 characters, with 60 protagonists and an aggregation of roughly 1,200 'tweets' broadcast on the Internet? Tweets From Tahrir, a racy account that tracks the fall of the Hosni Mubarak-regime through first-hand accounts of a group of Egyptian activists, raises important questions about social media, the nature of a revolution and its revolutionary, and of literature itself
Ten years ago, the concept of extracting knowledge from the realms of unverified, scattered, even fanciful material available on the web was a laughable idea. After all, who trusts an encyclopedia that could easily have been edited by a drunken wastrel with an Internet connection and a sudden desire to be erudite about rap music of the '70s? Not anymore.
As Tweets From Tahrir (edited by British journalist Alex Nunns and Nadia Idle, an Egyptian who was in Tahrir Square when the 30 year-long Hosni Mubarak regime fell on February 11, 2011) illustrates, there is no truer, richer documentation of real-time revolution than the 140-word outbursts of protestors caught in this decade's most inspiring uprising against tyranny.
Find out how Egypt rose from its pyramids to make a bid for a better life, through this compilation of tweets by its citizen journalists who used social media to organise, communicate and showcase the revolution that was unfolding at Cairo's Tahrir Square, before the world.
Extracts from Sunday MidDay's email interview with Alex Nunns, co-editor of Tweets from Tahrir:
How did the book come about? It's a novel concept.
The idea for the book came about when I was following the Egyptian Revolution on Twitter as it happened. My friend Nadia Idle, co-editor of the book, was in Tahrir Square, because she is Egyptian. But I was in England watching events on the news. The TV wasn't giving me the details I wanted. So I started following some Egyptian activists I knew about on Twitter, and what they were tweeting was just incredible. It was so full of emotion and drama, and it gave such a vivid picture of life in the middle of a revolution. As I was reading these tweets I started to think, "someone needs to document this stuff". So when Nadia came back to London, I suggested we make a book.
There has never been a book that uses tweets to tell a story. When we began, we didn't know if it would work. But when the tweets are put together it creates an amazing effect. The pace of the book is its strength -- because the tweets are short and succinct, it is easy to read them quickly. The events unfold very fast. That gives the book energy and drama.
How did you choose the tweets for the book?
We had to decide how we could best use tweets to tell the story of the revolution. We wanted the book to be readable and fast-paced, rather than being just a mass of tweets. We knew it could not be comprehensive -- there were too many tweets and too many tweeters. So we made took the decision to focus on a group of 60 'tweeters' whose tweets we thought told the story well. The book follows them all the way through the Revolution. Some of them described events in a matter-of-fact way, some were more emotional, some were focused on tactics and organisation, and others were humorous. The great advantage is as you read the book, you get to know the personalities of the tweeters.
As we sifted through the raw tweets it was clear that despite coming from different people, they all followed a distinct pattern -- the same events, the same ups and downs reflected by all. So the story the book tells is not our invention; it is the experience as told by people on the ground. It is sometimes said that historians create their own narrative and then fit the evidence to it. But this book allows knowledge to be created by multiple first-hand accounts. So even though the idea is simple, it actually does something quite profound and valuable.
So then is the book a chronological story made up of tweets?
Yes. It takes the reader through the revolution day by day, with each day forming one chapter. At the start of each chapter is a brief introduction giving some of the context for that day. The bulk of the book is tweets. We kept the tweets in place to the second, so the reader gets a sense of real-time events that is the essence of Twitter.
What about privacy issues? Are tweets on Twitter personal or public property?
We contacted all the tweeters in the book to ask for permission to print their tweets, and the enthusiasm they showed blew us away. We did the book as a way of promoting the revolution so there was never a question of doing it without the support of the revolutionaries -- it would have been absurd. Even though it might not be legally necessary to get permission to print tweets because they are in the public domain, for us that was irrelevant. We went to great lengths to make sure we had the blessing of every tweeter whose words appear in the book.
Why just Twitter? Why not Facebook?
Twitter and Facebook were used for slightly different reasons in the Revolution. Facebook was more suited to organisation. But Twitter was used primarily as an alternative press -- it was a way for the activists on the ground to get the word out on what was happening. That is why the tweets do such a perfect job of telling the story of the Revolution. It is truly remarkable first-hand, real-time reporting.
Do you see a book like this changing the way social media can form material for books?
I expect when people see how well this book reads, there might be a lot more Twitter books on the market! I think Twitter comes into its own in big events. When people's output switches from the personal to the historical, that's when it is really valuable.
I'm not sure that Twitter will necessarily have a big impact on publishing, but it certainly is having an impact on journalism. One of the interesting features of the Egyptian Revolution was the way 'citizen journalists' on Twitter interacted with professional journalists, who also used the site. Much of the information on Twitter was relayed on satellite news channels like Al Jazeera. All this had a huge impact on Egyptian state controlled media, which completely lost credibility as its biased coverage was exposed.
So would you agree with those who call this a Twitter revolution?
