James Buck - Demonstrating the Power of the "Tweet"

This story came through in the Twitter newsletter:

Bucking The System

Last weekend CNN lead with a big story about James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley who was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. Thinking quickly, James was able to send a one-word Twitter update: "Arrested." His followers in Egypt and back in the US reacted by contacting the university and the consulate on his behalf. Before long, James was updating Twitter with another one-word message, "Free."

The CNN coverage can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/4b4hsg

I know a lot of people still think Twitter is lame, and I guess there is a part of me that is yet to be convinced, but I think this is an awesome display of the power of short, sharp updates.

I think the main part of my problem is that I don't have enough UK/EU contacts on my friends list. Most of my contacts are in the US, and due to obvious time zone differences, we often miss a lot of what each other have to say.

So, if you're a UK/EU geek and you fancy another geek to bounce ideas etc. off, feel free to tweet me at http://twitter.com/robzyc.

Links:
CNN Coverage on James Buck "Freedom Tweet" Story
My Twitter Address

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