I ran across this story and I have to say that first I have avoided the twitter movement up untill this point, but after reading this how could anyone not want to use it. Here are some of the highlights of the story.
Taken from http://www.mercurynews.com
When Egyptian police scooped up UC Berkeley graduate journalism student James Karl Buck, who was photographing a noisy demonstration, and dumped him in a jail cell last week, they didn’t count on Twitter.Buck, 29, a former Oakland Tribune multimedia intern, used the ubiquitous short messaging service to tap out a single word on his cellular phone: ARRESTED. The message went out to the cell phones and computers of a wide circle of friends in the United States and to the mostly leftist, anti-government bloggers in Egypt who are the subject of his graduate journalism project.
The next day, he walked out a free man with an Egyptian attorney hired by UC Berkeley at his side and the U.S. Embassy on the phone
This is amazing can you imagine being in his shoes without a cell phone and twitter I am sure you are just like me in the fact that you would rather just avoid the whole situation, but in the case of being prepared this is above and beyond.
Twitter, the micro-blogging service for cell phone users, allows messages up to 140 characters long. Twitter users can allow anyone they wish to join their network and receive all their messages. Buck has a large network, so Twitter gave him an instant link to the outside world.
He recalls advice from his Twitter friends came in mounds of terse messages, “It was a combination of things, my Egyptian friends told me to play the “American bitch” and try to force my way out. ” They also told him that it was no big deal and to just stay calm.
“They use Twitter sort of like an instant wire service,” he said. “It’s the way they keep in touch with each other. They go to an event and Twitter what’s happening.
If this isn’t motivation to get twitter, I am not sure that anything will ever motivate you.
Twitter net called the university and the American Embassy.
They also alerted the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune and other media, which helped put the heat on the Egyptian authorities. He was released on Friday and returned home on Sunday.
Outstanding story for twitter and soon we should see it here on bigbenpatton.com. Simply Amazing.
Related posts:
- How To Score Traffic Using Twitter
- Joel Comm Live, News
- Blogging News Stories
- News: Is Microsoft Really Walking?
- News: Microsoft Admits Vista Failure
He is lucky twitter helped him. If it would have been me several other options may have occurred. No cell reception or the dropped call. Or worse no twittering .
Wow, Ben that is a crazy story. Thanks for sharing it I never even heard it and I’m always on the dang internet. That man was very lucky and I’m glad technology was used in a good way.
EcoJason’s last blog post..One-of-a-kind reusable SIGG water bottles being auctioned off.
I know this is to crazy… If it were me I would of been left for dead and the cell phone battery would of been dead.
cool!,,,,im really liking this blog!
nice products ill save this one!