It is true that social media had an impact on the speed of events across the Arab World. But I don't like the term 'Twitter Revolution'. The revolution in Egypt had plenty of long-term causes -- neo-liberal economic policies, poverty, the brutality of the police, the lack of opportunities for educated young people. Protests and strikes had been happening for 10 years. It's lazy to ignore all these factors and say the revolution happened because of Twitter and Facebook. It happened because the conditions were right and the people were brave; Twitter and Facebook just helped it along.
But every revolution is different and shaped to some extent by the technology available. Certainly Twitter changed the way the world saw what was going on, and I think it changed how other Egyptians saw it too.
Tweets from Tahrir is available on OR Books website (https://www.orbooks.com/) and Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/) for $12 (R 540) paperback and $10 (Rs 450) e-book
Excerpts from the book
@HosniMobarak (Hosni Mobarak): Habib just sent me a bbm. He says I should prepare a farewell speech for my citizens. Where are you guys going? #jan25
01:31:38 January 27, 2011u00a0
1. THE SPARK
... as the Tunisian Revolution inspires the Arab world
On Friday January 14, 2011, Tunisia's dictator of twenty-four years, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, was forced from power after weeks of unprecedented popular protest. An electric shock zipped through the region. It had begun when Mohamed Bouazizi, a twenty-six-year-old fruit seller from the town of Sidi Bouzid in the Mediterranean coast, set himself on fire on December 17, 2010. Bouazizi's story resonated with millions living under corrupt regimes -- humiliated by the state, unable to make enough money to survive, he finally snapped when police officers spoiled his fruit, confiscated his weighing scales and beat him up. He went directly to the local governor's office and, when nobody would see him, doused himself in petrol and set himself alight. He died eighteen days later. Protests flared up in Sidi Bouzid and soon spread to the Tunisian capital. Bouazizi's actions were the catalyst, but the depth of Tunisia's problems was shown as all sections of society, from labor unions to lawyers, joined the revolution. [...]
In Egypt conditions were ripe for an uprising.[...] The formal opposition parties to Egypt's thirty-year president, Hosni Mubarak, had failed. Now new activists were to the fore, emerging from solidarity with the second Palestinian intifada of 2000, protests against the Iraq War in 2003, and the wave of strikes that had gripped Egypt since 2006.
These events had given rise to a spectrum of social movements from the anti-Mubarak Kefaya ("enough") group formed in 2004, to the April 6th youth Movement, inspired by a textile strike in the town of Mahalla that was violently put down by police in 2008, to the Revolutionary Socialists with links to the workers, to the reformist national Association for Change associated with Mohamed ElBaradei, launched in 2010. All these groups coordinated online.
@Gsquare86 Gigi Ibrahim: The Tunisian revolution is being twitterized...history is being written by the people! #sidibouzid #Tunisia
17:28:11 January 14, 2011
@mosaaberizing (Mosa'ab Elshamy): Dear people watching Arabs Got Talent, there's a better show going on called Tunisia's Got Freedom. Watch that.
21:02:46 January 14, 2011
@ManarMohsen: A Facebook event for a revolution in Egypt: https://on.fb.me/hQioSl. Don't forget to RSVP. ("Maybe" if you're still unsure of your schedule).
19:21:27 January 15, 2011
@Gsquare86 Gigi Ibrahim     : A MAN IN #EGYPT SET HIMSELF ON FIRE CHANTING AGAINST STATE SECURITY IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT AT 9:00 AM TODAY #Sidibouzid #Revolution attempt?
10:40:52 January 17, 2011
2. THE DAY OF REVOLT
...on which the Revolution starts
Tuesday, January 25, was National Police Day, a public holiday in Egypt, an appropriate date for protests. The call went out on Facebook and through social networks. There would be demonstrations across Egypt, including in Alexandria, Suez, and Cairo. In the capital a loose strategy had been devised in meetings and online. The plan was for multiple fast-moving demonstrations in twenty locations around the city, designed to try to mobilize the people in poorer areas (who could not afford the luxury of computers and the Internet) and avoid the usual police tactic of cordoning off protesters and preventing them from rallying.
The strategy was effective, but it was the sheer numbers who turned out that took the police by surprise. In the early afternoon the demonstrations started, ranging in strength from a few dozen to a few thousand. Protesters marched through the back streets in districts like Shubra and Boulaq, gathering people as they went, all the while tweeting news of their location and progress.
After several violent clashes with police the different marches converged in Midan Al-Tahrir (Liberation Square) in the center of the city. Overwhelming the police through force of numbers and courage, protesters occupied the Square despite tear gas, rock throwing, sticks and water cannon being used against them. [...]
@Sandmonkey Mahmoud Salem: Shower, Crago pants, Hoodie, running shoes, phone charged, cash, ID, cigs (for jail) and some mace just in case. Am ready!#jan25
10:04:18 January 25, 2011
@adamakary Adam Makary: #jan25 protests will take place all throughout cairo, including shubra, mohendessin, in front of cairo university and on arab league street
10:17:45 January 25, 2011
@Sarahngb Sarahngb: Tahrir square looks scary. Cordons, policemen, fire trucks, CS trucks. #Jan25
11:38:28 January 25, 2011
