Google, Twitter Launch Workaround for Egypt's People

"Google launches Twitter workaround for Egypt"
Edition: U.S., Reuters (January 31, 2011)

"Google Inc launched a special service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail, as Internet access continues to be cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.

" 'Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground,' read a post on Google's official corporate blog on Monday.

"The service, which Google said was developed with engineers from Twitter, allows people to dial a telephone number and leave a voicemail. The voicemail is automatically translated into a message that is sent on Twitter using the identifying tag #egypt, Google said.

"Google said in the blog post, titled 'Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard,' that no Internet connection is required to use the service. Google listed three phone numbers for people to call to use the service...."

Good for Google, in the Lemming's opinion. Although now the Lemming thinks it's possible that the Egyptian government will shut down phone service for its subjects, too. Daft and self-destructive as such an act would be. ('And if you don't stop, I'll shoot myself in the other foot!?')

This isn't Politics: It's Common Sense

This isn't, as the Lemming has been saying fairly often of late, a political blog. Still, it seems to the Lemming that Egypt's President Mubarak might have been able to avoid the mess his country's in - if he'd bothered to listen to what his subjects had to say. It's not like he's a tyro at the job - he's been Egypt's president since 1981.

As the Lemming wrote elsewhere elsewhere, criticism hurts. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 30, 2011)) But, in the Lemming's opinion, it's a good idea to listen anyway. Sometimes the criticism is just someone blowing off steam. Sometimes the other guy's right.

Related posts:

• "Divisiveness, Cultural Chaos, and the Monkey's Paw"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 30, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: Egypt Government Shuts Down Internet: It Can't Happen Here?"
  (January 29, 2011)
• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  (January 22, 2011)
• "Tunisia: Goodbye Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hello Information Age"
  (January 15, 2011)
• "COICA: A Federal Official Deciding Who Gets to Stay Online"
  (November 19, 2010)