Egypt

“In a way previous generations could never have imagined, young protesters have brought down a dictatorship. If previous revolutions had been hatched in mosques and smoky cafes, this one was hatched online by computer geeks” [link].

I do believe the prophesy of the Electronic Frontier has been fulfilled [link]. Information technology can be used as a force for political change and democracy. In 1991, Soviet youths brought down the USSR using camcorders with satellite uplinks. Now an educated generation of Egyptians has brought down Mubarak using laptops connected to the Internet. That’s brilliant. They were able to bypass traditional lines of communication, which were shutdown by the government, and quickly deliver their message to a cross-section of the population. I admire Wael Ghonim, the young Google exec who helped organize the protest. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time in history that a revolution, overthrowing a long-standing government, has been spread over the Internet ..successfully!